Salary Capped

It is almost fall. This means action-packed Monday and Th ursday nights and Sundays in the National Football League. When you're sitting at home watching the game, it seems like just a game on the field, but there are a lot of technologies behind the scenes, and one of those is Zebra Sports' Next Gen stat tracking.On this episode of Salary Capped, Host Tyler Kern talked with John Pollard, Vice President of Zebra Sports for Zebra Technologies, the official player tracking technology for the NFL. They've served in that capacity for the last eight seasons.“We have installed our RFID player tracking technology system in all NFL stadiums here in the U.S.,” Pollard said. “Our system's also installed in the U.K. stadium and in Mexico City, as well.”The system consists of a series of receiver boxes installed around the perimeter of the stadiums. The players' shoulder pads contain RFID tags about the size of a nickel. Those tags emit signals to the receiver boxes. The information collected includes whether a player is on the field, where they're at, and, of course, orientation to other players. Other metrics include: total distance traveled, top speed, acceleration, deceleration. This can encompass one play or a series of plays, or entire games. But that's not it.“Finally, we have an RFID tag that's been installed in the NFL football,” Pollard said. “That took a lot of R&D work and cooperation from the leadership in the NFL, Wilson Sporting Goods, and ourselves to work on this tag.”Listen to hear more about Zebra's Next-Gen Statistics and all the information they collect in the ball tag.

When you think about professional athletes, your first thought likely turns tot he glitz, glamour and high salaries of our largest sports leagues.All that fame and fortune begins with the athlete's talent, sure, but agents have blazed the way for athletes to build truly generational wealth.Now, when you think of agents, a different name likely pops up — Leigh Steinberg.Steinberg is a super agent who's helped build the most famous athletes into international brands and establish the role of the sports agent as a cornerstone of the sports culture.But it wasn't always this way. When Steinberg was fresh out of school, there were no agents. Now, over the course of four decades, everything's changed — and I sat down with Steinberg to find out how it all came to be.Only on Salary Capped.

On this episode of Salary Capped, Host Tyler Kern talked with Juliana Villalba, CEO of Rebus, a fan activation platform for sports streaming services and monetization of fan engagement. It's used by teams in the WNBA and Chicago Sky.The inspiration behind the launch of Rebus is a funny story. For Villalba, it was worlds colliding when she met her Co-Founder, Jose Berrio, in Columbia. It was a rainy day, and she was trying to get to the airport but couldn't catch a ride. She jumped in front of the first taxi that drove by, and she asked the person inside where they were going, and it was the airport. The passenger? Jose.“It was an insane thing to do here in Columbia because I didn't know who he was,” Villalba said. “We started talking on the 45-minute drive to the airport.”"We are creating experiences that are worth remembering,." - Juliana VillalbaIt turned out that Berrio was also a software entrepreneur and already had another company. Villalba also had another company and used to work with events, so she was interested in the industry, specifically pertaining to sports, entertainment, and corporate events. Nothing happened, but they kept in touch for two years.Fast-forward, Berrio called Villalba with an idea for a solution involving fun, engagement, and events. With Berrio's passion for soccer, they set out to create something that created an excellent experience for fans. The service works by engaging the fans that aren't at the games. For example, with the Chicago Sky with millions of social media followers, only 20,000 or so attend games. The rest of the fans are at home, so engaging them through content, streaming, and other services is essential.“We are creating experiences that are worth remembering,” Villalba said.

