Jared Rose's 13-year career has spanned from a minor league baseball team, two arena football league teams, and two NBA corporate partnership departments. Rose talks about his interest in designing great corporate partnerships, as well as the fact he helped launch one of the most successful Arena Football League 2 franchises in history in the Spokane Shock. Rose discusses various components of a corporate partnership, as well as understanding why it is necessary to move in order to propelling your career forward, along with challenging yourself. Twitter: @JaredRoseCity
The Experience App just won the Best In Sports Technology Award in 2014 by Sports Business Journal. Ben Ackerman comes on the podcast to discuss what the Experience App is, and how it can revolutionize sports revenue in-arena by developing a newer smartphone technology to allow VIP experiences as well as in-game upgrades for fans. This is a new territory for sports business, as in-stadium WiFi capabilities are being established and upgraded, as well as the idea of franchises accepting as much small data information to build customer profiles to sell more to their fans as well as understand fully who their fans truly are. Twitter: @ExpApp
The Fargo Force junior hockey league team is tasked with the impossible each winter; put on a compelling hockey product with a small population, against one of the premier college hockey teams in the country (North Dakota). Trevor Christiansen has been with the Force for several years as first an intern, and now as ticket manager, and explains how the organization markets itself and remains successful, despite the fact that other previous professional hockey entities failed in that same market. Twitter: @ForceTicketGuy
Jason Rittenberry is one of the key players in The International Hod Rod Association, as well as the International Raceway group, which owes and operates several raceways throughout the country. IHRA is the second-largest drag racing and fourth largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world, hosting two national touring series, the Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series, and the Thunder Jam Series, covering over 12,000 racers while sanctioning over 100 motorsports facilities. Rittenberry talks about the issues facing motorsports in general; the struggles that oval track races are having compared to drag racing's renaissance, as well as how to attract more of the public to the track. Twitter: @JMRittenberry
Matt Cerrone represents the new frontier of digital media. Formerly an independent blogger with MetsBlog.com, which he grew into a powerhouse brand with over 250 million hits on his site, Cerrone has now entered the big leagues as the Director of Digital at SNY cable television. Cerrone discusses some of the various issues surrounding the blog, podcast and overall digital landscape, where folks mostly misconstrude what it truly takes to generate a lot of hits by building a brand overtime, instead of being an overnight success. Cerrone also talks about his role at SNY, as well as why the talent pool in the world of blogging may be a lot thinner than it was only a few years prior. Twitter: @MatthewCerrone
When this podcast was recorded, Allison Strekal had only one day on the job as the president. That’s when you know things happen quick in the sports industry. Strekal sat down for the podcast, and held her own under her new title position. Strekal shares some of the challenges of the Big Horns brand as well as her vision of what she wants the franchise to be during the off-season. Strekal has been working for the team for several years, starting off with her initial role of a 20-hour a week inside sales rep for the team. Strekal talks about her experiences in trying to sell the NBADL product to the Reno locals, as well as some of the various promotions that the team has highlighted over the years, including ones with current NBA star Jeremy Lin.
Sports marketing strategist Lou Imbriano is creating what may end becoming one of the largest industry teaching tools online in the Sports Business Academy. Imbriano is sharing his knowledge of the industry, especially how to correctly work on marketing directly to the customer, as well as sharing some of his vision on what works and what doesn’t when trying to connect with fans. Imbranio pulls no punches as he talks about exposing the weakness of the lazy, as well as why some teams fail and some teams just get it. Twitter: @LouImbriano
Greg Esposito grew up a Phoenix Suns fan, being one of the few people actually from the metro area to live there as an adult. Esposito shares his journeys, coming up as a media major in college, and building up his resume with several different ventures until he landed the dream job of working with the Phoenix Suns. Esposito talks about some of the various challenges of working in the digital space, especially when it comes to social media platforms and building a great content calendar. Twitter: @Espo
Former umpire Al Clark officiated for over 30 years, calling three thousand games, two All-Star games, seven playoff games, and two World Series. The son of a former sportswriter, Clark was a mainstay for several historical MLB moments. Clark has co-authored his autography, “Called Out But Safe: A Baseball Umpire’s Journey,” in which he chronicles his life in baseball, as well as some of challenges to his integrity, including switching airplane tickets in 2001 which led to his dismissal as an umpire, as well as his 2004 conviction for mail order fraud stemming from signing multiple memorabilia statements of authenticity for collectables that were never used in games he officiated. After serving 120 days in jail for his crime, Clark talks about trying to rebuild his life, as well as the lessons he’s learn along the way.
Scott Jurgens talks about the challenges facing an FCS powerhouse in Montana State, where the wins on the field are there, but it really takes an additional effort of marketing in order to engage the audience. This doesn’t just include football, as basketball may be a winner, but harder to draw fans to because of the cold weather and the remoteness of Bozeman, Montana. Jurgens expands on the efforts in order to embrace the new culture that is building at MSU, as well as some of the social media and marketing efforts in order to ensure that the stands are packed every home game. Twitter: @ScottJurgens