Sports Business Conversations

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 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

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 1-on-1: 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:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

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 1-on-1: 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’ve got bad news for you. Turns out your TV is pretty dumb. Well, not the TV itself, really. But the broadcast that comes into it sure can be. In this age of personalized experiences and customization, a sports broadcast is more or less one size fits all. Here’s the game, there’s the couch, sit down, and watch. It’s a situation that was just begging for someone to apply a little innovation and creativity. And that someone was Wim Sweldens, the co-founder and CMO of Kiswe. Sweldens, you see, is the consummate innovator. The former Lucent technologist owns 28 US patents, which is 28 more than most people have, and saw early on how all the bandwidth being created could be filled with more customized viewing experiences. That led to the founding of Kiswe, the company helping sports teams and leagues take control of their streaming rights to offer direct-to-consumer experiences that they own, operate and (more importantly) monetize. In our conversation, we talk about the a-ha moment that led to the founding of Kiswe, how K-Pop superstars BTS were instrumental to their growth, and how teams like the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns are using Kiswe to provide private label streaming services direct to their fans. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

The other day I was looking at all the digital photos and video I’ve stored over the years, and was a little overwhelmed. I’ll bet you know what I’m talking about, right? Things stored in different places. Lack of categorization. Frankly, it’s a total mess.Now, imagine what that’d be like if you were doing it for hundreds of thousands of people...But that’s what sports teams are dealing with right now. Think about all the photos, videos, and other forms of content that are generated about leagues, teams, and players on a daily basis. It’s staggering, right?That’s where Mark Keaney and Greenfly come in. Greenfly shows teams not only how to organize all that content, but also how they can use it effectively to connect with and engage their fans. Using media effectively is nothing new to Mark, who has a long history in the industry. In our conversation, we talk about how the changing role of media in sports, what he’s seeing in terms of best practices for using user generated content, how established teams and leagues are actually looking to the upstarts for advice on using new media and content, , and much more. I hope you’ll also take time to listen all the way through, because I promise you’ll also be inspired by Mark’s 7AM Project. Just one other thing. Please note that there is one moment of foul language in this episode, but that’s to be expected when two guys who grew up near Boston get together. It’s just the way it works.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

The other day was movie night here at worldwide HQ, so I thought I’d check out “The Spoils”, Mike Nicoll’s monumental documentary about AAU basketball. I’d juat settled in when the film’s protagonist, Etop Udo-Ema, says the following about AAU hoops:“It’s a street game. It’s really just one step ahead of the dope game.”It’s kind of an astounding statement, right? Youth sports being compared to the drug trade? But that line that lands even harder when Mike shares that he used the infamous HBO show The Wire as an inspiration for structuring his movie. So just what the hell is going on in AAU basketball? “The Spoils” takes a hard look at the state of amateur basketball in the US, and what it reveals is pretty breathtaking. To make his movie, Mike spent 11 years essentially embedded with the Compton Magic, the preeminent AAU basketball team in the country. And what it reveals is a system perfectly designed to, in Mike’s words, “anoint and monetize” the next superstars.In our conversation about his movie, Mike and I talk about the fearsome impact the current state of AAU has had on the sport, how entrenched interests like sneaker companies want to avoid changing the system at all costs, how AAU and players evolved over the decade he was attached to the Compton Magic, and what the ultimate cost is to the young teenage boys who get enmeshed in a system that openly refers to them as "assets" and "commodities".Please note that this episode contains explicit language.FOLLOW USHere's where you can find us:LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcastABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

So tell me: What’s your greatest fear? Spiders? Heights? The mushroom people monsters from that movie you watched on Channel 38’s Creature Double Feature when you stayed up way too late? Oh, right. That one’s mine….For most people, speaking in public is their greatest fear. It’s something Rose Lanham, the founder for Players for Good, a quickly growing speaker’s bureau for athletes, knows all too well. Because even players who are accustomed to competing in front of tens of thousands of people can get sweaty palms at the idea of speaking before a bunch of Rotarians. It’s one of the reasons Rose launched Players for Good. The players she works with have amazing stories to tell about overcoming obstacles, surviving injury and illness, and experiencing what it takes to compete and win at the highest levels. Through Players for Good, she helps athletes craft their stories into compelling narratives, and then finds opportunities for them to share those stories. In our conversation, we talk about how working with folks like Tony Gwynn showed her how athletes can impact a community, the qualities that make for a great speech, and what event producers should consider when featuring an athlete speaker at their events. All that and the Lightning Round, too. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

