“The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated”. It’s a quote that’s attributed to Mark Twain, who was the subject of one of the first ever celebrity death hoxes. It was basically his way of saying “Slow your role, people. I’m still around and producing great work”. It’s a sentiment that Natasha Sinagoga , Senior Vice President Market Sales at Ampersand , can empathize with. Sinagoga and Ampersand are on a mission to dispel the exaggerated rumors about the demise of cable tv. The future ...
Aug 05, 2025•34 min•Ep. 78
You may have heard that it’s the dawn of a new age in college sports. Actually, that’s underselling it. Let’s put it this way: college sports as you know it is over. Finito. Kaput. In it’s place is… well, I think we’re still figuring out what that is. But with all the conference realignment, changes to the college football playoff, NIL and direct payments to players, there’s one thing we know with 100% certainty: the need for new revenue, and lots of it, is absolutely vital to college athletic d...
Jul 22, 2025•36 min•Ep. 77
I don’t know if you noticed or not, but soccer is having a bit of a moment here in the US. The MLS continues to grow, Messi came to play in Miami, the US Women are literally the gold standard, and a lot of Americans became fully vested in a Welsh town called Wrexham. Few people know more about this growth than this episode’s guest, Justin Papadakis , the Deputy CEO & Chief Real Estate Officer for the United Soccer League . Papadakis has been at the epicenter of soccer’s expansion in the US. ...
Jul 08, 2025•45 min•Ep. 76
With House v NCAA now officially settled law, we took time to circle back with Dr Dan Rascher , the lead economist on the case, Director of Academic Programs of the USF Sport Management Program , and according to some, one of the most powerful people in college football . Dr Rascher played an integral role in the case by helping unravel the complex economics of college sports. In doing so, he had a front row seat to the decision-making that has forever changed college sports. We cover his role i...
Jul 01, 2025•19 min
I’m going to level with you. Doing this whole podcasting thing isn’t exactly for the feint of heart, you know? It’s a lot of work. Scheduling guests, recording episodes, editing (ugh, the editing), posting, promoting, social media (ugh, socials…) All the while wondering if anyone is listening… So when you you get a like, or a rating, or a positive comment, it can be pretty cool. But when you get an actual AWARD? Man, that’s just next level. It’s a feeling this episode’s guest, EJ Cutliff , knows...
Jun 24, 2025•34 min•Ep. 75
There’s an African expression that people who serve in the Navy hear a lot: “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” Basically it means that your skill isn’t developed unless you find yourself in tough situations. No one knows this better than Brandon Doll , Founder of Sports and Entertainment Advisors . After leaving the comparatively smooth seas of the US Navy, Doll found himself working for the Oakland Raiders, a team that more-or-less lived in the eye of a hurricane. Not one to shy away f...
Jun 10, 2025•47 min•Ep. 74
Welcome to the 72nd episode of the Sports Business Conversations podcast. We wanted to mention the number of episodes to give you a little perspective of the number of people we’ve had a chance to talk to since launching this show a few years ago. Over 70 people who are leading, changing, and improving sports business in different ways. Each of the brings things to the table that have helped them find success: intelligence, foresight, experience, charisma. And so forth. Tamica Smith Jones , who ...
May 27, 2025•39 min•Ep. 73
We all have obstacles that we face in life. Sometimes these might seem petty. Like, oh my god the wifi is so slow today. But oftentimes these obstacles may be more substantial. Things like unhappiness in a job. Loneliness. Addiction. Relationship challenges. The list, unfortunately, goes on. These things can impact us to such a degree that we become almost paralyzed by them. It’s something that this episode’s guest, Robert Paylor , is uniquely qualified to speak to. In 2017, Robert was at the tr...
May 13, 2025•55 min•Ep. 72
There haven't been a lot of quiet moments for Tamzin Barriolhet since we last spoke: big time promotions, groundbreaking partnerships, and the arrival of Sophie. ABOUT THIS PODCAST The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners , a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved. YOUR HOST Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience...
May 06, 2025•25 min
The next 10 years are kind of unprecedented for the United States in terms of global sporting events coming here. Let’s do a quick review: FIFA Club World Cup coming later this year. FIFA World Cup in 2026. LA Olympics in 2028. FIFA Women’s World Cup AND Rugby World Cup will both be here in 2031. Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2034. That’s a lot to take in. And it’s going to require a herculean effort from both event organizers and government officials to make these monumental internationa...
