The Asian markets, especially a massive country such as China, get categorized in a macro sense in the matter of sports business. Rob Mills helps break down each corner of Asia; Shanghai, Bejing, Hong Kong, India, Japan, and Korea are all discussed with intimate detail. As are the countries of Qatar, Australia, and Russia. Mills talks about some of the issues going on with global sports, how the English Premier League has found some backlash to their international touring initiatives, and how American college sports have an untapped potential to expand globally with games set in new marketplaces throughout the world. Twitter: @Millsyrob
A name change can do a lot of things for a minor league baseball club, but the Akron double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians caused a social media explosion when they changed their team nickname Oct. 29 from the Aeros to the RubberDucks. Director of Ticket Sales Brian Flenner talks about the name change, the impact on the community, the internal staff secrecy about the nickname, and the media attention that followed. Twitter: @Flenner1970
Dennis Kalina fully admits that it was easier to garner large donation asks while at men’s basketball powerhouse Gonzaga University as associate athletic director of external relations than Kalina’s new challenge as senior associate athletic director at Binghamton. But Kalina says that he is embracing his new experience, not only as a component of the Bearcats’ senior management team, but also focus on spearheading the department’s fundraising, marketing and ticketing campaigns. Kalina talks about the dynamics of how the paradigm changed toward marketing and ticket selling for college campuses, as well as how his experiences have helped guide him along a path toward becoming a candidate for an athletic director position down the road. Twitter: @DennisKalina
Part of the modern athlete’s image is that of the social interaction on various media platforms. That’s where Steve Dao and his company, Dynamic Sports Media, can help examine each athlete’s branding and work build it into a larger concept of community image. Dao talks about some of the nightmare scenarios of social media’s influence on branding, but also provides advice on avoiding a false athlete narrative in order to avoid controversy, because it lacks the athlete’s genuine character. Dao discusses how Dynamic Sports Media can help clients and athletes navigate the water of sponsorship alignment in order to ensure a cohesive teamwork focused on the right objectives. Twitter: @Steve_Dao
C. Ryan Shelton has been able to successfully operate in both the world of minor league hockey and that of minor league baseball. Shelton talks about his experiences in developing great fan experiences, understand the nuances of customer service, and how he continues to trust with season ticket holders. Shelton expands on the idea of sports sales, talking about his 1-on-1 prospect engagement strategy at the ballpark with a high success ratio. Twitter: @CRyanShelton
The role of NCAA compliance is often misunderstood by the public and sometimes, even those overseen by rules education. Brian Blair talks about his guidance with coaches and administrators to ensure that compliance works for both the athletic department staff as a whole as well as student athletes. Blair discusses how the perception of student-athlete awareness of athletic department issues is presented through SAAC, as well as his own experiences as a student athlete at Wofford. All while wearing a nice bowtie. Twitter: @BToTheBlair
Kevin McNamee has over thirty-five years of experience as a Division-I administrator as well as a coach of swimming and diving. McNamee talks about how his coaching days helped develop his administrative role with St. Bonaventure for 17 years, then moving to George Mason for the last 19 years, overseeing of some of the more detailed aspects of the department. McNamee discusses various points on how to conduct proper business operations, event management, as well as sports programming, along George Mason’s magical men’s basketball ride in 2006 through the NCAA Tournament to the Final Four. Twitter: @KWMcNamee
The Mountain West Conference holds one of the hottest tickets in Las Vegas during conference tournament time for men’s basketball. Dan Butterly oversees the Mountain West’s annual conference tournament, and talks about how he helps sell sponsorship inventory as well as achieves activation for corporate clients. Butterly discusses how the Mountain West engages and educates fans during a rabid, sell-out situation for each game, as well as ensures that once teams lose, fans have a secondary ticket market to resell to fans interested in attending the remaining games on the schedule. Twitter: @DanButterly
Recognized by The Sporting News as one of the Top 100 most powerful people in sports, Mike Goff has created some of the most dynamic and far-reaching brand development in the sports industry. Goff talks about Premier Sports Management’s role in recalibrating the current Bowl Championship Series of college football after being hired by the NCAA Division I conferences to help define the identity, branding, marketing and operational structure of its new 2015 playoff system. Goff talks his 22-year-career as VP of Corporate Marketing for Sprint Nextel, about his expertise in helping strategic and implementation planning of Sprint and Nextel in 2005, creating a sponsorship marketing effort with the NFL, NASCAR, PGA Tour, NCAA and World Cup Soccer. Goff discusses the elusive millennial fan, efforts to sell to that new fanbase, and the emerging role of technology in live sports entertainment venues. Twitter: @RMGoff
Drake Nelson spent 10 years in the world of independent professional wrestling entertainment and has now shifted into managing the largest comedy club in Reno, Nevada. Nelson talks about some of the reasons that professional wrestling is dying out on the circuit and presents a different view point on how promotions work in that industry niche. Nelson discusses his outlook on entertainment in general, now in the world of comedy where he competes nightly against other casinos the attention of those living or vacationing in Reno. Twitter: @CannibalDrake