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The Sport Business Handbook
Insights From 100+ Leaders Who Shaped 50 Years of the Industry
Edited by Rick Horrow
Published by: Human Kinetics
Editor Rick Horrow, an internationally known sport business and sport law expert who has been the architect of more than 100 deals worth more than $20 billion, has teamed up with renowned sport business scholar and practitioner Rick Burton and author Myles Schrag to assemble one of the most unique sport books ever published. You will be both informed and entertained by the personal insights of prominent sport business leaders, including league commissioners such as Gary Bettman, Don Garber, and Paul Tagliabue; team owners such as Jerry Colangelo and Tom Ricketts; executives such as Larry Lucchino and Pat Williams; administrators such as Joe Castiglione and Deborah Yow; professional athletes such as Scott Hamilton and Cal Ripken Jr.; and media personalities such as Jay Bilas and Ann Meyers Drysdale. This all-star team also includes legendary Duke University men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski as the foreword author.
The Sport Business Handbook gives you guidance for everything from the basics of breaking into the sport industry to the intricate skills required to become an industry giant:
- Consider the role you want to play, what your values are, and how you can set yourself up for success in the industry.
- Understand the value of brand management and the opportunities for those with strong knowledge and skills in this area.
- Embrace technology and use the power of modern media to guide your organization toward its goals.
- Master leadership skills by establishing a framework for thinking and behaving as a leader at all times.
Instructors who adopt the text will have access to an instructor’s guide that includes links to online video and audio clips that tie in directly to book topics, along with a “Breakthrough Moments” list of the 50 most significant events, chosen specifically to supplement the book’s content with societal context and historical depth. These additional tools feature questions and activities to spark classroom discussion and facilitate an enhanced learning experience for students.
Nowhere else will you find such a comprehensive guide with practical advice and personal stories from the biggest names in the industry. The Sport Business Handbook is an engaging, informative book that will help you discover your strengths and develop your skills so you can become one of the leaders to shape the sport business industry for the next 50 years.
Chapter 1. Mastering the Craft of Sport Business
Rick Horrow
A 50-Year Front Seat, by Ted Killory
Sports Evoke Our Emotional Extremes, by Scott D. Michel
Write Down Your Dream Job, by Richard Peddie
Chapter 2. Essential Lessons for the Sport Business Professional
Larry Lucchino
The Value of Showing Up, by Joe Favorito
Keep Your Head Down and Keep Working, by Jay Bilas
10 Principles, From “Collector” of Philosophies, by Brandon Steiner
Chapter 3. Fostering Meaningful Business Relationships
Lyn St. James
Take Charge to Help Give Kids Equal Opportunities, by Shane Battier
I Want to Be President, by Andy Dolich
Find Direction With Your Own Mission Statement, by Marc Trestman
Part II. Building Your Branding and Selling Skill Sets
Chapter 4. Executing a Consistent Process and Vision
Stephen M. Ross
Learning to Balance Tradition and Innovation, by George Pyne
Make Sure Your Minor League Is Major, by David A. Andrews
Making Money With the Money You’ve Made, by Ric Edelman
Chapter 5. Filling an Industry Need
Bob Kain
Outworking Adversity, by Gary Player
Finding My Next Act After Olympic Gold, by Scott Hamilton
Understanding the Power of Numbers, by Dan Towriss
Chapter 6. Building a Championship Brand
Tom Ricketts
One Question Paves the Way to Compelling Stories, by Ross Greenburg
Customizing a Message for Fans: Three Stories, by Frank Luntz
Maintaining a Vibrant Brand With Passionate Purpose, by John Spanos and A.G. Spanos
Chapter 7. A Mindset of Authenticity: The First Step in a Successful Sport Business Venture
Jack Nicklaus
From Humble Beginnings to PGA Concessionaire, by David Lee Cook
Success: The Intersection of Talent and Passion, by Pat Williams
One Good Deed Leads to Another, and Another, and Another . . ., by Cal Ripken, Jr.
