Sports Business Conversations

ADC Partners
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Business
  • Updated Biweekly

Winner of Sports Podcast Awards' Best Sports Business Podcast Award! In this podcast series, ADC Partners co-founder Dave Almy hosts conversations with sports business professionals who are shaping the future of the industry. With interviews featuring brand representatives, team presidents, sports marketers, and even mascots, the 1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations podcast has insights for everyone involved in the sports industry. ADC Partners is a San Francisco Bay Area based agency specializing in sports business, sports marketing and partnerships. More information is at www.adcpartners.com

  1. 2d ago

    Igniting the Sparks: Stacy Johns, President of the LA Sparks

    Let’s be honest: building a sports brand in LA isn’t exactly for the faint of heart. There’s just a wee bit of competition in that market, right? 11 pro sports franchises, 2 major FBS programs, Hollywood, Disneyland, about 20 major music venues, the beach, and more. The good news? No one ever accused Stacy Johns, the President of the WNBA’s LA Sparks of having a faint heart. Johns started out as an Ernst & Young CPA when she got an opportunity to work on an audit of the Indianapolis Colts. It was there that her sports business career both began and took off. After 16 years with the Colts, she headed West to become Chief Business Officer at LAFC, where she helped build the MLS's first billion-dollar franchise valuation. And now she’s in charge of the LA Sparks, one of the WNBA’s founding franchises, where she’s been charged with re-invigorating the operation so it shines just as bright , and even brighter, than all those other LA stars. In our conversation, we talk about what she walked into — a president's chair sitting vacant eight months - and why breaking through in LA isn't about out-producing the Dodgers. We get into her bet on cultural relevance over celebrity, and her case for why the franchises focusing on operational excellence right now are the ones that will win long-term in women's sports. And one more thing: amid all the LA entertainment she can access through her role, Johns has carved out exactly one concert this year just for herself. John Mellencamp at the Hollywood Bowl. What can you say? She may an LA exec, but she’s still got that Hoosier heart. 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

    Igniting the Sparks: Stacy Johns, President of the LA Sparks

  2. Sep 1

    Relaunching the Pac-12: Damon Dukakis, VP of Integrated Partnerships for the Pac-12

    I'll admit it: sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. I mean, knowing what I know now, and having an opportunity to begin all over again? It’s kind of enticing, right? Damon Dukakis is experiencing this sensation in real time. As the VP of Integrated Partnerships for the Pac-12 powered by Playfly, Damon is, in effect, wiping that slate clean and starting again. The story of the Pac-12 over the last few years is essentially that of the Phoenix. The one time Conference of Champions cratered in the era of re-alignment, as high profile members fled to what they perceived as richer pastures. Left with just 2 members, the Pac-12 was more or less left for dead. But from those ashes, a reinvigorated Pac-12 rose anew. Now with nine members, the conference restarts football competition this Fall. Dukakis’ job is to sell a new vision for the Pac-12 to corporate partners, and no one is better prepared to the meet the moment than he is. Dukakis is both a college sports and partnerships lifer. He’s managed business development for schools and properties including Cal, UCLA and the Rose Bowl. He’s worked for every major MMR partner including IMG College, Learfield, JMI and now Playfly. And over the years he’s produced and managed literally hundreds of millions of dollars in partnerships. In our conversation, Damon and I talk about what goes into building the Pac12 partnerships program and department from scratch. We go into what drew him to the opportunity, the reception to his initial outreaches regarding the reconstituted conference, and how he’s had to adjust his own skills and style to address this rapidly shifting and supremely chaotic college sports marketplace. 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

    Relaunching the Pac-12: Damon Dukakis, VP of Integrated Partnerships for the Pac-12

