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The Tao of Sports Podcast – The Definitive Sports, Marketing, Business Industry News Podcast

Sports Revenue Analytics veteran and sport management professor Troy Kirby interviews the team behind the teams in Front Offices and Athletics Departments throughout the world, revealing an industry of specialists and minds unseen by the local or national media. Examined in this podcast are current or long-standing industry topics; tickets, business, analytics, moneyball, revenue, finance, economy, sales and jobs of the NCAA, NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL. Also included are topics surrounding third party vendors, sports business, revenue, marketing, mentoring interns, facilities, managing employees, as well as how to not only break into sports, but stay in the industry long-term. The often-invisible side of the industry is where the Tao of Sports Podcast attempts to pull back the elusive curtain, providing information both to industry insiders and those who want to work in sports. Troy Kirby is a sport management professor at Saint Martin's University in Lacey, Washington.
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The Tao of Sports Podcast – The Definitive Sports, Marketing, Business Industry News Podcast
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Now displaying: February, 2016
Feb 29, 2016

From ticket sales to development, Michael Espada charts his course for how he sells both the immediate buy and the long term ask in college athletics. Espada shares his insight into the development process, including the length process of major gift fundraising. But that doesn't mean that Espada has forgotten his roots, going back to helping form one of the first in-house ticket models for college athletics. Espada talks about the challenges of getting administrators on board with paying a commission-structure, as well as initiating sales in renewal cycles. Twitter: @82Nole4Life

Feb 26, 2016

Finally, Peter Stringer is back on the podcast, previously on Ep. 298, and to have an updated take on some of the digital tools available to sports marketers. Stringer discusses the new Facebook vs. Twitter platform debate, as well as whether Snapchat is actually a social media platform, or a messaging service. Stringer also shares his view of the digital landscape in general, and then talks about his own foray into podcasting, with his Media Masters podcast where he interviewed Amy Jo Martin and Jim Ross. Twitter: @PeterStringer

Feb 24, 2016

Sitting down during the 2016 National Sports Forum in Portland, Oregon, Joe Isse discusses his role as the Director of Inside Sales for the NBA's Trailblazers. Isse talks about how he forms a team, as well as instills fairness and a sense of quality control will his staff members. Isse discusses ways to connect with the prospective customer, not just through phone calls, but also through other means of communication including social media. Isse shares his thoughts on what expectations young people getting into the sports business have, and whether those mesh with the realities. Twitter: @IceJI

Feb 22, 2016

Handling a legacy brand, while pushing its marketing into the future is a task that Drew Cloud has done more than few times in his career. As Executive Vice President of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cloud oversees sales and marketing for a team founded in 1882. Cloud talks about his experience handling legacy brands, especially in Madison Square Garden with the New York Knicks, and as Vice President of the Phoenix Suns. Cloud discusses efforts made to enhance the community relations around the Pittsburgh areas, as well as how the sales efforts have started to change as well in the front office. Cloud shares his thoughts on NBA TMBO, and some of the misconceptions, as well as benefits, of the TMBO effort by the league toward enhancing revenue generation. Twitter: @Drew_Cloud

Note: Drew Cloud will be one of 17 speakers at The 2nd Annual Sports Sales Boot Camp in Pittsburgh on June 28, 2016. Registration is now open at $250 per attendee, with team rates available. For more information: Sportssalesbootcamp.com

Feb 19, 2016

Across The Pond, the sports digital revolution is underway, in the form of Seven League's Richard Ayers, who has worked on both the team side with Manchester City and is now one of the leading consultants for sports franchises, such as UEFA, FIFA, UFC, O2, Valencia CF, Juventus, Premier League, Green Bay Packers, Rugby Football Union, Major League Soccer and the England and Wales Cricket Board. Ayers talks about where digital in sports needs to go, and some of the mistakes that digital managers make on social media. Ayers presents a road map toward best practices overall, especially when engaging fans. Twitter: @richardayers

Feb 17, 2016

Few people have taken as deep of a dive into the licensing side of sports. Jim Neish talks about his passions, especially on the differential between good branding and actually knowing what you're talking about. Neish talks about how merchandise and logo variations can help or hinder a franchise's revenue success, down to the utter complexity of what colors are used. Neish discusses some of the prevalent attitudes when it comes to building, maintaining and keeping a powerful legacy brand like the Toronto Maple Leafs. Twitter: @JWN16

Feb 15, 2016

There are an abundance of one-day sales academies host by teams, however the majority are focused primarily on the end result of a group ticket sale. The Milwaukee Bucks' Wes Warne has re-defined the model, instead of focusing on a free sales academy to invited college juniors and seniors, creating a pipeline of already trained, evaluated talent for his sales staff. Warne talks about the implementation of the sales academy, which included a regional cable sports news story on what the Bucks did. Warne discusses how it helped not only the sales academy attendees, but also his staff in their training acumen.

Feb 12, 2016

The revenue streams for ultra endurance racing and event management comes down to the participants themselves, who Steve Fleck believes are some of the sport's biggest fans. Fleck talks about the way in which endurance racing, including marathons and Iron Man competitions, have grown and potentially plateaued over the last few decades. Coupled with that is the technological aspects that have both improved the audience experience at the larger events, but created unrealistic expectations by fans when attending smaller events. Fleck talks about some of the issues surrounding endurance sports, such as Tough Mudder, and whether they are pricing themselves out of the marketplace through participant fees. Twitter: @SteveFleck

Feb 10, 2016

With over 20 years of international venue ticketing experience in various marketplaces, Tim Chambers breaks down some of the largest issues happening across The Pond. One of them being ticket touting, the secondary market in the United Kingdom, where artists and venue promoters had decried the practice while demanding a cap, as well as the bankruptcy of SFX and whether that will hinder deferred artist advanced payments for future concert tours. Chambers then discusses the Liverpool protests, where at the 77th minute of the 2016 match against Sunderland, 10,000 fans out of 44,000, exited the stadium to protest higher ticket prices proposed for 2017. Twitter: @T_J_Chambers

Feb 8, 2016

Brett Zalaski returns to the podcast, after last being on 2 1/2 years ago, when he talked about sales growth and training on Ep. 368. Zalaski now speaks about his adventurous 2015 training campaign, as well as an extensive talking about the 2015 Sports Sales Boot Camp that he hosted in San Francisco in front of 300+ young sports professionals working in the field today. Zalaski discusses how getting "clams" to be talked about has been a great thing, how he continues to change up his sales training, and why PowerPoint presentations lack a lot of sincerity as an education tool. Zalaski gets into the world of social selling, applying it to ticket sales, and what future ticket sales reps will look like, from blogging to social to other types of content, in order to move more product for the franchise. Twitter: @bzalaski

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