Chapter 8. Handling Crises Calmly and Capably
Gary Bettman
Preparation Has Always Been a Hallmark of BAA, by Tom Grilk
Rebuilding After Katrina, by Doug Thornton
Proactive Safety Measures Essential to Youth Sport, by Jon Butler
Chapter 9. Building a Brand That Reflects Your Core Values
Don Garber
Why Not?, by Donna Orender
Rectify Mistakes Quickly: The Houston Dynamo Case Study, by Oliver Luck
Pitcher-Agent Has Once-in-a-Lifetime Encounter During Comeback, by Steve Trout
Part III. Mastering Modern Media and Technology
Chapter 10. Harnessing Modern Media Strategies
Mark Lazarus
The Value in the Values of the Games, by David Baker
Going the Extra Miles Can Put You on the Map, by Ken Solomon
Sports Require Quick Thinking for Solutions, by Jim Ganley
Chapter 11. Changing Technologies, Changing Consumption
Ted Leonsis and Zach Leonsis
Media, Athletes Both Navigating Increased Exposure, by Harvey Greene
Filling the Gaps Between Plays, by Jim Lawson
Attention to Detail, Top to Bottom, by Mark Williams
Chapter 12. Using Analytics and Social Media Effectively
Shawn Spieth and Kyle Nelson
Growth of Analytics Leads to Industry Evolution, by Jessica Gelman
Pushing the Boundaries of Technology in Sport, by Angela Ruggiero
Toward a Better Understanding of Sport Market Analytics, by Richard Lipsey
Chapter 13. Translating Technology Into New Markets
Peter Moore
How “Moonshot” Technology in Regenerative Medicine Influences the Business of Sport, by Jeff Conroy
Retail Analytics of the Future Benefits Consumer, Company, by Matt O’Toole
Future of Sport Media Is Addressing Fans Who Lean Forward, by Chris Wagner
Part IV. Making Successful Deals
Chapter 14. Developing Business Deals Consistent With Your Core Values
Robin J. Harris
Paying Back a Debt . . . With Interest, by Richard A. Chaifetz
Using Sport to Explain, Engage, and Inspire, by Jon Chapman
Do Work That Feeds Your Soul, by Don Garber
Chapter 15. The Arc of the Deal
Donald Dell
Listen and Respond, by Rich McKay
The Agent’s List, by Bob Kain
With Your Name Comes Responsibility, by Pat Rooney Jr.
Chapter 16. Working Toward Consensus
Jerry Colangelo
“Six Win and Six Lose,” by Randy Vataha
Doing the Unpopular, by Senator George Mitchell
Support Helped New GM Learn on the Job, by Ann Meyers Drysdale
Chapter 17. The Importance of Marketing in Deal Making
Rick Burton
Modern Sport Marketers Must Value the Experience, by Chris Lencheski
The First Shoe Deal Came Naturally, by Sonny Vaccaro
Globalization of the Sport Agency Business, by Philip D.M. de Picciotto
Chapter 18. Operating Successfully in the Public and Private Domains: The Birth of MAPS and the Rebirth of Oklahoma City
Ronald J. Norick
How Indy Used Sport to Build Civic Pride, by Greg Ballard
Stadiums Are Easy to Build—It’s Only Money, by Maher Maso
Chapter 19. Mastering Licensing Strategies as Part of Your Brand
Joseph R. Castiglione Sr.
