Sports Business Conversations

We're going to go out on a limb and say that if you’re listening to this podcast, you have a connection to high school sports. You’re probably not playing them at the moment, but we bet you did at some point. Maybe you have kids who play them now.Doesn’t matter. Whatever your connection or association, you know what a big deal high school sports are to students, families and communities.And that passion is what drives Adam Gouttierre, VP of Media for Hudl.For the uninitiated, Hudl provides video services to over 4000 high schools across the country. (The serve other sports verticals as well, but HS is their wheelhouse). They provide things like coaching analysis, game streaming, video hardware, and stuff like that. Millions of people watch their highlights and games on Hudl every week.And Adam is in charge of packaging up all that content, and helping brands use it to reach their core audiences, wherever they may be.In our conversation, we talk about Adam’s journey through the early days of online advertising markets, and what drew him to Hudl. We discuss the immense growth of Hudl, how the company makes high school sports accessible to brands, and his advice for what makes great storytelling content in sports.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

If you’re like me, when someone mentions “bowling”, you get a flood of memories. For me, those memories include things like past birthday parties for my kids, the casual/only slightly ironic Friday night out with friends, and the ill-fated league I joined with my college classmate my junior year. Hey, the beer was cheap and we made cool shirts.For Peter Murray, the new CEO of the Professional Bowlers Association and Head of Media for Lucky Strike Entertainment, those memories, and the fact that almost all of us share some version of them, are key to his plans to grow bowling into a global sports juggernaut.Murray certainly has the experience needed to pull it off. Prior to the PBA, he was the driving force behind the epic growth of the Professional Fighters League, which he helped transform from a regional MMA backwater and into a global media property. He sees bowling in much the same light: a popular sport that’s been underexposed and is prime for a cultural makeover.In our conversation, Pete and I talk about his journey from cage matches to bowling lanes. We dive into the opportunity he sees for the sport, what strategies he’ll carry over from his time at the PFL, how the new HBO series “Born to Bowl” is already impacting the game, and much, much more.The former almost NYPD cop also shares what skills he thinks carry over most from policing to running a pro sports enterprise. So stay tuned for that.

We don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a little soccer tournament coming to North America this summer. It’s apparently kind of a big deal.In reality, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest version of the global event ever attempted. The most host nations. The most teams in competition. The most number of games. A global economic impact estimated at over $80 billion.As CEO of New York/New Jersey FIFA World Cup Host Committee, Alex Lasry is responsible for helping bring this enormous event to life in North America’s largest market. He’ll be there when the Cup kicks off in the Meadowlands on June 13, and he’ll be there when the final whistle blows for the Championship game on July 19.With about 50 days to go before the Cup, Alex took time out to talk about what goes into putting on the biggest sporting event in the world. We cover off how his unique blend of political and sports business background prepared him for this moment, how he’s addressing concerns about cost and accessibility, and what’s left to do before the first match kicks off.

Here’s your unexpected piece of sports business trivia for the day. According to Arctos, which is a major player in sports private equity, professional sports franchise values have compounded at a rate 13.0% per year for the last sixty years.So it turns out that this whole sports ownership thing can actually be pretty lucrative. Which is why it’s currently boom times for teams looking for investors, and for the folks who help put together these kinds of deals.It’s also why Tim Browne’s phone rang two or three times during our podcast recording.After a decade as the an in-house counsel at the NBA, Tim is now a sports and entertainment lawyer for Barnes and Thornberg in Nashville TN. While there, he’s helped ownership groups purchase teams, helped land expansion franchises, and pulled apart contracts having to do with every aspect of team operations and revenue.In our conversation, we dive into Tim’s sports law career, which began with legendary NBA commissioner David Stern sitting in on his first interview with the League. We look at the increasingly complex issues surrounding mammoth sports transactions, the advice he gives to prospective ownership groups, the legal turmoil surrounding NIL contracts in college sports, and much more. And as a parting gift, he’ll even give you the best piece of negotiating advice he’s ever received.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Safe to say that the most common expression used to describe the current state of Name-Image-Likeness and college sports is “it’s the Wild West.” Which, in reality, may actually do a disservice to the wild west. There’s no way that period could be as nuts as this one…Clearly NIL has completely upended college sports. In doing so, it’s produced a fabulously dynamic environment for new businesses that claim to have solutions for this burgeoning marketplace. In that sense, it really is a lot like the wild west and its accompanying Gold Rush.But what sometimes gets lost in the frenzy to capitalize on NIL is that this entire market is being built on the back of very young adults, the vast majority of whom are away from home for the first time in their lives, and who lack a support network to make sure their interests are protected and their approach to NIL is sound.Enter Stephen Bienko and 42U. A former college athlete himself, Bienko took a look at what was happening with NIL and recognized the vulnerability of these young athletes. So he launched 42U, which has a goal of giving athletes the tools and support they need to build their brands, recognize their authentic selves, and prepare themselves for life after their playing careers.In our conversation, Bienko dives into both his athletic background and his entrepreneurial journey. We discuss the launch of 42U, their partnership with the Big 10, and what he believes is missing in the current NIL environment.The former New Jersey State Trooper will also reveal his most memorable traffic stop.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

It used to be that sports sponsorships were a "nice to have". They were a way to use up the last part of a marketing budget after all the ad buys were completed. Find out what the CEO’s favorite sport is, buy some signage, get some tickets and call it a day.Not any more. Sports are one of the last places that capture our extremely fragmented attention, so sponsorships have become far more important to marketers. Rights holders know this, so the cost of partnering with sports has exploded. Take F1: the cost to sponsor a team has doubled in just the last 5 years.So as the costs have gone up, so has the pressure on marketers. In this data driven world, responding to questions about measuring effectiveness just can’t be met with “well, it’s hard…” Marketers need to have an answer.And more often than not, that answer can be found with Jay Prasad, the CEO of Relo Metrics.Relo Metrics is a leader in measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of sports sponsorships. An early adopter of artificial intelligence, Relo has been providing marketers with essential insights into how their sports investments are performing for over a decade.Jay has been around data analytics and online video since, well, there has been online video. That depth of experience has he and Relo ready to continue their hockey stick growth in the coming years. In our conversation, we talk about his arrival at Relo, what he’s hearing from marketers about sponsorship measurement, his advice on using their data to improve performance, and (perhaps most importantly), what the future holds as generative AI produces an overwhelming new set of capabilities.