Apr 29, 2025•39 min•Ep. 71
With so many people interested in working in sports, it’s amazing how many successful sports biz execs I talk to didn’t start with that goal. A lot of them were caught completely off guard by the opportunity to do so. That’s definitely the case with this episode’s guest, Leela Srinivasan . The experienced tech CMO of companies like OpenTable and SurveyMonkey was just starting to wonder what might be next might be next for her. And it was at that moment when Parity , a groundbreaking sports marke...
Apr 15, 2025•43 min•Ep. 70
Consider for a moment, if you will, the humble stadium sign. Yes, those ubiquitous displays that vie for your attention at every stadium and arena you’ve ever been to. I think most people in sports business have been guilty at one time or another of looking at those signs a little derisively. You know. “Spots and Dots”, as they saying goes. The things you add toward the end of a sponsorship proposal. Well, disregard the no-longer humble stadium sign at your peril. Digital displays and mammoth sc...
Apr 01, 2025•28 min•Ep. 69
I think it’s fair to say that pain, and managing pain, is just part of a football players every day experience. It’s something a player just has to learn how to deal with. The entire culture of the sport kind of celebrates pain, right? “Play through the pain” “No pain no gain”. And my personal favorite: “Just Rub some dirt in it”. But there’s a human toll to all that pain. We’ve all seen stories of former athletes laid low by the toll of the sport. Unfortunately, many of the stories have terribl...
Mar 18, 2025•35 min•Ep. 68
So a little personality quirk about me: I love to drive. On a long road trip, I’ll turn off the radio and cruise in silence. It’s one of the few times I can really just let my mind just unspool. This episode’s guest also loves to drive. In fact, Mike Rolih , the founder and CEO of GoRout , loves driving so much, he became a limo driver after his baseball playing career wound down. He would spend hours driving thinking about what his next career step might be. And then inspiration struck. After s...
Mar 04, 2025•45 min•Ep. 67
On March 1, 2025, I had a chance to do a live interview with Jess Smith, President of the Golden State Valkyries , for the USF Sports Management Program . In our conversation, Jess talks about the decision to join the Valkyries, building the team’s front office, how she’ll evaluate success in this first year of operation, and what’s left to do with a little more than 2 months before the first tip off in franchise history, Special shout outs to USF Athletics’ Isabella Bruenner and USF Sports Mana...
Mar 03, 2025•34 min
There’s a line from Arthur Miller’s play “Death of a Salesman” that’s always stuck with me. It’s when the memory of Willy Loman’s successful older brother Ben is encouraging him to persevere when the going gets tough. Ben says, "The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy. One must go in to fetch a diamond out." This episode’s guest, Chris Pearlman , the CEO of Aggregate Sports ? Well, suffice it to say he knows a thing or two about fetching diamonds out. Pearlman is a sports business lifer, ...
Feb 18, 2025•41 min•Ep. 66
In this episode of "Catching Up", we reconnect with Episode 8 guest Ashley Chalk , who left Chip Ganassi Racing to become the VP of Partnerships for the Tomorrow Golf League . ABOUT THIS PODCAST The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners , a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved. YOUR HOST Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports busin...
Feb 11, 2025•20 min
Was there ever a point where you thought you wanted to be a sports agent? Look, most of us have. Call it the “Jerry Maguire” effect. The 1996 Tom Cruise movie was a first exposure to sports business for a lot of people. And it made the job seem pretty cool, right? Going to games with a lanyard around your neck that provides all kinds of access, rubbing elbows with athletes and owners, being down on the field, etc. My guest, Mac Barnhardt of Rock Empire Sports , has been there and done all that. ...
Feb 04, 2025•42 min•Ep. 65
What a world it is when you can be considered past your prime at age 27. But that’s pro baseball for you. That talent pipeline is always filling up with new players who are looking to take a roster spot. Even veterans as talented as Bobby Bramhall , a promising lefty pitcher, who’d come back from Tommy John surgery and was pitching better than ever, wasn't safe. But when the writing is on the wall, you can do one of 2 things: bury your head so you don’t have to read it, or start getting on with ...
Jan 21, 2025•37 min•Ep. 64
Sports business moves pretty quickly. People change jobs, get involved with cool stuff, launch new companies. All kinds of stuff. So it makes sense, every so often, to catch up with a previous guest. This time, we’re catching up with Episode 5 guest Megan Sheffield , now Director of Brand Partnerships of Linkedin. Click here for our original episode (published on Sept 2023.)...
