Tao of Sports Podcast

In 17 years, Barry Gibson has amassed a wealth of knowledge on how to sell any type of ticket package. His focus remains on strategy and training of new staff, creating different scenarios in order to ensure that every question is answered by a prospect and no business is not served correctly during the process of a sale. Gibson discusses selling tickets during stints at the Indianapolis Speedway,...

Dave Chase has served every type of role within the world of baseball.  Chase served as president/publisher of Baseball America for 17 years, President of Baseball Concessions, Inc. for 14 years, and was President/General Manager of the Memphis Redbirds for 7 years, prior to joining a Collegiate Summer League’s front office as Commissioner. Chase talks about the role of baseball in the community,...

In 2008, a revolution occurred on the campus of Georgia Tech. The Aspire Group, Inc. became one of the first third-party organizations to assume the ticket selling duties of a college campus. What was viewed originally with skepticism by athletic departments across the nation became the norm in only a few short years. Bill Fagan oversees one of the largest third-party operations and offers up some...

  One of the newest ways to build ticket retention online is the world of “retargeting.” AdRoll is a San Francisco tech company focused on retargeting that has helped manage several online ticket initiatives for NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS franchises. J. Ryan Williams explains exactly what retargeting is and some of the tactics that can be used to generate more revenue out of fans already interest...

The Fresno Grizzlies have been one of the most successful franchises in minor league baseball. No small part of that comes from their commitment to sales & promotion, exemplified by Derek Franks and his staff. Franks talks about coming into the franchise right out of college, how the club looks at promotions to the central California area, and some of the various aspects of creating a good sales m...

Matt O’Neill competes in the toughest media & sports market in the country, while trying to also expand the brand of the NY Red Bulls into the world’s biggest stage. O’Neill discusses how the Red Bulls have gone after capturing fans, why he doesn’t believe in premium items, and why he chooses to “hold the line” on discounting, fan erosion, and mini-packs by comparison of selling a fan on the entir...

Vince Gennaro has been president of The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 2009 & has witnessed some of the sweeping changes as Moneyball's influence changed the way those inside the front office's of Major League Baseball teams thought about analytics in general. SABR is set to have its second annual analytics conference in Phoenix, March 7-9, 2013 and Gennaro talks about the rol...

Scott O’Connell has witnessed many of the changes to Minnesota baseball since the Twins hired him in 1984, including two World Series wins, two different ball parks, and the implementation of CRMs & dynamic pricing. O’Connell talks about the state of ticket sales back in the 1980s, when prospects were overlapped by sales staff several times over and the state of Minnesota sports as new venues come...

  Nic Barlage is part of a fascinating new territory when it comes to the NBA and dynamic ticket sales. Not only do the Cavs dynamically price their seats and/or premium seating, but they also use the same model for their suites while also considering concessions to put in the variable pricing mix. Barlage discusses some of the new enhancements that the Cavs had pioneered, including Flash Seats, w...

The Las Vegas Wranglers ECHL team is known for its crazy hockey promotions; they do two midnight games annually. Two of the people behind this trend to give the fans a dose of something different are Todd Hutton (VP of Sales & Marketing) and Matt Langseth (Director of Tickets). And while the rest of Vegas may be considered a "comp city," Hutton and Langseth move a ton of tickets through dynamic pr...

If the name sounds familiar, it’s not your imagination. The Veeck moniker is almost a baseball legend thanks to the efforts of Night Train’s grandfather (Bill) and his father (Mike). But Night Train is no slouch himself, the man learned his crazy minor league marketing as part of The First Family of Fun, working for the family’s Charleston RiverDogs as their sales manager/promotions for 12 years,...

Chris Thompson is one of the premier sports information directors in the northwest. Known by everyone in sports communication in the Puget Sound Region, Thompson has experience at every division of NCAA & NAIA athletics. Thompson sits down to talk about his tenure at the University of Puget Sound, an NCAA DIII where he managed every sport's marketing & communication while also earning a master's d...

Pat O'Conner presented a revolutionary plan for minor league baseball's 160 teams at the 2012 Baseball Winter Meetings. Dubbed "Project Brand," the mandate aims to change how all of the teams market themselves nationally to 5-10 corporate sponsors. O'Conner talks about some of the goals of Project Brand, of how it will effect each team's marketing, revenue streams, and his belief in the "power of...

