Good afternoon everybody. My name is Bruce Weber and I'm the Dean of the Lerner College of Business and Economics and it's my pleasure to welcome you to the second and our lifelong learner webinar series for fall 2020. We're very pleased today to have a great panel to talk about the sports industries new normal. We began last week talking about the, the impact of the pandemic on work on Wall Street. And next month we'll have a webinar on leading teams during a crisis. The November webinar will be on helping restaurants pivot during a pandemic. And then in December we'll finish up our fall series with a focus on small businesses and weathering the, the, the covert storm that we're all encountering. So we're very pleased you're here with us today. We've put this webinar series together as a way of showcasing research and scholarship and teaching interests of learner faculty and then intersecting that with this successful careers our alumni have had in a number of industries that are facing some very interesting business challenges today. So I'm looking forward today, be hearing about the sports industry. Got a terrific moderator and panel. Our moderator today, Sarah Williams joined the learner faculty last fall and choose an assistant professor in the department of hospitality and Sport Business Management in the Lerner College of Business and Economics here at the University of Delaware. She currently teaches undergraduate courses in Sport Management. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership and organizational development from the University of Louisville in 2019. She got her Masters of Science in kinesiology from James Madison University in 2012 and her Bachelor of Business Administration and Finance from James Madison University in 2019. She hails from Delaware, and her research focuses on gender and diversity issues in sport, organizational behavior and coaching and team leadership. Specifically in the intercollegiate athletic setting. She's frequently presented at the North American Society for sport management and the Sport Marketing Association annual conferences. During your time at the University of Louisville, Dr. Williams was a graduate teaching assistant sport administration and coordinated a dual credit partnership enrollment program with a magnet high school in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to her time at the University of Louisville, Williams coached NCAA division one women's basketball for four seasons from 2012 to 2016. And during that tenure had teams that compiled an overall record at 99 wins, 35 losses. They won three conference championships, made three NCA tournament appearances. And Dr. Williams is coached to players that were selected in the WNBA drab. She currently officiate NCAA division one basketball. So we're glad to have you on the learner faculty, Sara and I'm very pleased to have you moderating our panel today taken away, Sarah. Wonderful. Thank you, doctor whoever Weber and thank you everyone for joining us this afternoon. We are so very grateful to have this space to discuss sport for industry, and we're all happy to be here representing the University of Delaware, Lerner College and the department of hospitality and Sport Business Management. I would like to take this time to begin welcoming our three panelists, somebody call. They will follow up with an introduction of themselves and discuss their current positions in the sport field. So if I could now have all three of our panelists go ahead and join us by turning on their cameras and audio. We can go ahead and get started. Wonderful. So first I would like to give a warm welcome to Mr. Jim. Did Africa. Jim, It is great to have you with us. Thanks. Thanks. I'm excited to be here, so thank you so much. Well, hopefully next time. This face-to-face. Absolutely. So Jim, if you could go ahead and give us a brief introduction, just just kind of dive into you, your career. Yeah. So again, thrilled to be here. My I'm a fill of blue in graduate in 1991, but my whole career, I've been in the sports industry and it's fan-in spanned across many areas of the business. On the client's side, on the agency side in city government as well as on the network side. I spent my spanned across I feel position at turner Sports, The City of New York, as I mentioned, on the government side, octagon IMG. And I'm currently at NBC Sports where my role is I managed to areas of our business. One is all new ONE, business development, new partnerships, I would say. The second area is managing the day-to-day relationships with our partners. It's the NHL, it's the NFL, it's the Kentucky Derby, it's the Premier League. So it's pretty busy that the challenge being Homer has been taught, but they were all used to it now. So again, thanks to our wonderful. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next, I would like to give him a warm welcome to Dr. Matt Robinson. Matt, it is great to have you with us as well. Sir. Yeah. Just a little bit of my background. I've been at the university for this, my 20th year actually. And here with the inception of the program over 20 years ago. And it's been a really powerful thing and it's been great to see the growth of this program over those 20 years. Most of the work that I do currently is related to doing work internationally. I do a couple of projects that are funded by the International Olympic Committee, United States Olympic Committee in the areas of coach development and national governing body and international federations and that whole federations development. This past summer worked with the world, the US organization in helping then further develop national governing bodies in that sport around the world with the ultimate goal of Hopefully one day that'll be an Olympic sport. I had the opportunity to serve as the interim athletic director here at University Delaware back in 2016. To get a little taste of that. And a lot of research I'm doing right now is related to implement, aiding business strategies such as retention in the environment of view, sport, increase participation and keeping kids engaged. And really looking using traditional business strategies to try to increase that retention. That ultimately helps sport clubs be more profitable, but also in the end that keeping kids more involved in sports and into their adulthood. So wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much, not OK to have you as well. Next, I'd like to get a warm welcome to Dr. tinges driver. Ten. Great to have you with us as well. Thank you, sir. And also thank you to the Lerner College for for putting this webinar together in these times. I think that's a great idea. This is starting my 17th year here at the, at the University of Delaware in the area of sport management. Overall, I've been teaching for 25 years. My interest areas primarily are in sport marketing and sport economic sport