Tao of Sports Podcast

  E. Ken “Ziggy” Siegfried is new to the west coast, arriving from Memphis over the last few years to become CSU Bakersfield’s Sr. Associate Athletic Director for Development & Major Gifts. Siegfried brings a lot of development knowledge from his years at Memphis before & after the Tigers men’s basketball team went to the N.C.A.A. Championship Game, thus his expectations for telling the Bakersfiel...

  Sarah Melton has spent over 13 years with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, rising in the Public Relations Department until becoming the team’s Director in 2004. Melton talks about the ins-outs of the sports industry, especially things such as travel, sleep, social & family issues that come as a by-product of her job. The owner of the Mavericks tends to get quoted a lot by the media and Melton talks a...

  Brian Watson is the Director of Sales, Event Suites & Special Events at The Staples Center in Los Angeles. Watson talks about filling the suites regardless of whether the anchor tenants have CBA issues or what to do when playoff formats strike, as well as how luxury packages are sold compared to only a few years ago. Watson expands on the Staples Center property, speaking about non-team sport ev...

  University of Memphis Professor & Associate Dean Richard Irwin knows the bad rap that some sport management degrees earn in the field. The Memphis program has set itself apart by focusing on revenue streams & sales management. Irwin talks about the state of ticket sales in college & professional sports, as well as the Sports Sales Combine in Atlanta where 40-50 prospects will train for opportuni...

  Brian DiTucci has spent over 11 years with the Oakland Athletics, moving up the ranks from a Ticket Sales Representative to the Director of Ticket Sales, focusing on new season ticket sales, group sales, and suite bookings. DiTucci talks about the Service & Value concepts with his sales floor methodology, why discounting randomly can harm a franchise’s ticket base, and how to develop new fans by...

  Jim Weyermann operates one of the newest pro sports franchise operations in the country, The Santa Cruz Warriors, an NBA Development League team. The SC Warriors have a long championship history during the organization’s incarnation as the Dakota Wizards, winning titles in the International Basketball Association (2000-01), The Continental Basketball League (2001-02, 2003-04) and the NBADL Champ...

The Tschour name has been around Muncie, Indiana longer than most people can remember. Adam’s legacy at Ball State is generations deep and it’s the school where Adam got his start in the ticket office. Adam worked his way up from a graduate assistant in the box office to Director of Ticket Sales & Premium Seating, cutting his teeth on the allure of FBS football with head coach Brady Hoke’s 2008 12...

  Yates is the guy that a franchise ownership group calls when they are either looking to buy into a market or sell out of one. Yates is part of the W.B. Grimes Sports Advisory Group, which evaluates the value of franchises, puts together the deals with discretion, while pulling off major and minor league deals across the country. Yates talks about going into team situations, understanding the det...

O’Day spent 7 years at the helm of his alma mater’s athletic department, overseeing the Griz football team that went 77-17, appeared in two FCS national championship games and secured a conference title every year but one season during that stretch. Yet, Montana’s student-athletes had trouble off of the field, including nine sexual assault allegations in a two-year period, which led to the March 2...

Harmon is organizing the premier senior competition of the Asian Football Confederation for host city Sydney, Australia in 2015, featuring the top 16 national teams of the AFC. Harmon previously served for 4 years in Wellington, New Zealand as GM of Marketing and Communications for the New Zealand Rugby All Blacks, a legendary team in which Harmon hit a ticket sales target of $268.5m NZD ($220m US...

Eiges spent 29 years with the NFL Raiders’ franchise, starting as the team’s ball boy out of college before being hired on as then-Head Coach Tom Flores’ executive assistant in 1980, the year the Raiders stunned the Philadelphia Eagles to win Superbowl XV.   During the 1982 NFL strike, Eiges was named Director of Ticket Operations, a position he held for 27 years, moving the team to Los Angeles be...

Ken Troupe has 18 years of professional sports experience and was willing to come on the podcast with Troy, talking about some of the newer technologies that have enhanced the sales portion of the sports industry. Troupe is a consultant for several sports franchises, currently the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, and co-hosts a twitter conversation #social4tixsales about new ticket sales ideas with some of...

The Valero Alamo Bowl's Rick Hill (VP of Marketing) and Bryan Moynihan (Director of Ticket Sales & Service) were invited to be guests on the podcast and talked with Troy about how to actually pull off a major college football event. The Alamo Bowl is played Dec. 29 in a 65,000 seat stadium between a Pac-12 and Big-12 Opponent. Hill and Moynihan show off their strategic sales plan in ensuring the b...

Group Ticket Sales Giant Rob Sine talks with Host Troy Kirby about the current state of ticket sales on both the college and professional landscape. Sine is a Pac-12 Vice President, the only major conference which has a position specifically dedicated to ticket sales. Sine's extensive background includes working for three NBA teams (Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers, and Seattle Supersonics),...

Matt Harper serves as the general manager of The University of Oregon's Duck Tix, an in-house out-bound ticket sales division within the UO athletic department. Harper's extensive experience in ticket sales includes work at IMG-Learfield, Disney Wide World of Sports, & Seattle University Athletics. Harper sits down with Troy Kirby to talk selling philosophies, customer care, season ticket holder r...