Jan 14, 2025•14 min
People say a lot of interesting things on this podcast, but this quote from Mark McCullers , Principal of the McCullers Group , really caught my attention. He said: "You have to make the building sweat". Basically it means that if you’re thinking of building a sports facility, you have to make that barn work as hard as it possibly can for your organization. You have to squeeze every last drop of usage and revenue out of that thing. Few people know more about putting a stadium through its paces t...
Jan 07, 2025•28 min•Ep. 63
Let’s start by just stating the obvious. There’s a lot of people out there who want to work in sports. My guest Scott Doyne of Doyne Services was one of those guys. And he pulled it off. Did all the things he needed to do: worked his tail off, got a job with Turner Sports to work on NASCAR and then the NBA, hooked into digital media when it was just starting to take off, and doing all the things that make working in sports pretty fun, right? Going to games. Playing golf at cool courses. You know...
Dec 17, 2024•30 min•Ep. 62
Sports business moves pretty quickly. People change jobs, get involved with cool stuff, launch new companies. All kinds of stuff. So it makes sense, every so often, to catch up with a previous guest. This time, we’re catching up with Episode 5 guest Charles Nieves , now of Georgia Tech Athletics . Click here for our original episode (published on Dec 2021.) ABOUT THIS PODCAST The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners , a sports marketing agency that specializes in...
Dec 05, 2024•11 min
I collected baseball cards as kid. I still remember the excitement of saving up that $1 and heading out the drugstore to get a fresh pack. Then carefully opening the wax paper, popping the worst piece of gum ever conceived into my mouth, and sorting through the trove of 15 cards and PRAYING that I’d get a player from the Boston Red Sox. There was just something about having a picture of that player in your hand, and pouring over his stats, whether he hit righty or lefty, his nickname, and more. ...
Dec 03, 2024•39 min•Ep. 61
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably consider yourself to be something of a sports fan. But what degree of sports fan are you, really…? How badly do your favorite team’s losses really sting? For example, does that 1 run loss on the 27th game of the baseball season hurt so much that it forces you to go on a two hour walk to decompress? Probably not. But that’s what fandom is like for this episode’s guest, Borna Nazari , the President and F...
Nov 19, 2024•40 min•Ep. 60
I’ve always loved the expression “Man plans, god laughs”. It’s actually an old Yiddish proverb that speaks to how hard it is to execute a plan when so many unforeseen variables can come into play. Vaunted 21st century philosopher Mike Tyson has a more contemporary version : “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” I suspect no one knows more about carefully laid plans going awry than this episode’s guest, Learfield Chief Strategy Officer, Ben Mathan . After carefully plotting ou...
Nov 05, 2024•37 min•Ep. 59
Sports business moves pretty quickly. People change jobs, get involved with cool stuff, launch new companies. All kinds of stuff. So it makes sense, every so often, to catch up with a previous guest. This time, we’re catching up with Episode 19 guest, Jenn Todd of the Boston Celtics . Click here for our original episode (published on Dec 2022.) ABOUT THIS PODCAST The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners , a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, ma...
Oct 29, 2024•13 min
I’ve got bad news for you. Turns out your TV is pretty dumb. Well, not the TV itself, really. But the broadcast that comes into it sure can be. In this age of personalized experiences and customization, a sports broadcast is more or less one size fits all. Here’s the game, there’s the couch, sit down, and watch. It’s a situation that was just begging for someone to apply a little innovation and creativity. And that someone was Wim Sweldens , the co-founder and CMO of Kiswe . Sweldens, you see, i...
Oct 22, 2024•42 min•Ep. 58
The other day I was looking at all the digital photos and video I’ve stored over the years, and was a little overwhelmed. I’ll bet you know what I’m talking about, right? Things stored in different places. Lack of categorization. Frankly, it’s a total mess. Now, imagine what that’d be like if you were doing it for hundreds of thousands of people... But that’s what sports teams are dealing with right now. Think about all the photos, videos, and other forms of content that are generated about leag...
Oct 08, 2024•47 min•Ep. 57
The other day was movie night here at worldwide HQ, so I thought I’d check out “ The Spoils ”, Mike Nicoll ’s monumental documentary about AAU basketball. I’d juat settled in when the film’s protagonist, Etop Udo-Ema, says the following about AAU hoops: “It’s a street game. It’s really just one step ahead of the dope game.” It’s kind of an astounding statement, right? Youth sports being compared to the drug trade? But that line that lands even harder when Mike shares that he used the infamous HB...
Sep 24, 2024•47 min•Ep. 56
