SBJ/SBD PODCASTS FIRST LOOK & BUZZCAST The entire contents of this magazine are copyrighted by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal 2019 with all rights reserved.. Street & Smith’s
Trang 1Mark Abbott • Renie Anderson • Steve Battista • David Baxter • Dan Beckerman • Seth Berger • David Berson •
John Brody • Paul Brooks • Zak Brown • Willy Burkhardt • Faust Capobianco IV • Peter Carlisle • Kathy Carter •
Brian Cashman • Ray Clark • Casey Close • Justin Connolly • Rick Cordella • Bob Cramer • William Daly • Lee Ann Daly • Paul Danforth • Mark Dowley • Russell D’Souza • Damon Evans • Jeff Fluhr • Tom Fox • John Galloway • Frank Gibeau •
Neil Glat • Tom Glick • Todd Goldstein • David Greenspan • Al Guido • Wally Hayward • Robb Heineman • Michael Huyghue • Martin Jarmond • Jerry Jones Jr • Tucker Kain • Dave Katz • Wayne Katz • Sam Kennedy • Billy King • Chris Klein • Jonathan Kraft • Katie Lacey • Steve Lauletta • Mark Lazarus • Peter Lazarus • Rita Benson LeBlanc • Michael Levine • Tom Lewand • Mark Lewis • Jon Litner • Lawton Logan • Dan Lozano • Greg Luckman • Chris Marinak • Elliott McCabe • Mike McCarley • Kevin McClatchy • Patrick McGee • Tom McGovern • Dan Meis • Scott Milleisen • Peter Murray •
Howard Nuchow • Sarah Robb O’Hagan • Susan O’Malley • Scott O’Neil • Jon Oram • Alan Ostfield • Rohan Oza •
Jacqueline Parkes • Merritt Paulson • Bea Perez • Doug Perlman • Steve Phelps • Kevin Plank • John Pleasants • Jon Podany •
Ed Policy • David Preschlack • Jeff Price • George Pyne • Bob Reif • Michael Robichaud • Brian Rolapp • Kris Rone • Jamey Rootes • Michael Rubin • Chris Russo • David Samson • Frank Saviano • Connor Schell • Hans Schroeder •
Emmanuel Seuge • Greg Shaheen • Eric Shanks • Mark Shapiro • John Shea • Jeff Shell • Adam Silver • Matt Silverman • Jared Smith • Daniel Snyder • Dave St Peter • Mark Steinberg • David Sternberg • Jennifer Storms • Andrew Sturner •
John Tatum • Mark Tatum • Shannon Terry • Neal Tiles • Rob Tilliss • Heidi Uberroth • Keith Wachtel • Casey Wasserman • Chris Weil • Danny White • Russell Wolff • Jed York • Brett Yormark • Peter Zern •
Will You Be There?
Are you a SBJ Forty Under 40 winner and want to attend the 20th anniversary festivities?
Please contact Lorianne Lamonica at loriannelamonica@sportsbusniessjournal.com for special pricing for both the Banquet and our CAA World Congress of Sports.
Celebrating 20 Years of the Best Young Talent in Sports Business
FORTY UNDER 40 AWARDS PARTNERS
S E A R C H
2019 Forty Under 40 Awards Banquet
April 4, 2019 | Monarch Beach Resort | Dana Point, CA
www.FortyUnder40Awards.com
Trang 2Rachel Nichols has built a career asking tough questions
3$*(
Champion Buffy Filippell helped seed the sports industry
3$*(
The nominees for the 12th annual Sports Business Awards
3$*(
Debt for Seattle NHL
team, arena upgrades
to make Miami matter again.
Page 26
Derek
Jeter, Act 2
Trang 3AN “EVENING AT THE BALLPARK”
TRADITION CONTINUES IN THE WINDY CITY
TUESDAY, MAY 28
WE ARE HEADED BACK TO THE SOUTHSIDE
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
GUARANTEED RATE FIELD
PRE-GAME INTERVIEW CHICAGO WHITE SOX CHAIRMAN
RENAISSANCE CHICAGO
DOWNTOWN
MAY 29-30 2019
Trang 4Getty Images (5)
67$7(2)3/$<
The Jazz banned for life a fan who
engaged Thunder star Russell
Westbrook in a verbal altercation by
making comments Westbrook called
“completely disrespectful,” causing
NBA players to rally to his defense.
2))(16,9( )28/
2))(1'(' )28/
The Knicks banned for life a fan who
told controversial owner James Dolan
at a game, “Sell the team,” an extreme
reaction to a harmless comment.
THE METER
”
for what you’re worth And never
accept anything less Never.
— USWNT star MEGAN RAPINOE after members of the team sued the sport’s
governing body over pay inequity and other issues.
MONEY TALKS
RATINGS GAME CASH ONLY
Rating on NBC Sports Philadelphia for the Phillies’ March 9 spring training game that marked the debut
of Bryce Harper, a 311 percent increase on their average for this year and the team’s highest-rated spring training game since 2012.
up from 30/1, after the team acquired Pro Bowl wid receiver Odell Beckham Jr from the Giants last wee The Browns have never reached the Super Bowl an have not won a playoff game since being reborn in 1
The full amount of investment returned
by Endeavor, owner of UFC, to the Saudi
royal family in the wake of the murder
last October of Saudi journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, who had written for The
Washington Post.
Island Living
The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla., teed off in March for the first time since
2007 after having been a fixture in May on the PGA Tour calendar The change kicks off a condensed month schedule designed to have all of golf ’s biggest events take place before football season starts Andwhile the earlier date affected how golfers approached the course, one aspect that hasn’t changed is thefamous island green at the 17th hole, the most distinctive location in golf
five-
owl, de ek.
nd 999.
