Realizing revenue is one of new facets of athletic departments, and David Paitson is bringing his professional experience to the FCS level to prove it. Paitson oversees the FCS powerhouse Sam Houston State's revenue streams as an associate athletic director, and covers a lot of the ground of what it takes to generate actual income at the lower Division I levels. Paitson discusses some of the ways that Sam Houston State has been able to separate itself from the competition, including how to draw an audience amid professional teams and FBS schools fighting for the BCS crown. Paitson gives his thoughts on the Power 5 decision of autonomy, what that could mean for the FCS level as a whole, and why its sometimes a better fit for a school to stay a big fish in a little pond. Twitter: @Paitson
Sitting down in Charlotte during Ticket Forum 2015, Garrett Nolan discusses his role at Bojangles Coliseum and Ovens Auditorium. While the conversation starts off with dealing in ticket sales, especially with Bojangles' announcement of the move of the AHL's Charlotte Checkers to the Coliseum in 2015-16, it transforms into a debate over the role of the secondary market, and ticket brokers as a whole. Nolan presents his points and thoughts on whether a resale market is necessarily good for event ticket operations, and what some of the downsides might be. In the end, Nolan and I share our Super Bowl picks (I was wrong on mine). Twitter: @GarrettNolan
Laura Madison is changing the car industry by provoking a discussion on what car sales representatives should be doing online. Madison works at the Toyota dealership in Bozeman, Montana, but has made national and international news through her branded website sales, creating blog posts, videos and other social media content, reviewing the cars that she sells on the lot. This has translated to hundreds of additional car sales through digital means, and made Madison's reputation grow within the car industry. Several of these aspects could be copied tomorrow by sports franchises, adopted by the team's sales representatives, and pushed into selling socially in order to help the customer better understand and engage with the ticket sales product. @LauraDrives
Marty Mulford has worked in sports long enough to see why it is hard for young people to access the industry. A mainstay in the ticket office with the Nashville Predators, Mulford decided to create a 75-minute audio e-book called The Sports Industry Fast Pass, with the express goal of help young people understand what jobs are available, how to interview properly for the job in question, and how to best prepare yourself for the job ahead. Mulford offers many years of experience, discussing some of the aspects of what it takes to do his job continually, including an ability to separate 'spectating' with 'relationship building' at the game with customers. Twitter: @SprtsIndstryFP
Justin Doherty has witnessed the growth of the Big Ten, NCAA and The University of Wisconsin during his 25 years in sports communication. Doherty talks about the transition from print media as the mainstay of journalism to now social media, where digital print rules the day. Doherty discusses some of the aspects of trying to determine what and who makes a journalist, and who should receive credentials for upcoming games. Doherty also covers several key reasons why social media can be a good thing, but also when covering breaking news or controversy, can place sports communication reactions into a tailspin. Doherty ends with talking about coaches on Twitter, and why several Wisconsin coaches, including Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, aren't on social media at all. Twitter: @JDatWisconsin
The National Pro Grid League has taken the nation's summertime viewing up a notch. In 2014, it was launched as a cable mainstay for NBC Sports, filling out some of the 8600 programming hours that the channel has to allot for. NPGL's Claire and Jim Kean, discuss how they created the game from scratch, designed various teams, took on ownership groups and launched within a 9-month time frame. As NPGL VP of Operations, Claire covers some of the issues that happened during the actual events themselves, and as NPGL CEO, Jim explains what the revenues, finances and pitfalls ended up looking like. The NPGL is set to launch its second season in 2015, and ready for the challenges that lie ahead in both league competition and revenue. Twitter: @TheGridLeague
Doug Holtzman is no stranger to sports business, working over 17 years in the field. Currently the VP of Media & Entertainment for Media Brokers Int., Holtzman has been a consultant for sports and media companies, and worked at IMG for four years, helping Air Force Academy and Northern Illinois University achieve activation through corporate partnerships. With NBA, NFL and NHL experience, Holtzman shares his knowledge of what helps keep local and national sponsors happy with a team sponsorship package, and what franchises can do to drive additional revenue through their existing partnerships. Twitter: @DouglasHoltzman
Amy Venuto has worked in sports sales for over 16 years, transitioning several minor league franchises and raceways into high volume revenue drivers for their executive staffs. Venuto shares some of her philosophies when coming into situations, especially how to develop a fast-track training that avoids simply presenting PowerPoint slides and going over the same topics each visit. Venuto discusses ways to avoid giving in to customers when prices are raised, or price points are finally respected, and how to reformat a "poisoned market" where the previous administration resorted to free tickets as a marketing pull. Twitter: @AmyVenuto
Jeramie McPeek has been with the Phoenix Suns since 1992. He's witnessed the transition from print to online, as well as how to digitally engage each fan along the way. McPeek discusses some of the platforms used in order to achieve that engagement, along with facing the fact that major brands are also at the mercy of the platform algorithms that alter communicating with the fans or followers that have already asked to receive that information entirely. McPeek also attended The Sports Fan Summit in Melbourne, Australia in July 2014 with the Tao of Sports host, and they chat about the engagement as well as learning atmosphere of the Australian sports business crowd, and running in terror from the Australian possum (google it, trust us, those things were scary). Twitter: @JMcPeek
Mike Hermann has served as an athletic director at three different institutions, twice at the Division I level. Now at the NAIA level, Hermann feels he has found his wheelhouse, in helping promote student athlete and fundraising success to a core constituency. While some administrators may avoid NAIA or small college athletics, Hermann advocates for the opposite approach, suggesting that some of the best principles of collegiate athletics are at the non-Division I level. Hermann shares his views on developing great alumni relations, and how to ensure that the athletic department has continuing transparency throughout the campus community. Twitter: @Hermann_sports