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The Tao of Sports Podcast – The Definitive Sports, Marketing, Business Industry News Podcast

Sports Revenue Analytics veteran and sport management professor Troy Kirby interviews the team behind the teams in Front Offices and Athletics Departments throughout the world, revealing an industry of specialists and minds unseen by the local or national media. Examined in this podcast are current or long-standing industry topics; tickets, business, analytics, moneyball, revenue, finance, economy, sales and jobs of the NCAA, NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL. Also included are topics surrounding third party vendors, sports business, revenue, marketing, mentoring interns, facilities, managing employees, as well as how to not only break into sports, but stay in the industry long-term. The often-invisible side of the industry is where the Tao of Sports Podcast attempts to pull back the elusive curtain, providing information both to industry insiders and those who want to work in sports. Troy Kirby is a sport management professor at Saint Martin's University in Lacey, Washington.
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The Tao of Sports Podcast – The Definitive Sports, Marketing, Business Industry News Podcast
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Now displaying: October, 2015
Oct 30, 2015

Back on Ep. 235, Bill Bradley was a digital editor for an NFL-funded platform. Now, he is leading the Las Vegas Review Journal as their sports editor, bringing a very tech-focused background to reporting stories in Sin City. Bradley discusses some of the ways that technology such as video, photos and audio can be incorporated around the written word when covering a beat. Bradley talks about the new beat focus of MMA camps, of getting in-depth stories about fighters in order to broaden the reach of the LRJ readership. Bradley expands on the new arena on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as the potential NHL franchise and the team name that Bradley believes is a lock to be selected when the team possibly starts play in 2017. Twitter: @BillBradleyLV

Oct 28, 2015

Michael Cross is at the definitive point of where college athletics is headed, seeking new business opportunities to buoy financial goals. Cross is a former athletic director at Bradley, and understands the new normal of seeking out hard to reach dollars through corporate sponsorship support. Cross discusses some of the avenues in which there may be opportunities, but only if they fit within the vision and the brand of the college athletic department as a whole. Cross talks about his blog, The Ultimate Sports Insider, and how he is able to communicate his thoughts as a personal brand, something that would not have been done by industry professionals only a few years prior. Twitter: @USInsider or Blog: http://www.ultimatesportsinsider.com

Oct 26, 2015

The role of the sales trainer is not just to motivate, but to understand fully how the sales process works, how to diagnose weaknesses in a sales staff. Sales Huddle CEO Sam Caucci has developed his training method through the listening process, working with various sports franchises in order to help them build revenue in a more effective manner. Caucci talks about how a lot of the executives view sales through some older metrics, and what alternatives exist in order to help show a sales person's success in the modern world. Caucci also discusses whether phone sales, social selling and various aspects of the sales process have a validity in today's sports franchise when selling the sports product. Twitter: @SamCaucci

Oct 23, 2015

After working at Google, serving on the mobile team in Silicon Valley, Emmanuel Elmajian has now started his own company, Spinzo, in Toronto, Ontario. Elmajian's vision is a platform that helps generate a massive amount of group ticket sales through a focused channel. And he's started to gain a following, signing up several minor league hockey franchises, and the NHL's Arizona Coyotes. Elmajian talks about the platform itself, both in design and application, as well as some of the needs out there for consumers to embrace the product. Elmajian shares his vision of the digital future of ticket sales, including how to distribute tickets in a more efficient manner. Twitter: @Elmajian

Oct 21, 2015

In 2012, Bill Yates was a guest on Episode 8 of the podcast. Things sure have changed in terms of the sports business landscape since then, especially when looking back at what was a buyers market for teams up for sale, now becomes a seller's advantage as the national economy has improved. Yates discusses some of the alterations that have taken place, as team evaluations have solidified with variable profit margins, as well as some of the things that still leave room for improvement when it comes to understanding a franchise's worth. Yates talks about some of the issues that leagues and franchises always have, with good as well as bad ownership groups, and some of the red flags that can come up when an audit situation happens. Twitter: @YatesieTweets

Oct 19, 2015

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) is the premiere event for college athletic department professionals, with a 12,000+ membership base and an annual 9-day conference that stretches out over 6,000+ attendees for 15 affiliate associations. Chris Green oversees the corporate sponsorship portion of NACDA, as well as its 15 associations, including the newest, the National Association of Athletic Ticket Sales & Operations (NAATSO). Green talks about sponsorship components which matter to both the vendor and the attendee, as well as the new principle of transforming a conference sponsorship into a year-round branding tool for the corporate partner. Green shares his thoughts on the lifespan of conference trade shows or booths in general, as well as helping discover what translates to R.O.I. for the vendor when sponsoring a segmentation of the industry. Green presents the overall challenge that's a "good problem to have" where NACDA and its affiliate associations have started to swell and cause overflow issues for their hotels, creating the issue of whether to move more toward a convention center model for future conference sites. Twitter: @ChrisGreen_3737

Oct 16, 2015

As journalism embraces or faces the changing landscape of technology, various questions arise to how to best implement its application. Jeff Sharon is witnessing this first-hand, overseeing the online masters degree program of journalism at Full Sail University. A former sports writer for Genesis Communications covering the University of Central Florida athletic department, Sharon shares his view of how developing stories is changing, as well as how the role of the journalist is becoming less about being part of a major company, and instead, becoming more of a freelancer. Sharon talks about how this changing model will affect the ability to either gain scoops on information, what details will now be released to the public that in the past would have not made the grade in a newspaper or TV station, and how a journalist's ability to deduce not only facts, but maintain principles, will be placed squarely on their shoulders, rather than having a larger organization surrounding them. Twitter: @Jeff_Sharon

Oct 14, 2015

Having that short-hand of actually working in the industry has helped Professor Clint Warren at Illinois State as he mentors his sports management students on what to do to establish a career in the field. Warren shares his experience of learning about the importance of ticket sales and revenue generation, as well as how teams look to craft young executives into potential upper management prospects. Warren talks about ensuring that his lesson plans reflect, as well as compliment, any potential student looking to utilize that knowledge later on in life. Warren also discusses some of the determining factors that students should make when considering a sports management program at a university. Twitter: @Clint_Warren

Oct 12, 2015

The global power of social media has helped smaller NCAA Division I conferences equal the playing field, and Steve Chen is one of the key examples of harnessing that power for the 9-school Big West Conference. Chen shares some of the ways in which his role is defined by expanding awareness and attention of specific branding mechanisms, as well as highlighting various individual efforts of student-athletes. Chen talks about some of the pitfalls of having a school that is up to 3-hours behind other schools, but also some of the ways that they are not left behind in media attention by the conference overall. Chen provides examples of his attitude of being willing to help out regardless of the job role, including overseeing ticketing for conference tournaments. Twitter: @BigWestMD

Oct 9, 2015

The Ticket Fairy is a different concept in the world of ticket sales, and may be more of a group sales advocate in created a true crowd builder for a sporting event. Ritesh Patel explains how The Ticket Fairy's humble beginnings were formed when he was attempting to promote live events, only to find that drawing a crowd was harder than it looked. Patel talks about The Ticket Fairy's key concept, actually rewarding ticket buyers with a reimbursement of their ticket value as they bring more of their friends and colleagues into purchasing for the same event. Patel shares his knowledge of how the ticket and promotion industry is changing, and how some of the old methods of creating a crowd are quickly dying off for a more improved concept in the Ticket Fairy. Twitter: @PurpleLight

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