The question on every stadium owner’s mind is what to with the thing when no games are scheduled. Think about it. An NFL team has about 8 regular season games, and 3 pre-season games. Other than that, a few concerts? Monster trucks? There’s a lot of days on at calendar where nothing’s happening.That’s why a mixed use stadium district that pulls people in year round is at the top of every franchise owner’s wish list. And that’s also why David Carlock’s phone is always ringing.David is the founder and Managing Partner of Machete Group, a leader in developing sports and entertainment districts. His career began at Disney, where he saw first hand how an obsession over the customer experience helped build a lifelong connection. After applying those lessons to his work with the Houston Rockets, Carlock launched Machete Group.In our conversation, we dive into his thoughts on the next generation of stadium and arena development, what he sees as the essential parts of these new districts, and where the biggest development missteps lie. We cover how he still applies lessons from his days at Disney, what it’s like to build arenas in China, and how Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks reacted when a pipe burst over her dressing room right before a show.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

It’s February 2026, and the Winter Olympic games in Italy are in full swing. And if you think the competition on the slopes and on the ice is fierce, it’s got nothing on the sponsors and advertisers trying to get your attention while you’re looking up the latest medal counts.Unless you’re really close to the Games, you might not realize that athletes are highly restricted in what they can do or say to promote their individual sponsors. It’s all governed by the IOC’s Rule 40, which is designed to protect the Games’ TOP sponsors.The rise of social media, though, has forced the IOC to re-evaluate how it applies Rule 40, which has created new opportunities for Olympic athletes.To break down these changes, I had a chance to connect with Dr Andrea Geurin, Professor of Sports Business at NYU’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport. Dr Guerin is an expert in marketing the Olympics and the application of Rule 40. In our conversation we break down the original intent behind the rule, how it’s being modified, and what athletes can do to take advantage of relaxed restrictions.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

How does sports gambling impact fandom? Which sports are growing the fastest? What’s happening with youth sports participation? What’s behind the explosive growth of women’s sports?That's a lot of questions! Fortunately, we managed to get Neil Schwartz, the president of SBRNet, to sit still for 30 minutes to provide the answers to these and other burning sports business questions. Neil has been using data and analytics to inform sports business about fans, trends, and opportunities for over 30 years, so there’s no one more qualified to provide insights into what’s going on in the sports business industry.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Imagine driving your car about 65 miles an hour down a freeway. Not that hard to imagine, right? Nothing very special about it. Chance are you might do it every day.OK, now imagine that you’re sitting on the roof of that car while it’s speeding down an uneven road at 65 miles per hour while someone throws water in your face.That, my friend, is SailGP, which has about as much in common with traditional sailing as a biplane has in common with a fighter jet.That excitement it what drew this episode’s guest Mike Buckley to the sport. Already a world champion sailor, Buckley was restless to find his next challenge. After a couple unsuccessful attempts to assemble an America’s Cup syndicate, his future arrived in the form of SailGP.Mike is now the co-owner of SailGP’s Team USA and competes in races around the world. In our conversation, we go into how the kid from small town Cape Cod fell in love with competitive sailing. We talk about the acquisition the United States team, working with his A-List of celebrity investors, and how he harnesses his competitive instincts on the water and in the boardroom.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

It’s safe to say that there’s no part of sports business that’s as dynamic as college sports. That’s the polite way of saying it, anyway. There’s a bunch of other expressions that can be applied, and often are.But think about it: conference realignment, NIL, the transfer portal, the House v NCAA decision, private equity investments… And this has all been in the last 5 years!Sitting in the eye of this particular hurricane is this episode’s guest, John Cunningham, the Athletics Director for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Since joining the Bearcats in December, 2019, John has quite literally seen it all. COVID. The move to the Big 12. Launching NIL programs. And that’s just scratching the surface.In our conversation, we talk about John’s journey from being Nebraska Cornhusker fan as a kid to sitting in the big chair at the University of Cincinnati’s athletic department. We also dive into his recent decision to move multimedia rights back in-house, what’s behind the success of that decision, his view of the role of private equity in college sports, the importance of mentorship, and much more.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

There’s a moment in every sports fan’s life where they entertain the idea of buying their team. Most times it’s just a fleeting idea. “Well, if I owned the team, I’d…” And that’s pretty much it. It’s just a fantasy.But if you’re Spencer Gore, it’s an idea that sticks.The lifetime soccer fan and founder of the European Medical Journal had spent years watching his local club, Chelmsford City FC struggle to remain solvent. Relegated to the 6th tier of English soccer (honestly, we didn’t even know there was a 6th tier…), evicted from their stadium, and suffering through a string of unfulfilled ownership promises, the Clarets were about as far from the bright lights of the Premier League as you can imagine.But where most people saw a disaster, Gore saw opportunity. After a couple of attempts to acquire the club, he now sits in Chelmsford City FC’s owner’s box on match day. And once there, he publicly set his audacious goal for the team: securing a spot in the Premier League by 2038.In our conversation, we talk about what it’ll take for Chelmsford City FC to achieve that monumental goal. We also go into the at times torturous path to acquiring a professional sports club, how he engages with fans to build trust and gain support, and how he prioritizes a long list of to dos all designed to return the Clarets to prominence.