Trang 5I WANTEDto offer some insight into our decisions on the nominees for this year’s Sports
Business Awards, which will be presented on May 22 in New York City We have been doing this for 12 years, but the decisions become only more difficult and challenging,
a testament to the growing sophistication of the business Our editorial committees bated hundreds of companies and submissions to come up with the list of 86 nominees across the 17 categories Here’s a glimpse into the thinking behind the decisions in a few popular categories and other thoughts on the process
de-fLEAGUE OF THE YEAR:The committee surprisingly put forward only four nominees These were the leagues that stood out for business growth, innovation and accomplishment For the NFL, this is its first nomination in this category in six years, as the committee recog-nized a more positive narrative around the league, commercial and sponsorship gains, a ratings resurgence and increased interest in the on-field product For last year’s League
of the Year winner, the NBA, it was another stellar year, becoming the first league to do
a gambling deal with MGM Resorts International There also were significant digital novations and plans for a basketball league in Africa MLS just keeps building, brick by brick, planning new teams in Cincinnati, Nashville, Miami and Austin and new efforts at stability in Columbus Finally, there was a lot to like about what PGA Tour Commissioner
in-Jay Monahan did in his second full year, in changing the tour schedule, bringing on
Dis-covery as a key international partner and fortifying its media strategy
fTEAM OF THE YEAR:There will be some raised eyebrows in one of the most competitive egories Yes, I’m sure there is Golden State Warriors fatigue The team has been nominated five out of the past six years and won twice But there is a reason they win so many of the business awards presented during the NBA’s sales meetings — they are that good There will be ques-tions of whether we had influential committee members from Milwaukee (we had none), but if you look into the business stories of both the Brewers and the Bucks, you will see a 12-month period of excellence and achievement For the Brewers, there was nearly record season-ticket sales, an impressive new spring training complex and a lucrative new naming-rights deal all while the team had a great story on the field For the Bucks, you can’t ignore how much new
cat-ownership, President Peter Feigin and others have transformed this once sleepy franchise
Atlanta United continued an incredibly impressive run in year two, and the Washington Capitals
were able to lift an entire region with their activations and brand extensions around their long-awaited Stanley Cup championship
Finally, the NWSL Portland Thorns’ business excellence is worthy in a world where selling and marketing women’s sports is
note-a significnote-ant chnote-allenge Overnote-all, this cnote-ategory will be note-an interesting debate among the judges
fOTHER THOUGHTS:There was lengthy consideration of the new media players, but the committee still was drawn to the business innovations of the five “traditional” media companies … Staying
on media, there was appreciation for what Turner Sports does with Bleacher Report and B/R Live (two nominations) as well as ESPN around ESPN+ and a newly launched mobile experiences (two nominations) … The nomination for Gritty may be surprising, but give the Philadelphia Flyers credit for creat-ing a mascot that became a pop culture hit … The new gambling environment was evident
in both Breakthrough (MGM Resorts) and Mobile Fan Experience (DraftKings Sportsbook) and could have been nominated in more categories but was seen as still too new … Tough-est omissions: Team Penske and Minnesota Vikings for Team of the Year, The Athletic for Breakthrough and the MLS All-Star Game for Event of the Year
The decisions now become even harder, and a group of independent judges will select the winners in all but two of the categories The winners will be announced as part of the
12th annual Sports Business Awards on May 22, where we will also honor Tim Finchem
as our Lifetime Achievement Award winner You won’t want to miss it!
Abraham Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
Inside our thinking on SBA nominee selections
We have been doing this for 12 years, but the decisions become only more challenging,
a testament to the growing sophistication
Check out our First Look podcast every Monday where we discuss the week’s top stories Also, check out
Buzzcast in SportsBusiness Daily’s Morning Buzz, our daily two-minute look at the stories of the day.
SBJ/SBD
PODCASTS
FIRST LOOK & BUZZCAST
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of this magazine are copyrighted by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal 2019 with all rights reserved Street & Smith’s
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is published weekly, with the exception of the first week of January, the first week of July and the last week of December, for
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)2580
21 7+( &29(5
26 MIAMI HEAT
Amid another makeover,
Marlins executives have
a plan in place to turn
the franchise around.
By Eric Fisher
0$5.(7,1*
PUSH TO 100
The licensing program
around the NFL’s
centen-nial year has companies
lined up to cash in.
By Terry Lefton
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LAUNCHING
FROM STRENGTH
The long list of
distribu-tion deals adds pressure
on cable systems to carry
the ACC Network.
By John Ourand
/$%25
SWEAT EQUITY
United Sports Group
makes a sweet find with
speedy Mississippi State
defensive end.
By Liz Mullen
)$&,/,7,(6
COLD CASH
The rush to go cashless
raises questions and
concerns from sports
Trang 6Tim Finchem
Trang 7Getty Images
D EBT TOfinance the Seattle NHL expansion team and
the renovations of the former KeyArena has totaled
$825 million after a pair of loans led by SunTrust Bank recently closed It is believed to be the most amount of debt ever connected to an NHL franchise
Developer Oak View Group is borrowing $500 million to finance its renovation of the arena, while the yet-to-be-named expansion team is borrowing $325 million to help finance a $650 million expansion fee
That isn’t the only major NHL-related debt in the market OVG also is looking to borrow another healthy nine-figure sum to finance the New York Islanders’ proposed arena in Belmont, N.Y
That facility is not expected to open until the 2021-22 season
The Seattle loan, in addition to SunTrust, has Citizens Bank, MUFG and City National in the syndicate Some finance sources questioned the amount of debt for a single NHL team and arena but conceded that at a time when lenders are hungry to extend credit in sports, it’s not a surprise the Seattle deal closed
Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke said that the company is
“extremely comfortable with our debt service,” noting that the project required “a debt package to overcome the fact that we don’t have subsidies — this is a complicated and expensive project.”
Leiweke said the entire redevelopment is expected to cost tween $850 million and $900 million, which not only will include refurbishing the arena but a more than $75 million investment
be-in an underground parkbe-ing garage below the arena Oak View also will have control of a piece of land next to the arena that it could develop, as well as sponsorship and advertising rights to the overall arena campus, things that Leiweke said, “when you take all of that together, the leverage on this project from a per-centage standpoint is less than any other project that I’ve done.”
There was a strong appetite in the loan markets for the debt, and no questions about the amount of leverage, or borrowing for an arena with an NHL team, said Jeff Dunn, executive vice president of sports and entertainment for SunTrust
“Everyone felt having the NHL expansion team committed to the arena project was a key component,” Dunn said “But also, confidence in the strategic partnership with Oak View.”
Leiweke said projections for contractually obligated income for the arena, as well as its early success on that front, also made
it attractive for lenders
Oak View Group has already secured four of the eight
found-Lending Support
Oak View Group CEO
Tim Leiweke estimated
that the total cost of redevelopment at KeyArena will be $850 million to $900 million.
Banks line up as Oak View Group, Seattle NHL team borrow
record debt amount %<'$1,(/.$3/$1$1',$17+20$6
XSIURQW
Trang 8Getty Images
ing partners and sold two presenting partner
deals for the arena; has sold the majority of the
suites in the building; and is currently in
ne-gotiations with four different companies
regard-ing namregard-ing rights, Leiweke said, though he
declined to offer specifics He said he expects
all of that inventory will be sold by the end of
the calendar year, nearly two years in advance
of the arena’s opening
“We believe that when you put all of this
to-gether, the revenue that we’re going to generate
will make this arena a top-five-grossing arena
in the world,” Leiweke said
Oak View Group, founded in 2015 by Leiweke
and Irving Azoff, will own the arena, with Live
Nation having a smaller equity stake Last year,
private equity firm Silver Lake invested more
than $100 million in Oak View Group in exchange
for an equity stake in OVG, which recently struck
a deal to develop a new arena for the
Univer-sity of Texas in Austin
Mitchell Ziets, who advises on stadium and
arena finance, agreed that the debt levels for
Seattle and under consideration for the
OVG-Islanders project are not out of line
“Based on the NHL arena projects that I have
been involved in recently and what I know about
the NHL, it is clear that franchise values and
team and arena revenues are growing rapidly,”
he said “And when you combine a new arena
with a vibrant real estate development, which
as we have all seen is the current trend, this
turbocharges the overall economics and value
Thus, while I have not seen the operating
pro-jections for either the Seattle or Islanders
proj-ects, I can certainly understand how the teams and lenders are both comfortable at the levels of arena fi-nancing you have de-scribed.”
NHL rules allow teams to borrow up to half of their value, ac-cording to sources, hence Seattle being able to borrow $325 million after an own-ership group led by David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer agreed to pay a $650 million expansion fee to enter the league The
team has more than 33,000 season-ticket-holder
deposits and will launch in the 2021-22 season
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly declined
to comment
“What is important to note is how Oak View
views these projects,” said Keegan McDonald,
OVG’s director of business development and
finance, when asked if buildings with only NHL
teams as tenants could support the amount of
debt in question “This is a bet on live, this is
a bet on content outside of professional sports.”