  One of the top baseball sales minds in the country is Andrew Silverman. He’s been with four different professional teams; Director of Tickets with the Anaheim Angels; Vice President with the Columbus Blue Jackets; Executive Vice President with the Texas Rangers; and now Senior Vice President of Sales & Service with the Miami Marlins. Silverman knows the ticket game well, discussing dynamic prici...

Scott Frasnelly is responsible for the ECHL's new corporate sponsorship agreements and attempts at continually branding itself as the premier AA hockey league in the country. Frasnelly oversees the ECHL's 23 teams, examining how to help each sales staff maximize growth in their marketplace. Frasnelly understands intimately what each team's sales staff is going through, a former member of three of...

Sheldon Arsenault is a seven-year veteran of hockey administration, hiring a new sales staff at the WHL's Vancouver Giants as well as implementing several strategies for success. Arsenault eliminates some of the mythos about the Canadian hockey fan, especially the idea that it doesn't take much to get fans in the building up in the Great White North. Arsenault talks about the Giants' marketing str...

  Jeff Higgins talks about UNLV athletics broadscope through the lens of a marketer, especially how the college basketball & football competes on the Vegas landscape amid the casino industry of The Strip. How does a Division I FBS school sell its product with an entertainment center of free tickets and multi-million dollar marketing budgets? Higgins discusses his time as an NCAA compliance investi...

Robert Kingston oversees ticket services for the Sacramento Kings, focusing on sales, customer service and relationships. With Maloof Sports & Entertainment for the past 7 years, Kingston talks about how to keep fans around after the first initial purchase, what NBA teams look for in terms of new prospecting of potential customers, and the development of a sales staff from top to bottom. Kingston...

Ryan Flynn has been the CEO of Baseball New Zealand since 2011 after a 5 year stint as the Director of Guam Baseball Federation.  Flynn considers the New Zealand program to be one of the fastest growing in the world, there are some credentials to back up that claim. New Zealand has 3 players under contact by MLB teams, was invited to the World Baseball Classic qualifiers in Nov. 2012 and has an IB...

Mike Gordon offers up various strategies of how the Wolves have positioned themselves in the major market of Chicago. The Wolves have the metropolitan area to itself while the NHL's Blackhawks are on strike, but Gordon thinks that's not a good thing, especially long term. Gordon talks about how the team markets itself, trying to make itself "cool" to the younger population, without spending into o...

Jason Martin has been at the forefront of out-bound ticket sales at major universities since joining Ohio State in 2008. Martin's leadership oversaw the building & subsequent leading of a brand new outbound ticket sales department (from the ground up). While other university athletic departments contract out their ticket sales to third party companies, The Ohio State's model has focused on non-foo...

Bill Guertin is an expert speaker and sales motivator, with 25+ years in successful small-market broadcast advertising sales, medical sales, and sales training. CEO of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a sales improvement company that works with a diverse mix of companies and individuals to help them become the dominant player (the "800-Pound Gorilla") in the market they serve. Bill's affiliated company, Sta...

John Dittrich has spent 40 years in professional baseball, with 36 of it being in the minor leagues, both affiliated and independent. Dittrich talks promotions that have gone wrong, the differences between what regions get & don't get about certain marketing, how to craft a good lease agreement with a stadium, and what generally works for a new owner's good business plan. Dittrich expands into why...

"East Bay Moneyball" may not get a movie made about it, but the concept of dynamically pricing baseball tickets has been just as controversial for the San Francisco Giants as its cousins in Oakland had with who they chose to stick in the batting lineups. SF Giants VP of Ticket Services & Customer Relations Russ Stanley brought the concept to Major League Baseball and was able to show success with...

The words "Dynamic Pricing" are vogue throughout professional sports. But few understand them as well as Dr. Jan Eglen, Ph. D. As CEO of Digonex Technologies, Dr. Eglen oversees a vast operation which has helped look at pricing indicators for professional teams since the early 2000s. Dr. Eglen explains the various misconceptions of why dynamic pricing should not be feared, including the wrong idea...