We're over a year into the transition from physical to digital tickets in sports entertainment venues – but are contactless tickets here to stay?This week on Salary Capped, host Daniel Litwin brought back a previous guest in Don White, CEO and Co-Founder of Satisfi Labs, to break down a Satisfi Labs study in partnership with the MLB that analyzed over a million questions baseball fans have asked within the league's app.The study found that 53% of fans have never used a digital ticket. White weighed in on what this means for the staying power of digital tickets and the evolution of ticketing as a whole.“About 25% of the questions we handle are about tickets. The evolution of ticketing has been fantastic to see, because these fans or customers are able to take what they purchase and align it with the technology of their mobile device.So, they can get the most out of each and every experience. There was such poor app adoption pre-COVID. Now, the ticket is the major place where the app can add value.On top of that, everything you need to know about the event – what you're trying to do, what you need to accomplish when there – becomes right in the palm of your hand.What's interesting about mobile ticketing is that, even in our customer base, we've helped 125,000 fans that go to baseball games find out how they could use the ticket in their app or how to get it and adopt it more quickly.Now that we've seen the digital contactless environment, you'll see that the venues are just looking to add more value to the ticket experience.Our data shows that this trend is not going away.”

In July of 2020, the Washington football team ditched their previous name under intense social and economic pressures. The team plans to stick with their generic name until early 2022.Marketing strategy and activation firm Metaforce conducted a simulation to rename the team. They performed a series of panels and focus groups involving players and long-time fans to rename the team.On this episode of Salary Capped, Host Tyler Kern talked with Allen Adamson, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce, about the rebranding of the NFL franchise, which doesn't happen that often. Metaforce marketing company has deep expertise with strategy, go-to-market planning, branding, creativity, and activation.When Adamson initially heard news stories about the Washington Football team changing the name, he hoped they didn't move fast, as the reports mentioned, because it would be hard.“The older the name, the more heritage there is, the harder it is to replace it because everyone is so in that world that everything else looks terrible.” - Allen AdamsonAdamson said they did what they did with any other corporate or product client. They interviewed management to find what is at the heart of their organization. They also talked to former players and fans to try to identify what is at the root of the organization, besides the name. They dug into the DNA, the culture, the stories such as “what fathers tell their sons about the team.”Listen to hear more about what goes into the renaming of an NFL franchise.

With athletes just wrapping up the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, and team places firmly cemented to compete in Tokyo, it is an excellent time to look at how athletes gain a competitive edge.On this episode of Salary Capped, Host Tyler Kern talked with Jonathan Lee, Director of Sports Performance Technology, Olympic Technology Group at Intel Corp. He gave insights into how athletes get ahead of their competition with Intel's 3D Athletic Training (3DAT).“3DAT is a technology that we developed at Intel that allows the use of standard video and standard video cameras to capture the form and motion of athletes,” Lee said. “We use AI and computer vision to detect different points on the body, and we can reconstruct a 3D skeleton of the athletes.”They do this without special suits or markers, so athletes are unburdened from wearing sensors or deviating from their regular training program. Using the 3D information, they can extract information about mechanics and how they perform and move.“3DAT is a technology that we developed at Intel that allows the use of standard video and standard video cameras to capture the form and motion of athletes." - Jonathan LeeElsewhere, athletes are using wearables to gain a competitive edge. An example of this would be the use of continuous glucose monitors in athletes to improve metabolic performance. Another example would be a pack an athlete wears to track movement during a soccer match. But, the folks at Intel wanted to track an athlete's natural movement during a game or practice to gain performance insights.“The wearables and sensors that exist now, they say where a player or athlete is now, so almost like you're tracking a dot,” Lee said. “As opposed to us, we're tracking how they move. When you get in that space, usually that kind of analysis is done with many sensors or in a lab.”