If you’re paying attention to the business of college sports today, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by all the so called experts telling you they have the answers to what’s going to happen next. In this attention economy, loud and outrageous voices often win the day. It’s exhausting.When you talk to Kevin White, though, it’s an opportunity to break through all that noise and hear from someone who has almost always been in “the room where it happened”.White’s career in college sports is legendary, to put it mildly. The long time Athletic Director shaped college sports programs at stops including Tulane, Arizona State, Notre Dame, and (ultimately) Duke University, where he spent 13 years guiding the Blue Devils.In his characteristic straightforward style, White provides insights about the state of college athletics and the lessons he’s learned along the way, many of which can be found in his recently published book, “The Good Sport”. We go into his career, his evolved opinion on NIL, the role of the NCAA in the future of college sports, and why he thinks now more than ever is the time to lean in on DEI in college sports. We’ll also find out how his thumbs are feeling after writing “The Good Sport” entirely on his iPhone.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

If you use the phrase “sports tech”, people tend to think of things like artificial intelligence, data analysis, and apps that are meant to improve the sports experience. They’re typically heavily focused on software, subscriptions, and more often than not, have a pretty intense learning curve. This is especially true for the 100s of start ups out there using technology to help athletes achieve peak performance. That’s what makes Raj Thiruchelvarajah and Hytro so intriguing. Raj and his partners focused on creating a product that leverages blood flow restriction, a much studied but little applied method of improving performance. They ended up innovating a comparatively low tech wearable product that has generated compelling results for teams in the Premier League, World Rugby, and the NHL. Results that will be coming soon to pro teams and universities in the US. In our conversation, Raj and I talk about his decision to leave a successful career in finance and consulting to begin his entrepreneurial journey with Hytro. He dives into the realities of building a start-up, how he found success selling to some of the world’s most high profile sport brands, and what to expect as the brand looks to build upon its success in Europe with an increasing US presence. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Here are some things you might not ordinarily think of when the topic of sports business comes up. Information warehousing. Analytics. Data centers. Cybersecurity. Typically speaking, these are NOT the topics that most fans concern themselves with when heading to a game. They just want their tickets to scan quickly, their payments to work seamlessly at concession stands, and their smack talking posts to load quickly. And this is where Gabie Boko, the CMO of NetApp starts nodding enthusiastically.No one knows more than Gabie about how interwoven sports and technology are. That’s why she’s been leveraging sports to help NetApp tell its story. Their partnership portfolio already includes 49ers, Sharks and Aston Martin F1, and it just got a whole lot bigger: NetApp just launched a new collaboration NFL, now serving as their official intelligent data infrastructure partner.In our conversation, we talk about the role of sports in marketing complex enterprise technology. We also dive into how she leverages her partnerships in storytelling, how she built upon an existing business relationship with the NFL to help create the new partnership, and how she views measuring the effectiveness of her partnerships. The Alaska native also shares the story of her most frightening bear encounter, which almost assuredly will have you canceling your northern exposure trip.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

When we first spoke with Peter Frintzilas, the CEO of youth sports tech pioneer TeamSnap, the company was in the process of integrating the recently acquired Mojo Sports. As with any tech integration, it wasn't easy. "It’s not going to flip a switch and all of a sudden everything works together," Frintzilas commented at the time. Turns out it took about 1.5 years to flip that switch: TeamSnap ONE is officially here. TeamSnap One is a completely reimagined, end-to-end solution that sets a new standard in club, league and team management. In our conversation, Frintzilas takes us through the at times arduous journey to recreate the worlds most trusted youth sports app, and how the experience will improve for millions of families, teams, leagues and sponsors.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

We’re starting with a bit of a history lesson. In the dark ages of TV, people had about five channels to choose from, had to negotiate with family members over who got to control the remote, and had to make sure they were in front of the screen exactly when their favorite show started. And if that sounds like it sucked, that’s because it did. I speak from experience as someone who rarely (if ever) got to control the remote…Fast forward to today — we live in a world where there are literally thousands of channels, entire sports leagues streaming online, and ads that are tailored just for you. The shift has been nothing short of revolutionary.Our guest, Keith Bedford, has been on the front lines of this particular revolution since it began. Keith is currently a GM at Wurl, a company that sits right at the intersection of streaming technology, advertising, and live sports. In our conversation, Keith explains how streaming is opening new doors for sports organizations, why advertisers are excited about targeting fans in more personal ways, and how new platforms are shaping the way audiences discover and consume content. We explore the opportunities and challenges for rights holders, what makes FAST channels so compelling, and how younger generations are changing the definition of “watching sports.”So whether you’re in the business of sports, media, or marketing — or you just want to know what the future of watching live events looks like — you’re in the right place. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