finance. I teach both the undergraduate sport finance and sport marketing classes here towards students. In addition, I coordinate the undergraduate internship program so I help students obtain their, their senior year internship. My my academic background, I got my my doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado and sport management, my Master's and Bachelor's or options actually in economics. Masters from Penn State, who has of yesterday's playing football yen, and my undergraduate from, from Villanova University. Most of my research is in the areas of marketing and finance related to the professional sport industries in collegiate athletics. And just one final note, I thought it was going to be a challenge this semester, teaching all online from home here. But my my wife is actually a An elementary school teacher. She teaches English as a second language to kindergarten through fifth graders. So I got it easy compared to trying to teach a five-year-old whose native language is not English, trying to teach them remotely what I've seen in the past two weeks. I'm I got I'm lucky. I think so. With that, I'll turn it back to you, sir. Wonderful. Wonderful. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. We are so very grateful to have the three of you join us today to discuss this new normal of sport and the new normal of this war industry. But before we get into the discussion, I want to make a quick announcement. I want to remind everyone on the call. If you have any questions at any point throughout this presentation, please feel free to type your questions into the Q and a section of the zoom call. So go ahead and type any questions at any point. We should have some time at the end of our panel to address any questions from the audience. So please use that, that Q and a feature in zoom. So the first question we have for the panel, we all know sport to be a microcosm of society. Sport is a near perfect match to the real world and everything that goes along with that. Sport has a tendency to shine and glaring spotlight on all that is occurring around the world. We have all seen sport adapt, change and grow significantly in 2020. But moving forward, how will we see sport continue to meet the needs that are continuously changing of its stakeholders? And Jim, I'll start with you with that question. It's a good question. It's a question that we're challenged with daily. I mean, obviously, think about this. Anyone to everyone who's listening. I mean, you know, sports, regardless of what's happening, was an outlet. It could be during a national challenge, it can be during a personal challenge. And sports was the skate. And then when we lost sports, obviously, it's been a difficult time for all of us to working from home or taking care or, or school remotely hour. But I would say our stakeholders to really fill in three buckets. We have our viewers, we have stakeholder secreting or LEA partners who were in touch with daily. And I take the third one being our sponsors and advertise those that support us. And for the purposes of this conversation tonight, talk about yours because, you know, again, I talk about if we were face to face, I would ask you who only owns a question. I would ask that you raise your hand. If you watch television, that's not on your phone and 98% of the hands will be raised. That said, I don't watch TV. Big screen. I watched on my I will put it on my phone through a streaming, a streaming service. And then I talk about, well, let's see a show of hands of who watches sports on. It's on a big screen TV and they kind of go up and down and ended the day. Sworn, if we're very lucky to be in sports industry, 96% of sport has watched live. And the experience. I'm watching you live with your friends. You're gonna watch the Kentucky Derby with your friends having a poorer, you're gonna watch the Super Bowl with your friends, your little words for, and watch with your friends. So again, we're lucky because sports is that, is that microcosm where you're able to actually watch it with friends and on a large frames you can put aside what's happening right now. But that being said, the challenge we're having right now is how do we capture the viewers? How can you keep them engaged? Knowing that for so long, we haven't had sports right now on a on any given Saturday. Again, this is a once in a lifetime where you can watch college football. You can watch the Tour de France, golf, basketball, NHL finals, and golf. So because the audience is fragmented, we have to find different ways to reach them. And again, the biggest area we're focused on is as user generated content, content that the fans are created. Now we can then highlight, as well as leveraging our, our talent and our celebrities to kind of tell the story. There's nothing better than getting some of our NBC sports talent and, or our NBC town across the board. It could be Jimmy Fallon to talk about the power of sports. Because once you're able to leverage a celebrity, the audience then follow-ups and media. For those of you who have a Pilloton, I mean, these instructors have become celebrities because of the audiences that they be able to create using social media. And so for us, once we have that content that's exciting, it's then distributed short form because we know that the people in the audience here they're listening mostly, are not going to sit in front of a three hour game and just too long for them. So we had to create small nuggets using that content that we own and then distribute it using streaming services, using social media org and using our network. So again, I would say for us, we're constantly evolving knowing that the viewer is not always watching the big screen TV. And when he or she is not, how do you create that content that is leveraging, leveraging the assets that the people want, their passion about hockey or football or whatever. So we're being sure that we capture audience. But again, it's a daily task for us. And again, I think for us, let's identify and focus yet as viewers wherever they are. Absolutely, absolutely a gym, great point with, with, you know, using that network and allowing men network to evolve. Matt, question for you. You know, I think it's interesting. I feel that this has been a it's been a reality check. I think looking at it is one, you know, again, talking about is the stadium experience going to come back to the degree that it was. I mean, are people going to be comfortable? And I'm sure Jim would be happy about it knowing that have more comfortable sitting at home, watching, engaging at home. But know there is the revenues that are associated with a full stadium, the atmosphere and all those things. But I really think about within college athletics, it's really been a reality check of how we do things, why we do things and things like that, that, you know, a lot of questions coming in that