In the 43rd minute of Denmark's opening game against Finland in the Euros, star player Christian Eriksen collapsed from a cardiac episode on the pitch, requiring life-saving CPR and an external defibrillator.On this episode of Salary Capped, Host Tyler Kern talked with Dr. Matt Davis, Board Certified in Primary Care Sports Medicine and serves as team physician for SMU Athletics. Tyler and Dr. Davis talked about this event, how vital the trainer's actions were, and what a trainer or physician must do.“It generally happens in a hospital. You hate to see it happen on the field, but it's happened in my career.” Dr. Matt DavisIt brought back some memories for Dr. Davis, and he noted that whenever you have to get involved in stuff like that, a lot of stuff runs through your mind. Most physicians and doctors, however, switch into professional mode and do what they have to do.“This is something we're trained to do,” Davis said. “It generally happens in a hospital. You hate to see it happen on the field, but it's happened in my career. You kind of switch into professional mode, and there's an algorithm you go through, so that's what went through my head dealing with personal situations like that, though the folks on the field looked like they were doing what they were trained to do.”It's really no different if you were walking down the street, according to Dr. Davis. The first thing you have to do is assess the situation. In essential life support, there are algorithms that trainers must follow. First, you have to determine if a patient is breathing, conscious or has a pulse. Once you decide they don't have a pulse, then you kick into CPR mode.

eSports has been growing in popularity, but a new concept takes it to a new level—combining physical activity and gameplay on a digital scale. Talking about the league's launch, ValoLeague, on Salary Capped with Tyler Kern, were guests Janina Salo-Glasemann, Events and Competitions, Operations Manager, and Dr. Raine Kajastila, CEO and Founder, Valo Motion.ValoLeague launched May 3, 2021, and is available in over 60 countries in over 700 locations. It includes Mixed-Reality (XR) trampoline and climbing walls. They use technology to make fitness social and competitive in the current world.“We want to empower the people, and sports has a very competitive element, which people respond to and can see in real-time leaderboards.” -Janina Salo-Glasemann“Playing sports and computer games are both very popular. This combines the two into a new concept,” Dr. Raine said.While other eSports leagues exist, this one is truly unique. “The social aspect of connecting people globally and challenges them to compete and become better even if they aren't in the same space,” Salo-Glasemann explained.The idea's catalyst was Dr. Raine's post-doctorate work, trying to answer the question of motivating people to move. He described how the games they designed do this. “The games have the ability to build up endurance and improve. They also have themes and start with basic skills. Fun is part of it, too.”Salo-Glasemann added, “We want to empower the people, and sports has a very competitive element, which people respond to and can see in real-time leaderboards.”While there are some at-home ways to gamify fitness, this league requires users to go to locations with the technology and equipment are available. Those interested in joining can find out more on the company's website.

Professional athletes and entertainers receive large paydays during their careers. However, many lack the knowledge or have the right people around them to not go broke. Wale Ogunleye, who played 11 years in the NFL, wants to change all that by leading UBS' Athletes and Entertainers Strategic Client Segment. He joined host Tyler Kern on Salary Capped to share his experiences and current mission.The number one thing new drafts need to realize, Ogunleye said, is that “this is business time.” Players have to know they are the business of football now, and that's true of anyone signing a lucrative contract.“We want to support them with the infrastructure to move into being an entrepreneur and businessperson. In investing, you need to know about the business. You wouldn't go out on the field without knowing the playbook. It's the same principle.” – Wale OgunleyeOgunleye was in the same situation, and he admits he had zero financial literacy during his playing days. He'd like to see the league take a more proactive rather than hands-off approach.“Give players more life skills, balancing a checkbook, credit score awareness, and vetting those around them and also explaining a contract. There's so much jargon and complex information. Help players understand it better,” he said.Because of his experience and so many cautionary tales, Ogunleye has become a disruptor to the industry. “We want to support them with the infrastructure to move into being an entrepreneur and businessperson. In investing, you need to know about the business. You wouldn't go out on the field without knowing the playbook. It's the same principle.”Ogunleye noted that sports stars and entertainers can build their own brands now and go direct to fans through social media. He believes this is the future of monetizing their brand and aligning with companies. To do that, they'll need guidance and investors they can trust.At UBS, Ogunleye's leadership of this new division is about bringing his experiences and the company's to adapt to new needs and ensure the money they make lasts.