  3. Aug 18

    Sports Streaming for All: Mike Kohler, CCO for HomeTeam Network

    You can broadcast your kid’s baseball game globally. Yep, that’s right. Your kid’s team can go from selling candy bars to raise money to creating a global media empire with all the trimmings: high broadcast-quality, multiple camera angles, live graphics, AI highlights, and more. The whole deal. And better yet? Here’s what you don’t need: A production truck, crew, or six-figure cost. That's exactly what's available to you right now, and Mike Kohler, Chief Commercial Officer of HomeTeam Network, is making it happen. Home Team Network is developing a single platform for live sports that's built around one core idea: making broadcast-quality production accessible to everyone from minor league baseball to high school flag football to college Olympic sports. Mike has spent 27 years on the multimedia rights side, so he knows exactly what live sports production used to cost and what it used to take. Now he's on the other side, disrupting a model he used to be part of. In our conversation, we get into how Home Team Network is democratizing high quality streaming. We talk about their "broadcast in a box" model — remote production, AI camera switching, live stats, automated highlights — and how it's scaling from 1,300 minor league baseball games last year to somewhere north of 4,000 this summer. We discuss how Home Team is threading the needle between startup nimbleness and serious commercial ambition, and why Mike's advice to his own board was: don't overpay for rights, out-tech the competition instead. 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

    Sports Streaming for All: Mike Kohler, CCO for HomeTeam Network

  4. Aug 4

    The Athlete Influencer Marketplace: Ishveen Jolly, Founder & CEO, OpenSponsorship

    It’s probably no surprise that Ishveen Jolly’s parents both wanted her to become a doctor. They’re both successful doctors, after all, and they were probably measuring her for a stethoscope when she got into Oxford. What mom and dad Jolly probably didn’t expect was that their daughter would major in economics, get bitten by the sports business bug, and launch a start up that counts Serena Williams and David Blitzer among its investors. No, it’s not a medical career, but I suspect Ishveen Jolly’s parents are pretty proud nonetheless. Ishveen is prone to finding exploitable niches. Her first venture connected sports properties in India and the West at a time when almost no one was thinking about cross-border sponsorships. But around 2014, while watching Uber and Airbnb reshape entire industries through marketplace efficiency, she had her lightbulb moment: why couldn't this happen in sponsorship? In 2015, she launched OpenSponsorship. Eleven years in, what started as a marketplace connecting brands and sports properties has evolved into what Ishveen calls a “tech-enabled agency for athlete and influencer marketing”. The platform now has over 33,000 athletes in its network, and crossed into profitability in 2024. In our conversation, Ishveen and I talk about that pivot from team and property deals to athlete marketing (and why she had to learn to love that pivot). We dive into what's driving the sharp increases in athlete marketing deal sizes, the NIL boom and what brands often misunderstand about it, and the questions she thinks brands should be asking right now to get more out of their influencer spend. She also shares what blisses her out more than a well-organized inbox — and the answer is, honestly, very on-brand. 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

    The Athlete Influencer Marketplace: Ishveen Jolly, Founder & CEO, OpenSponsorship

  5. Jul 21

    How Sports Helped Build T-Mobile: Mike Belcher, SVP of Biz Dev, Partnerships & Loyalty for T-Mobile

    A quick question: if your first job out of college was filling out labels on FedEx boxes, do you think you could picture yourself one day hosting a concert on Alcatraz Island — Blue Angels overhead, Creed on stage, the whole thing live on VH1? Probably not. But that's path taken by Mike Belcher, T-Mobile’s SVP of Business Development, Partnerships, and Loyalty Programs. After Mike graduated college, he spent eight years at Disney, where he began by perfecting that FedEx label creation. He left Disney with two things that shaped everything that followed: a deep belief in the power of storytelling and a relentless focus on the customer experience. From there, he joined T-Mobile, where he's spent two decades building one of the most celebrated sponsorship portfolios in sports business. Under Mike's watch, T-Mobile went from a distant fourth-place carrier to a brand that is synonymous with creative and effective partnership marketing. He turned an NBA sponsorship into the iconic Fave Five campaign with Dwyane Wade and Charles Barkley — good enough to earn an attaboy from David Stern. He won the Sports Business Journal Award for Sponsor of the Year in 2023, secured official telecom partner status for the LA28 Olympics, and is leading the charge of embedding 5G into events like the PGA Championship and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. In our conversation, Mike and I talk about the evolution of sponsorship since he began at T Mobile, what separates a real partnership from a sponsorship, and what properties consistently get wrong when pitching T-Mobile. He also reveals what percentage of his wardrobe is T Mobile magenta — and his answer is probably more modest than you'd expect. 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

