Tao of Sports Podcast

Mike Hermann has served as an athletic director at three different institutions, twice at the Division I level. Now at the NAIA level, Hermann feels he has found his wheelhouse, in helping promote student athlete and fundraising success to a core constituency. While some administrators may avoid NAIA or small college athletics, Hermann advocates for the opposite approach, suggesting that some of t...

Analytical models in sports have continued to flourish as the importance of Moneyball and its subsequent equational transitions have permeated throughout the sports fan conciousness. Dr. Ben Alamar is in the unique position to both explain analytics growth on the academic level as a former professor as well as on the broadcast side at ESPN, where he helps present digestable coverage for sports vie...

One of the biggest challenges is fundraising at an FBS directional school, especially when the name-recognition isn't there with the alumni, nor the student body. Eastern Michigan's Associate AD of Development Dan McLean discusses some of the ways that his athletic department meets and exceeds those barriers, as well as the opportunities that are bore out of being able to create an identity where...

The Washington Nationals brand has been able to flourish in the nation's capital, something that could not be said for the two other versions of Major League Baseball which have existed there during the last hundred years prior. David McElwee discusses how The Nationals have maintained supremacy over the summers in D.C., despite the fact that the area's favorite sport of choice is politics. McElwe...

Athletic administrators typically don't drop down from FBS Division I to work at two different NCAA Division II institutions as athletic directors, but that's exactly what Tim Duncan has done (no, not THAT Tim Duncan). First at Paine College, now at Clayton State. But Duncan's story is much richer than that, working at two different FBS institutions as part of the senior staff in development, as w...

The world of NCAA compliance remains a mystery to the majority of the public, with misconceptions about its application running rampant, especially when the NCAA is dealing with the autonomy vote of the Power 5 Conferences. Marshall University's Associate AD of Compliance Andrew Donovan presents his arguments for why rules education matters, and is still relevant in today's world with both coaches...

Athletic fundraising isn't an easy job to master. Vince Volpe has been successful at three different FBS institutions, and shares his knowledge for ensuring that large capital gifts, as well as building the annual fund for an athletic department, are kept in a continuous harmony. Volpe discusses some of the things that attract him to an athletic department's development office, as well as how to b...

Ben Zayandehroudi has possibly helped crack one of the best prospecting tools online, LinkedIn, by utilizing various methods that allow a sports sales professional to eliminate the gatekeeper entirely and communicate right with the decision-maker. Zayandehroudi sells tickets and premium seating for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC up in the great white north, but don't let that fool you, what he has to...

The world of sponsorship for MMA fighters is starting to heat up, and Soul7Nine's Brian Cawley is here to explain what this new territory means. Cawley worked in team sports sponsorship for several years prior to building his own company, Soul7Nine, which focuses on MMA brand building with fighters and promotions. Cawley discusses the recent UFC agreement to unify its brand with Reebok, and how th...

Social sales in sports is a fairly new practice, and the Portland Thunder are at the front-edge of it, utilizing the opportunity to make bigger sales with a small staff. Joel Manchak discusses why the challenge of maintaining and operating an effective social sales strategy has been crucial to the new Arena Football League team's survival in its second year, and how geo-targeting through social me...

The world of public relations has been drastically altered by the advent of social media and blogs; it has allowed far more opportunities for someone to become a journalist, as well as transformed the role of the practitioner who is trying to get a solid, coherent message out on behalf of a team or athlete. Melinda Travis operates effectively within these new rules, discussing some of her thoughts...

J.P. Lutz is both a practitioner and instructor; he works in the sports industry, helping franchises boost their revenue through consulting work, while also lecturing at various Philadelphia universities, helping the next generation gain the cutting edge on new technology and techniques. Lutz discusses his passion for finding both corporate sponsorship activation, as well as driving ticket sales a...