Adonis Jennings used to pound the gridiron in the XFL. Now the former football player is a clothier for Harper & Jones in Dallas. On this episode of Salary Capped, Host Tyler Kern talked with Adonis Jennings about the similarities between playing football and being a professional clothier.Jennings noted the hard work that both football and high-end clothing require. Both also require the skill to develop relationships with co-workers and clients. Some fun is also thrown in the mix.When the NFL Draft happens on April 29, players will be dressed up in the finest clothes. It is one of their biggest days, and one Jennings is familiar with, and some of his clients want to dress up in a suit and tie. Some want to wear a nice shirt. This year will be tricky with the pandemic, so some rookies will be attending, and some are staying at home, which will also affect how they dress.Jennings worked with Kwity Paye from the University of Michigan and Caleb Farley from Virginia Tech. According to Adonis, both will be wearing interesting suits, though Farley will be doing so from home. Dressing a future professional footballer requires the knowledge of a former professional football player. With unique sizing, considerable time will be spent fitting clothes to these athletes.

Adonis Jennings used to pound the gridiron in the XFL. Now the former football player is a clothier for Harper & Jones in Dallas. On this episode of Salary Capped, Host Tyler Kern talked with Adonis Jennings about the similarities between playing football and being a professional clothier.Jennings noted the hard work that both football and high-end clothing require. Both also require the skill to develop relationships with co-workers and clients. Some fun is also thrown in the mix.When the NFL Draft happens on April 29, players will be dressed up in the finest clothes. It is one of their biggest days, and one Jennings is familiar with, and some of his clients want to dress up in a suit and tie. Some want to wear a nice shirt. This year will be tricky with the pandemic, so some rookies will be attending, and some are staying at home, which will also affect how they dress.Jennings worked with Kwity Paye from the University of Michigan and Caleb Farley from Virginia Tech. According to Adonis, both will be wearing interesting suits, though Farley will be doing so from home. Dressing a future professional footballer requires the knowledge of a former professional football player. With unique sizing, considerable time will be spent fitting clothes to these athletes.

Professional athletes and entertainers receive large paydays during their careers. However, many lack the knowledge or have the right people around them to not go broke. Wale Ogunleye, who played 11 years in the NFL, wants to change all that by leading UBS' Athletes and Entertainers Strategic Client Segment. He joined host Tyler Kern on Salary Uncapped to share his experiences and current mission.The number one thing new drafts need to realize, Ogunleye said, is that “this is business time.” Players have to know they are the business of football now, and that's true of anyone signing a lucrative contract.Ogunleye was in the same situation, and he admits he had zero financial literacy during his playing days. He'd like to see the league take a more proactive rather than hands-off approach.“Give players more life skills, balancing a checkbook, credit score awareness, and vetting those around them and also explaining a contract. There's so much jargon and complex information. Help players understand it better,” he said.Because of his experience and so many cautionary tales, Ogunleye has become a disruptor to the industry. “We want to support them with the infrastructure to move into being an entrepreneur and businessperson. In investing, you need to know about the business. You wouldn't go out on the field without knowing the playbook. It's the same principle.”Ogunleye noted that sports stars and entertainers can build their own brands now and go direct to fans through social media. He believes this is the future of monetizing their brand and aligning with companies. To do that, they'll need guidance and investors they can trust.At UBS, Ogunleye's leadership of this new division is about bringing his experiences and the company's to adapt to new needs and ensure the money they make lasts.

Many of us have seen our favorite athletes warm up before a game — and wondered what they are listening to to get themselves ready to perform.One entrepreneur took that a step further, launching a social media app based on that premise.This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with Co-Founder and CEO of EarBuds, Jason Fox. During his second year in the NFL, Fox was looking at Cam Newton warming up with a pair of headphones on and was studying the quarterback's routine. Fox wanted to mimic the ferocity Newton had before the game and was curious what was playing in his ears. The app was born not long after.EarBuds, which allows users to listen to the same music streams as their friends or celebrities at the same time, now counts other NFL stars, including Baker Mayfield (through Camwood Ventures), among investors.For Fox, the league provided a gateway into other interests. He knew he was going to have to prepare for life after football while he was still in the NFL, and he was enrolled in an MBA program while he was playing for the Dolphins.Kern and Fox also dove into how celebrities and brands are looking for more and more opportunities for collaboration and different ways to build community.