  6. Jul 7

    Putting Hoops Data to Work: Davyeon Ross, co-Founder & CEO of ShotTracker

    Over the years, we’ve had a lot of conversations with sports business entrepreneurs. One thing they all share is a certain degree of risk tolerance. But even the most daring of them pale in comparison when it comes to this episode’s guest. At 17 years old, Davyeon Ross left his home in Trinidad and Tobago and headed to Kansas to get his college degree and play basketball. Now Kansas winters aren’t for the feint of heart, most especially for someone who grew up on a tropical island off the coast of Venezuela. Were there some thoughts about going back? For sure. But Davyeon persisted, and in doing so learned a of essential lessons about himself. Those lessons serve him today as the co-Founder and CEO of ShotTracker, a company that sits squarely at the white hot intersection of sport and technology integration. ShotTracker’s sensor-based system automatically captures basketball statistics and performance analytics in real time, and is currently in use by over 75 men's and women's college basketball programs. Former NBA Commissioner David Stern and Magic Johnson are among the company’s investors. In our conversation, Davyeon recounts his journey from that small island in the Caribbean to leading an innovative sports tech company. We discuss ShotTracker’s growth and the inevitable pivots that come with leading a start-up company. We also talks about working with coaches, how the company is leveraging its tech to improve fan experience, and why his favorite words in business are “wouldn’t it be cool if…” 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

    Putting Hoops Data to Work: Davyeon Ross, co-Founder & CEO of ShotTracker

  7. Jun 23

    Moving from Fairways to Racetracks: Patrick Lindsey, SVP & GM of Las Vegas Motor Speedway

    It wasn’t too long ago that we had Peter Murray on this show to talk about his transition from running the Professional Fighters League to serving as the CEO of the Pro Bowlers Association. And if you think that’s an interesting career segue, let me introduce you to this episode’s guest, Patrick Lindsey. You see, not that long ago, Patrick was running the PGA Tour stop in Las Vegas, the Shriner’s Open. When the sponsorship of that tournament fell through, Patrick began looking for his next opportunity, which he quickly found. In the form of serving as the SVP and General Manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Now a golf tournament is obviously a much different animal from a NASCAR race. Or is it? Lindsay actually sees a lot of cross over between the two, and sees his golf experience as being essential for getting him ready for managing a motorsports venue. In our conversation, Patrick and I talk about his big job transition, and what he’s still learning on the fly. We dive into the current state of motorsports, why golf fans and NASCAR fans really aren’t that different, and how he keeps his events competitive in the face of new sports and entertainment competition in Las Vegas. He also reveals what he’ll be wearing the next time the world’s largest EDM festival rolls into town. 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

    Moving from Fairways to Racetracks: Patrick Lindsey, SVP & GM of Las Vegas Motor Speedway

  8. Jun 9

    Owning Sports History: Brandon Steiner, Founder of Steiner Sports & CollectibleXchange

    If you’re looking to buy a used stadium urinal, boy, have I got a deal for you. Well, in truth, I don’t have a deal for you. But Brandon Steiner, the founder of Steiner Sports and CollectibleXchange sure does. That’s because Steiner is in the process of dismantling HighMark Stadium, the former home of the Buffalo Bills, and in doing so, is offering a catalog of items from that venue for sale. As you can imagine, the fanatical members of the Bills Mafia are snapping them up. Urinals included. Steiner began his legendary sports business career by repping members of the New York Yankees for their corporate appearances. And living by his entrepreneurial mantra of “what else?”, he expanded that business to include collectibles, fan experiences and more.So when it came time for the Yankees to move to their new home in the Bronx, Steiner pitched the idea of managing the sale of pieces of Yankee Stadium history. HighMark Stadium is now the 7th stadium disassembly he’s managed. Our conversation is full of stories and insights from Steiner’s remarkable and eclectic sports business history. 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 to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: LinkedIn: adc-partnersInstagram: adc_partners_podcastThreads: adc_partners_podcastYoutube: @adcpartnersHomepage: adcpartners.com/podcast Mentioned in this episode: Good Sports

    Owning Sports History: Brandon Steiner, Founder of Steiner Sports & CollectibleXchange
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Winner of Sports Podcast Awards' Best Sports Business Podcast Award! In this podcast series, ADC Partners co-founder Dave Almy hosts conversations with sports business professionals who are shaping the future of the industry. With interviews featuring brand representatives, team presidents, sports marketers, and even mascots, the 1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations podcast has insights for everyone involved in the sports industry. ADC Partners is a San Francisco Bay Area based agency specializing in sports business, sports marketing and partnerships. More information is at www.adcpartners.com

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