Don Scott is at a transition point in his career. After several great years of rising through the ranks of the Samford Athletic Department, working in tickets, marketing and development, Scott is now leading Immersion Media's efforts in helping athletic departments grow revenues and eyeballs as a digital media vendor. Scott discusses some of the challenges that he faced in both driving attendance...

Selling motorsports racing is a highly complex feat, especially when the majority of the ticket sales staff isn't even in the same state as the venue track. Erik Blaisdell discusses the challenges and opportunities of selling NHRA, which owns multiple tracks throughout the country, and how to properly engage fans through selling the entire motorsports product. In some ways, they might be a little...

The state of the secondary ticket market is David Young's focus throughout the day, as he helps foster RCN Capital's relationship with brokers to make the big sales with teams. Young refers to RCN Capital as the 'defacto bank' of the secondary ticket market, able to buy whole blocks of inventory with guarantees for sports franchises. Young discusses some of the issues surrounding the art of sellin...

The premium seating product has been discussed prior on the podcast with guests, but never in a situation such as Detroit, where luxury items don't always look good for companies in the middle of downsizing in an economic crisis. Detroit Tigers VP Scot Pett admits that he has his work cut out for him, along with generating ticket sales in general, despite winning on the field, given the area that...

The Baylor S3 program aims to be completely unparallelled in its instruction compared to most academic sports management classes out there. Focusing on Sports, Sales and Sponsorship as its top three core programming components, it's Executive Director Kirk Wakefield feels that there is a shift in the paradigm toward the discrimination that most sports management programs have. Typically because th...

Bill Stewart pulls no punches when discussing the state of minor league baseball and hockey ownership in today's sports marketplace. An executive who has served as team president of a minor league hockey team for 6 years, Stewart has always owned several minority shares of minor league teams across the country. Stewart shares his insight into what makes a great minor league owner, as well as some...

Understanding the engagement factor with analytics in sports doesn't just come from getting more customer information, but developing better ways to use it. Jeff Schum has been working on various ways to improve the education and relationship of numbers for the Carolina Hurricanes staff for years, as well as with several other organizations. Schum examines methodology to encapsulate as well as cre...

Andrew Goodrich has a knack for creating promotional processes that develop the fan experience further for both the University of Miami and the University of South Florida. A large component of this effort comes from a deep dive into the world of analytical structure, where Goodrich utilizes both digital media and fan information. This is part of the budding trend occurring throughout college athl...

Mike Wendling represents a new challenge to college athletic ticket sales: Analytics as the basis of how his job functions. Originally slated for looking at data support for ticket sales with Oklahoma State, Wendling has broadened his experience to now selling the entire ticket product. Analytics can be challenging for some, but with Wendling, he breaks down the various components of what makes a...

Consolidation deals are the new mode of operation for the secondary market and resellers. Co-founder of The Ticket Experience, Patrick Ryan, discusses some of the ways in which the reselling ticket business has been drastically changed by how franchises as well as team executives view the practice. Ryan talks about some of the options available to move tickets for the teams on the primary market a...

After spending over a decade at the Phoenix Suns, rising to the level of VP of Ticket Sales, Bob Hamer hung up his career in the NBA to help guide the next generation of sales executives. Restarting the Sports Sales Combine and rebranding it as Sports Business Solutions, Hamer has key sports business experience to offer young professionals as he personally witnessed the transition from season tick...

Nancy Hogshead-Makar has been at the forefront of women's rights issues in sports for over 40 years, including her time as a champion swimmer with a No. 1 ranking at age 14. Hogshead-Makar has now formed a new advocacy group, Champion Women, with the set purpose of ensuring that female athletes have the same rights and equality as male athletes in high school and college athletics. Her conversatio...

Action sports is going through a boom, as more of the world’s attention is paid upon it. Octogan’s Director of Global Sports Amen Teter discusses some of the various ways in which the world of skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding and other action sports have grown up to affiliate with some of the largest corporate brands in the world. This is remarkable turnaround from where it was only a few deca...