Many of us have seen our favorite athletes warm up before a game -- and wondered what they are listening to to get themselves ready to perform.One entrepreneur took that a step further, launching a social media app based on that premise.This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with Co-Founder and CEO of EarBuds, Jason Fox. During his second year in the NFL, Fox was looking at Cam Newton warming up with a pair of headphones on and was studying the quarterback's routine. Fox wanted to mimic the ferocity Newton had before the game and was curious what was playing in his ears. The app was born not long after.EarBuds, which allows users to listen to the same music streams as their friends or celebrities at the same time, now counts other NFL stars, including Baker Mayfield (through Camwood Ventures), among investors.For Fox, the league provided a gateway into other interests. He knew he was going to have to prepare for life after football while he was still in the NFL, and he was enrolled in an MBA program while he was playing for the Dolphins.Kern and Fox also dove into how celebrities and brands are looking for more and more opportunities for collaboration and different ways to build community.

How have social media and new digital platforms contributed to the growth of soccer in the U.S.?This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with former professional soccer player and Founder of TOCA Football Eddie Lewis. The two discuss what trends are starting to emerge in the sports technology space and how TOCA Football is approaching partnerships to elevate the sport in 2021.Lewis has seen the growth of the sport over the past 20 years and believes new opportunities to create spaces and communities for soccer fans to come together and lift the sport even further are here.

The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for the advertising world, but how do the brands measure success from their big-game commercial campaigns?Through the power of AI, one company is attempting to provide users with the “through the eyes” perspective of any consumer audience in an exact moment.This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with the Director of Consumer Intelligence of Vizit, Adam Colasanto, who is helping global consumer brands increase sales by optimizing their visual content. The duo dove into a few products planning to advertise during the game and how they are measuring the impact of that presence.

The fans remember the highlights but the franchises remember the technology, data, and inventions that powered their season. Host Tyler Kern sits down with the innovators, leaders and founders that are taking sports into the future.This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with the Co-Founder and Chief Athlete Officer of the Ultimate Gaming League, Josh Johnson. The newly created league will, for the first time, allow fans to join the team, not just watch the team.For Johnson, the league is a gateway enter the business world as a franchise owner and a method for giving back to one of his first loves, gaming.Kern dives into how Johnson has brought in other professional athletes who recognize the game that is the business of their brand and have a passion for “picking up the sticks.”

The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for the advertising world, but how do the brands measure success from their big-game commercial campaigns?Through the power of AI, one company is attempting to provide users with the “through the eyes” perspective of any consumer audience in an exact moment.This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with the Director of Consumer Intelligence of Vizit, Adam Colasanto, who is helping global consumer brands increase sales by optimizing their visual content. The duo dove into a few products planning to advertise during the game and how they are measuring the impact of that presence.

This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with the Co-Founder and Chief Athlete Officer of the Ultimate Gaming League, Josh Johnson. The newly created league will, for the first time, allow fans to join the team, not just watch the team.For Johnson, the league is a gateway enter the business world as a franchise owner and a method for giving back to one of his first loves, gaming.Kern dives into how Johnson has brought in other professional athletes who recognize the game that is the business of their brand and have a passion for "picking up the sticks."