If you were in charge of the world’s most innovative sports experiences and hospitality company, and you were responsible for major global sports events, how would you spend your time at those events? Walking the sidelines like a boss? Maybe catching the action from the comfort of your luxury suite? Well, if you’re Paul Caine, the President of On Location, you spend it wiping down tables, making sure everyone has a drink, and almost never catching the end of a game. On Location is the gold standard for sports hospitality. Think of a major global event, and they’re responsible for creating the out-of-this-world experiences for fans and sponsors. Olympics? Yup. FIFA World Cup. Also Yup. NFL Super Bowl? Look, we really don’t need to keep doing this, do we? If you want to go to it, they’re handling premium experiences. Paul has been leading On Location since 2020. After some initial COVID related turbulence, the company has taken full advantage of the growing appetite for high end sports experiences. But that didn’t just happen organically. In our conversation, Paul dives deep into the strategic decisions that produced On Location’s leadership position. He also reviews his decision to leave a successful career in traditional media to take the helm at On Location, the leadership style that keeps him cleaning those tables, and what’s left to do to prepare for the upcoming 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this new racquet sport that’s growing like crazy. Let’s see if you can guess what it is. It’s easy to learn, super fun to play, and begins with a “P”. Yup, you guessed it. It’s padel. Now, if you live outside North America, you probably guessed right and were unsurprised at the answer. Padel after all has been exploding all over Europe, Latin America, South America and elsewhere. But if you live in North America, you’ll be forgiven for thinking of pickleball. Perhaps you’ve even never heard of padel. Well, that is about to change. And Pablo Carro, the co-founder of Playtomic and a padel evangelist, is the one behind it. A competitive tennis player, Carro fell in love with padel the first time he played it and has been on a mission to grow the sport around the world. In our conversation, we talk about the explosive growth of padel worldwide, and why the US is primed to follow. We go into the role of Playtomic in the sport’s upward trajectory, the support of tennis legend Rafael Nadal, the findings of the latest Global Padel Report and much more. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

I’m sure you’ll be excited to know that my guest is John Stewart (no, not that Jon Stewart, and yes, he gets that a lot), the co-founder and CEO of Fastbreak.ai. And in many ways, this John Stewart has had as much of an impact as the other one. In 2019, John sold his logistics optimization start up to Salesforce. Looking for a new challenge, he harnessed his expertise and growing AI capabilities to tackle a truly daunting task: streamlining sports scheduling. In just a couple of years, John and Fastbreak.ai are managing league wide schedules for the more than half of the world’s top pro sports leagues, including the NBA, NHL, MLS, Premiership Rugby, the Australian National Rugby League, and more. And with the pro leagues more or less conquered, John and his team are casting their gaze toward a truly challenging, but potential lucrative, target: the $60 billion youth sports industry. In our chat, John and I review his entrepreneurial journey and discuss what drew him to sports scheduling for his next challenge. We also dig into bringing Fastbreak.ai to market, the decision to pursue a top down strategy with the pros to open up youth sports, and his essential insights into using AI to work faster and pivot quicker. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Brian Ansah is a former University of Minnesota track athlete whose journey into entrepreneurship began not on the podium—but in recovery. After tearing his ACL, Brian suddenly found himself with time on his hands, and a lot of uncertainty about what came next. But instead of sitting still, he teamed up with his best friend, who, at the time, was recovering from an accident, to figure out their business futures. The result was X Hydration.X Hydration isn’t your typical sports drink. In fact, it’s not a sports drink at all—it’s wellness water with aloe as its secret weapon. In this episode, Brian shares how they went from a $3,000 check from his brother to developing a product in professional labs, surviving a few taste-test disasters, and eventually landing on something that actually works—and tastes good.We’ll also talk about the brand’s very intentional marketing strategy. Forget follower counts—Brian and his team are seeking authentic athlete partnerships and word-of-mouth from people who really believe in what they’re drinking. Brian also delves into the mental challenge of leaving athletics behind and stepping into a whole new identity as a founder. There’s a lot of honesty, a lot of hustle—and maybe even a little talk about diamonds, believe it or not.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

If you would, think back to the last time you got together with some friends after work to hang out for a bit. Maybe you grab some dinner, probably have a drink or two, shoot the breeze for a while. Do remember what you talked about? Was it anything, say, productive?If you’re Ellen Hyslop, co-Founder of The Gist, that dinner out with friends in 2017 led to the creation of one of the fastest growing and most intriguing sports media brands around. Ellen and her co-Founders, all life long sports fans, felt the market wasn’t serving their style of fandom. And probably no surprise there, right? Sports media was heavily male dominated, both in terms of production and consumption. So the content was clearly oriented that. With the Gist, Ellen set out to recalibrate sports media by becoming, in her own words, the equivalent of your witty, sports obsessed best friend. By balancing coverage of men’s and women’s sports, applying a digital first mindset, and relentlessly listening to their over 1 million fans and followers, the Gist is a clearly on the rise. In our conversation, we go into launching the Gist, growing a new media brand from scratch, the smart moves and missteps along the way, and thoughts on how she and the Gist team might celebrate their next million followers. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

I’m wondering what you think of when you hear that sound? What goes through your mind?I’ll bet it’s something to do with F1 racing. Cars that look more like fighter jets than automobiles. Global destinations at exquisite racetracks. Things moving at such high speed that they’re more blurs than physical objects. But what Jon Gardner hopes you’ll start thinking about is dinner and drinks. That’s because Gardner is the President of F1 Arcade, that latest in a line of highly successful sports-entertainment properties that include Top Golf, PuttShack, and Flight Club. By combining the glitz and glamor of F1, entertainment in the form of cutting edge racing simulators, and high end cocktails and cuisine, Gardner and his team are creating one memorable night out.Jon took some time out after opening his latest location in Philadelphia to talk about the growth of both the sport and F1 Arcade, working with an established global brand, and what it’s going to take to grow from 5 locations to their ultimate goal of 30. The former basketball center will also fill us in on what it’s like folding his 6’7” frame into an F1 car. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