Global Sport Institute Researches Across Disciplines, by Kenneth L. Shropshire
How to Handle the Complex Modern World of College Athletics, by Jack Swarbrick
Chapter 20. Securing Strategic Sponsorships: The Sponsor’s Perspective
Tony Ponturo
Having a Purpose Gives You Perseverance, by Jamey Rootes
Protecting Golf’s Image Required Facts, Plan, by Joe Steranka
Role Reversal: Think About Your Check Writer’s Objectives Before You Think About Yours, by Michael Whan
Chapter 21. Securing Strategic Sponsorships: The Rights Holder’s Perspective
Stephen Jones
In the Right Place at the Right Time, by Dick Cass
Be Willing to Blaze Your Own Trail—Just Don’t Forget to Bring Along Your Key Stakeholders, by Larry Scott
The Jones Family: A Football Legacy, by Stephen Jones
Part V. Mastering Leadership Skills
Chapter 22. Creating a Framework for Leadership
Paul Tagliabue
Be Not Afraid of Greatness, by Frank Supovitz
All I Know About Leadership I Learned as Senate Majority Leader, by Senator George Mitchell
Defy Expectations . . . Prove Yourself, by Bryan R. Sperber
Chapter 23. Operationalizing Philosophy and Values While Building a Culture of Integrity and Excellence
Deborah A. Yow
Equal Pay Is a Better Business Model, by Butch Buchholz
LeBron’s Value Is Chasing Excellence On and Off the Court, by Frederick R. Nance
Process, People, Plan, and Careful Execution, by Nick Sakiewicz
Chapter 24. Championing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Workplace
Judy Sweet
More Sports = More Leadership Development Opportunities, by Ray Anderson
Making a Difference Is a Kick, By Rolf Benirschke
Ali Center Supports Athletes’ Push for Change, by Eli Wolff
Chapter 25. Leadership Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Kevin Warren
Opportunity Knocks When You Open Your Mouth, by Stan Kasten
The Common Link Between Vegas Crooners and Hall of Famers, by Pete LaCock
Problem Solvers Versus Problem Creators . . . Choose Wisely, by Pat Gallagher
Chapter 26. Cultivating a Winning Edge
Don Shula
From Athens to LA to Phoenix: Keep Chasing Your Dreams, by Derrick Hall
The Lessons of Competitiveness, by Bob Griese
How Orlando Used Sport to Get Out of a Rut, by Mayor Buddy Dyer
Chapter 27. Sustaining Excellence: From Stadiums to Stewardship
Bryan Trubey
Learning From Others in LA, by Kevin Demoff
Creating a Community Gathering Place: U.S. Bank Stadium, by Trip Boswell
Observations From Years Working in “the Fun Business”, by Pat Gallagher
Epilogue
Rick Horrow
NASCAR Whiz Kid Learns the Two Rs Early in His Career, by Michael Nichols II
A Producer’s Perspective, by Tanner Simkins
Rick Horrow, JD, is a leading expert in the business of sport and has orchestrated over 100 deals worth more than $20 billion. The CEO of Horrow Sports Ventures (HSV), he has served as a sport business analyst for Fox Sports, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, NBC, National Public Broadcasting, and the BBC. As the leading commentator on sport business and as a well-connected entrepreneur, he has access to many of the top names in sport, including commissioners, owners, general managers, coaches, and athletes. His clients have included some of the biggest organizations and companies in the world of sport and business: NFL, NHL, MLB, NASCAR, PGA, Great White Shark Enterprises, Cisco Systems, Golden Bear International, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, LPGA, and MLS. He has also been managing editor of sports business for the U.S. Library of Congress. Horrow is nicknamed the Sports Professor, thanks to his time spent as a visiting expert on sport law at Harvard Law School, where he earned his degree.
Rick Burton, MBA, is the David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University. Prior to his appointment at Syracuse in 2009, he served as the chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. He has also previously served as the commissioner of the National Basketball League, which played in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. From 1995 to 2003, Burton led the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center to international prominence. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, SportsBusiness Journal, Sports Illustrated, Sport Business International, Stadia, and Ad Age. He has had numerous research manuscripts published in academic journals and has authored two books on sport business and marketing.
Myles Schrag, MS, is a former acquisitions and developmental editor at Human Kinetics, responsible for its sport management book list for 13 years. He is a cofounder of Soulstice Publishing and the author of four books. His freelance credits include Sports Illustrated, Publishers Weekly, Runner’s World Online, and Trail Runner. He earned an MS in kinesiology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
Building a brand that reflects your core values
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
By Don Garber
There is a singular goal that drives us every day at Major League Soccer, and that is to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world.