I understand the power of five. You know, it's really a minority of the institutions Helene college athletics, but really driven where college athletics is gone. Everybody trying to model that in a way. And I think it's lead to some decisions that probably weren't the best interests of the student athletes. Makes sense financially. And I think a lot of those things are coming, are coming, are being revealed right now. And so in that sense, I really think that college athletics is going to be a question and a sense of its relevance to what it does. It's relevance to a college campus on it's always been the corner, you know, it's always been insignificant part of a college campus. And I think in recent years again, at the larger schools, they've still had done while the tenth things, but I even they've seen a decline in attendance and interest. And then I'm really interested to see the response from universities and colleges, especially if you look at a place like delaware. I mean, does it make sense geographically to be in the conference that we are, is there is it makes, you know, reconsider that we should be doing more things way. Original tenets of a Athletic Conference was geography. So I really think it's a reality check. It all aspects of it. And one, the one area that I'm ideal width right now and doing something again tomorrow is the youth sport environment. What I'm amazed is that we're not playing Big ten football, but now we are, but they're playing soccer. And it's, it's fascinating. And again, it very much their business model. They, they need to do it and they're doing it. So, so I think really that to me this has really been, hopefully people were looking at it as an opportunity to get better and opportunity to maybe make changes to things better in the future. So I guess that's, that's my response. They're absolutely the adaptation. That's the, that's the name of the game right now. Tim. Those are, I think gum, Matt and Jim are right on the mark with that, especially thinking about stakeholders like participants are the fans. Another area where I think we've seen substantial changes is a big stake holder for a lot of major events in either a smaller myth, events, our corporate sponsors and corporate partners. And I think sport properties, great example would be what's going on right now the first day the US open, you turn on the US open on TV in it looks very different. You don't have the corporate hospitality tenth lining the 18 coal. Those type of events that corporations are paying us millions of dollars to the US Open and USDA to, to get those experiences and all of a sudden those height social facilitation type experiences are gone. Great example, we have one of our alums who works in the corporate partnership division for KPMG, the accounting firm. And they're heavily involved in golf makes sense. Big accounting firm is involved in Gaul. And what their, their big endorsement celebrity is Phil Mickelson. And usually in a normal times, Phil would be playing rounds with the CEOs of KPMG's top clients and doing meet and greets and photos and things like that on Wednesdays and Thursdays and all throughout the weekend that the golf ball that's gone. So KPMG has had to get really creative and think outside the box and say, how did we How do we keep those relationships with those companies through our sponsorship? So for example, they have done things like virtual lunches, where Phil will have a virtual lunch with a corporate CEO and do activities like that. And I think it's really shown the need for creativity and to think out of the box. And yeah, this is a big hurdle. We've been, you know, big hurdle in front of us, but we can figure out a way to still give our stakeholders value and, and, and come away with something positive. So I think that's one of the things you're going to see going forward is even more creativity in how we activate and leverage corporate partnerships. Absolutely, absolutely wonderful points is now not that adaptation is anybody on the follow-up them directly on to the next question. Here I'd say what benefits would have within that, you know, I think it's really interesting and maybe bring that all back because it sees what Jim, Tim, and even what I touched on, it's about these revenues. And I really think what is going to be interesting and professional sport, or how this is going to impact salary caps in, into decrease from revenues is again there, there based upon the recheck, the gross revenues, and again, the numbers you're hearing about losses and things like that. I think it's really interesting what that does in the next several years. And I'll, and I'll add one thing to always stop Tim's notice is that it's what, what, what's going to come. And I've coded as every industry, sports where he's going to add a change innovate. Because if you don't innovate, you don't fall behind. You're seeing categories that weren't as popular than they are now from personal fitness to food delivery. But the big piece of it is, is the adaptation is you gotta change. So it could be a league or a sports property, a corporate sponsor. They all have to change the way they do business to be sure that the KPIs, however they're measuring it, is still driving business for them. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We see we see quick changes even even just in college football. This, this past fall with, with some adaptations within a week. So yeah, great point scraper wins across the board. So next question. The sport landscape has changed, like we just talked about. We see sports played in bubbles, sports played in front of Mt arenas and that in home gym equipment situation, we've got stuff flying off the shelves, we've got back orders. So with all of these changes we have seen in the sport industry in 2020, it is also likely that we're going to see significant changes in job prospects across the industry. What trends do you see taking shape moving forward? How can we ensure that our students are prepared? Not, I'll start with you. Again. I just think that the, the landscape as he said, change and then it becomes a question of, you know, what skills, what experiences are going to make you marketable? And I'm still, I can said I'm, I'm still trying to figure it out of, you know, looking at it to seeing you there today that I think that the Atlantic raise had left off like 65 employees and then seeing that the areas they want off. But again, this goes back to something as much as it's, you know, I heard this once said if the computer can do your job, you're gonna become obsolete. And so then it becomes, you know, are we part of what we talk about university delaware, thanks. I mean, are we develop the critical thinking? We, are we developing people are thinking innovatively? Are we thinking about problem solvers? And I think when you start looking at, you know, I think employers are