“The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated”. It’s a quote that’s attributed to Mark Twain, who was the subject of one of the first ever celebrity death hoxes. It was basically his way of saying “Slow your roll, people. I’m still around and producing great work”. It’s a sentiment that Natasha Sinagoga, Senior Vice President Market Sales at Ampersand, can empathize with. Sinagoga and Ampersand are on a mission to dispel the exaggerated rumors about the demise of cable tv. The future of sports television, as they see it, is a multiscreen environment, with cable TV providers like Comcast, Cox, and Spectrum resting at the center. And for sports marketers, that produces a unique ability to reach fans wherever they are, no matter how they’re watching. In our conversation, we dive into Natasha’s diverse career journey that began with aspirations for sportscasting before finding her niche in advertising sales. We review her experience at Ampersand, and the company's role in simplifying media buying and targeting audiences in the dynamic landscape of sports viewership. We also touch on common misconceptions about cord cutting, and where the overall consumption of television currently sits. The baseball junkie will also fill you in on which hot dogs are the best in all of MLB. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

You may have heard that it’s the dawn of a new age in college sports. Actually, that’s underselling it. Let’s put it this way: college sports as you know it is over. Finito. Kaput.In it’s place is… well, I think we’re still figuring out what that is. But with all the conference realignment, changes to the college football playoff, NIL and direct payments to players, there’s one thing we know with 100% certainty: the need for new revenue, and lots of it, is absolutely vital to college athletic departments. And that is what Jonathan Marks, the Chief Business Officer of College and Global Marketplace for Elevate, is working on and thinking about every day.Marks brings his entrepreneurs mindset to Elevate, which acquired his start up Dynamic Pricing Partners in 2021. It’s a perspective that’s in hot demand right now, because the old way of doing things clearly isn’t going to cut it anymore. We go into that his start up’s acquisition, and his approach to this new college marketplace. We dive deeply into Elevate’s College Investment Initiative, a $500 million fund packed by private equity, which represents one of the first forays of that type of capital into college sports. And he provides some recommendations and insight into what athletic department administrators should be thinking about as they look to navigate the new financial market of college sports. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

I don’t know if you noticed or not, but soccer is having a bit of a moment here in the US. The MLS continues to grow, Messi came to play in Miami, the US Women are literally the gold standard, and a lot of Americans became fully vested in a Welsh town called Wrexham. Few people know more about this growth than this episode’s guest, Justin Papadakis, the Deputy CEO & Chief Real Estate Officer for the United Soccer League. Papadakis has been at the epicenter of soccer’s expansion in the US. With new clubs and stadiums coming on line in a seeming weekly basis, a new women’s league, and a new Division One league on the way, the USL is growing at a rate that cant be ignored by fans or investors. In our conversation, Papadakis and I talk about the growth of the USL, the integral role of real estate in his strategy, working with new ownership groups, and the USL’s friendly competition with that other pro soccer league. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

With House v NCAA now officially settled law, we took time to circle back with Dr Dan Rascher, the lead economist on the case, Director of Academic Programs of the USF Sport Management Program, and according to some, one of the most powerful people in college football. Dr Rascher played an integral role in the case by helping unravel the complex economics of college sports. In doing so, he had a front row seat to the decision-making that has forever changed college sports.We cover his role in the case, the the short and long term implications of the settlement, the potential role of the federal government and much more. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

I’m going to level with you. Doing this whole podcasting thing isn’t exactly for the feint of heart, you know? It’s a lot of work. Scheduling guests, recording episodes, editing (ugh, the editing), posting, promoting, social media (ugh, socials…) All the while wondering if anyone is listening…So when you you get a like, or a rating, or a positive comment, it can be pretty cool. But when you get an actual AWARD? Man, that’s just next level. It’s a feeling this episode’s guest, EJ Cutliff, knows very well because His podcast, "Black in Sports", was just named a top sports business podcast by the Sports Podcast Awards. EJ took time out from his victory lap to talk about founding "Black in Sports" and what it means to receive that kind of recognition. The long time sports biz exec also provides his view on the state of the industry, the role that "Black in Sports" plays in this cultural moment, and what he hopes to achieve in both the sports business and podcasting. And if you’re planning a Vegas trip anytime soon, the long time Vegas resident has some tips for you. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

There’s an African expression that people who serve in the Navy hear a lot: “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” Basically it means that your skill isn’t developed unless you find yourself in tough situations. No one knows this better than Brandon Doll, Founder of Sports and Entertainment Advisors. After leaving the comparatively smooth seas of the US Navy, Doll found himself working for the Oakland Raiders, a team that more-or-less lived in the eye of a hurricane. Not one to shy away from choppy seas (sorry, the sea faring analogies are hard to stop once you get rolling), Doll eventually played an instrumental role in relocating the franchise to Las Vegas, a move that transformed the financially under performing team into the 5th most valuable NFL franchise. In our conversation, we talk about the skills Doll developed during his naval service that apply to his sports business career, what goes into relocating an NFL franchise, and what led him to start Sports and Entertainment Advisors, an agency that specializes in helping teams with their revenue challenges. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Welcome to the 72nd episode of the Sports Business Conversations podcast. We wanted to mention the number of episodes to give you a little perspective of the number of people we’ve had a chance to talk to since launching this show a few years ago. Over 70 people who are leading, changing, and improving sports business in different ways. Each of the brings things to the table that have helped them find success: intelligence, foresight, experience, charisma. And so forth. Tamica Smith Jones, who up until recently was the Chief Operating Officer of Kennesaw State Athletics, brings all those qualities to the table, and then sprinkles something unique to her: sheer force of will. Smith-Jones came to KSU by way of UC Riverside, where she broke barriers as the first black female D1 athletic director in California. Returning to her hometown in Atlanta to take on that COO role, she has helped lead an athletic dept in the midst of enormous transformation, including a move from FCS to FBS for the Owls football team. In our conversation, we talk about her inspiring path to Kennesaw State and how the COO role has evolved during this particularly tumultuous period in college sports. We talk about her leadership style, which she captures in her mantra “I’m a person, not a position”, working with athletes during the NIL era, and the essential role that athletics plays at a university. She also drops some hints about leaving Kennesaw State to take on her first role in professional sports…Thanks for listening in on our conversation with Tamica Smith Jones, COO of Kennesaw State University.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