This summer, Encore Live held Drive-In Nights concerts around that nation. It was a natural pivot for the live event company during a time that live events couldn't be held. The events quickly spread to over 300 venues across six time zones, featuring world-class artists like Metallica, Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton.This week on Salary Capped, host Tyler Kern sits down with Encore Live Founder and CEO Walter Kinzie to discuss how what was once a pivot is now becoming a permanent shift in their business plan. Kinzie explained that their events have been so successful because, for most of the population, planning an hours-long trip to a major stadium to see an concert or sporting event is a big enough obstacle to deter them from wanting to make such a big time commitment.But driving to a local venue to watch a live stream of the event is easy enough. Last summer's most popular event was their presentation of Metallica, which gathered over 200,000 fans to watch the live stream of their concert. The average price of attendance was $17 per person versus over $200 a ticket at a traditional concert venue.This pivot has turned into a revelation for the company that culminated in presenting the recent UFC 257 fights live. The summer concerts proved to be a perfect preparation for the UFC fights, which resulted in Encore Live being the only company broadcasting the fights live during the evening without any delays due to technical difficulties.Due to the resounding success of their UFC presentation, Kinzie is planning a future where over a million UFC fans will be able to attend a fight through their venue partners.

Welcome to Salary Capped. I'm your host, Tyler Kern. Pleasure to have you along today. One of the biggest topics in sports in 2020 was the conversation around sports betting. Part of that conversation involved:How exactly do you have sports betting, and how do companies like DraftKings and FanDuel continue to survive when there aren't sports being played?Well, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins responded to that question. Here's what he had to say."Our immediate focus turned to, 'How do we engage our customers without sports?' And, then, how do we prepare for the return of sports? And, you know, it was really amazing to watch the team rally together. They put out 70, 80 different pools and fantasy games for things like the Bachelorette, Top Chef, Curb Your Enthusiasm, political debates, just all kinds of stuff. We've created simulated NFL games with a partnership with eSports using the Madden NFL. Games have computer versus computer simulations, and people are playing fantasy on those" Robins said. "And, you know, we've also seen sports like Korean baseball really take off from a fantasy perspective. And [table tennis], at one point, was our No. 1 in sports betting. So, it's been really cool to watch the team rally around that. They've enhanced our offerings. We now have streaming for things like [table tennis] and Bundesliga so that, while people are betting on them, they can actually watch them. And then sports started to — traditional sports, I should say — return. One other thing I forgot to mention was eSports grew tremendously for us, so we really expanded that offering, adding a number of new eSports leagues, which is something I'm very excited about. Because, personally, I'm a believer in eSports. And I think it's going to be a big part of our future."So, that's how DraftKings pivoted early in 2020 when we lost out on a lot of sports that would have normally been played. We missed out on March Madness. We missed out on the beginning of the baseball season, which didn't start until much, much later in the year. So, that certainly hampered some of the things DraftKings was able to do.So, they pivoted. They turned their attention elsewhere. Now, what's the future for sports betting, and how do these companies like DraftKings and Fan Duel continue to grow into the future? What does the market hold? FanDuel CEO Matthew King responded to that question and gave his insights on how he thinks this thing continues to move forward."I think, in terms of the gaming space in general, you will see a recognition of how important online is both in sports betting and casinos to the long term growth of the category. And that's going to be something that I think both the casino operators take note of, but also state regulators," King said. "The reality is gaming is a huge tax driver, and a lot of states and in a world where you have physical casinos aren't able to operate back at full capacity for a sustained period. I think you're going to see consumer demand for online gaming expand, but you're also going to see legislative interest in authorizing and expand because it's the right way to rebuild the tax base."I think one of the most fascinating things to continue to follow is what King was talking about there, and that is how these states legalize or choose not to legalize sports betting based on tax revenue. At this point, if you look at a state like New Jersey that's had massive success around sports betting, and then you look at other states that right now are struggling because of COVID-19 and some of the other things that are shut down — because of some of the revenue that states are losing because of that, that tax revenue that they're losing, maybe sports betting becomes an option in the future.That's something we'll have to keep an eye on. But I'm also really curious to see what the public's attitude toward sports betting is right now. It just seems like it's growing continuously as people want to be engaged with sports on a higher level. And sports betting is a great way to do that.But what happens when people realize people in Vegas are smart people setting these betting lines? They know what they're doing. They didn't build all of these massive casinos because they lose a lot. That's the thing that I'm curious to see. If people continue to lose in sports betting, which does happen, does the appetite still continue to be there to continue the sports betting that will allow this market and this Avenue to continue to grow? Because, if not, if people start dropping off and saying, "Look, it's impossible to win big on sports betting. Vegas just knows too much. The sports books just know too much. There's no way to win." Then, I think you might see the appetite begin to decline a little bit.So we'll just have to see what happens in the future. But that's one of the things I'm interested to watch in 2021, especially as it relates to sports betting.