going to be looking for talents more than skills. Meaner you, conceptual thinker, or you would do or are you or later. I mean, are, you know, what is it that, that, that talent you have that makes you marketable? And so I really think, you know, the job markets can be interesting because I think you are going to see a decrease in staffing, at least in the near time and then potentially growing out. But then I think what the needs are, this organizations, I think it's going to be different. And again, knowing a technology is going to be important. But if a computer can do that, I mean, you're probably going to be out of job. And the best example I solve a surprise with the Atlanta Braves. I mean, it was their analytic staff that went away. And I don't analytics, you know, 15 years ago working with a couple teams. And, you know, again it was one person. And now with the technology of software and everything that they're doing with video streaming, the video capabilities of capturing data. Boom, those staffs have become part of this desk, become obsolete in tracking things like that. So I think it is about having talents more than skills. And then I think it still will be told, it's solely determined what those are, but now what skills are going to be essential to make yourself marketable? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I would agree with everything Matt said a couple of other things I would I would add. I think when as Matt said, unfortunately, we see a lot of sport organizations who are contracting and I think Jim might even be able to speak better This to me. But, you know, they're going to have different criteria that they make in terms of who do they keep and who to go. And I think one of those overriding themes is, is, you know, do you generate revenue for us? So if we're looking at a professional 14, Do you sell sponsorships? Do you sell season tickets? Do you sell luxury suites? If it's a college athletic department? Are you in development and fundraising? Are you going out there and getting people to give us money? I think those would be the last to go because you can always justify them. If I can generate more money than what you're paying for me for, I'm a bonus to the organization. Its some of those other areas that that may not view that that that we may see bigger cuts in. And I agree with the technical. I also think I think even though we are physically separated, there's even more of an emphasis these days on communication skills that you must be an effective communicator, whether it's via writing, now, emails, texts, or orally, being able to communicate it, especially being able to really communicate over the phone, over x2. These types of avenues Evans posed to face-to-face communications. I think Good Times, Bad Times. I'm always true believer that happening those communication skills is very important. And great points, great points. Again. Not I, I'll actually break it down in some specific, but for the audience like this isn't, it's not doom and gloom visit a very exciting time after we're through this. Because the 20-year-old students has such an incredible opportunity in front of him or her. I'll, and, and that's a number of ways because where we're seeing development and we're, we're see advertisers specifically focus on, is that 20-year-old demographic. You know, it could be some of the biggest spending categories from the telecom to the automotive, to the quick service restaurants, that McDonald's, et cetera. But, you know, I agree a 100% with what nasa, it's about talent. And I'll also add to what Tim said. Communication is so critical and I'll world weren't environment where it's about getting face to face, talking. It could be over the phone or could be a ballgame, but they'll be wherever. And and i a delaware, I took multiple public speaking classes and that was so valuable to me. I'd even taken them post-college because that day, no matter where you are a public skills is so boring. So I break it down a couple areas. One, TIMIT it, selling. If you are a revenue generator, there will be jobs available for you. Again, you'll probably get it get in the door. Once you're in the door, it's all about what you do. Could be selling tickets for a t, But you gotta put the time and, and what's in our industry, it's a hard initially to get into, but once you're into it, it's all about what you put forth. So, so revenue generation to create those experiences, Tim also send metadata, KPMG and Phil Mickelson. You know, all these venues, these new venues that are, that are, that are being built. It's all about the experiences. How do we drive new customers to our games? How do we drive new customers? Who are our telecast? And how we create these wonderful experiences where a fan can interact with a hero or we can leverage our talent but tell stories through Speaker Series, things like that. Data analytics. Again, man, and they'll add, it's, it's interesting worth going to Goldman, but it's still a, such an important skill to have because for example, we use data gaily for trends. What are, who's watching? What, what are the age demographics? How do we change it? You know, the teams are using data for how to sell tickets. Hey, by the way, they're seeing trends of what fans I've gone to certain games and how we create another, another offering around that game. Agencies are using it for player talents, teams, or UV to become better on the field. So yeah, those are, those are some areas and then I'd say two other areas that are growing. And this is the folks in the room. It's e-sports. Ea Sports is booming right now. I mean, you're looking at 205 million people are playing worldwide, global, I think the most recent event generated or they had a pool in 18 million to win. And these students, these players are professionals and I know yellower has invested heavily in that area, which I applaud. So that's a big area. And then another area is sports betting. Not I'm trying to promote the actual participation, but it's worth it. Is, is that sports gaming side astute in a $130 billion was that last year in that Super Bowl, I think it was 38 million people alone in the NFL Super Bowl. So again, growing areas, sports betting from the FanDuel to the DraftKings, the William hills. But right now at 18 states having before you know, it all will be, it'll be national. So again, those are the ears. It's a data, I'd say revenue generator experiences EA sports and sports betting of the big areas that I, that NBC's looking at. But also I've spoken to some 100's and other teams in other networks and those are all consistent as well. You know, it's funny gym, I went to an east for conference last year and I'm just about everybody on a panel. They started by saying, Well, I used to work in the NFL. And now, and then the other story was he was actually the, the Secretary General for the Canadian Olympic