Sports Business Conversations

The other day was movie night here at worldwide HQ, so I thought I’d check out “The Spoils [https://thespoilsmovie.com/]”, Mike Nicoll [https://thespoilsmovie.com/#the-director]’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 HBO show The Wire as an inspiration for structuring his movie. So just what the hell is going on in AAU basketball? “The Spoils” takes a hard look at the state of amateur basketball in the US, and what it reveals is pretty breathtaking. To make his movie, Mike spent 11 years essentially embedded with the Compton Magic, the preeminent AAU basketball team in the country. And what it reveals is a system perfectly designed to, in Mike’s words, “anoint and monetize” the next superstars. In our conversation about his movie, Mike and I talk about the fearsome impact the current state of AAU has had on the sport, how entrenched interests like sneaker companies want to avoid changing the system at all costs, how AAU and players evolved over the decade he was attached to the Compton Magic, and what the ultimate cost is to the young teenage boys who get enmeshed in a system that openly refers to them as "assets" and "commodities". Please note that this episode contains explicit language. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: * LinkedIn: adc-partners [https://www.linkedin.com/company/adc-partners/] * Instagram: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/adc_partners_podcast/] * Threads: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.threads.net/@adc_partners_podcast] * Youtube: @adcpartners [https://www.youtube.com/@adcpartners] * Homepage: adcpartners.com/podcast [https://adcpartners.com/podcast] ABOUT THIS PODCAST The 1-on-1: 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 [https://ADCPartners.com]. Mentioned in this episode: SponsorCX SponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners. SponsorCX [https://1-on-1-sports-business.captivate.fm/sponsorcx]

So tell me: What’s your greatest fear? Spiders? Heights? The mushroom people monsters from that movie you watched on Channel 38’s Creature Double Feature when you stayed up way too late? Oh, right. That one’s mine…. For most people, speaking in public is their greatest fear. It’s something Rose Lanham, the founder for Players for Good, a quickly growing speaker’s bureau for athletes, knows all too well. Because even players who are accustomed to competing in front of tens of thousands of people can get sweaty palms at the idea of speaking before a bunch of Rotarians. It’s one of the reasons Rose launched Players for Good. The players she works with have amazing stories to tell about overcoming obstacles, surviving injury and illness, and experiencing what it takes to compete and win at the highest levels. Through Players for Good, she helps athletes craft their stories into compelling narratives, and then finds opportunities for them to share those stories. In our conversation, we talk about how working with folks like Tony Gwynn showed her how athletes can impact a community, the qualities that make for a great speech, and what event producers should consider when featuring an athlete speaker at their events. All that and the Lightning Round, too. ABOUT THIS PODCAST The 1-on-1: 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. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: * LinkedIn: adc-partners [https://www.linkedin.com/company/adc-partners/] * Instagram: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/adc_partners_podcast/] * Threads: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.threads.net/@adc_partners_podcast] * Youtube: @adcpartners [https://www.youtube.com/@adcpartners] * Homepage: adcpartners.com/podcast [https://adcpartners.com/podcast] 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 [https://ADCPartners.com]. Mentioned in this episode: SponsorCX SponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners. SponsorCX [https://1-on-1-sports-business.captivate.fm/sponsorcx]

