October 10, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of How 2 Sport, Patty Hubbard discusses how the Bay Area Host Committee came to be and the importance of following your passions, both in your professional and personal life.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, and welcome to How to Sport, the show that
highlights the unique experiences and journeys of professionals in sports biz.
I'm your host, Megan Robertson, and I have the privilege
to be here today with Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer
of the Bay Area Host Committee, Patti Hubbard. Welcome, Patti, Hi,
nice to be here. We're super excited to have you
(00:25):
on the show today. So we'll kind of start from
the beginning and then we'll work our way to where
you are now, at this incredible in this incredible role
that you're in. So you graduated from Providence College with
you with your Bachelor of Science and Marketing. You are
a Division one field hockey player and two time Big
East champion, and we'll get to that field hockey and
how that's still relative in your life today. But you
(00:49):
have an extensive background with a multitude of experience across
marketing and leading teams, which is super important. So we'll
start at the beginning. You started in the ticketing world
at the Providence Ruins and Sports Lab and then transitioned
into a senior account executive with contemporary marketing. What would
you say you learned in the early stages of your
career that has been beneficial to where you are now.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, thanks so much. It's always fun to talk about
the career journey that you've had and take a minute
a busy day, So thanks for this, you know. I
think buying sports in college for me really was my
launching pad into my career. By playing at that high
level of sport, I was able to meet some early
(01:33):
contacts and early relationships that really allowed me to start
a career in sport, specifically at the Providence Bruins. And
I think because of those contacts and those relationships and
the confidence that I had playing at that high level
of sport enabled me to really start my internship at
the Providence Bruins and really hit the ground running and
(01:54):
really be able to look at this first year team.
So the team Providence Bruns had moved from Maine to
Rhode Island and so it was their first year in
a market like Providence, and so being able to see
something from the beginning and building something from the ground
up even though I was an intern really became a
theme throughout my career and starting something from the ground up,
(02:17):
building it, building a team, being part of an organization
to be able to be a part of a lot
of different functions. You know, it really has been really
setting the stage for my roles past the Providence runs,
including you know you mentioned Contemporary Marketing again, that was
a small agency that grew through many acquisitions to be
(02:39):
ultimately part of Live Nation. So you can see kind
of how things start small and they end up big.
Has really been a theme in all of my career roles.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And that startup mentality is so crucial, especially for the athlete.
I think that competitiveness and wanting to see something to
feed is so huge. The other thing I want to
highlight is this business is so much about who you know,
not what you know, and what you know is important.
But you bring that up to I think two fantastic points.
(03:08):
So following those two roles, you worked at Live Nation
and Onboard and Entertainment as an account director and president respectfully,
and you were leading national partnerships like Coca Cola, Levi's,
and Visa. So as a young professional, how did you
navigate working with brands of that stature and any advice
you can share?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, you know a couple of things there. One is,
you know, I was working primarily in Rhode Island. I
was working in New York. Always thought I'd sort of
live as a New England girl back there, and I
was given this opportunity to move to Atlanta as this
Live Nation. At the time, it was SFX Entertainment, then
it was Clear Channel Entertainment, and then which is now
today Live Nation. And with that growth, there was opportunity, right,
(03:49):
opportunity to be at the forefront of, Hey, we're building
a team here, We're evolving the organization, we're scaling the organization,
you know. And I was in my mid twenties and
just kind of looking for what was next. And I
raised my hand. I said, I'll move to Atlanta as
part of this role up of all these concert promoters,
and I'll work with Coke and I'll work in the building.
(04:09):
I'll be in the hallways. I'll be sort of at
the forefront of it. And again I was really young,
raised my hand. I didn't have a family at the time.
I was willing to move and you'll see a theme
in that as well. But so I moved to Atlanta,
started working in the co Cola building and then they
said to me, you know, we're going to need a
bigger team on this business. This is a huge business.
And at the time I said, okay, and they said
(04:32):
you're going to need a team. I'm probably going to
need about twenty thirty people, and I just did it.
So I think part of that competitive mentality of like
you just figure it out. I opened an office I
think I was twenty seven at the time in Atlanta,
built a huge team around the coke card business at
the time, tied into music events, and I just I
just put my head down and did the work. And
(04:54):
part of that success really came with like finding great
people to work with and teammates to work with to
be able to execute which at the time was one
of the largest promotions ever done at coc Cola. So
a year and a half down in Atlanta, you know
you're in the hallways, you're building those relationships, and you
mentioned it, those relationships live with you through your career, right,
(05:15):
So I was able to bring that Coke relationship through
everything I did, and even starting an office out on
the West Coast. You mentioned Levi's and Visa No Live
Nation said to me, we need someone how to run
the Levi's business. So I moved out to San Francisco
and started over again personally, but I used that as
the next opportunity to advance my career, and I wasn't
(05:39):
I didn't say no to those things. I said yes,
knowing that everything would work out if I put in the.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Work, willing to take a risk, and relationships such a
huge part of not only this business, but so many businesses.