Committee, went to a IOC sponsored e sporting conference. In the middle of a conference, flew home, resigned, and bought like three franchises. So it's fascinating. But you know, Jim and I don't know, maybe even Sara, Tim, I mean, your thoughts, you know, going back to Sara's originally question, I find it, I wonder in, I know learners in the universe is big on the entrepreneur side of things. But, you know, is there going to be opportunities entrepreneurially or with MIT, with the Atlanta Braves hire entire staff back? Or are there opportunities to say that we'd rather hire this small company to provide that service. And again, you're seeing is this concept of physical workplaces. And you have so many of the younger generation thinking I want to work for myself. Neither do you see that potentially being an arbitrary cuz I know a benefit for me right now. So I know I've picked up a few projects with just like you don't have anyone to do it, but this has benefits and everything else to go along with that. I will not Jim Kim. I would I would definitely say yes because I'll say even Comcast, which owns NBC, we're we have a fund specific to looking at small, up-and-coming companies. For that reason, a lot of it, a totally ANSYS monumental sports in DC, a cranky out of Los Angeles. So yeah, all these, these media, these networks, big companies, franchise or actually creating these funds to invest in. So I definitely see it. And again, that young generation is really there thinking through this thing and how can it be easier, faster? What's, what's a service? We can provide us more efficient. And you're right, I rather work from home because everything ideas in front of me. Yeah. Yeah. I would add, you know, with name, image and likeness rights changing for college athletes, you see a company like Open Door is going in and contracting with college athletics staffs to handle all of the name, image, and likeness marketing. Instead of hiring, you know, 4567 people on these campuses, they're going and outsourcing that. So yeah, absolutely. I see, I see companies like that taking over. And again, I think the younger generation, and it's moving towards the self-determination of they want to be their own boss, they want to, you know, and I think again, I think I've always said that I think they're more prepared for this environment when right now if working from home than we were in the sense that they want that, I think they want that unique atmosphere indeed experience, you know, you always saw but they don't, they don't go with the traditional marketing, but I also don't think they look at traditional work workspace or work hours or, you know, the classic sign up to work for a company for the next 30 years? No doubt. Absolutely. Alright, so we've got some really, really good questions coming in. I think they're really great because each of you have different perspectives on each of these things. So the first one I have, what advice do you have for current high-school seniors who are trying to get recruited to play sports and college. We know that the NC double a recruiting timeline just got bumped back to at least January one from a youth sport perspective, from a, from a parent perspective, from from a college athletics band perspective, from all of these perspectives, how would you guide a high school sports senior kind of through that recruiting process? There that sounds like a great one for you as an Xcode. Now, this has been a panel here prior to that. I don't say it's funny. I just I just did a panel yesterday with division one soccer coaches for program we do and as fascinating thereby me number one, as a senior you maybe, you know, maybe a little behind because recruiting processor, you know, they're, they're narrowing into making their decisions. But it was really fascinating was the, it was women's soccer coach U, Cal Berkeley than we had even Hennessy through coaching or they'll work. But you know that these factors that as much as it's your skill and they have a particular sport, they're very concerned about you as a person. On the academic side. How do you interact, your teammates, how to interact with your coach? You know, what's the level of engagement of your parents and it's the right level of engaging with parents. And so I think coaches are held responsible for not just in winning soccer games in college, but also off the field and APRs, academic progress and all those things. But I think one of the biggest things is, you know, being realistic in the level that you will have an opportunity to compete. At the higher levels. It's, you know, again, a division one coach reaching out and you've been identified at some level, one of the talent ID environments, they each had them across your different sports. But I think if you just want to play college athletics at a non scholarship environment, sometimes it's on you to make that, that outreach to those schools to make them aware they don't have the recruiting budgets to travel, you know, as far as a major university does. So a lot of times it's you proactively reaching out and whether it be a videotape of not a and 90 minutes soccer game, but rather no different portions that are showing off the skill that you may have. The coach would look at it. And I think again, going back to this idea of streaming and things like that, especially with the fact that this current environment coaches or not going off campus, I think they become more in tune of evaluation of tape. In evaluating a particular athlete. But I think you know this point, you know, if your senior it would definitely have to be proactive on your part. If it's an underclass min. Again, just putting yourself in a situation to be viewed. One is observational areas, but I cannot emphasize it's kinda full package. It's the academics. Are you going to get into the school? And if you're gonna get here, you're going to be able to do well. But I think you as a person, are you a good teammate? Are you a good listener to your coach or your respect, a little officials or your parents, or your parents because again, you get the player, but just get the parents and coaches. You're very cognizant of that. I will not match right on and not as the father of a high school senior. And I had been going through this, but I've also been closely associated to all my friends who had similar situations from football to leapfrog to being slow sock ourselves, you know, huddle. I mean it spreads. It's creating the, there's, there's, there's opportunity your fingertips, you gotta be innovative and aggressive, but through huddle, so you're creating a highlight reel of yourself. Okay, so that's number one. Number two year, if you have the ability or tending showcases because that when you had to showcase, a college coach is able to see multiple athletes. So he or she will go there because he or she could walk around the fields or do