By live, McDonald primarily means concerts,
a sector he referred to as a “tenant” in and of
itself “It’s not only the NHL,” he said “Music
is our other tenant.”
“We believe
that when you
put all of this
is expected to be released later this year
In addition to receiving the dard tenants of a league-level sponsor-ship with MLS such as activation at major events and integration into league digital and social channels, as well as field-level signage in nation-ally televised matches, MLS and MGM Resorts will work to bring soccer events and other activations to Las Vegas MLS Deputy Commissioner and MLS Business Ventures President Gary Stevenson said those events could range anywhere from league business meetings and the draft to esports or other special soccer com-petitions It could also include events
stan-or matches that involve other Soccer United Marketing partners Stevenson declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal
“Sports betting has the ability to engage new fans in the sport, and provide existing fans with deeper en-gagement,” Stevenson said, noting how intertwined sports betting and soccer is around the world outside of the U.S
Scott Butera, MGM Resorts national president of interactive gam-ing, said that compared to betting around other professional sports in
Inter-the U.S., “Inter-the base is clearly smallerthan the other sports, but we see thepotential for growth as much higher
No one has really promoted soccer in the betting world here yet.”
Butera said the company will work closely with MLS to build that out
Beyond the free-to-play game they will create, MGM Resorts will promote MLS in its Play MGM mobile sports betting app, and will utilize MLS branding across a range of its offer-ings in the U.S
The new national partnership will likely also have an impact on local sponsorship Stevenson said the league’s commercial committee is discussing alterations to league guide-lines that could open the door for teams to sign partnerships with sports betting companies and allow them to
be jersey sponsors MLS rules have barred that sort of advertising
“Our clubs are looking to be very aggressive in this space, so we want
to give them an opportunity to grow their fan bases and realize revenues around it,” Stevenson said He char-acterized those discussions as “hap-pening as we speak; this isn’t a next-year kind of thing.”
Two MLS teams play in states where sports betting is legal: the New York Red Bulls, who play in New Jersey, and the Philadelphia Union The Red Bulls have been in discussions with sports betting companies regarding naming rights to their stadium as well
as other team-level partnerships, dustry sources said Philadelphia has also had discussions with sports bet-ting companies regarding its stadium naming-rights deal, which is with Talen Energy but expires after the
NHL
Oct 29, 2018
MGMRESORTSINTERNATIONAL
MLB
Nov 27, 2018
MGMRESORTSINTERNATIONAL
NFL
Jan 3, 2019
CAESARSENTERTAINMENT
MLS
March 2019
MGMRESORTSINTERNATIONAL
TIMELINE
OF MAJOR SPORTS LEAGUE GAMBLING SPONSORSHIPS
The Red Bulls, based in New Jersey and one of two teams in the league to play in a state that has already legalized sports betting, are positioned to take advantage of the deal.
Trang 9Getty Images (2)
ESPN HAS signed a three-year extension with
Relev-ent Sports Group for media rights to the
Interna-tional Champions Cup, a deal that also will see the
network’s platforms offer expanded coverage of the
ICC’s recently launched women’s and youth team
ment aired on Fox Sports in the U.S
The deal, which gives ESPN English- and
Spanish-language rights in the U.S., Mexico, Central
Amer-ica and the Caribbean, will see the network televise
at least 15 to 25 of the tournament’s matches, with
the remainder appearing on ESPN+ The knockout
and final rounds of both the women’s and youth
team tournaments also will appear on ESPN linear
platforms, with the group stages streaming on
digital In 2018, the first year for both of those
tour-naments, only the women’s final match was
broad-cast on ESPN2
That will also come with a larger rights fee — RSG CEO Danny Sillman said the new deal increased four times in value compared to the previous one with ESPN, declining to comment further RSG’s last deal with ESPN had increased from its previous deal with Fox, which was valued at more than $2.2 million over the three years, according to sources
Sillman noted the changed media landscape and desire for soccer media rights that has evolved from
2016, saying there was “interest from all the key players this time.”
ESPN also will provide expanded coverage of all three tournaments, which will include additional shoulder programming and content produced about the players and the teams Sillman noted the suc-cess that ESPN and ABC have had in broadcasting the Little League World Series, which is serving as
a model for the ICC’s youth tournament, known as ICC Futures and which brings together the best under-14 youth squads from teams around the world
RSG currently does not have any additional national broadcast deals done, and Sillman said the company will begin to shift its focus to that area He said his expectation is that several deals will get done,
inter-considering the tournament’s field will again include several top-flight European clubs and their men’s, women’s and youth teams, as well as youth teams from Asia and South America
Relevent Sports Group will announce its full slate
of participating teams and programming across the three tournaments next week
ESPN adds three years
to ICC tourney deal
Selig says time is right to tell his story in upcoming book
BUD SELIG fielded the same question
almost daily as he wound down his
23-year tenure as MLB commissioner:
When are you writing a book?
Usually Selig would laugh off the
inquiries This self-described history
buff had little desire to write about
his life.
Selig’s stance changed as he
prepared to step down from his
commissioner role in 2015, and he
eventually embraced the idea Now
several years in the making, his
autobiography is almost ready for
print.
“For the Good of the Game: The
Inside Story of the Surprising,
Dramatic Transformation of Major
League Baseball” will be published by
William Morrow, an imprint of
Harper-Collins, on July 9, the same day as
MLB’s All-Star Game.
“Gradually, over a period of time, I
came to the conclusion that I ought to
write a book,” Selig said “Sometimes
when you’re away from things, you
get a little bit different perspective.”
The book is not completely
finished, but Selig expects it to be
published at about 350 pages.
“It’s about my own career, it’s about
baseball, it’s about sports, it’s about life,” he said “There are some
interesting political stories There’s
my own analysis of events, like the steroid issue.”
Selig said his book will not shy from addressing controversies, specifically referencing the steroid scandal that rocked MLB through the 1990s and early 2000s.
“There’s been a lot of mythology about that from a lot of people who either don’t understand or don’t have the facts,” he said “People accused
us of being slow to react It’s just not true It’s one of these historical myths.
We go into great detail on that.”
He also addresses other decisions that were unpopular at the time he made them, from expanding the
playoffs to allowing interleague play.
“You come to find in life that nobody likes change,” he said.
“Remember when we did the Wild Card? There was a huge uproar about how we were going to ruin the game
I guess it worked out pretty well, didn’t it?”
A significant part of the book will address Selig’s role in changing baseball’s economic structure, which included his introduction of revenue sharing.
The Montag Group’s Sandy Montag, who works with Selig on speaking engagements, helped the MLB commissioner emeritus find a publisher for his book.
“We felt that HarperCollins — their interest and their specific love of baseball put them over the top,”
Montag said.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, a longtime friend of Selig’s, wrote a foreword for the book.
Ultimately, the book took more than four years to report and write Phil Rogers did most of the heavy lifting.
Sports journalist Richard Justice started out writing the book before eventually passing it over to Rogers.
Baseball executive Charles Steinberg also helped.