We will not be satisfied until we join the ranks of England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, and Spain's La Liga as one of the elite properties in the world's most popular sport. There are three things we believe will get us to our goal: (1) the highest-quality product on the field, (2) the most engaging fan experience anywhere in state-of-the-art, soccer-specific stadiums, and (3) cutting-edge, compelling content via our domestic and international media partners and social media channels. Whether an individual works for the MLS League Office or for one of our clubs, this is the shared mission among us. It is a vision shared by our owners and demanded by our fans.
For a professional sport league in just its third decade of existence, the progress on and off the field has truly been staggering. MLS was founded in 1996 with just 10 teams. Today we have 24 teams and will be at 28 in the coming years. The original business plan called for our clubs to be tenants in large NFL and college football stadiums. By 2019, 20 of our clubs will play in soccer stadiums that are appropriately sized and strategically located to be accessible to our young and increasingly urban fan base. We have more than 2,000 employees and more than 600 players; and we are particularly proud of the fact that now every MLS team has youth development academies and facilities that rival those of many of the top clubs from around the world. And almost 15 years ago—when we saw a rapidly growing interest within the business community in the sport here in North America—we created Soccer United Marketing, a comprehensive commercial soccer company that represents a wide variety of soccer properties in sponsorship, marketing, media, and game promotion.
It is particularly striking that this growth has taken place in the most competitive sport market in the world, with the added pressure from international soccer leagues and properties as well as countless entertainment options available to fans.
At the league office in New York City, we have hundreds of committed executives in many different business units that come to work every day knowing that they are delivering on the hopes and dreams of millions of soccer fans while working in an industry that provides great opportunities for personal and career growth. We recognize the unique and special relationship our employees have with the league and the sport of soccer. And we regularly empower them to take ownership of our vision and have responsibility for helping us achieve our goals.
Pushing the boundaries of technology in sport
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry.
Angela Ruggiero challenges sport leaders not to lose the human essence of the sporting experience as technology continues to profoundly influence the industry. Ruggiero is a leading figure in global sport, having served as an elite athlete, educator, administrator, innovator, advisor, board member, and investor. She is cofounder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, the global leader in sport innovation intelligence, helping clients make sense of a complicated sports-tech market. Ruggiero is a member of the 2015 Hockey Hall of Fame and a four-time Olympian in ice hockey, winning a gold medal in 1998, silver medals in 2002 and 2010, and a bronze in 2006. She was a member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of the IOC Athletes' Commission. She currently serves on the IOC's Digital and Technology Commission and the Ethics Commission. Ruggiero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA), Harvard College (BA), and the University of Minnesota (MEd).
Sport technology is not new. People who suggest otherwise are recklessly narrowing their definition of “technology.” People often conflate the concept of technology with the digital age—innovations since the development of the microprocessor—but the reality of the relationship between sport and technology is much older when you take a closer look.
For as long as we've played sports, we've looked to technology to influence how we play and how we watch. Some technologies have been adopted quickly, while others have faced negative pressure. Radio and TV broadcasts were initially seen as threats to ticket gate revenue, and coaches feared that helmets in American football would make the players soft (they didn't). Skates, bicycle derailleurs, jumbotrons, scoreboards, stopwatches, tickets, and the mobile phone: The list goes on, and it would be impossible to measure the impact of all technology on sport. The point is that sport and technology are inextricably intertwined, and always have been. In many cases, sport has served as the perfect breeding ground to test out new innovations.
Throughout this long and interconnected history, technology has been predominantly used to improve the fan experience, while the on-the-field competition remained the same. Sport was always seen as a competition among people, in-person, regardless of the degree of physicality, including hockey and chess and everything in between. Now, new technologies are giving athletes a sought-after edge, providing a new platform for the fan to watch, and affecting the competition, even in the field of play.
