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

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.

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

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

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

This is probably one of the deepest conversations had on the podcast about LinkedIn Sales Navigator, as told by brand evangelist Mario M. Martinez, Jr., who doesn't work for the company but swears by the product. Martinez, Jr. offers up various ways in which the Sales Navigator tool can retrofit any sales floor trying to utilize both SSI and engagement on social media, as well as slays some of the various misnomers that usually stand in its way for being implemented. To Martinez, Jr., the path to adoption starts with understanding how each person has been trained to use sales tools available, whether that's social selling or cold calling telephone. Martinez, Jr., breaks down some of the stereotypes backing both sales methodologies, taking a top-down approach to changing the mindset of to get sales departments on the right path. Twitter: @M_3jr LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mthreejr

The relationship between an athletic department and student athlete success is at its best in the small college atmosphere. Sierra College's athletic director, Lucas Moosman, has served at the Pac-12 and Mountain West level with three different Division-I institutions, but shares his experience coming to a 2-year community college of 17,000 students. Moosman talks about the financial realities of Sierra College, and how to best convey that to incoming coaches, who may not understand compliance limitations on recruiting and budget. Moosman presents insight into what it takes to be 2-year community college athletic director, who is essentially a jack-of-all-trades from dawn til dusk. Twitter: @LucasMoosman

John Katz returns the podcast after two years (Ep. 183) where he was heading up the challenging situation for baseball in Savannah, with the Sand Gnats. Katz has now moved the Sand Gnats to Columbia, South Carolina, where they are two hours North of Savannah, and rebranded them as the Fireflies. Katz discusses the move and the transition to a new $40 million baseball facility, where technology plays just as an important part in the marketing as anything else. Katz talks about the different demographics of Columbia compared to Savannah, and how the Sand Gnats changeover to Fireflies remodeled an attitude in the brand of selling baseball in the South. Twitter: @JEKatz33

As Super Bowl 50 nears, so does the main event for SAP in terms of fan engagement. Ward Bullard is SAP's Vice President of Sports & Entertainment, overseeing from concept to rollout of the Fan Energy Zone, which is expected to be a highlight of the entire SB50 week. The Fan Dome, in the heart of San Francisco's Super Bowl City, will hold a 40-foot tall Fan Dome, allowing fans to become players as they step into an interactive gaming experience, along with a Fan Wall, a 50-by-15 foot video wall that will capture and display fan gaming highlights. Bullard discusses the implementation of the entire SAP Hana data backbone for the Fan Energy Zone, as well as how smart interactive concepts are revolutionizing the sports fan experience landscape. Twitter: @WardBullard

The Vermont Lake Monsters may be one of the few professional teams in The Green Mountain State, but they also play in one of the oldest ballparks in all of Minor League Baseball. General Manager Joe Doud discusses some of the challenges with keeping up on fan expectations of ballpark experience, along with how the Lake Monsters have been able to drive attendance the last few years. Doud talks about engaging the fans as well as the Lake Monsters' own staff, by shagging a few balls in the outfield during batting practice, and making sure that every attendee feels like they are one of the family. Doud shares his insight into making sure that promotions work, and even when they don't, learning lessons on improving the marketing plan each season. Twitter: @JoeDoud