%<-2+1285$1'
“For the Good of the Game” details MLB’s changes under the former commissioner.
Trang 10last year saw celebrities such as Will Smith and Millie Bobby Brown show up to races and pro-duce content for the series F1 last year produced a fictional viral video during the season finale weekend in Abu Dhabi where Smith kidnapped Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton.
The series, which is working on adding a second U.S race in Miami
or Las Vegas as soon as 2020, will hold two new fan festivals this year
in Chicago and Los Angeles
F1 also is working on improving its TV production For example, Norman said its engineering team created a microphone that can be placed in the exhaust system of an F1 car, giving viewers a more visceral engine sound In addition, F1 is experimenting with 360-degree on-car cameras and using drones
to help cover fan festivals
Other areas of focus include growing the series’ relatively limited corporate partnership portfolio and its presence in esports
“It’s been the most rewarding experience of my career to date — one of the things I have thoroughly loved and appreciated is essentially coming into a 69-year-old startup,” Norman said “The ability to come into a business and essentially have a blank piece of paper but with some really clear objectives of what we have
to achieve has been phenomenal and a challenge I’ve really relished.”
ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2019 SLA 45 TH
May 16-18, 2019 | Phoenix, Arizona | JW Marriott Desert Ridge
Sports Lawyers Association
11130 Sunrise Valley Drive | Suite 350 Reston, Virginia 20191
⊲Want to Bet? The Post PASPA SportsWagering Landscape
⊲Athletics Issues Through the Lens
of College and University Counsel
⊲NFLPA Contract Advisors Session
⊲How to Stop Bad Conduct inSport Without Going Too Far
⊲eSports the Next Big Thing
⊲Athlete Abuse: The Humanand Legal Issues
⊲When a Sports Client’s Problems
Go Public: Managing the PublicRelations and Litigation Crisis
⊲Law of Sports Products
⊲Teaching Sports Law
⊲Legal Issues for Start-Up Leagues
⊲Commercialization of Athlete Namesand Images
⊲Tactics and Strategies for NegotiatingVenue, Event and Team Sponsorships
⊲League General Counsel and PlayersAssociation Executive Director Forums
⊲Workers’ Compensation Update
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
#SL A C1 9
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT SLA:
FORMULA ONE is pouring more money into marketing this year as owner
Liberty Media continues to increase its investment in the sport
The global open-wheel series, which started its 2019 season last weekend
in Australia, has been working in recent years to build out its overall
cor-porate structure F1 effectively had no marketing department under the
former regime of Bernie Ecclestone, who ran the series almost
unilater-ally from the late 1970s until 2017 The series is now trying to grow its
pres-ence digitally and socially as well as in key markets around the world, including the U.S and Asia
To that end, Ellie Norman, F1’s director of marketing and communications, said the series’ leadership group — a tri-umvirate of Chase Carey, Sean Bratches and Ross Brawn
— have signed off on increasing her budget this year as they ramp up initiatives that include promoting F1’s OTT product, improv-
ing TV production and holding more live fan festivals She did not disclose
the size of either the budget or the increase to it
Norman said F1’s marketing and communications group has grown to 20
people “From the three of them, there’s a real recognition in terms of the
power of marketing,” said Norman, who joined F1 in mid-2017, shortly after
Liberty bought the series “I have had an increase in my budget [for this
year] — and within the marketplace, that isn’t necessarily common, so that
is a great indication to have that.”
Given how little was being done by F1 in terms of marketing,
sponsor-ship, analytics and digital media before Liberty came aboard, the American
media company has spent the last couple of years hiring and putting a new
structure in place Norman said now that Liberty has been doing that for
two years, “2019 is 100 percent about how we really drive the sort of focus
with the foundations in place.”
Near the top of her to-do list is growing F1 TV, the OTT product that had
a challenging debut in 2018 but has been refined and appears ready for a
better second season Norman said F1 experimented with marketing around
the product on social media and with search engines last year and will
broaden that this year, using video to explain why the service is different
than a usual linear TV broadcast For example, F1 TV Pro, which is produced
in six languages across 65 countries, has exclusive camera views and data
channels, which are features that F1 will highlight in its marketing
The series also is expanding on its “Engineered Insanity” marketing
campaign that it debuted last year by homing in on sound this year F1
worked with English electronic music group The Chemical Brothers to
remix and speed up one of its songs to a three-second sound that will be the
series’ new sonic identity
In terms of the U.S., Norman said the series is eyeing new media
part-nerships and continuing to grow its influencer marketing platform, which
F1 adds some marketing muscle for new season
A video by The Chemical Brothers, complete with a dog behind the wheel, highlights F1’s work with the music group.
%<$'$0
67(51
Trang 11Getty Images (5); ESPN Images
SELL
The Market
A M E A S U R E D LO O K
AT T H I S W E E K ’ S
H O L D I N G S
UNFAIR CATCH
USC water polo coach Jovan Vavic
and UCLA men’s soccer coach Jorge
Salcedo were among the coaches
at elite schools — also including
Georgetown, Stanford, Texas, Wake
Forest and Yale — accused by federal
prosecutors of taking bribes from
parents to get their children into those
colleges whether or not the students
qualified athletically or academically.
ROOM FOR TWO?
Fox Sports is making a push to boost
its college football pregame show by
hiring former Ohio State coach Urban
Meyer and USC legend Reggie Bush,
and planning more live shows from
various campuses, but taking on ESPN’s
hugely popular and long-running
“College GameDay” is a tall task.
HOLD
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
The current CBA expires in 2021, but
Major League Baseball and the
MLBPA have agreed on a series of
modifications — including a $1M
bonus for winning the Home Run Derby,
eliminating the August trade deadline
and reducing the time between innings
— that suggest they might be able to
reach a deal without a work stoppage.
in them being late
to the jersey patch party.
TWO SEASONS into the NBA’s jersey sponsorship program, all 30 teams now have patch deals after the Oklahoma City Thunder signed a deal with Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores in one of the most unusual deals in the league
“The category as we define it is the travel stop convenience store, and what makes it unique is it is the only patch part-ner that is selling products from other brands,” said Matt Wolf, senior vice president of the NBA’s team marketing and
business operations division “This is a brand that attaches customers to a host of other brands, and that is different It is more
of a daily customer segment.”
The unique category was one of the ing forces behind the team’s decision to align with Love’s, team officials said
driv-“It’s a point of differentiation,” said Brian Byrnes, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Thunder “We had a number of opportunities to sell the platform to a num-ber of national brands Love’s provides the best platform
It’s a national company with high growth and innovation, and it is very progressive.”
The league approved the three-year pilot jersey ad program beginning with the 2017-18 season, and the Philadelphia 76ers were the first team to sign a jersey partner in May 2016 So why did it take the Thunder, a prominent franchise that ranks
in the top 10 in nearly every NBA business metric, so long
to sign a deal?
Part of the reason was because Thunder owner Clay nett was among the most hesitant of owners to put an ad on the team’s uniform
Ben-“We are very deliberate and very measured,” Byrnes said
“It’s part of our core value from Clay Bennett to [general manager] Sam Presti Being in a small market, every deci-sion is magnified We have been very deliberate in order to ensure success.”