A quick question for you. What does studying the effect of smoking bans on bars have in common with convincing basketball coaches that shooting more threes is the key to winning? Absolutely nothing, as it turns out. Well, nothing, unless your name is Ben Alamar. If you’re Ben Alamar, those 2 things are linked at the hip.That’s because when Ben was managing a UCSF smoking study back in the day, he answered a help wanted ad for a fantasy sports company who was looking for someone to help manage their data. That was the first time the economist realized that there was an entire industry that might one day need his expertise in analyzing information. Safe to say that realization has worked out pretty well for Mr Alamar. Starting with that fantasy sports company, Ben has now worked with a vast number of sports teams and organizations to help transform how they look at and use data. Those experiences serve as the foundation for his industry defining text, "Sports Analytics", which is now in its 2nd printing. In our conversation, we talk about how integral data analytics is to sports both on the field and in the front office, how having a clear mission for using data is an essential key to success, and where the field is headed in the next few years. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

Let’s begin this episode with a few questions. First off, do you work in sports? Number 2: would you like to work in sports? Alright, one more: do you know someone who’d like to work in sports?If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this episode is absolutely for you. My guests on the show are Amy Gutierrez and Celeste Gehring, two long time sports media executives who host the quickly growing “Girl, How’d You Get That Gig?” podcast. In it, they interview female sports business executives to review their career paths, share secrets to their success, and provide advice to others seeking to follow in their steps.And while their show is nominally for women, the lessons and advice they tease out have value for everyone. Honestly, just the stuff we talk about in this show is enough to get anyone a leg up in their search for a sports business job, or to advance from the one they already have. It’s s really positive discussion, even taking into account some pickleball trash talk toward the end.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

At one point in his career, Lloyd Danzig, the founder of Sharp Alpha Advisors, was pretty confident that there was money to be made in what he calls the competitive entertainment industry. The Supreme Court had just opened up sports betting for states to adopt, he had a solid investing background, had recently earned a degree in data science, and had always loved fantasy sports. So good to go, right?Well, not exactly. Turns out there was still one thing missing. And that was permission to fail.Now with investments in over 30 online gaming start ups, Lloyd and Sharp Alpha are light years away from failure. In our conversation, Lloyd and I talk about the process of launching his venture capital firm, and why having a mentor share that wisdom about failure was so integral to his future success. We also cover the growth of online gaming, the competitive entertainment market, and what he looks for when making investments. He also fills us in on what the unending torture of being a NY Jets fan is like. And it’s awful. A special shout out to Brent von Forstmeyer and the University of San Francisco Sports Management program for letting me use their downtown offices to make this recording with Lloyd.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

My guest on this episode, Sivonnia DeBarros, is known as the "Protector of Athletes". A former athlete herself, DeBarros is applying her legal background to help athletes avoid missteps that lead to financial and contractual challenges. And with the rise of Name Image Likeness opportunities for college athletes, she’s never been busier. In our conversation, we go into her inspiring path to becoming a lawyer and then launching her own law firm. We also cover her burning desire to work with athletes, where she sees NIL opportunities and challenges for college students, and the ongoing legal struggles of the NCAA. She also lets you know when it’s appropriate to yell “I object” outside of the court room.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Thanks to Scott Holmes and Hartzmann (License code: BB0CFEZTX4O77LPH) for the music!Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

On this show, we’ve talked a lot about the crazy state of college sports brought on by legalized name image likeness payments to athletes. We’ve interviewed athletes who are reaping the benefits, administrators who are pulling their hair out trying to stay on top of changes, lawyers specializing in related legislation, and entrepreneurs trying to get in on the gold rush. The one place we haven’t really explored much is the concept of collectives. And that changes with this episode. Kurt Roth is a native New Yorker who fell in love with the UNM Lobos when he arrived on campus as a Freshmen in 1972. And it’s a love that continues to this day. After a successful law career, Roth returned to the Land of Enchantment and launched the 505 Sports Venture Foundation. The 505 is a collective, a non profit organization that seeks donations from businesses and individuals, and then uses those proceeds to make payments to athletes for the NIL rights.Now for some people, collectives are a convenient boogeyman for college sports, a twisting of the intent of NIL rights. That’s an opinion that Roth passionately refutes with what can only be called a New Yorker’s elan. You’ll hear words like “idiotic”, “hypocritical”, and “anti-American” used to describe collective opponents. It’s a fast paced conversation that touches upon how he arrived in New Mexico, the impact that the 505 and other collectives are having, and where the concept is heading next. The Albuquerque resident will also tell you which Breaking Bad character he most identifies with, something that’s clearly worth finding out.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