We all have obstacles that we face in life. Sometimes these might seem petty. Like, oh my god the wifi is so slow today. But oftentimes these obstacles may be more substantial. Things like unhappiness in a job. Loneliness. Addiction. Relationship challenges. The list, unfortunately, goes on. These things can impact us to such a degree that we become almost paralyzed by them. It’s something that this episode’s guest, Robert Paylor, is uniquely qualified to speak to. In 2017, Robert was at the true height of his physical powers. The 6’5”, 245 lb college sophomore was competing in the Collegiate Rugby National Championship game for the legendary Cal Bears squad. Just moments into the game, an illegal play by an opposing player broke Robert’s neck and left him immobile on the ground, unable to feel anything. And so begins Robert’s path to recovery, which he recounts in his just released book, “From Paralyzed to Powerful: Lessons from a Quadriplegic’s Journey.” From the dark moments that immediately follow his injury, to his remarkable path through grief and anger toward purpose and forgiveness, Robert talks about the tools he used to help him thrive today. And who knows? They might help you on your path, too. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

There haven't been a lot of quiet moments for Tamzin Barriolhet since we last spoke: big time promotions, groundbreaking partnerships, and the arrival of Sophie. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

The next 10 years are kind of unprecedented for the United States in terms of global sporting events coming here. Let’s do a quick review: FIFA Club World Cup coming later this year.FIFA World Cup in 2026. LA Olympics in 2028.FIFA Women’s World Cup AND Rugby World Cup will both be here in 2031.Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2034. That’s a lot to take in. And it’s going to require a herculean effort from both event organizers and government officials to make these monumental international events run smoothly. No one knows this better than Travis Murphy, the Founder and CEO of Jetr Global Sports and Entertainment.Travis began his career working for the State Department in embassies around the world, and saw first hand how sports could easily bridge cultural gaps. He eventually helped lead sports diplomacy initiatives for the State Department and then joined the NBA to enhance the global reach of basketball. With more leagues trying to emulate the NBA’s international success, Travis decided to carve his own path with Jetr. And almost immediately found himself playing a key role in helping negotiate the release of basketball star Brittney Griner from Russian prison. In our conversation, we talk about the events leading to Griner's release, what needs to be done leading up to all those global events, and what’s lost when the United States is no longer interested in using soft power like sports and retreats from the global stage.

With so many people interested in working in sports, it’s amazing how many successful sports biz execs I talk to didn’t start with that goal. A lot of them were caught completely off guard by the opportunity to do so. That’s definitely the case with this episode’s guest, Leela Srinivasan. The experienced tech CMO of companies like OpenTable and SurveyMonkey was just starting to wonder what might be next might be next for her. And it was at that moment when Parity, a groundbreaking sports marketing platform that features a network of professional women athletes and was looking for a new CEO, came knocking. It’s been a match made in heaven. With a passion for sports and a creative mindset, Leela has been able to leverage her previous experience in sales and marketing to help brands find the perfect partnerships with Parity's network of over 1,100 professional women athletes, including 300 Olympians and Paralympians.In our conversation, we talk about Leela’s career journey to Parity, why women athletes make such compelling brand ambassadors, the power of authentic storytelling, the successes she and her team have experienced, and the challenges that still lay ahead. All this, and you’ll also learn what wine would pair perfectly with this podcast.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Consider for a moment, if you will, the humble stadium sign. Yes, those ubiquitous displays that vie for your attention at every stadium and arena you’ve ever been to.I think most people in sports business have been guilty at one time or another of looking at those signs a little derisively. You know. “Spots and Dots”, as they saying goes. The things you add toward the end of a sponsorship proposal. Well, disregard the no-longer humble stadium sign at your peril. Digital displays and mammoth scoreboards are now an essential part of the live sports experience. Designers are anxiously one upping each other to produce the largest, clearest and most advanced displays for their stadiums All of which brings a smile to the face of Jerry Cifarelli’s face. Because for the President and CEO of ANC, that means business is good. In our conversation, Jerry reflects on his journey in sports business, starting with early exposure to the industry through his father, who co-founded ANC in 1997. After gaining experience at Fenway Sports Group, he returned to ANC in 2012 to build its collegiate division, which quickly became a key revenue driver for the company. We discuss ANC's acquisition by Learfield, pursuing his own entrepreneurial vision, and then the eventual reacquisition of ANC in 2023. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