Byrnes refused to disclose the value of the deal, which was announced March 15, but said it ranks in the top 10 of league jersey patch deals that range from $5 million to $20 million per year Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Love’s has been
a Thunder sponsor since 2008 when the team began play there
The company counts nearly 500 retail locations in 41 states
All in: Thunder final NBA team
to land jersey patch deal
New Orleans Pelicans Zatarain’s New York Knicks Squarespace Oklahoma City Thunder Love’s Travel Stops & Country
Stores Orlando Magic Walt Disney World Philadelphia 76ers StubHub
Phoenix Suns PayPal Portland Trail Blazers Biofreeze Sacramento Kings Blue Diamond San Antonio Spurs Frost Bank Toronto Raptors Sun Life Financial Utah Jazz Qualtrics
Washington Wizards Geico Source: SBJ research
NBA JERSEY PATCH DEALS
LL
S E
Trang 12We await the first esports/NFL cross-licensed apparel.
■AWARD WINNING:As always, the NFL handed out awards honoring its community of licensees and retailers The Dallas Cowboys won Club Retailer of the year; Lids won Retailer of the Year; and in just its third year as a licensee, Pegasus Sports was named
to the Million-Dollar Club, meaning it sold enough to generate $1 million in royalties to the league.
Pegasus started with licenses for furniture covers, pillows and other domestic products but scored a huge hit with its Hover Helmet, a replica NFL helmet that levitates and spins, with the help of electromag- nets — enough of a breakthrough that it made the cover of the Sharper Image holiday catalog.
■STEADY STATE:Time doesn’t heal every wound Almost two months after the Los Angeles Rams beat New Orleans in the NFC Championship Game, Saints fans all the way up to the team
president are still unhappy about the non-call that they feel decided the game.
“We won the Super Bowl, except for the call that wasn’t made right over there,” Saints President Dennis Lauscha said during an address at the summit, held on the floor of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
■COMINGS & GOINGS:Former MLB licensing chief Steve Armus has resurfaced as vice president
of licensing and business ventures for VF Corp.’s Kontoor Brands spinoff Based in Greensboro, N.C.,
Kontoor includes the Wrangler and Lee jeans brands, along with 70-plus VF Outlet stores … Lids President David Baxter has departed after three years, following the licensed retail chain’s sale in December to Ames Watson Capital, the owner of licensed sports apparel retailer Fanzz … Adam Blinderman, vice president of consumer products and retail marketing, has been fired by MLB after 18 years with the league.
WinCraft’s display at the Consumer Products Summit included a big nod to the NFL’s 100th season.
NFL OFFICIALSare optimistically projecting that
“NFL 100,” the licensing program behind a yearlong
marketing push for the league’s 100th season, will
be as big as the Super Bowl golden anniversary
from 2016.
“NFL 100 will be threaded through everything we
do next season,” said Michelle Micone, senior vice president of
consumer products.
To date, there are more than 20 licensees supporting the program with generic and
co-branded products, including Fanatics, Northwest, Tervis, Vineyard
Vines and WinCraft, which was displaying huge NFL
100th banners at the show.
“It’s got a good chance to perform well, because
the league really wants it to be a significant
histori-cal marker, like Super Bowl 50,” said WinCraft CEO
John Killen.
Most of the products will begin appearing in the
months before next season, but the 100th season
logo will start to get familiar at the April 25-27 NFL
draft, when it will appear on the New Era caps made
for that event Meanwhile, the Super Bowl ad that
kicked off the NFL’s 100th season, winning USA
Today’s Ad Meter, has been viewed 30 million times,
according to NFL Chief Marketing Officer Tim Ellis.
“One of our biggest missions is recruiting the next
generation of NFL fans without losing our core,” Ellis
said “We have to find ways to bridge those
genera-tions.”
Since the potential top draft pick, Oklahoma
quarterback Kyler Murray, plays both football and baseball, like Seattle QB Russell Wilson, a spot supporting the draft will show Wilson encouraging Murray in a “legends helping create the next
legends” scenario.
As for growth areas in the markedly mature sports-licensed business?
“There’s still opportunity,”
Micone said “It’s about being on trend quickly and finding the white space.”
Micone offered FOCO’s licensed floral shirts and Sports Licensing Solutions’ football-shaped step stools as examples.
“If we can be sharp, take advantage of things like data and analytics to give fans the right messages at the right time, I see no reason why we can’t grow apparel also,” she said.
■GAME WITHIN THE GAME:
More NFL licensees, including Nike, WinCraft and Fabrique Innovations, are starting to sell products based on esports intellectual property.
Rachel Hoagland, who joined the league in June
as head of gaming and esports, told the Consumer Products Summit audience that the opportunity to engage NFL fans with esports is enormous Stats she cited supporting that contention: The esports industry will surpass $1 billion in revenue for the first time in 2019, and by the end of the year the global audience of esports fans will total 454 million
NFL eyes big plans for
100th season celebration
‘NFL 100,’ the licensing program tied to the league’s centennial
year, has more than 20 companies lined up to promote — and
cash in on — the marketing push.
Trang 13SAN DIEGOPadres fans will soon have their own beer to help celebrate the team’s 50th anniversary and all those Manny Machado home runs they hope to see.
San Diego-based craft brewer Ballast Point is scheduled to announce today that Swingin’ Friar Ale will be available at Petco Park and throughout San Diego beginning Opening Day The co-branded beer will feature packaging that highlights the club’s historical
brown and gold colors and the Padres’ 50th anniversary logo.
“Ballast Point is one of the most in-demand beer brands in the ballpark,” said Erik Greupner, the Padres’ president
of business operations.
Petco Park boasts two Ballast Point-sponsored
bars, while brands from Anheuser-Busch InBev adorn the Estrella Jalisco Landing, Pacifico Porch, Budweiser Patio and Budweiser Beer Loft.
Constellation Brands bought Ballast Point for $1 billion in 2015 It’s the first time the brewer has co- branded a beer with anyone, according to Hilary Cocalis, Ballast Point’s vice president
of marketing She said it will
be brewing 100 barrels for the Opening Day batch Ballast Point shipped a total
of 275,000 barrels of beer last year, according to an estimate provided to SBJ by Beer Marketer’s Insights Although that was 12 percent lower than its 2017 production, it is
10 times as much as it brewed
in 2011, the company’s first year as a team partner.
Padres take
swing at new beer
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MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL today will
unveil the second iteration of its Copa
de la Diversión (Fun Cup) Hispanic
marketing initiative, with the 2019
rollout more than doubling last year’s
inaugural effort
A key component of the affiliated
minors’ ongoing “It’s Fun to be a Fan”
marketing campaign, the Copa
initia-tive will see 72 clubs today announce
temporary Hispanic-themed
nick-names and visual identities that will
be used during the 2019 season, up
from 33 teams last year This year’s
Copa effort will encompass 397 total
games, also up sharply from 163 in
2019
The marked increase in the
pro-gram’s scale stems heavily from initial
results that saw Copa games in 2018
generate a 12.6 percent attendance
jump compared to their calendar
equivalents in 2017, and 24 percenthigher average attendance compared
to non-Copa games during the season
Retail sales of Copa-themed dise also beat preseason goals by more than 700 percent
merchan-as caps from the program in par-ticular became some of the hot-test merchandise
in all of Minor League Baseball licensed gear
The Copa campaign is also a key element in Minor League Baseball’s broader goal to expand its current annual attendance of more than 40 million to 50 million by 2026
“We’re going both deeper and broader this year,” said Kurt Hunze-ker, Minor League Baseball vice
president of marketing strategy andresearch “The data we’ve seen so far shows this is resonating extraordi-narily well.”