This is a difficult intro to do for this episode. I want to tell you all about my guest Jason Romero to draw you in. But I also don’t want to provide any spoilers to our conversation. I just want you to learn about his unbelievable story on your own. Because his story is just that: unbelievable. I promise that when you listen you’ll have a few “oh wow” moments, followed by “wait, what?” moments, followed by a “you have got to be kidding me” moments.I’m just glad I get to share his story with you. It’s inspiring, it’s crazy, it’s motivational, it’s… well, it’ s a lot of things. But mostly it’s a story of how a man just wouldn’t let his light fade. ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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. Website: adcpartners.com/podcastInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersYOUR 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

There’s been so much change so quickly in sports business that there’s a bunch of stuff that seems normal now that I wouldn’t have even believed possible just 10 years ago. Paying college athletes. Watching games on your phone. Pro teams in Vegas. And there’s online gaming, a market that is currently estimated at about $10B a year, and is projected to grow by 12% annually through the end of this decade.That kind of growth is what puts a gleam in the eye of this episodes guest, Kyle Christensen, the Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer of Splash, Inc. With a rapidly growing user base that recently surpassed 2 million, Splash is turning heads in the online gaming industry with a social approach to their contests. It’s a strategy that falls right in the wheelhouse for Christensen, a veteran of the entertainment and social media industries. In our conversation, we talk about how his experiences at companies like Warner Brothers, Meta and Netflix prepared him for taking the reins at Splash. We also go into how Splash is differentiating themselves from the industry’s biggest players, what draws him to companies that like to throw bricks through the windows of the status quo, and why maybe breaking down that firewall between personal and business is a good idea. And if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to incur the wrath of hard core comic book fans, he’ll let you know what that’s like, too. Just a heads up, there’s some explicit language in this episode.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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. Website: adcpartners.com/podcastInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersYOUR 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

From the outside looking in, working in sports can seem a little glamourous, I suppose. You know what I mean. Multi-billion dollar media rights deals. Major events located in sparkling new stadiums in global capitals around the world. New companies focused on delivering sports in totally different ways mushrooming up all over the place. Yeah, seems pretty sexy. But the success of everything I just described rests on the back of the two things that are absolutely indispensable in sports business: the humble event ticket and the ability to sell that humble event ticket. And few people know more about the importance of those two things than my guest in this episode, Travis Apple, the Chief Revenue Officer of digital ticketing platform Logitix. Travis has spent his working life honing the craft of ticket sales for teams in the NBA, MLB, NHL and more. Now with Logitix, he’s taking that knowledge and combining it with new tools that make sure teams are getting the absolute most revenue from their ticketing programs. In our conversation, Travis talks about his career arc, and drops some legendary industry names that have mentored him along the way. He touches on the transition from working FOR sports to working WITH sports at Logitix, and how that company is altering the ticketing market. He also takes time to drop more essential sales wisdom than any 35 minute podcast should have.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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. Website: adcpartners.com/podcastInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersYOUR 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

As we get started on this episode, I want you to take a second and think about the qualities that define you. What are the different things that make you… you? Do you love those qualities? Or are they something you feel like you need to battle?For my guest Ryan Neiswender, it took time for him to learn to love the quality he hated most about himself. But when he did, he reached the loftiest heights an athlete can reach.Ryan was born with Arthrogryposis, a rare condition that impacted the development of his legs. By the age of 8, he would need to use a wheelchair to get around. But rather than feel constrained by his chair, Ryan felt he could move effortlessly. Then one day his parents took the sports obsessed Ryan to a nearby wheel chair basketball clinic, and the rest is history. Actual literal history, because Ryan went on to not only excel at the sport, he ended up winning a gold medal for Team USA at the 2020 Paralympic games in Tokyo. In our conversation we talk at length about Ryan’s journey and what he’s learned about himself along the way. We go into the highs of winning a gold medal, and more recent lows associated with the sport. But most importantly, we talk about the mindset and strategies he’s developed that prepare him to deal with those emotional peaks and valleys.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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. Website: adcpartners.com/podcastInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersYOUR 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

