The Chicago Cubs were one of the luckiest teams at the start of the 1900s, according to former Associated Press writer Hal Bock, author of the book, The Last Chicago Cubs Dynasty. Bock covers the entire Cubs reign to the World Series from 1906 to 1910, complete with the biographies of some of the more illustrious characters in Major League Baseball History. Bock talks about the legendary double-play combination of Tinker to Evers to Chance, whether Cubs catcher Johnny Kling should be held responsible for bringing bad luck by leaving the team for a promising billiards career, and what the "Merkle boner" did for the 1908 playoffs to send the Cubs back to the World Series. Twitter: @hbock1
While having a ton of academic credits helps bolster some program ratings, Dave Torromeo is focused on the real-world application of his Manhattanville College instructors, as well as their backgrounds. Torromeo discusses the influx of masters degree programs for sports management, as well as some of the dangers of flooding the marketplace without instructors who have actually worked full-time in sports. Torromeo talks about how his students view internships and job prospects, as the world of sports is becoming more and more technology-driven. Twitter: @Davidt12
The Wheeling Nailers ECHL franchise has begun to shy away from the premium giveaway, in order to cater to the mega experience of celebrity appearances. Vice President of Tickets, Chris Thoburn, talks about how the celebrity appearance at a game helps enhance both the VIPs of team business partners and group leaders, as well as draws out a ton of single game tickets. Thoburn maps out the new hockey landscape, being a Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate amid the competition of American Hockey League cities that are nearby. Twitter: @cthoburn87
The transition from first career to second career is one of the more difficult retirement discussions any professional athlete has to make. Devon Teeple is one of the better success stories, moving from a promising minor league baseball career to the world of finance and blogging. Teeple discusses how his life has changed since he made that decision, along with being mentored by several sports writers in order to develop his own voice on the blogging platform, The GM's Perspective. Teeple shares insight into how athletes view the media, as well as how to ensure that he is also promoting some of the better sides of an athlete's life, including their charity work. Twitter: @DevonTeeple
Troy Ruediger has helped launch one of the more "sticky" forums for sports and technology discussion, called Starters. Based out of a Slack platform, Starters has engendered a larger amount of early adopters, communicating in various connectivity discussions and sharing timely articles. Ruediger discusses the vision of Starters, its original intentions, as well as its current state of growth, which is starting to scale in rapid succession. Ruediger also discusses his time at Rukkus, a secondary market ticket search engine with virtual reality capabilities, and the ways that the sports industry still lag behind in technology adoption. Twitter: @troy_ruediger
Singapore's Hass Aminian did an in-person podcast in Davis, California way back on episode 184, and now returns 499 episodes later for a follow-up report. Now on his own, Aminian discusses the Asian market indepth, as well as how the NBA is capturing an entire continent, but also fighting against consumer demand for homegrown sporting leagues and events. Aminian discusses the issues around Rule 40 with The Rio Olympics, as well as the state of international sports business as a whole. Twitter: @hassaminian
The majority of c-suite college administrators utilize Matt Roberts' aggregation e-mail news service daily in both the world of athletics, known as the D1 ticker. Reaching over 13,000+ recipients, Roberts' breaks down what makes the e-mail such a necessary part of the daily lives of high-level conversations on the industry's overall happenings. Roberts' discusses how he avoids editorializing, but yet providing, some of the most provocative news concerning the worlds of Division-I, Division-II, and Division-III. Roberts talks about adding on the "1 Question" micro-podcast as well the D1 ticker jobs, as well as lessons learned along the way. Twitter: @d1ticker
Digital streaming is becoming the simplified way of live sports content distribution, and as Sportle CEO Adam Shaw explains, that brings out the complexity of the traditional media marketplace amid contractual and corporate sponsorship agreements. Shaw discusses the issues at hand, especially couch rights vs. hotel rights, and whether consumers will finally gain access to Regional Streaming Networks (RSN). Given Shaw's expensive background as a c-suite executive in traditional television with FOX, FX & the NFL Network, he shares the vision of what it will take to make streaming the overall experience that most consumers have with live sports content in the future. Twitter: @PrinceAdRock
Mike Waddell has managed to navigate the trickiest of waters in sports; not only as a broadcaster, but administrator in collegiate athletics, and now in the professional sports world with the Richmond International Raceway. Waddell talks about selling into a culture and environment, as well as building a group of personnel that lasts, specifically citing one experience in Virginia in 1994, where he learned what you say, as well as how you say it, matters to the locals. Waddell shares his experience on managing people, including how to deal with sudden situations, both in terms of family issues and when the athletic director is fired. Twitter: @Waddell247RIR
Even on the secondary market, customization of tickets has started to enhance whether the game result was terrible for the home team or not for the consumer. Gamehedge is an idea hatched by long-time attorney Warren Friss, who has seen his share of bad games. Consumers who buy into the Gamehedge guarantee can get 50% back off of their ticket price if the home team loses by 5 runs or more. Friss talks about the analytics behind what the consumers have been purchasing since Gamehedge launched into the MLB secondary market this year, as well as the upcoming NHL, NFL and NBA seasons. Friss also talks about his 16-year career at Topps, and sheds some insight into "error card" lore from that period. Twitter: @GameHedge