So tell me about your next role. You moved to
the West Coast and became a founding partner. Let's talk
about it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, so I again, I was like, I'll go
to San Francisco the Bay Area for two years, so
you know, I'll put some time out there. A great opportunity.
I'm still here twenty five years later, so U. And
part of that was, you know, moving to the market.
They needed someone on Levi's. I walked in the door
at Levi's again similar to Coke. They said, this agreement,
(06:17):
there's not a lot in this agreement. We're not happy
with this relationship. It's a three year deal. Again, I
had to just dive in and figure it out. And
part of that success with a client like that is
really spending the time right so being in the hallways
wanting them one as a client to succeed, right, So
they are also in their own jobs having to do well.
(06:38):
And I always took that mentality of like, I'm going
to be here with you. I'll be an extension of
your team. I will help you figure it out, i
will build a relationship with you, and I'm going to
go to bat for you in a huge organization. Right.
And so I'm still working on the Levi's business today,
So twenty five years later, they still end up a client,
and I can't stress enough how important those relationships are.
(07:01):
So I took that Levi's relationship, I started working on
some Nike business. I took the Coke relationship and that
was really for me the foundation of being the West
Coast president for MKTG because I was able to build
around a couple key clients. And that's how businesses start, right.
You bring a relationship like that where you're invaluable and
you can build a business around it. And that's again
(07:23):
been a theme through all the next roles that I
had coming out of.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That great segue. So then you co founded Brand Forward Sports,
a company focused on helping current and former pro athletes.
So what encouraged you to do this? You've talked about relationships.
You've talked about loving what you do, and then on
top of that, then went to work for you rue
again helping athletes. So let's talk about those two roles
(07:48):
as well.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, I think to my experience, the MKTG experience was
part of eleven year journey where we were acquired by
Dentsu Sports, and so part of that journey was I've
kind of I've done this, I've done this. I was like,
what's next? And then I you know, being a former athlete,
I kept getting referred to by bike clients said hey,
(08:09):
we have this athlete. You do a lot of work
in the marketing and branding space. And you have to remember,
like eight years ago, the nil was the thing. Yet
there were a lot of athletes who were looking at
Steph Curry and Lebron and like the top percentage of
athletes saying, well, they started a company, they're you know,
they are doing philanthropic work, they're out there, why can't
I write? And so really sort of in parallel social media,
(08:33):
like you saw a lot more athletes showing up in
social media SOT a lot of influencer work, and so
we started brand Forward Sports right at that time pretty
early on, and we just had tons of athletes coming
to us. We had tons of referrals, you know, whether
it was someone who worked on a deal with Coca
Cola at one point, like we just had my business partner,
former business partner, Stephanie Martin, and I looked at it
(08:55):
and said, there's no one filling this gap of what
is my brand as an athlete. And because of our
brand building work with all these nice, you know, corporate brands,
we were able to take that process to these athletes
and really helped them show up outside you know, off
the court, you know, off the field in a way
that was really powerful to them. And knowing who they are,
what they stood for was an important part of the
(09:16):
process of how they would make money, right, And the
agent didn't do that for them. They needed a brand
specialist and a marketing specialist and really sometimes a therapist
right about like what are you doing out there? What
are you doing in the in the world, the country,
back to the world besides being an athlete, so very much.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
A trailblazer in that space. I mean, it's crazy to
see how much progress has been made in that field,
and I can only imagine what the next ten years
will look like in that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Space, all right, we were really passionate about those underrepresented
you know, represented athletes, the female athlete, the Tier two
NFL athlete, the olympian. They had no support, right and
so that was really one of the inspirations for us
to create Brand Forward. And they also didn't know what
they were going to do next after sport, so that
really kind of the pandemic hit ran Forward pretty hard.