A quick question for you. What does studying the effect of smoking bans on bars have in common with convincing basketball coaches that shooting more threes is the key to winning? Absolutely nothing, as it turns out. Well, nothing, unless your name is Ben Alamar [https://www.linkedin.com/in/benalamar/]. If you’re Ben Alamar, those 2 things are linked at the hip. That’s because when Ben was managing a UCSF smoking study back in the day, he answered a help wanted ad for a fantasy sports company who was looking for someone to help manage their data. That was the first time the economist realized that there was an entire industry that might one day need his expertise in analyzing information. Safe to say that realization has worked out pretty well for Mr Alamar. Starting with that fantasy sports company, Ben has now worked with a vast number of sports teams and organizations to help transform how they look at and use data. Those experiences serve as the foundation for his industry defining text, "Sports Analytics [https://www.amazon.com/Sports-Analytics-Coaches-Managers-Decision/dp/0231205201/ref=pd_lpo_sccl_1/136-4314281-5945556?pd_rd_w=soDBq&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=AKR626A9VECDZR4ZWEDK&pd_rd_wg=jZHW6&pd_rd_r=8fb5c65a-420d-46e9-8061-d98779a95a54&pd_rd_i=0231205201&psc=1]", which is now in its 2nd printing. In our conversation, we talk about how integral data analytics is to sports both on the field and in the front office, how having a clear mission for using data is an essential key to success, and where the field is headed in the next few years. ABOUT THIS PODCAST The 1-on-1: 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. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: * LinkedIn: adc-partners [https://www.linkedin.com/company/adc-partners/] * Instagram: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/adc_partners_podcast/] * Threads: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.threads.net/@adc_partners_podcast] * Youtube: @adcpartners [https://www.youtube.com/@adcpartners] * Homepage: adcpartners.com/podcast [https://adcpartners.com/podcast] 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 [https://ADCPartners.com]. Mentioned in this episode: SponsorCX SponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners. SponsorCX [https://1-on-1-sports-business.captivate.fm/sponsorcx]

Let’s begin this episode with a few questions. First off, do you work in sports? Number 2: would you like to work in sports? Alright, one more: do you know someone who’d like to work in sports? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this episode is absolutely for you. My guests on the show are Amy Gutierrez [https://AmyGutierrez] and Celeste Gehring [https://CelesteGehring], two long time sports media executives who host the quickly growing “Girl, How’d You Get That Gig?” podcast. In it, they interview female sports business executives to review their career paths, share secrets to their success, and provide advice to others seeking to follow in their steps. And while their show is nominally for women, the lessons and advice they tease out have value for everyone. Honestly, just the stuff we talk about in this show is enough to get anyone a leg up in their search for a sports business job, or to advance from the one they already have. It’s s really positive discussion, even taking into account some pickleball trash talk toward the end. ABOUT THIS PODCAST The 1-on-1: 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. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: * LinkedIn: adc-partners [https://www.linkedin.com/company/adc-partners/] * Instagram: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/adc_partners_podcast/] * Threads: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.threads.net/@adc_partners_podcast] * Youtube: @adcpartners [https://www.youtube.com/@adcpartners] * Homepage: adcpartners.com/podcast [https://adcpartners.com/podcast] 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 [https://ADCPartners.com]. Mentioned in this episode: SponsorCX SponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners. SponsorCX [https://1-on-1-sports-business.captivate.fm/sponsorcx]

At one point in his career, Lloyd Danzig [https://LloydDanzig], the founder of Sharp Alpha Advisors [https://SharpAlphaAdvisors], was pretty confident that there was money to be made in what he calls the competitive entertainment industry. The Supreme Court had just opened up sports betting for states to adopt, he had a solid investing background, had recently earned a degree in data science, and had always loved fantasy sports. So good to go, right? Well, not exactly. Turns out there was still one thing missing. And that was permission to fail. Now with investments in over 30 online gaming start ups, Lloyd and Sharp Alpha are light years away from failure. In our conversation, Lloyd and I talk about the process of launching his venture capital firm, and why having a mentor share that wisdom about failure was so integral to his future success. We also cover the growth of online gaming, the competitive entertainment market, and what he looks for when making investments. He also fills us in on what the unending torture of being a NY Jets fan is like. And it’s awful. A special shout out to Brent von Forstmeyer [https://BrentvonForstmeyer] and the University of San Francisco Sports Management [https://UniversityofSanFranciscoSportsManagement] program for letting me use their downtown offices to make this recording with Lloyd. ABOUT THIS PODCAST The 1-on-1: 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. FOLLOW US Here's where you can find us: * LinkedIn: adc-partners [https://www.linkedin.com/company/adc-partners/] * Instagram: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/adc_partners_podcast/] * Threads: adc_partners_podcast [https://www.threads.net/@adc_partners_podcast] * Youtube: @adcpartners [https://www.youtube.com/@adcpartners] * Homepage: adcpartners.com/podcast [https://adcpartners.com/podcast] 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 [https://ADCPartners.com]. Mentioned in this episode: SponsorCX SponsorCX helps properties efficiently manage all their sponsorships to improve collaboration with their partners. SponsorCX [https://1-on-1-sports-business.captivate.fm/sponsorcx]