Hunzeker said several steps have
been crucial to achieving that resonance
Among them have been re-quiring clubs to each stage mul-tiple games in the program and not doing a single Hispanic Heritage theme night; choosing more authen-tic temporary nicknames and not just placing “Los” in front of their exist-ing moniker; and working closely with local schools, community groups and Hispanic chambers of commerce
That latter point will be
particu-larly highlighted during today’s long, social media-heavy rollout of the
day-2019 Copa team names, many of which will involve clubs making local an-nouncements at elementary schools, Little League complexes and Hispan-
ic business sites
The Copa campaign, meanwhile, has generated its own sponsorship activity Echo Inc., the brand con-trolled by Japanese manufacturer Yamabiko Corp., signed on last fall as the official outdoor power tool of both Minor League Baseball and the Copa program The Lupus Foundation of America is aligned as Copa’s first philanthropic partner
While the 2019 Copa program folds, Minor League Baseball also is well underway on planning for the
un-2020 version, with further expansions already in the works — E.F
MiLB doubles up on Copa de la Diversión invitees
THE 2019 Major League Baseball season will
see longtime ticket resale partner StubHub
make several new integrations with
indi-vidual clubs, including a sharp increase in
mobile-based activity and sales beyond
first-pitch times in several markets
The eBay-owned StubHub this year will
expand the number of MLB clubs with full
mobile integration for ticket resale and
ful-fillment from nine in 2018 to 25 this year The
ongoing conversion occurs as the entire
tick-eting industry continues to embrace mobile
ticketing and PDF-based paper tickets have
been banned in several team markets
StubHub executives said they intend to
also integrate the remaining five clubs — the
Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins,
Min-nesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates and
Wash-ington Nationals — for mobile-based resales
by next year as various technical and
logis-tical issues are resolved
The company, meanwhile, this year also
will support resales up to one hour after game
starts for seven teams: the Astros, Angels,
Athletics, Dodgers, Giants, Mets and Rangers
The third five-year contract term between
MLB and StubHub, agreed to in late 2017,
cre-ated a new “zero-hour” rule allowing resales
up to first-pitch times for all 30 clubs But sales
beyond game starts also were tested in
sev-eral markets last year, and are now being
ex-panded as last-minute ticket buying continues
to grow sharply across the industry One of StubHub’s competitors, Gametime, has based much of its business on exactly that concept
“We’re obviously seeing a big shift toward last-minute activity and want to support that
as much as we can,” said Jill Krimmel, Hub general manager of MLB, NCAA and other sports “This is a significant growth opportu-nity for us.”
Stub-Meanwhile, MLB’s upcoming two-game London Series between Boston and the New York Yankees — the league’s first games in Europe — represent StubHub’s currently most sought-after MLB games for the 2019 season
The June 29 opener at London Stadium is Hub’s No 1 best-selling baseball game, with the June 30 game ranking at No 3 (see chart)
Stub-StubHub expands pool
of MLB clubs with full
Trang 14SPORTS LEAGUE OF THE YEAR
f Major League Soccer
f National Basketball Association
f National Football League
f PGA Tour
SPORTS EVENT OF THE YEAR
f 100th PGA Championship
f 2019 NHL All-Star Game
f Bank of America Roval 400
f Super Bowl LIII
f U.S Open Tennis Championships
SPORTS SPONSOR OF THE YEAR
SPORTS FACILITY OF THE YEAR
f Banc of California Stadium
f Fiserv Forum
f Mercedes-Benz Stadium
f State Farm Arena
f USTA Billie Jean King National
BEST IN SPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA
f Adidas/Twitter: “Friday NightStripes”
f Oak View Group
BEST IN SPORTS TECHNOLOGY
Iowa State University
SPORTS EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
f Don Garber, Major League Soccer
f Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN
f Michael Rubin, Fanatics
f Eric Shanks, Fox Sports
f Adam Silver, National
Trang 15Getty Images
2014 It also owns the Longhorn Network, which
has carriage throughout Texas
Other college conference networks have been more hit-or-miss in terms of carriage Big Ten Network went through a year of bruising carriage battles when it launched, but it now has carriage deals with all of the big distributors
The independent Pac-12 Networks is on the other side of the coin It has been hamstrung by distri-bution challenges since its 2012 launch Most no-tably, the Pac-12 has been unable to cut a deal with DirecTV
DirecTV actually committed to carry the ACC Network as part of a bigger deal three years ago But neither ESPN nor DirecTV made the news public until last week, when DirecTV was part of an ACC Network marketing push
“From our perspective, it is incredibly significant
if you think about where some of the other ence networks have been with DirecTV specifically,”
confer-Connolly said “It’s encouraging for us that when
we launch the third week of August, it’s going to
be available in the DirecTV footprint.”
Plus, Altice was the last holdout for the SEC work but signed an early deal for the ACC Network
Net-“Sometimes these things take a little bit longer than we would like,” Connolly said “Ultimately in the context of a broad conversation we figure out
a way to make it work.”
Connolly, who ran the SEC Network when it launched, remarked about the similarities in the look and feel of the networks While there will be
a lot of focus on the upcoming Clemson-Georgia Tech game, Connolly pointed out the year-round programming to keep pressure on distributors that don’t cut an ACC Network deal
“We feel really good in terms of what the ACC brings from a regional footprint with a really strong basketball schedule, and obviously a really strongbasketball legacy,” Connolly said “Over time, thatactually works quite well for us from a distributionperspective.”
The main difference: Whereas CBS has the firstchoice of SEC football games every week, ESPNholds all of the media rights for the ACC That means
it can be more creative in determining which games
to put on the ACC Network
“We have the ability to think about the scheduleand the programming in an even deeper, more ho-
listic basis, in the way that we think about ming the live event content and the matchups in any particular season,” Connolly said “That helps us
program-in distribution conversations It helps us program-in makprogram-ing the network appealing to certain customer groups from a regional and seasonal perspective.”
John Ourand can be reached at businessjournal.com Follow him on Twitter
jourand@sports-@Ourand_SBJ.
E SPN EXECUTIVESare expecting
that big distributors such as
Comcast, Charter and Dish
Network will have a lot of pressure
to carry the ACC Network when it
launches this August
The reason: National distributors
DirecTV, Hulu and PlayStation Vue
already have committed to carry the
channel That is on top of regional
commitments from Altice One’s
Op-timum and Verizon’s Fios.
No matter what happens with
Com-cast and Charter, ACC fans in their
markets will have other distribution options if they
want to subscribe to the new conference network
“I’m not suggesting that absolutely everybody
will be fully launched on the date of the network’s
launch,” said Justin Connolly, executive vice
president of affiliate sales and marketing at
Disney & ESPN Media Networks “But we
cer-tainly like where we sit in terms of our recent
conversations We like the way the programming
is lining up from a scheduling perspective Each
distributor is going to have to make their own
choice and decision here, but we really like where
we sit with them.”