whatever. Thirdly, you gotta use your coaches. You have to be sure that you have a good relationship with your coaches because they are your biggest advocates, is by the way, if one of the his or her students onto a plane College, it's a great story for them to grow their career, but also great story to tell forth, I'd say alumna, you try and tracked if there's universities that you have in mind, triumph, identify a former player at that university that you might have an association with and are just guys is the alignment reach up? I'm going to say, hey, here's who I am. You create a relationship. There's a good chance that they're so closely tied to the university through that. So that's another piece. And then also lastly, the ability exist. A lot of these folks have these private coaches who also for them, they're trying to create that, trying to build a resume and nothing better on a resume when it says I trained division one athlete division to API wherever it is. So here she was a private instructor. It's their job also to find the resorted in contact coaches. So that's kind of the examples I would give. Specific. Right? Absolutely. You know, again, it's all about adapting, right? It's all about adapting, figuring out ways to, to kinda get through this great question we upcoming in actually from an alumni, Marshall Salem, he's an account executive with the New Jersey Devils and the sisters. And marshal, thanks, thanks for joining the call today. But his question is more about customer service and retention. How they are more important than ever. Obviously, Jim, he says You gave a great example of film Nicholson's deal with KPMG to Tim, you talked about that as well, but the question is referring to someone selling tickets, premium, partnerships, whatever it would be. What would you recommend a new business seller due to engage prospects? And what advice would you give the seller to help bring that prospect to buy something? So if I could store cuz i, because it's a great question. In fact, my nephew is selling. I have a mile away at the red books. And so in the New York world environment, we have the young tickets seller is not only dealing with and not be able to be on the field or experienced the games. The New York area of Philadelphia in competition with the Rangers, the devils that Nick's the giants, the nets, all these teams in addition to Rutgers or seen a hawk. And unfortunately during this period, individuals don't have the disposable income to buy the tickets. Secondly, corporations, as Tim mentioned before, don't have the funds because they're now cutting their class before they know their head, they're going through a tough time. So the advice I would give you in fact, I I'd be happy to share is I just have my nephew was track down and identify contexts that you know, through family, through friends, through alumni, cap, into your high school. Talk to your athletic director. If you're able to create experience, we bring some of the student athletes to a game and they need a player making a picture with a method that they'll mascot. It's those little things because number one, you have the relationship. Number two, they want to help you. They want you to be successful. And again, if you're able to elaborate, just kinda say, it's so hard for you to pick up the phone and call someone you don't know in an area that you're not familiar with, tap into the people that you know. It's your Delaware network. It's, hey, I graduate from Delaware who are suddenly alumni, New Jersey, Philadelphia area, far away. I'm also do some more due diligence about I'm going to go into the social media, feed them, attract down who's doing what? So again, it's your family, it's your alumni, it's your, it's your friends, it's, and also tapping into your high school content access, they can really help you with that. So I was a little bit longer than I thought, but again, it's a, it's a great, great question for a lot of the young folks. And again, lastly, sorry, the time you put in, It's hard, but again, it's going to pay off. And then once the season starts and the series is live and the actors on the ice, and it doubles or plan. Well then you start, make sure you send in information. You want to build a pipeline. Keep hitting them with information. Hey, we sign pk Zu Bang. Hey, by the way, we were doing this in Philadelphia. Hey, did you know that we're doing this, keep sending them information about who that helps drive that allegiance and they want to be part of that. Great advice. I would add to that, I think I was going to touch on Jim gave great advice for for generating those new sales. And I was actually going to touch on something Jim finish with. Yeah, yet, while there's a lot of emphasis I know to generate new sales and building up your, your book of clients, you have to make a concerted effort to not ones you've already sold to. And I think you touched on it. You're not selling tickets. You're goal is really to build a relationship. You want that person. To be buying tickets from you if it's a mini game package or excuse ticket. Craig got him that one year and you get your commission. Great. But if you can get them and retain them and build a relationship with them where you can keep them as a client for the next ten years. That you're really going to be successful and it's a lot easier to read somebody's ticket, then try to sell somebody from scratch. So I think sometimes one of the pitfalls that young salespeople get influenced, they get into this focus, our new sales, new sales. And obviously you have to do that, but you also have to really don't forget those clients that you already have. You don't want to, you don't want to lose them. One last point, you're rich. Understanding what the competition's doing around you. Okay? What are the, again, we'll just use what are the next doing? What are the rangers do when you're competing against ranges? What are they doing? What are their ticket offerings? Are they doing it where Mark messy ascending autograph sticks, so becomes smarter. And then, and then you want to build your own personal value internally. Go to you're mad and say listen, we need to do this. We need to change. We don't offer this or often that because we're losing business because the range for doing this or signal basketballs doing that's again, become smart about what's around you, what the competition's doing. And Sarah, I'd just add one more thing. I think I saw this. I have a friend, diesel holder with a pirate, so he's not selling you that ticket holder. But, you know, one of the things that a lot of sales staffs are dealing troubles is, what do we do here? We don't have live events, we can't we can't put people understand. You know, how do we keep our clients? And it was interesting the pirates had done something where all of their season ticket holders have gotten a gift during the season. They