Sports journalism is finally carving out investigative reporting beats for the business segments of the industry. Reporter Mark Alesia is one of those innovators in the field, digging up information that pulls back the curtain for the public on stadium financing, pricing and secondary market tickets. Alesia continues to maintain his impartiality to the process, filing Freedom of Information Act requests in an effort to show the public exactly where their money goes and why when it comes to sports. Alesia discusses some of the hotter topics around the Indianapolis area, especially concerning the Indy Eleven stadium financing plan for an MLS franchise, as well as the fall-out from the Religion Freedom Law which showed politics at its worst, and sports as its best social justice moment. Alesia presents several options for why journalism in sports and for news is gravely important for protection of the public trust. Twitter: @MarkAlesia
Understanding how to engage and push audience creation is at the heart of what Caleb Clark strives to do daily. Clark discusses the misconceptions of Big Ten athletic attendance when it comes to The Ohio State or Olympic sports, as well as how to improve the overall fan affinity for each of those teams. Clark also covers his tenure at UC Irvine and Akron, where the main attention transfers to other primary sports, as well as how to promote various components of the marketing plain to gain awareness for the sports product overall. Twitter: @CalebClarkOSU
Brent Holck is one of the masterminds behind the University of Minnesota's golden ticket program for men's basketball. The ticket program helped usher in an exciting amount of interest for UM as well as ticket sales overall. And it brings up the question that Holck asks the most: Are season ticket holders more valuable to a program than other ticket buyers or fans. Holck has a complicated answer for that, but brings some in-depth knowledge for how programs should promote and build audiences.