Additionally, over the past decade, technology is forcing a dramatic reimagining of what sport even means. Innovations like virtual and augmented reality, advancements in robotics and body modification, and rapid global interconnectivity may change the very concept of human sport. Esports is, in many ways, already bearing this out, as video game players compete with digital athletes on screen, often across continents. It is an amazing meld of human and computer sport. Martial artists and boxers are exploring how the mixed realities could eliminate the physical danger of fighting in relation to sport. New leagues are experimenting with crowd-sourced coaching, as fans are encouraged to vote in real time on a team's play-calling.
As an Olympian, IOC member, and chief strategy officer for the Los Angeles Olympic bid that involved creating the “most innovative Olympics ever,” I've spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between sport and technology. Technology will allow the industry to connect to more fans, help more athletes reach their peak performance, and inspire the next generation of young people. That is the power of tech: a means to a greater end, a way to keep sport relevant at a point in time when other entertainment options are demanding more time and mind share. Technology may be the solution to keep sport relevant when Netflix and other forms of entertainment are grabbing the attention of the next generation.
With all of this innovation, we may look back on this book in 20 years and not recognize the sports being discussed. The marriage of sport and technology is not new, but the rate of change and the pace of technological development are accelerating. It is my great hope that even as we experiment with the role humans have in and the extent to which they are involved in sport, we never abandon the essential humanity that has driven sport throughout history. Technology may subvert and change our role as agents in the world of sport, but we must remember to embrace and hold fast to the spirit of competition, sorority, fraternity, and unity that has always made sport one of the most powerful cultural phenomena in the world.
The constancy of good marketing
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked."
By Rick Burton
But what if, as you are reading this, you are saying, “Well, Rick, that was good for Jordan back in the 1980s when companies like Nike or Gatorade could create image trajectories for athletes they liked. Let's be honest, as we approach 2020, the media and marketing landscape is dramatically different. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat didn't exist then. Isn't the marketing portion of deal making much different?”
My short answer, “no,” may surprise you. The concept of marketing (what it means to “market” a product, good, service, or individual) is always evolving but also fairly constant. Pricing, placement, product, promotion, payment, populations, pushing, pulling, people, and power (the heck with 5 Ps of marketing; here are 10 Ps) are all levers an agent, player, employee, or CEO must consider.
If you are going to zig when they zag, you have to know the marketplace. If you are going to play small ball against a team of giants, you have to make your threes. You have to believe you can beat the favorite (shout out here to Malcolm Gladwell's wonderful book David and Goliath). If you are going to be counterintuitive, you have to really know what's going on.
Today, my Syracuse students know we start by looking at the individual athlete and assessing the marketplace as it really exists. I tell them we all exist in a global economy. A digital economy. A 24/7/365 economy. An instant economy.
Today's young people understand that technology is changing faster than most people can grasp what is happening. One of my favorite authors is Thomas Friedman and his brilliant book from 2016, Thank You for Being Late, where he discussed the realities of contemporary life and how our use of technology borders on all-consuming.
I know Friedman is right. When I'm attending NBA or NFL games, I look up to find the folks around me spending more time looking at their phones than they do the game. I know college players who care more about how many “followers” they have than how many points they scored. I know individuals who care more about getting a Tweet out first than wondering whether their Tweet is accurate.
Are those bad things? Maybe. But modern marketers must understand market dynamics in order to best represent any contract or agreement they are working on. The late Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peoplewrote about negotiations that are based on achieving “Win-Win,” a naturally better option than “Lose-Win” or “Lose-Lose.”
But let's add to the concept of “winning” the idea of comprehensively projecting far more than the deal on the table. There is more at stake than just the chips in the pot. Let's not play for the cash wagered but also for the table, chairs, and house.
If Nike's success with John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Bo Jackson, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan teaches us anything, it might be that marketing successful individuals (who are capable of thriving in powerful partnerships) is best achieved when all parties take the long view. And take the marketing portion of the agreement really seriously.
The fact that Jordan became a hugely successful businessman long after his playing days were over is pretty impressive. And not just because Nike wanted to increase market share and annual earnings for their stakeholders. Rather, it was because the objectives of the brand and the endorser could be really leveraged in the same ways people think about annual compound interest.
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