I think it’s fair to say that pain, and managing pain, is just part of a football players every day experience. It’s something a player just has to learn how to deal with. The entire culture of the sport kind of celebrates pain, right? “Play through the pain” “No pain no gain”. And my personal favorite: “Just Rub some dirt in it”. But there’s a human toll to all that pain. We’ve all seen stories of former athletes laid low by the toll of the sport. Unfortunately, many of the stories have terrible endings often brought on by addiction to pain killers.Former NFL great Marvin Washington knows these stories all too well. A Super Bowl winner in the 1990s with the Denver Broncos, Washington dealt with pain and treatment of that pain his entire career. He and his teammates tried every conceivable pain management technique: Tylenol, cold plunges, acupuncture and so on. And when those lost their effectiveness, they took opiates prescribed by team doctors. It wasn’t until his playing days were over that he discovered that former teammates who smoked cannabis were far less reliant on opiates for dealing with pain than he was. After experimenting with cannabis for pain management, Washington became an outspoken advocate for medicinal cannabis use, even going so far as to sue the Attorney General and Department of Justice to decriminalize the drug. In our conversation, Marvin shares insights on how players are introduced to powerful medications at a young age, and how that continues through college and the pros. We talk about his cannabis advocacy, the drugs neuroprotective properties that serve as an alternative to traditional painkillers, and his work with Leafwell, a telemedicine company aimed at normalizing cannabis in healthcare. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

So a little personality quirk about me: I love to drive. On a long road trip, I’ll turn off the radio and cruise in silence. It’s one of the few times I can really just let my mind just unspool. This episode’s guest also loves to drive. In fact, Mike Rolih, the founder and CEO of GoRout, loves driving so much, he became a limo driver after his baseball playing career wound down. He would spend hours driving thinking about what his next career step might be. And then inspiration struck. After stopping to watch a friend coach a high school football practice, Rolih was taken aback about how a smoothly running practice descended into chaos when it came time to learn new plays. Surely, he thought, there’s a better way to do this. And so the life long tinkerer began working on what eventually would become GoRout, a technology company that’s taking the football, baseball and softball by storm. Our conversation is a must listen for any would be entrepreneurs, as Rolih talks about lessons learned throughout the development and go-to-market phases. He recounts some early product hurdles, how he develops his sales teams, how he’s pivoted, and where things head from here for his exploding company. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

On March 1, 2025, I had a chance to do a live interview with Jess Smith, President of the Golden State Valkyries, for the USF Sports Management Program. In our conversation, Jess talks about the decision to join the Valkyries, building the team’s front office, how she’ll evaluate success in this first year of operation, and what’s left to do with a little more than 2 months before the first tip off in franchise history,Special shout outs to USF Athletics’ Isabella Bruenner and USF Sports Management Program’s Brent von Forstmeyer for pulling together such a fun and informative evening. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

There’s a line from Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” that’s always stuck with me. It’s when the memory of Willy Loman’s successful older brother Ben is encouraging him to persevere when the going gets tough.Ben says, "The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy. One must go in to fetch a diamond out."This episode’s guest, Chris Pearlman, the CEO of Aggregate Sports? Well, suffice it to say he knows a thing or two about fetching diamonds out. Pearlman is a sports business lifer, getting his start with legendary sports agency, ProServ. After some stops along the way, including managing all business operations for the Premier League’s Swansea City FC, Chris is now out on his own with Aggregate Sports. His goal? Finding diamonds by aggregating the rights for multiple national governing bodies of Olympic Sports.In our conversation, Chris shares insights from his diverse career journey in sports business. We go into his grounded approach to sports business, bridging cultural issues as COO of Swansea City, the decision to launch Aggregate Sports with longtime colleague Rem de Rohan, and much, much more. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

In this episode of "Catching Up", we reconnect with Episode 8 guest Ashley Chalk, who left Chip Ganassi Racing to become the VP of Partnerships for the Tomorrow Golf League. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Was there ever a point where you thought you wanted to be a sports agent? Look, most of us have. Call it the “Jerry Maguire” effect. The 1996 Tom Cruise movie was a first exposure to sports business for a lot of people. And it made the job seem pretty cool, right? Going to games with a lanyard around your neck that provides all kinds of access, rubbing elbows with athletes and owners, being down on the field, etc. My guest, Mac Barnhardt of Rock Empire Sports, has been there and done all that. The long time golf agent has represented household names like Davis Love, Justin Leonard, and David Duval. He’s attended the events. He’s both hobbed and Nobbed with golf’s gliteratti. He’s lived the dream. But he’s also seen the nightmare, too. He’s been fired from companies he started. He’s elevated proteges only to be betrayed by them. He was even forced to leave the industry for a couple of years. So suffice it to say Mac Barnhardt has seen it all and learned even more. In our conversation, he shares a lot of that hard earned wisdom, goes into how he went from loading baggage for Piedmont Airlines to representing golf’s greatest players, and shares how he maintains perspective through the highs and lows of being a sports agent. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

What a world it is when you can be considered past your prime at age 27. But that’s pro baseball for you. That talent pipeline is always filling up with new players who are looking to take a roster spot. Even veterans as talented as Bobby Bramhall, a promising lefty pitcher, who’d come back from Tommy John surgery and was pitching better than ever, wasn't safe. But when the writing is on the wall, you can do one of 2 things: bury your head so you don’t have to read it, or start getting on with life after baseball.Smart guy that he is, Bramhall chose the latter, and that’s what led him to be one of the leading legal voices in college sports and name image likeness. In our conversation, Bobby and I talk about his transition from pro athlete to lawyer. He elaborates on the complex and evolving landscape of NIL in college sports, underscoring its revenue potential and the need for regulatory "guardrails." Furthermore, we talk about the ongoing legal challenges affecting college athletics, the viability of the NCAA model, and his role in launching the South Main Collective for Rice University.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

Sports business moves pretty quickly. People change jobs, get involved with cool stuff, launch new companies. All kinds of stuff. So it makes sense, every so often, to catch up with a previous guest. This time, we’re catching up with Episode 5 guest Megan Sheffield, now Director of Brand Partnerships of Linkedin.Click here for our original episode (published on Sept 2023.)