(10:05):
You know, We're still were working with athletes, but a
lot of our event strategy and workshops went away. So
right around that time I went over to Urous Sports
as an advisor and ended up the full time with
them because I thought that that next stage for the
athlete was for replacement, so like all those attributes and
skills they have they've learned through sport are going to
really work work well for them and help them as
(10:27):
they go into careers. And so that was still an
advisor for a year. It's an important part of the
puzzle for athletes is like what's next and helping them
show up to employers when they see their LinkedIn doesn't
have the experience of some of their peers, but they
have so much to offer to these great companies, and
so I'm really passionate about that, like getting athletes into
(10:47):
these roles because we know they do well. Ninety percent
of C suite women are former athletes. We don't know
the story of how they got there, and I think
that's why this podcast is great on what you're doing,
but also it's about how these athletes have so much
to offer that's not on paper.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
It's so true. And you started off with us talking
about field hockey. I was also a Division one soccer
player goalkeeper, so very similar. But I completely agree that
the mentality of athletes is different. But it's sometimes hard
when you haven't been able to work a job in
the summer because you're training for the season, or in
the spring you can't get an internship, or you can't
(11:23):
go study abroad. All of those factors are so huge.
So brain forward and you are what valuable work that is,
and again you see it paying off in specifically like
c suite femails, so super super important work. All right. So,
chief Marketing and Commercial Officer for the Bay Area Host Committee. Wow,
(11:44):
so less than a year into the role, tell me
about the biggest surprises, excitements, challenges. Let's just start there
and then we'll kind of dive in a little bit further.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, I think some of the biggest one of the
biggest surprises, and why even joined the Barrier Host Committee.
Originally I was doing some kinds of thing. I was
enjoying the athlete work. My good friend z Aileen was
starting the Barrier Host Committee. The fact that it didn't
exist was my biggest surprise. So what would happen is
after Super Bowl fifty, the sports Commission or the host
committee would go away, right, and then there would be
(12:14):
you know, college football playoff woul happen, and they'd put
together a team around that. And we know how hard
it is to start a business and even harder to
maybe close the business. So the fact that this in
the Bay Arier didn't exist was a miss, right. So
the fact that the Bayriry didn't have that representation as
a sports commission was one of the main drivers. I
just felt like that was there was a reason the Bayry,
(12:35):
like the Bay Area was number eighteen on the best
place to host global sporting events, right, Like, we were
missing out on opportunities by not having that thread and
not having that leadership. And so the major sports team's
presidents came together and really got behind it, which in
itself is amazing to really help stand up the barrier
host committee and put a team in place to make
(12:57):
sure that we are not only in place for these
upcoming events, but also long term so that the data
is not being a loss, the knowledge is not being
a loss, that we become a premier place moving forward
for global sporting events.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That's awesome and on your team's play currently twenty twenty five,
NBA All Star Game, Super Bowl sixty, and the FEPA
World Cup in twenty twenty six. So you mentioned that
you had to get buy in from these different professional
sports teams. How is working with all of those groups
been knowing that kind of the agendas are different for
(13:34):
each of them. So what have you learned through that experience?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, I think it's been an amazing opportunity When you
walk in a room and it's all of those leaders
of teams and they've all been so gracious and willing
to mentor and support us. Other markets aren't structured the
same way we are. We are very unique from that perspective.
The fact that we've our board is made up of
not only the presidence of sports teams. But it's also
we have all this amazing advisor group, which is Pence,
(14:00):
Steve Young, Brandy Chess Dance. We have amazing athletes advising us.
We have the head of BART Transportation here in the
Bay Area. We have representation from Salesforce, so we we
have the best of the best guiding in advising us.
And that in itself is really unique and an amazing
opportunity and a big draw for me to have those
(14:21):
minds supporting us, just a ladder back. And I want
to point out that you know, super Bowl and Woke
Up are in the same year. That may likely never
happen again. So the fact that we have super Bowl
and Woke Up within six months in the same market
in the same year, a lot would have to happen
to have that ever be repeated. So here we are
if we signed up for crazy and this is what
(14:42):
we're doing. And I think we need the backing of
all those teams and all of those people I mentioned
in order to be able to pull this off at
the level we know we can.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
And the economic impact of those events is only going
to benefit all of those teams, right.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's interesting you know,
they all do have very much their own agendas. The
fact that they're coming together to back that really is
special because they are somewhat competitive with each other. You
may think just because this is happening, they're naturally competitive
from a sponsorship perspective, from a ticket sales, from a
(15:15):
fan perspective. And I think it speaks volumes to know
they've come up and know that how important these events
are to the region. The Bay Area has been down,
it's now back up. And part of that narrative that
we're hearing makes us all really competitive, right because we
love the bear, we love we live. It's really special
and emi and that passion is what unites everyone on
(15:36):
this board and everyone who's putting this together, because we
want to make sure that that narrative, that negative narrative,
is not the narrative moving forward.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Super important. So as of March, there were four women
in the C suite of the Bay Area Host Committee.