The world of sports is seeing a major transformation in the role of technology in competition.Will technology enable us to unlock our full athletic potential, or will it actually be the method we use to play sports? A new organization is trying to marry those two ideas together.Four pioneering companies in sports are joining forces to launch the International Association of Mixed Reality Sports (XRS). The focus of the new organization will be to promote physical activity by combining sports, technology and gaming.On Thursday, Nov. 20, the International Association of Mixed Reality Sports (XRS) was publicly launched in Munich (GER), Helsinki (FIN) and Zurich (CH). Initiated in early October by the CEOs and founders of four pioneering companies in the rapidly growing industry, the world's first association of its kind is meant to support and grow the meaning of mixed reality sports (XRS).Host Tyler Kern will be sitting down with Markos Aristides Kern, Founder & CEO, Fun with Balls, Chairman of the Board, XRS Mixed Reality Sports Association, Dr. Raine Kajastila, CEO, Valo Motion, and Stephan Niedecken, Co-Founder, Sphery AG. Kern will dive into the issues they have seen in the world of eSports and mixed reality sports and how they want to address declining sports participation.Follow Along for a New Episode Every Monday!

Mixed martial arts, or MMA, has risen to compete with the established mainstream sports in a fraction of the time it took those sports to reach widespread adoption and attention. But one key difference has separated fighting from traditional sports - the lack of a structured regular season and playoff format.Donn Davis is working to change this through the Professional Fighters League, set to launch early next year. Davis sees an opportunity to capture some of the market share away from the UFC by making the events more easily accessible through digital platforms, where young fans are currently consuming most of their content, and creating a mobile gambling experience.

Follow Along for a New Episode Every Monday!

Follow Along for a New Episode Every Monday!

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Salary Capped, and look forward to more episodes every Monday.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Salary Capped, and look forward to more episodes every Monday.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Salary Capped, and look forward to more episodes every Monday.

When an architect sits down to design the next great stadium, they are thinking of how to unite the athletes with the fans. It is not an accident that teams are named after cities and regions, and the very idea of going to a game is a communal experience and a way to feel closer with the people who bleed your team's colors. Successful stadium design highlights this togetherness.As we pull out of the COVID-19 quarantine, mass gatherings have a different connotation. A stadium that was designed for mobility and ease of navigating now poses a potential threat. I sat down with Matthew Birchall of Buro Happold to discuss how they are running people-flow modeling to help balance new occupancy needs with business imperatives.Key Topics:Mobility and navigation motivate design decisionsHow to balance business imperatives with occupancyWhat people-flow modeling has taught designers

Welcome to Salary Capped, presented by MarketScale, where we explore the intersection of business and sports. Each week Tyler Kern will chat with the leaders, marketers and inventors that are powering sports into the future. As stadiums have gotten larger and grander, there has been a bigger emphasis in how to minimize the environmental impact on the local ecosystem.As sports implement a plan to resume play this summer and fall, what will the new sustainability in sports look like?I spoke with Kristen Fulmer of Recipric on how her firm is currently fielding research for their Sustainable Reopening and Operational Resiliency Strategy to effectively guide professional sports organizations on re-opening facilities not only safely but sustainably after COVD19.If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Salary Capped, and look forward to more episodes every Monday.