send them all a game ball that was used in the game and they send in a nice package and wish you were here but his place years, you know, the home run that so-and-so hit Thursday night. We just wanted to give you this as a gift. And again, it gets back to trying to keep that relationship going during a really difficult time. It's funny for both. Think it's worsening their answers or I'm just sitting here thinking, but again, getting back to it. The key there is the human interaction. I mean, and it's so easy and I know Jim and I agree the analytics and know when to send how to send no tracking and everything like that. But I think you're going to get back to all face-to-face, you know, basic sales. And it's going to be persistence and it's going to be the personal touch. Everything you gave as an example is the classic. Whether it be the, you know, how to, How to Win Friends and Influence People, else type stuff. But it's just, you know, create knows relationships and that's that's not computers, that's not databases. It's just that the personal touch. So I think yeah, I think you're saying both were just I think that's going to be important. Very important. Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely wonderful answers and great perspectives as well. It's, you know, it's a, again, it's figuring out how to get through it. You know, creating an evolving is a big thing that just keeps getting kind of brought up over and over it. And, and that's the name of the game. Alright, last question here. We've got a couple of more minutes. And this is actually a great question to end on. So you were all college students once, Jim, you were specifically a university of delaware college student. So you can all relate to this experience and I'm sure, or you can all look back. And tell stories about your time in school and how they prepared you for your life and for your careers. But for a few minutes here I want you to put yourselves in the shoes of today's students. Considering the unknown, the adversity, as well as this, this unbelievable strength that we've seen in our University of Delaware students and how they, how they displayed that throughout 20-20. And we saw students with cancelled internships, staff cuts across the country with our alumni. And that's just not our alumni, that's in general across the, the industry, but put yourselves in their shoes. What advice would you give our students, our alumni during this time to encourage them to persevere and continue to pursue a career in sport. I'll go first. It's okay. I give, give you two guys. Thank you know, very well that it is an exciting time. Because what comes out of this? And so I heard this very early on, the Olympics and somebody said, nobody's getting ahead. It's a question of how far you have followed you for the time. And so I think, you know, I always feel like 20-20, it sounds Camila could do over 202020 Twain ever happened. And then 2021 was going to pick up that circle. And in many ways, what I think's going to happen. But I think really what you're doing now is no, not fallen too far behind. But I think even more talking about this and you talk about advice is, I think it's so important, believing, believing in yourself, believing in the dream, and knowing yourself, you know? And I think that's a part of the college experiences. As much as it's figuring out what you want to do. It's figuring out what you don't want to do. And then finding out what you're truly passionate about. And you know what really excites you and what really comes to you naturally. And then the question is, what can I turn that into a career? And how do that? And if you, if you do figure that out, then it's just believing in it and wanted to make the commitment to making it real. And again, I've, I always talk about, especially in the sport industry, the money's not there at the front end and it's all about, you know, your time is your investment, you know, so when you volunteer, you'll see kids roll their eyes. When I say, well, maybe it should go volunteer. You're not volunteering your best of your time. In in that experience, you're going to meet somebody going to network. You're going to find out if you really want to do that. And we thought it might be cool, but you're not. But I think right now it's a test of your courage and your commitment. And some people are going to walk away. And I, and I think those people to truly believe in, it's what they want to do. There's always going to be pitfalls along the way. Those obstacles, I mean, are they walls or are they bounced high? And, and I think right now, that belief is that you come out stronger. You know, from this experience and more determined that I tell my students all the time, hey, you make it through this, you make raving. And so I really think it's, it's, you're going to find out if it's this, what you truly, truly want to do. Myoblasts and I'll say, I always find fascinating about sport is again, it's something that you could, you could just turn into your hobby of if it doesn't turn out, I mean, you're, you develop these business skills and maybe you can go make a billion dollars over here. And your, your side passion is running a side business or getting involved in new sports or getting involved the national governing body in some capacity. But, but my biggest thing is a, this is, this is toughen you up and use it, you know, and, and, but, but make sure you believe you believe in your dream and go after that tree. Wonderful, wonderful. Jim. I wasn't hat kudos. I mean, it's passion is the B word. I mean, we're lucky to be in spores, ended or be pursuing because we're all passionate having played the game, had he been behind the scenes or whatever? You've got that passion and it actually what, what's exciting and powerful about sports is that once you're in the industry, it doesn't matter who you're meeting with. Sports tends to be a common denominator, but, you know, you start conversations off about sports most of the time. One of my roles and one of the things I teach at the young folks is do research. You're me, whoever you're meeting with, do take the time to learn about the person that you're meeting with because right now if if in fact I know what when Sarah and I met for the first time I got to research and yet it aligns with the University of Louisville. All of a sudden the conversation was lumps about business, was about Louisville athletics, the Kentucky Derby, etc. So again, I bring that up. We got the passion to do the research. And again, I think don't be afraid to take on any assignment that's handed to you. You're not gonna be able, we're not going to walk in the door and think that you're gonna lead a property or a franchise like any, every piece of anything you're doing is only going to help you in the long run. And don't be afraid to ask for projects and volunteer your time on it could be a not