To underscore the amount of pressure that will
be on Comcast and Charter, the first ACC football
game on the network’s schedule will pit Georgia
Tech against Clemson Georgia Tech is in a
Com-cast market; Clemson is in a Charter market It’s
possible that only DirecTV, Hulu and PlayStation
Vue subscribers in those markets will be able to
see that game
ESPN used the same strategy when it launched the
SEC Network, whose first game was Texas A&M at
South Carolina Columbia, S.C., was a Time Warner
Cable market, and ESPN set up a bevy of fan events
around the game to exert extra pressure on Time
Warner, one of the last distributors to cut a deal
Comcast, Charter and Dish Networkare known as particularly tough ne-gotiators Comcast went a full year
without the Big Ten Network when
it launched in 2007 and engaged in a rancorous public fight with the con-
ference and Fox Sports, which owns
part of the channel Dish Network has not been shy about dropping sports channels, particularly regional sportsnetworks
The question these distributors haveis: How many subscribers can theyafford to lose before they are forced
to cut a deal? Comcast ultimately decided to carrythe Big Ten Network DirecTV, though, still has not
cut a deal for the Pac-12 Networks.
Given the number of ACC Network carriagedeals already announced, ESPN believes it has adeal template for winning carriage for the new net-work Disney’s af-
filiate deals withComcast, Charterand Dish Net-work don’t come
up before August,which means thatthey will have towork out a deal inthe middle of anexisting contract
— something that is not the norm but does happen
on occasion
“There’s an opportunity to have demand to do deals outside of a broader conversation,” Connolly said “We also have some broader conversations that are well-timed against the launch We look at
it as a combo.”
ESPN has a good history with launching college sports networks It owns all of the SEC Network, which launched with virtually full distribution in
Litany of distribution deals puts added pressure on big cable
systems to carry ACC Network
632576 0 ( ' , $
The strength and tradition of ACC basketball gives the conference’s network year- round leverage
in its pursuit of carriage deals
7+(,16,'(56
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“Each distributor is going to have
to make their own choice and
where we sit with them.”
Trang 16Getty Images
/ $ % 2 5 $ 1 ' $ * ( 1 7 6
T HE ARROWSon the draft status of
Mississippi State defensive end
Montez Sweat are going up since
he stunned NFL scouts at the combine by running the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds,
a record for a defensive lineman
“When we first signed him, we thought
he was a top-50, top-40 player,” said Brian
Overstreet, NFL agent at United Sports Group, who represents Sweat with his
partner, Rodney Williams “But certainly
his draft status has improved.”
Sweat, who is 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds, impressed observers at this year’s Reese’s Senior Bowl, as well
NFL Draft Scout analyst Rob Rang called
Sweat “the most gifted player at the Senior Bowl” and said he “wowed scouts” with a wide receiver-like 40 time “Possessing a similar degree of vertical explosiveness
as former No 1 overall pick Jadeveon
Clowney, Sweat is among a handful of
Pro Bowl-caliber edge rushers available
in the 2019 draft warranting top-10 sideration,” Rang said
con-Overstreet didn’t actually see Sweat break the record live, as agents are not allowed in the stadium in Indianapolis where the com-bine is held He and Williams were watching
it on television, he said “And they went to
a commercial right when Montez was posed to run,” Overstreet said “When we were watching the commercial I got a text from one of the scouts I know.”
sup-According to Overstreet, the text was one word: “Wow.”
United Sports Group also has signed another potential first-round pick, Ohio
State cornerback Kendall Sheffield
Ad-ditionally, the agency has signed Texas
A&M running back Trayveon Williams, SMU cornerback Jordan Wyatt, Iowa State cornerback Brian Peavy, Baylor defensive end/linebacker Greg Roberts, Houston safety Garrett Davis, Arkansas safety Santos Ramirez, Prairie View A&M
defensive end/linebacker Quinton Bell
and University of the Incarnate Word
linebacker Silas Stewart.
■ FIRST PICKS GETS ‘GREEDY’: First Picks
Sports Management has signed several
top prospects for this year’s NFL draft, including Louisiana State cornerback
Andraez “Greedy” Williams, a
project-ed first-round pick
Veteran NFL agent Jerome Stanley is
representing Williams, who led the eastern Conference in interceptions and passes defended as a freshman and is a two-time first-team All-SEC player Draft analyst Rang had Williams ranked No 14
South-on his mock draft last week, behind
Wash-ington cornerback Byron Murphy, but
said Williams could be the first player taken at the position, based on his per-formance at the NFL combine
“Williams strengthened his hold as the likely first cornerback off the board in the
2019 draft simply by living up to tions, measuring in just under 6-foot-2 and
expecta-being timed at 4.37 seconds
in the 40-yard dash,” Rang said “Along with his top-end speed and height, Williams
is remarkably fluid ing directions and possesses terrific ball skills, making him not only a cover corner but a turnover-generating one, at that.”
chang-Williams had to cut his combine workout short after running one of the fastest 40s at the event, but will hold workouts he missed at his pro day, Stanley said
First Picks had five other NFL prospect clients in-vited to the combine: N.C
State wide receiver Kelvin
Harmon, Nebraska wide
re-ceiver Stanley Morgan, Colorado safety
Evan Worthington, Washington
lineback-er Ben Burr-Kirven and Washington ning back Myles Gaskin The players are represented by NFL agents Christopher
run-Ellison, Erik Schmella and Stanley, who
formed First Picks about four years ago
■ CAA SPORTS PROMOTIONS: Creative
Artists Agency announced earlier this
month that it had promoted 21 trainees to agent, including four who work in the Hol-
lywood agency’s sports business Sam Rose
has been elevated to agent in CAA Sports’
basketball department, and Cavan Walsh
has been promoted to agent in CAA Sports’
coaches division Additionally, Maddi
Mo-bley has been promoted to executive in CAA
Brand Consulting, and Alexandra
Wake-field has been elevated to executive in CAA
Sports’ golf consulting group
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@ sportsbusinessjournal.com Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.
Don’t Sweat it: USG makes sweet find with quick DE
7+(,16,'(56
%</,=08//(1
The Playbook For
Sports Bus iness
Read What the Leaders in Sports Read
‘Does marketing PwC Sports Outlook:
Bright forecast, record
The impact of sports gambling has already led to some unexpected results — and lots of people want a piece of the action.
Montez Sweat turned heads and moved up draft boards with
his 4.41 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine.
Trang 17Thinking through all possible scenarios is crucial, such as when kids come to games
or events on a field trip or as part of a group Most of the time their parents hand them money to spend, not a credit
or debit card
“What we don’t want to do is tell a 12-year-old that he has to walk halfway across the stadium to go buy whatever he needs to buy,” said Faulkner, who added that buildings need to have protocols in place for such situations
The most broad of those is how to deal with fans who still want to pay cash
Mercedes-Benz Stadium is deploying reverse ATMs for people without credit
or debit cards to exchange cash for a Visa debit card Fans won’t pay ATM fees on those transactions At Tampa Bay Rays games, fans can exchange cash for a gift card at team stores, and staffers will be
in concourses to help with questions and
exchanges, according to Bill Walsh, vice
president of strategy and development for the Rays
Despite pushback and potential ers, consumer trends are hard to ignore
barri-Delaware North has seen card
transac-tions at Boston’s TD Garden go from 47.5
percent of total sales during the 2016-17 season to 85.8 percent this season as it deployed more credit card points of sale and accepted Apple, Google and Samsung mobile payments
Jay Satenspiel, regional vice president
for concessionaire Spectra, said the
cash-free experience has to be simple and easy, especially for older, reluctant, sometimes fearful fans That includes something as simple as menu boards with larger fonts and images Spectra is testing out a new self-serve, cash-free concessions area at the Chicago Cubs’ spring training facil-ity in Arizona
But in the end, Satenspiel pointed out, cash-free stadiums and arenas are simply following a larger societal trend
“I look at my kids coming up and my grandkids coming up and so forth — their whole world is technology,” he said “They don’t understand what cash is anymore.”