So tell me how empowering that's been for you and
typically a male dominated industry.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, you know, over the course of my career, you know,
I've had male and female bosses throughout that. I mean,
I've had a wonderful experience in sports have been really lucky.
I've had huge allies to give me these opportunities to
move markets, to like find the next opportunity. I can't
I can't stress that enough. I do think, you know,
(16:19):
r C Suite is purposely set up the way that
it is, and part of that is that we're we've
been given an opportunity that maybe we haven't had it
to this point in our career, you know, and I
think that we're doing we're passing it along to the
people that we're also bringing to the table. Maybe they've
been overlooked, maybe this is an opportunity they weren't given before.
And part of what we're doing is really stretching people. Right,
(16:39):
So I didn't necessarily sign up to do commercial. I
am doing marketing and commercial now, and that's intentional because
part of that is it's stretching me, but also looking
at how putting all the puzzle pieces together in my
past parts of my career, it really has brought me
to this point. And I think Zalen is the one
who recognized, like your best position to do these things
(17:01):
and to build a team around this, and you know,
it's really special to find somebody who says I know
you can do it, and I'm going to allow you
to do it and give you the ownership to do it.
That is very unique in the sports industry.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That's really incredible and looking at like the stepping stones.
That's what I like to call is like the stepping
stones of the career that has ultimately led you to
this place. Is it's cool to see all the puzzle
pieces coming together. All right, So on top of all
of your professional duties, you also take time to coach
high school and club field hockey. That's really cool to see,
(17:35):
even though you are super busy, how you're giving back
to the game. And your daughter is a big field
hockey player too, is that correct?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah, she was in high school. She's at Boston
College now she's playing intramural sports. But being her coach
in high school was something I knew that I would
never get back, or an opportunity to get back, so
I made the time to do it. It wasn't always easy,
but it was a real special experience to part of
it is really understanding, certainly as a marketer, understanding. I'm
(18:03):
really curious about fans and audience and consumers. I was
a psych major originally in college and I switched to marketing.
So being around high school students every day for three months,
it is almost like a big focus group, right, Like
you're coaching them and you're learning so much and you're
also understanding them a bit better. So I really I
(18:26):
feel like that type of time was invaluable to really
dig in and understand that generation on some level. And
it's fascinating. They're just at a different level than when
we were even at that age of like what they're
balancing and what they care about, and they're so purposeful
and what they're passionate about, Like I didn't. I was
not like that in high school, So it's really fascinating
(18:46):
to see, you know, how they are as students but
people and also as athletes, and.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Even ways to market to them, right, because the ways
they interpret and get content now is completely different than
even I get content snapchat TikTok, Like that's not a
primary method of how I get my news, But what
you're seeing is with younger generations, that's how they're getting
and believing the content they're seeing. So it's it's truly fascinating.
(19:12):
A focus group was a really funny way to put it,
but it is super super smart on all right, Patty, Well,
this has been so valuable and I think we could
sit here and talk for an hour, but I like
to end my podcast with one final question. So, if
you were to provide one word that describes the culmination
of your career up up until now, what would that
(19:34):
word be.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I would use the word fate. Yeah, I can give
some I give some context to that. I think you know,
I wouldn't call it luck because I do think I
worked hard and built the relationships and all those things,
but I've never had to go through a formal interview process.
That is amazing, and so part of that, to me,
that's fate, right, Like you are putting yourself out there
(19:58):
at the right time when you feel, like me, maybe
you're ready for a change. You know, you rely on
your network, you talk to your friends, and I feel
like things have presented themselves to me in a way
that I'm like, I knew was right, and I knew
it was like the right timing. I knew it was
the right people to work with, and I feel like
those things have sort of just I go had a
couple of moments where I'm like, what's next? I'm a
(20:19):
little bit nervous, like what's happening. And I think if
you allow yourself to have a little bit of patience
and be intentional and really take a step back from things,
things will present themselves. If you've done everything you can
until that point, right like treated people well, have given
people opportunities, have been kind to people when they reach
(20:39):
out about a question or if they want a network.
I've never been that person, maybe to a fault where
I've always I've never been someone who's blown somebody off
or ghosted or I've always tried to be how I've
wanted to be treated throughout my career or have been treated,
and so I try to give that back and hope
that the karma comes back to me. And so that's
why I use the word faith, because I really do
(21:00):
believe if you're a good person and you do hart
good work and you've done those things, that opportunities will
present themselves.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
What a great way to end this podcast. Thank you
so much for joining me today on the How To
Sport Podcast.
Hi, and welcome to How to Sport, the show that
highlights the unique experiences and journeys of professionals in sports biz.
I'm your host, Megan Robertson, and I have the privilege
to be here today with Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer
of the Bay Area Host Committee, Patti Hubbard. Welcome, Patti, Hi,
nice to be here. We're super excited to have you
(00:25):
on the show today. So we'll kind of start from
the beginning and then we'll work our way to where
you are now, at this incredible in this incredible role
that you're in. So you graduated from Providence College with
you with your Bachelor of Science and Marketing. You are
a Division one field hockey player and two time Big
East champion, and we'll get to that field hockey and
how that's still relative in your life today. But you
(00:49):
have an extensive background with a multitude of experience across
marketing and leading teams, which is super important. So we'll
start at the beginning. You started in the ticketing world
at the Providence Ruins and Sports Lab and then transitioned
into a senior account executive with contemporary marketing. What would
you say you learned in the early stages of your
career that has been beneficial to where you are now.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, thanks so much. It's always fun to talk about
the career journey that you've had and take a minute
a busy day, So thanks for this, you know. I
think buying sports in college for me really was my
launching pad into my career. By playing at that high
level of sport, I was able to meet some early
(01:33):
contacts and early relationships that really allowed me to start
a career in sport, specifically at the Providence Bruins. And
I think because of those contacts and those relationships and
the confidence that I had playing at that high level
of sport enabled me to really start my internship at
the Providence Bruins and really hit the ground running and
(01:54):
really be able to look at this first year team.
So the team Providence Bruns had moved from Maine to
Rhode Island and so it was their first year in
a market like Providence, and so being able to see
something from the beginning and building something from the ground
up even though I was an intern really became a
theme throughout my career and starting something from the ground up,
(02:17):
building it, building a team, being part of an organization
to be able to be a part of a lot
of different functions. You know, it really has been really
setting the stage for my roles past the Providence runs,
including you know you mentioned Contemporary Marketing again, that was
a small agency that grew through many acquisitions to be
(02:39):
ultimately part of Live Nation. So you can see kind
of how things start small and they end up big.
Has really been a theme in all of my career roles.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And that startup mentality is so crucial, especially for the athlete.
I think that competitiveness and wanting to see something to
feed is so huge. The other thing I want to
highlight is this business is so much about who you know,
not what you know, and what you know is important.
But you bring that up to I think two fantastic points.
(03:08):
So following those two roles, you worked at Live Nation
and Onboard and Entertainment as an account director and president respectfully,
and you were leading national partnerships like Coca Cola, Levi's,
and Visa. So as a young professional, how did you
navigate working with brands of that stature and any advice
you can share?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, you know a couple of things there. One is,
you know, I was working primarily in Rhode Island. I
was working in New York. Always thought I'd sort of
live as a New England girl back there, and I
was given this opportunity to move to Atlanta as this
Live Nation. At the time, it was SFX Entertainment, then
it was Clear Channel Entertainment, and then which is now
today Live Nation. And with that growth, there was opportunity, right,
(03:49):
opportunity to be at the forefront of, Hey, we're building
a team here, We're evolving the organization, we're scaling the organization,
you know. And I was in my mid twenties and
just kind of looking for what was next. And I
raised my hand. I said, I'll move to Atlanta as
part of this role up of all these concert promoters,
and I'll work with Coke and I'll work in the building.
(04:09):
I'll be in the hallways. I'll be sort of at
the forefront of it. And again I was really young,
raised my hand. I didn't have a family at the time.
I was willing to move and you'll see a theme
in that as well. But so I moved to Atlanta,
started working in the co Cola building and then they
said to me, you know, we're going to need a
bigger team on this business. This is a huge business.
And at the time I said, okay, and they said
(04:32):
you're going to need a team. I'm probably going to
need about twenty thirty people, and I just did it.
So I think part of that competitive mentality of like
you just figure it out. I opened an office I
think I was twenty seven at the time in Atlanta,
built a huge team around the coke card business at
the time, tied into music events, and I just I
just put my head down and did the work. And
(04:54):
part of that success really came with like finding great
people to work with and teammates to work with to
be able to execute which at the time was one
of the largest promotions ever done at coc Cola. So
a year and a half down in Atlanta, you know
you're in the hallways, you're building those relationships, and you
mentioned it, those relationships live with you through your career, right,
(05:15):
So I was able to bring that Coke relationship through
everything I did, and even starting an office out on
the West Coast. You mentioned Levi's and Visa No Live
Nation said to me, we need someone how to run
the Levi's business. So I moved out to San Francisco
and started over again personally, but I used that as
the next opportunity to advance my career, and I wasn't
(05:39):
I didn't say no to those things. I said yes,
knowing that everything would work out if I put in the.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Work, willing to take a risk, and relationships such a
huge part of not only this business, but so many businesses.
So tell me about your next role. You moved to
the West Coast and became a founding partner. Let's talk
about it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, yeah, so I again, I was like, I'll go
to San Francisco the Bay Area for two years, so
you know, I'll put some time out there. A great opportunity.
I'm still here twenty five years later, so U. And
part of that was, you know, moving to the market.
They needed someone on Levi's. I walked in the door
at Levi's again similar to Coke. They said, this agreement,
(06:17):
there's not a lot in this agreement. We're not happy
with this relationship. It's a three year deal. Again, I
had to just dive in and figure it out. And
part of that success with a client like that is
really spending the time right so being in the hallways
wanting them one as a client to succeed, right, So
they are also in their own jobs having to do well.
(06:38):
And I always took that mentality of like, I'm going
to be here with you. I'll be an extension of
your team. I will help you figure it out, i
will build a relationship with you, and I'm going to
go to bat for you in a huge organization. Right.
And so I'm still working on the Levi's business today,
So twenty five years later, they still end up a client,
and I can't stress enough how important those relationships are.
(07:01):
So I took that Levi's relationship, I started working on
some Nike business. I took the Coke relationship and that
was really for me the foundation of being the West
Coast president for MKTG because I was able to build
around a couple key clients. And that's how businesses start, right.
You bring a relationship like that where you're invaluable and
you can build a business around it. And that's again
(07:23):
been a theme through all the next roles that I
had coming out of.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That great segue. So then you co founded Brand Forward Sports,
a company focused on helping current and former pro athletes.
So what encouraged you to do this? You've talked about relationships.
You've talked about loving what you do, and then on
top of that, then went to work for you rue
again helping athletes. So let's talk about those two roles
(07:48):
as well.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, I think to my experience, the MKTG experience was
part of eleven year journey where we were acquired by
Dentsu Sports, and so part of that journey was I've
kind of I've done this, I've done this. I was like,
what's next? And then I you know, being a former athlete,
I kept getting referred to by bike clients said hey,
(08:09):
we have this athlete. You do a lot of work
in the marketing and branding space. And you have to remember,
like eight years ago, the nil was the thing. Yet
there were a lot of athletes who were looking at
Steph Curry and Lebron and like the top percentage of
athletes saying, well, they started a company, they're you know,
they are doing philanthropic work, they're out there, why can't
I write? And so really sort of in parallel social media,
(08:33):
like you saw a lot more athletes showing up in
social media SOT a lot of influencer work, and so
we started brand Forward Sports right at that time pretty
early on, and we just had tons of athletes coming
to us. We had tons of referrals, you know, whether
it was someone who worked on a deal with Coca
Cola at one point, like we just had my business partner,
former business partner, Stephanie Martin, and I looked at it
(08:55):
and said, there's no one filling this gap of what
is my brand as an athlete. And because of our
brand building work with all these nice, you know, corporate brands,
we were able to take that process to these athletes
and really helped them show up outside you know, off
the court, you know, off the field in a way
that was really powerful to them. And knowing who they are,
what they stood for was an important part of the
(09:16):
process of how they would make money, right, And the
agent didn't do that for them. They needed a brand
specialist and a marketing specialist and really sometimes a therapist
right about like what are you doing out there? What
are you doing in the in the world, the country,
back to the world besides being an athlete, so very much.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
A trailblazer in that space. I mean, it's crazy to
see how much progress has been made in that field,
and I can only imagine what the next ten years
will look like in that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Space, all right, we were really passionate about those underrepresented
you know, represented athletes, the female athlete, the Tier two
NFL athlete, the olympian. They had no support, right and
so that was really one of the inspirations for us
to create Brand Forward. And they also didn't know what
they were going to do next after sport, so that
really kind of the pandemic hit ran Forward pretty hard.
(10:05):
You know, We're still were working with athletes, but a
lot of our event strategy and workshops went away. So
right around that time I went over to Urous Sports
as an advisor and ended up the full time with
them because I thought that that next stage for the
athlete was for replacement, so like all those attributes and
skills they have they've learned through sport are going to
really work work well for them and help them as
(10:27):
they go into careers. And so that was still an
advisor for a year. It's an important part of the
puzzle for athletes is like what's next and helping them
show up to employers when they see their LinkedIn doesn't
have the experience of some of their peers, but they
have so much to offer to these great companies, and
so I'm really passionate about that, like getting athletes into
(10:47):
these roles because we know they do well. Ninety percent
of C suite women are former athletes. We don't know
the story of how they got there, and I think
that's why this podcast is great on what you're doing,
but also it's about how these athletes have so much
to offer that's not on paper.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
It's so true. And you started off with us talking
about field hockey. I was also a Division one soccer
player goalkeeper, so very similar. But I completely agree that
the mentality of athletes is different. But it's sometimes hard
when you haven't been able to work a job in
the summer because you're training for the season, or in
the spring you can't get an internship, or you can't
(11:23):
go study abroad. All of those factors are so huge.
So brain forward and you are what valuable work that is,
and again you see it paying off in specifically like
c suite femails, so super super important work. All right. So,
chief Marketing and Commercial Officer for the Bay Area Host Committee. Wow,
(11:44):
so less than a year into the role, tell me
about the biggest surprises, excitements, challenges. Let's just start there
and then we'll kind of dive in a little bit further.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, I think some of the biggest one of the
biggest surprises, and why even joined the Barrier Host Committee.
Originally I was doing some kinds of thing. I was
enjoying the athlete work. My good friend z Aileen was
starting the Barrier Host Committee. The fact that it didn't
exist was my biggest surprise. So what would happen is
after Super Bowl fifty, the sports Commission or the host
committee would go away, right, and then there would be
(12:14):
you know, college football playoff woul happen, and they'd put
together a team around that. And we know how hard
it is to start a business and even harder to
maybe close the business. So the fact that this in
the Bay Arier didn't exist was a miss, right. So
the fact that the Bayriry didn't have that representation as
a sports commission was one of the main drivers. I
just felt like that was there was a reason the Bayry,
(12:35):
like the Bay Area was number eighteen on the best
place to host global sporting events, right, Like, we were
missing out on opportunities by not having that thread and
not having that leadership. And so the major sports team's
presidents came together and really got behind it, which in
itself is amazing to really help stand up the barrier
host committee and put a team in place to make
(12:57):
sure that we are not only in place for these
upcoming events, but also long term so that the data
is not being a loss, the knowledge is not being
a loss, that we become a premier place moving forward
for global sporting events.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That's awesome and on your team's play currently twenty twenty five,
NBA All Star Game, Super Bowl sixty, and the FEPA
World Cup in twenty twenty six. So you mentioned that
you had to get buy in from these different professional
sports teams. How is working with all of those groups
been knowing that kind of the agendas are different for
(13:34):
each of them. So what have you learned through that experience?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, I think it's been an amazing opportunity When you
walk in a room and it's all of those leaders
of teams and they've all been so gracious and willing
to mentor and support us. Other markets aren't structured the
same way we are. We are very unique from that perspective.
The fact that we've our board is made up of
not only the presidence of sports teams. But it's also
we have all this amazing advisor group, which is Pence,
(14:00):
Steve Young, Brandy Chess Dance. We have amazing athletes advising us.
We have the head of BART Transportation here in the
Bay Area. We have representation from Salesforce, so we we
have the best of the best guiding in advising us.
And that in itself is really unique and an amazing
opportunity and a big draw for me to have those
(14:21):
minds supporting us, just a ladder back. And I want
to point out that you know, super Bowl and Woke
Up are in the same year. That may likely never
happen again. So the fact that we have super Bowl
and Woke Up within six months in the same market
in the same year, a lot would have to happen
to have that ever be repeated. So here we are
if we signed up for crazy and this is what
(14:42):
we're doing. And I think we need the backing of
all those teams and all of those people I mentioned
in order to be able to pull this off at
the level we know we can.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
And the economic impact of those events is only going
to benefit all of those teams, right.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's interesting you know,
they all do have very much their own agendas. The
fact that they're coming together to back that really is
special because they are somewhat competitive with each other. You
may think just because this is happening, they're naturally competitive
from a sponsorship perspective, from a ticket sales, from a
(15:15):
fan perspective. And I think it speaks volumes to know
they've come up and know that how important these events
are to the region. The Bay Area has been down,
it's now back up. And part of that narrative that
we're hearing makes us all really competitive, right because we
love the bear, we love we live. It's really special
and emi and that passion is what unites everyone on
(15:36):
this board and everyone who's putting this together, because we
want to make sure that that narrative, that negative narrative,
is not the narrative moving forward.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Super important. So as of March, there were four women
in the C suite of the Bay Area Host Committee.
So tell me how empowering that's been for you and
typically a male dominated industry.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, you know, over the course of my career, you know,
I've had male and female bosses throughout that. I mean,
I've had a wonderful experience in sports have been really lucky.
I've had huge allies to give me these opportunities to
move markets, to like find the next opportunity. I can't
I can't stress that enough. I do think, you know,
(16:19):
r C Suite is purposely set up the way that
it is, and part of that is that we're we've
been given an opportunity that maybe we haven't had it
to this point in our career, you know, and I
think that we're doing we're passing it along to the
people that we're also bringing to the table. Maybe they've
been overlooked, maybe this is an opportunity they weren't given before.
And part of what we're doing is really stretching people. Right,
(16:39):
So I didn't necessarily sign up to do commercial. I
am doing marketing and commercial now, and that's intentional because
part of that is it's stretching me, but also looking
at how putting all the puzzle pieces together in my
past parts of my career, it really has brought me
to this point. And I think Zalen is the one
who recognized, like your best position to do these things
(17:01):
and to build a team around this, and you know,
it's really special to find somebody who says I know
you can do it, and I'm going to allow you
to do it and give you the ownership to do it.
That is very unique in the sports industry.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That's really incredible and looking at like the stepping stones.
That's what I like to call is like the stepping
stones of the career that has ultimately led you to
this place. Is it's cool to see all the puzzle
pieces coming together. All right, So on top of all
of your professional duties, you also take time to coach
high school and club field hockey. That's really cool to see,
(17:35):
even though you are super busy, how you're giving back
to the game. And your daughter is a big field
hockey player too, is that correct?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah, she was in high school. She's at Boston
College now she's playing intramural sports. But being her coach
in high school was something I knew that I would
never get back, or an opportunity to get back, so
I made the time to do it. It wasn't always easy,
but it was a real special experience to part of
it is really understanding, certainly as a marketer, understanding. I'm
(18:03):
really curious about fans and audience and consumers. I was
a psych major originally in college and I switched to marketing.
So being around high school students every day for three months,
it is almost like a big focus group, right, Like
you're coaching them and you're learning so much and you're
also understanding them a bit better. So I really I
(18:26):
feel like that type of time was invaluable to really
dig in and understand that generation on some level. And
it's fascinating. They're just at a different level than when
we were even at that age of like what they're
balancing and what they care about, and they're so purposeful
and what they're passionate about, Like I didn't. I was
not like that in high school, So it's really fascinating
(18:46):
to see, you know, how they are as students but
people and also as athletes, and.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Even ways to market to them, right, because the ways
they interpret and get content now is completely different than
even I get content snapchat TikTok, Like that's not a
primary method of how I get my news, But what
you're seeing is with younger generations, that's how they're getting
and believing the content they're seeing. So it's it's truly fascinating.
(19:12):
A focus group was a really funny way to put it,
but it is super super smart on all right, Patty, Well,
this has been so valuable and I think we could
sit here and talk for an hour, but I like
to end my podcast with one final question. So, if
you were to provide one word that describes the culmination
of your career up up until now, what would that
(19:34):
word be.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I would use the word fate. Yeah, I can give
some I give some context to that. I think you know,
I wouldn't call it luck because I do think I
worked hard and built the relationships and all those things,
but I've never had to go through a formal interview process.
That is amazing, and so part of that, to me,
that's fate, right, Like you are putting yourself out there
(19:58):
at the right time when you feel, like me, maybe
you're ready for a change. You know, you rely on
your network, you talk to your friends, and I feel
like things have presented themselves to me in a way
that I'm like, I knew was right, and I knew
it was like the right timing. I knew it was
the right people to work with, and I feel like
those things have sort of just I go had a
couple of moments where I'm like, what's next? I'm a
(20:19):
little bit nervous, like what's happening. And I think if
you allow yourself to have a little bit of patience
and be intentional and really take a step back from things,
things will present themselves. If you've done everything you can
until that point, right like treated people well, have given
people opportunities, have been kind to people when they reach
(20:39):
out about a question or if they want a network.
I've never been that person, maybe to a fault where
I've always I've never been someone who's blown somebody off
or ghosted or I've always tried to be how I've
wanted to be treated throughout my career or have been treated,
and so I try to give that back and hope
that the karma comes back to me. And so that's
why I use the word faith, because I really do
(21:00):
believe if you're a good person and you do hart
good work and you've done those things, that opportunities will
present themselves.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
What a great way to end this podcast. Thank you
so much for joining me today on the How To
Sport Podcast.
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