for profit. It could be through a contact at, you know, at NBC we've got crickets calling us to say, hey, I want to, I want to learn about the limits, what can I do to help you? Also, some kids we know have started blogs about their interests. It's about one did it about the University of Kentucky, about basketball and kind of what his his analysis was. There's also in front of you because there's no face-to-face conferences you have at your fingertips. So many virtual seminars that you can become part of. Look at what's out there you that Matt knows isn't Tim, does they have seminars based on facility or e-sports or motor sports? And then once you're able to kind of listen to it, you then take some nuggets of information, go off to the side and reach out to him or her as to who was a great job with your your your, your Speak breakthrough. You're, you're speak to reach over your panel discussion. Here's, I'm thinking about, but, but you gotta become irreverent. Sending out 1000 resumes is not the case anymore. You need to be passionate you to show your commitment and yet a stand apart. So that means taking a time when you are free to learn a skill that probably you might not have had the experience in or you might not have been comfortable with one. What did we talk about enemies? Just be comfortable being uncomfortable. Again, take on things that you might not have taken on to learn. It's only going to help you identify an area of the business that you might not have thought was an opportunity. So that's kind of some of that. But again, I think it's just such a, such an incredible opportunity in front of you. It's daunting. It's challenging, it's a tough market. But know that if you're prepared and you have the skill set and the passion and you're not afraid to take on a five projects, then you can succeed. And no matter what field is within it, within the industry had, lasted. What's exciting about sports? All fields leap the one path. I mean, you could be in ticket sales or concessions, or facility management or media. We all talk to each other. It's a very incestuous business. And so we all have common friends. We all know each other in some capacity, but no matter what you're doing in sports that can help in other areas of the image. A lot than desk, kind of what I would say, Sarah. Absolutely wonderful, wonderful, wonderful answer. A wealth of knowledge right there. Well, there's not much left matter. Jim did such a great job. I think one area that they didn't cover that I would also emphasize is, when I ask students, a lot of times, you know, why are you interested in sport businesses for management, They say, I love sports. I played in high school. These types of things. I love sport, which is great and that's part of that action. But I think also you have that interests, that passion in, in the management and business affected sports. It's great if you know, if the file's won or lost last night and what the score was and who the starting pitcher is. But you also have that, have that passion for the business aspect of it and then knowledge. And while we attempt to give you that in class, I think you need to augment that with reading Sport Business Daily Readings Sport Business Journal. Following social media that are export business related, whether it's a Darrin ravel or, or these types of folks that, you know, you should know things like NBC, Universal sports just kicked off their their peacock TV network or peacock online network. And what does that mean? How does that affect things? Yeah, I'm Dine ask Jim. Okay, Jim, do I now gotta pay every weekend for my APL games behind a kilometer. But if I said to Peacock Network and you don't know what I talked about, you know, there's a gap there then. So I think it's also very important for students, not just to be fans of sport, but they really got to be interested in, in the business aspect to it as the business aspects that Jim went through, whether it's ticketing, facility management, Event Operations, the legal aspects of your interest in being a sport agent. And, and a lot of that information. It's there for you. Especially these days with the internet, with social media. It's out there for you. It's just a matter of make, making the time and being committed that I want to learn. I want to learn these things on my own. I want to know what's going on in the corporate world of corporate partnerships, or I want to know what's going on in sport, breath, broadcasting or, you know, NFL, how's the salary cap where these types of things. So I'd really recommend that you go beyond those classroom studies. As Matt said, Get that that volunteer experience, the internships, What do you do and for your summer jobs, these type of things. And then also really becoming knowledgeable about the the business aspect of Mr. wonderful, wonderful, great way to wrap it up. Close it so quickly. I want to go ahead and thank Dr. Weber, Kimberly Reagan, Jennifer Hendrix in and Lerner College for for putting this webinar on. It's a wonderful space. I hope you all got as much out of it is you could wonderful experience of all of the panelists. We've got decades of experience in sport on this panel. So thank you, Jim. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Matt. Wonderful. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much for a really great job loss. Moderate your through your smart and the three of us that well, it wasn't just me that thought that thought thought to keep my day job. Alright. But thank you all again. At our next webinar date is October 22nd. And that webinar will be leading teams during crisis. So if you are interested, go ahead and sign up for that register online. Same way that you did for this this panel. And thank you. Have a great rest of your evening and I hope to see you all soon. Stay and stay well. And yeah, thank you. Job Jim graduates. I just the job X Earth, like Zara, didja. Thanks guys greatly. I think very one. Diverse. Hi everybody. It's everyone.

Lifelong Lerner Webinar Series: The Sports Industry's New Normal

From Kimberly Ragan September 22, 2020

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The Lifelong Lerner Webinar Series, hosted by the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, addresses today’s top business challenges with Lerner expertise, pairing evidenced-based research with practical application.

September 17, 2020
The Sports Industry's New Normal

• Jim Donofrio ‘91, Vice President-Sponsorship Sales & Strategy, NBC Sports
• Tim DeSchriver, Associate Professor of Sport Management
• Matt Robinson, Professor of Sport Management, Area Head of Sport Management
Moderator: Sarah Williams, Assistant Professor of Sport Management

Department Name: Lerner College
Date Established: September 17, 2020
Appears In: Lerner College Lifelong Lerner Webinar Series

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