Mike Sunnucks can be reached at msunnucks@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
S PORTS VENUESare racing to go
cashless to cater to younger and
tech-oriented fans with promises
of quicker service and fewer hassles
deal-ing with cash An added benefit for the
venues is increased consumer analytics
But some industry veterans and team
executives see speed bumps in the rush
to go cash-free
“Why is it in the fans’ interest to do it?”
asked Chris Bigelow, president of The
Bigelow Companies, a food service
con-sulting firm
Bigelow expects to see pushback from fans worried
about personal data collection via their debit or credit
cards, as well as an aversion to the cashless model being
forced upon them
“I think you are also going to have the problem of people
are very hesitant on giving up any information and [have
the question], ‘Why are they tracking me?’” he said
The idea of losing a sale — any sale — gives pause to
some venues going completely cashless
“I think everything is moving that way,” said Brooks
Boyer, senior vice president of sales and marketing for
the Chicago White Sox “We are just not ready to jump
in head first If people want to pay cash for something,
I think it’s in our best interest to take it.”
Venues also have to make sure their cash-free pushes
aren’t running afoul of state and local laws related to
accepting currency, said Carlos Bernal, president of
Delaware North Sportservice Philadelphia, for
ex-ample, just passed an ordinance restricting cashless restaurants And some states, such
as Massachusetts, prohibit companies from being 100 percent cash-free, Bernal said
Bigelow expects to see more political waves against cash-free venues, with critics arguing that the policies discriminate against fans who don’t have credit or debit cards
Lee Zeidman, president of the Staples Center and adjacent Microsoft Theater
and L.A Live development, said going
cash-free is more of a challenge in his arena because the Lakers, Kings, Clippers and Sparks all have different owners and Southern Califor-nia residents and international tourists have shown a proclivity to use cash
“We found more of the patrons going to the cash side,”
Zeidman said of tests done last year that tried out going cashless
Testing is key, according to Jaime Faulkner, CEO
of E15, Levy Restaurants’ analytics arm Going even
further, Faulkner said that testing needs to drill down into the different parts of a venue
“Concourses behave very differently within the same venue,” she said “We absolutely will do testing all around the venue.”
Levy is the concessionaire at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz
Stadium, which went cashless earlier this month, and
Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field, which will do the same
on MLB’s Opening Day
Venue managers and team executives often try to be
Rush to go cashless causes concern,
raises questions from facility experts
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TD Garden’s card transactions account for 85.8 percent of total concessions sales.
VETERAN ARCHITECT SONYA JURYis starting a new
chapter in her career, launching her own
consult-ing and entrepreneurial coachconsult-ing business after
exiting design firm Generator Studio.
“I have started my own business to help
business leaders run a successful business
instead of the business running them,” said Jury, who currently is working under the umbrella of management consulting firm Wunderground LLC but plans to establish her own firm.
Jury’s sports architecture résumé includes stints
at HOK and Generator Her design work includes improvements at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, including a $24 million locker room remodel; a $10 million indoor sports performance center at the
University of Arizona; and a $45 million remodel of Indiana State’s basketball arena.
Jury said her consulting business will include helping sports-related startups, entrepreneurs and companies.
“I just learned I really like helping people,” she said, “and this new opportunity allows me to work with businesses small and large to help them run their business better.” — M.S.
Jury’s out: Industry vet Sonya
Jury launches own business
Trang 18APRIL 3- 4, 2019 I MONARCH BEACH RESORT I DANA POINT, CA
To view the PROGRAM AGENDA and SPEAKER LINEUP and to REGISTER, please visit
www.WorldCongressofSports.com.
RESEARCH/
ANALYTICS PROVIDER
OFFICIAL TICKETING PARTNER ALL-ACCESS SPONSOR
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Trang 19Janet Century Phot
Trang 20THOUGH MORE THAN three decades ago,
Buffy Filippell vividly remembers her first encounter with former NBA Com-missioner David Stern
Early in her recruiting career, she convinced Don Sterling to leave NBA Properties
for a job with the LPGA In thanks, Sterling (not to
be confused with the deposed NBA owner) advised
Filippell to call Stern and secure the search for his
replacement Anyone who knows Filippell — and
that’s most everyone on the business side of sports
— will tell you that her fearlessness far exceeds
her slight stature So, not surprisingly, she managed
to get the NBA commissioner on the phone
Sand-wiched between some choice expletives, Stern
in-formed her that the NBA would conduct its own
searches
Long before going out on her own, Filippell was
convinced she’d made a big mistake
“I’d blown it with the NBA commissioner,” she said
Later, when Filippell started TeamWork Con-sulting in 1987, her first search was for the presi-dent of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Associa-
tion Turns out, she had made an impression at the NBA offices after all She got the assignment because
of the recommendation by one David Stern, who described her to the PRCA as “some gutsy broad out of Cleveland.”
When Filippell phoned to offer thanks, he jokingly threatened bodily harm should she poach anyone else from the NBA
Stern doesn’t remember that initial conversation, but their relationship has blossomed since then, as has Filippell’s business Team-Work Consulting/Team-Work Online are now industry standards They regularly stage job fairs for NBA teams and have placed
a handful of NBA team presidents A custom book commissioned by Filippell
to commemorate Work’s 100,000th placement is dedicated to Stern
Team-“without whom none of this would be possible.”
More recently, Stern has been lobbying for pell’s son, Davis, with prospective employers, and singing her praises — which has become another industry standard
Filip-“Buffy gives me all kinds
of credit I don’t deserve,” Stern said with a chuckle
“Teams depend upon her and she rarely fails to meet their expectations She has
an intuitive and historical understanding of what makes a good employee — and what teams are looking for.”
■ ■ ■ ■
Filippell credits a 1980s Time magazine story as the inspiration for starting TeamWork It was a time when no firm specialized in sports and there were al-most no women in the industry — outside of sec-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
With an irrepressible drive and a laugh like no other, BUFFY FILIPPELL has spent a lifetime shattering stereotypes and helping seed the executive ranks of the sports industry.
%<7(55</()721
‘Some gutsy broad out of
Cleveland’
Executive search
pio-neer Buffy Filippell
has been a godmother
of sorts for many
sports executives.
This is the final installment in the series
of profiles for the 2019 class of The pions: Pioneers & Innovators in Sports Business This year’s honorees and the issues in which they were featured are:
Cham-DATE CHAMPION
Feb 11 Kevin Warren Feb 18 Earl Santee Feb 25 Bob Kain March 4 Debbie Yow March 11 Ron Semiao March 18 Buffy Filippell
THE CHAMPIONS