People say a lot of interesting things on this podcast, but this quote from Mark McCullers, Principal of the McCullers Group, really caught my attention. He said: "You have to make the building sweat". Basically it means that if you’re thinking of building a sports facility, you have to make that barn work as hard as it possibly can for your organization. You have to squeeze every last drop of usage and revenue out of that thing.Few people know more about putting a stadium through its paces than Mark, who’s basically been the Peloton instructor for sweating buildings for the last 30 years. In our conversation, we discuss his extensive career in sports, beginning as an Assistant Stadium Manager for RFK Stadium during the transformative 1994 World Cup. We review his role in creating the first soccer-specific stadium with Columbus Crew, his views on the intersection of sports and real estate development, and his advocacy of looking at stadiums as vital infrastructure and multi-use community assets. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Let’s start by just stating the obvious. There’s a lot of people out there who want to work in sports. My guest Scott Doyne of Doyne Services was one of those guys. And he pulled it off. Did all the things he needed to do: worked his tail off, got a job with Turner Sports to work on NASCAR and then the NBA, hooked into digital media when it was just starting to take off, and doing all the things that make working in sports pretty fun, right? Going to games. Playing golf at cool courses. You know the drill. Pretty awesome right? Well, it was. Right up until the time that it wasn’t.Right about the time that Scott was getting ready to turn 50, doubt started to creep in. He looked around and, despite all he’d accomplished, something just felt “off”. So he did something that scares the absolute bejeebers out of most people: he left his job to start all over again. Scott now provides career counseling services to people who may be feeling the same way he once did. He even wrote a book about it: “The Midlife Career Crisis” which is available on [m- We talk about the book, his career in sports, and what it’s like stand on the precipice of what can only be called monumental change. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcaste46647kyTVsnMX9QFa0r

Sports business moves pretty quickly. People change jobs, get involved with cool stuff, launch new companies. All kinds of stuff. So it makes sense, every so often, to catch up with a previous guest. This time, we’re catching up with Episode 5 guest Charles Nieves, now of Georgia Tech Athletics.Click here for our original episode (published on Dec 2021.)ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

I collected baseball cards as kid. I still remember the excitement of saving up that $1 and heading out the drugstore to get a fresh pack. Then carefully opening the wax paper, popping the worst piece of gum ever conceived into my mouth, and sorting through the trove of 15 cards and PRAYING that I’d get a player from the Boston Red Sox. There was just something about having a picture of that player in your hand, and pouring over his stats, whether he hit righty or lefty, his nickname, and more. It somehow made me feel closer to the player and the game. Connected, even. Yves Batoba and Parker Graham, the founders of Vestible, have taken that small idea of connectedness, and breathed fresh and compelling life into it. That’s because Vestible gives fans the ability to make investment directly into their favorite athletes in return for a share of their future earnings. At the beginning of this NFL season, Denver Broncos LB Baron Browning became Vestibles first athlete IPO, generating over $650K in the offering. Many more athletes are following.In our conversation, Yves and Parker recall reconnecting after their playing days at Oklahoma State came to an end, how they came up with the concept that became Vestible, their advice for other sports entrepreneurs, and much more. We’ll even test their knowledge about their alma mater Oklahoma State in the lightning round. It’s…. interesting. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably consider yourself to be something of a sports fan. But what degree of sports fan are you, really…? How badly do your favorite team’s losses really sting?For example, does that 1 run loss on the 27th game of the baseball season hurt so much that it forces you to go on a two hour walk to decompress? Probably not.But that’s what fandom is like for this episode’s guest, Borna Nazari, the President and Founder of Hog Media. When his beloved Padres hurt, he hurt with them.The difference, though, is that Borna channeled that passion into a youtube show focused on the Padres. And people started paying attention. A LOT of attention. Sponsors followed. And pretty soon Borna was quitting his day job to concentrate on building his channel, and connecting with other sports content creators around the country.Which brings us to today. As founder and president of Hog Media, Borna now manages a network of close to 200 creators and is playing a key role in reshaping what media is for teams and leagues. In our conversation, we talk about the founding of Hog Media, his insights into what makes compelling content, how brands can reap the benefit of working closely with sports content creators, and how authenticity isn’t just key, but is also fundamentally changing what it means to be in sports media.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastYOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

I’ve always loved the expression “Man plans, god laughs”. It’s actually an old Yiddish proverb that speaks to how hard it is to execute a plan when so many unforeseen variables can come into play. Vaunted 21st century philosopher Mike Tyson has a more contemporary version : “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”I suspect no one knows more about carefully laid plans going awry than this episode’s guest, Learfield Chief Strategy Officer, Ben Mathan.After carefully plotting out a career in financial services, Mathan took on a role with college sports juggernaut Learfield. After carefully plotting out his role at the company, COVID exploded and emptied out stadiums, choking off Learfield’s main source of revenue. You get the picture. Ben planned. God laughed.But through all that change and tumult, Mathan kept his eyes fixed on what he knew: college sports would always be popular to millions of people, and that Learfield was in the perfect position to benefit from all that passion.In our conversation, we talk about Mathan’s somewhat indirect path to working in college sports, what he believes are the key attributes for someone charged with developing corporate strategy, and how he keeps his focus in an industry where things seem to change hour by hour. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastMentioned in this episode:ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partnerADC Partners

Sports business moves pretty quickly. People change jobs, get involved with cool stuff, launch new companies. All kinds of stuff. So it makes sense, every so often, to catch up with a previous guest. This time, we’re catching up with Episode 19 guest, Jenn Todd of the Boston Celtics.Click here for our original episode (published on Dec 2022.) ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.YOUR HOSTDave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast