TicketManager All Access Interview Series

In conversation with hosts Michael Goldstein & Ken Davidoff, Scott Boras, legendary MLB agent and founder of Boras Corporation, offers an insider perspective on the business of baseball and explores the deep connection between sports and business.

In this episode of the TicketManager All Access Interview Series, we’re going to look back on 2024 to explore the most significant trends in the sports business industry through the insights of our guests from the last year.

Suzanne Kounkel, Global and U.S. Chief Marketing Officer for Deloitte, looks across the global professional services company’s vast sponsorship portfolio to discuss supporting the business, helping partners achieve success and impacting external and internal audiences.

Shelley Johnsen, Managing Director of Sponsorships for BMO, discusses the latest developments in how the banking and financial services company activates its diverse roster of partnerships across North America and shares some of the eye-popping results of those efforts.

Jason Andrea, Chief Revenue Officer for the Las Vegas Aces, explores the fascinating intersection of the rise in women’s pro sports and the emergence of Las Vegas as a leading live sports market, and how that comes together in securing sold-out crowds and delivering value to brand partners for the WNBA franchise.

Ken Hanscom, Chief Operating Officer of TicketManager taps his personal Olympic passion as well as the company’s work with customers managing hospitality, VIP guest experiences and ticket distribution to explore what to expect from brands this year and for upcoming Olympic events.

Julie Giese, President of NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race, discusses the many lessons learned from the 2023 event—the first ever street course for NASCAR—including how to make an event part of the community, handling historic weather issues and developing a sponsorship strategy that makes sense for the property and partners.

Todd Fischer, Executive Vice President, Client Consulting at GMR Marketing tackles some of the critical issues facing brands and properties in the quest to keep the sports marketing industry moving forward and delivering necessary results to all parties.

Rob Prazmark, Founder and CEO of 21 Sports & Entertainment Marketing Group, discusses the keys to success in selling nearly $4 billion in corporate partnerships for the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, Dallas Cowboys, Smithsonian Institution and other properties. Rob is the author of The Olympics Don’t Take American Express: The Birth of Mega Sports Sponsorships Part One.

Jim McCoy, Associate Vice President, Sports Marketing for Nationwide, breaks down the financial services company’s multi-faceted sponsorship portfolio and discusses new plans and activations for some of its leading programs.

Matt O’Brien, Senior Vice President of Rock Entertainment Group, Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chief Revenue Officer for 100 Thieves, explores the challenges and opportunities of building and sustaining partnership programs and sales teams while managing innovation and other changes to the marketing landscape.

Matt Yonan, President of Tigris Marketing, describes the opportunities and challenges of competing with much larger agencies to win brand business in strategy, negotiating, activating and measuring the impact of sponsorships.

Mike Falconer, Vice President of Strategy for Sportradar, explains why the elimination of third-party cookies spurred the introduction of the company’s new FanID solution and digs into the opportunities and challenges of collecting, connecting, activating and orchestrating data insights across rights holders and their multiple partners.

Veteran marketing executive Tony Wells draws on his successful career to assess the state of partnerships today, including the importance of integrating DEI efforts into partnerships and some of the biggest challenges to sponsorship success facing both brands and rights holders.

Mark Youngworth, Chief Operating Officer of Zips Car Wash, discusses the company’s unique sponsorship category, why college sports is a good fit for the brands’ objectives and how its NIL content series of student-athlete interviews took shape and is seeing results.

As we conclude Year 3 of the podcast and before 2024 gets fully underway, it’s a great time to look back and recall some of the ideas and insights shared by our podcast guests over the past 12 months.

Ishveen Jolly, CEO of OpenSponsorship, discusses dealmaking and trends in the influencer space, including what brands are looking for, the rise of NIL deals and the role of her digital marketplace in forging successful marketing partnerships.

Kady Stoll, Vice President of Global Sponsorships for 3M, outlines how the company’s diverse portfolio achieves multiple objectives, including growth and awareness for 3M as a global leader in science and innovation.

Juul Manders, CEO of international football social community 433, discusses how the company grew from a soccer-focused Twitter page to 100 million followers and partnerships with top clubs, players and marketers.