If you’re in this industry, you know that Sports business is a really dynamic industry. Change is happening all the time. New trends emerge, different technologies are adopted, audience tastes change on what seems like a minute-by-minute basis… it can be a lot. And nowhere is this more true than in college sports, particularly in terms of name-image-likeness, or NIL. In the last couple of years, the ability of college athletes to make money promoting products and services has fundamentally and (to the consternation of some) irreversible reshaped college sports. Everyone seems to have an opinion about it. And, let’s be clear: lots of those opinions are from people who aren’t, or never were, college athletes.So let’s change that up and hear from my guest, Sabrina Oostburg. Sabrina is currently enrolled at Belmont College in Nashville Tennessee, a small school you probably never heard of. She competes in track and field throwing events like the hammer toss, and event you’ve most likely never seen. Yet somehow Sabrina, competing in an esoteric sport for a little-known school, is an incredibly successful NIL athlete. She’s currently managing a stable of over 20 NIL deals, many of which she pitched, negotiated and developed herself.In our chat, we talk about her NIL journey, and the advice she gives other athletes wanting to replicate her success. She reveals what brands should consider to make their NIL campaigns more successful, her perspective on what makes an athlete Creator different from an Influencer, and what concerns her about the future of NIL. She’ll also reveal the name of the YouTube video that fundamentally and forever changed her life.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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. Website: adcpartners.com/podcastInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersYOUR 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

This episode’s guest is probably going to make you feel like a slacker. In fairness though? Bonnie-Jill Laflin can make just about everyone feel that way. Santa Claus on Christmas Eve looks like a lay-a-bout compared to Bonnie Jill. We’ll get into her many MANY roles during our chat, but I will say that the first (and still only ) female NBA scout recently added another experience to her already poly-hyphenated career: author. Bonnie Jill’s new book, “In a League of Her Own” is a testament to the many female “firsts” in sports and sports business. In it she features insights and interviews with iconic figures like Billie Jean King, Danica Patrick, and Jackie Joyner Kersee. In our conversation, we talk about Bonnie Jill’s remarkable sports journey, the common threads she saw in the women she interviewed for the book, and even what she learned about herself while writing it. We’ll also find out if she’s a ninja. Her answer probably won’t surprise you…ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

If you have kids who play sports, you know all too well the special kind of crazy that brings to the household. When my 3 kids were younger they tried just about everything: lacrosse, tennis, golf, baseball, ice hockey, basketball, irish dance, football, volleyball…. I think I got everything…. Anyway, suffice it to say it could get a little chaotic. And like a lot of sports parents, an app named TeamSnap was part of our every day lives. I suspect a lot of you listening have it on your phones, too, because it helps bring some order to that chaos. And that right there brings a smile to the face of this episodes guest, Peter Frintzilas, the CEO of TeamSnap.Frintzilas joined TeamSnap in 2020, when we were in the midst of a pandemic and youth sports effectively ground to a halt. For most people, that would have made joining the company a kind of a non-starter, right? Oh, our entire audience has more or less evaporated? Yeaaaaah, no.But not Frintzilas. He saw the opportunity to put TeamSnap at the center of a youth sports industry that by some measures might be worth $60 billion annually in the near future.In our conversation, Pete and I talk about the growth of youth sports, how he first encountered TeamSnap, how recent acquisitions are performing, how he sees the youth sports market evolving, and most importantly how he sees his company taking advantage of it. He also reveals how he got his start in movies (turns out being able to remember your lines is pretty key…)ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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. Website: adcpartners.com/podcastInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersYOUR 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX

Imagine, for a moment, what goes into launching a new business. Think about it. All the excitement, stress, time, details, ideas, and millions of other unknown hurdles that can’t be planned for or strategized about. And when you think about all that, who would you turn to for help?Does your sibling spring to mind?For Mather Wiswall and Ruby George, the sibling founders of the United Grid League, that’s exactly what happened. I had chance speak with Mather and Ruby about the UGL and the rapidly growing sport of Grid. We go into the twists and turns involved with running your own sports league, what keeps them up at night, and what gets them most excited about where the sport is headed. And yes, we go into what it’s like to run a business with a sibling, and what they’ve learned about each other (and themselves) along the way.ABOUT THIS PODCASTThe 1-on-1: 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. Website: adcpartners.com/podcastInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersYOUR 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.Mentioned in this episode:SponsorCXSponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners.SponsorCX