TicketManager All Access Interview Series

In a conversation with host Michael Goldstein, ESPN's Jeremy Schaap and former Madison Square Garden President & CEO Dave Checketts revisit the New York Knicks' past, the current excitement around the team's long-awaited run, and the behind-the-scenes business dealings that make it all happen.

In a conversation with host Michael Goldstein, World Golf Hall of Fame member and 1998 Masters champion Mark O'Meara, joins Octagon's Managing Director of Global Golf, Scott Seymour to explore the growth of golf, how leading brands are activating in the sport, and offer an insider's perspective on The Masters from a champion's point of view.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jim McCoy, Associate Vice President, Sports Marketing for Nationwide, breaks down the financial services company's multi-faceted sponsorship portfolio and discusses new plans and activations for some of its leading programs.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Matt O'Brien, Senior Vice President of Rock Entertainment Group, Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chief Revenue Officer for 100 Thieves, explores the challenges and opportunities of building and sustaining partnership programs and sales teams while managing innovation and other changes to the marketing landscape.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Matt Yonan, President of Tigris Marketing, describes the opportunities and challenges of competing with much larger agencies to win brand business in strategy, negotiating, activating and measuring the impact of sponsorships.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Mike Falconer, Vice President of Strategy for Sportradar, explains why the elimination of third-party cookies spurred the introduction of the company's new FanID solution and digs into the opportunities and challenges of collecting, connecting, activating and orchestrating data insights across rights holders and their multiple partners.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

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

Mark Youngworth, Chief Operating Officer of Zips Car Wash, discusses the company's unique sponsorship category, why college sports is a good fit for the brands' objectives and how its NIL content series of student-athlete interviews took shape and is seeing results.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

As we conclude Year 3 of the podcast and before 2024 gets fully underway, it's a great time to look back and recall some of the ideas and insights shared by our podcast guests over the past 12 months.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Ishveen Jolly, CEO of OpenSponsorship, discusses dealmaking and trends in the influencer space, including what brands are looking for, the rise of NIL deals and the role of her digital marketplace in forging successful marketing partnerships.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Kady Stoll, Vice President of Global Sponsorships for 3M, outlines how the company's diverse portfolio achieves multiple objectives, including growth and awareness for 3M as a global leader in science and innovation.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Juul Manders, CEO of international football social community 433, discusses how the company grew from a soccer-focused Twitter page to 100 million followers and partnerships with top clubs, players and marketers.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Garth Knutson, Chief Marketing Officer, Aflac, explains how the supplemental insurance company's college sports sponsorships and brand ambassador deals support its brand recognition and product knowledge objectives.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Sean Kellenberger, Senior Vice President and Head, U.S. Brand, Marketing and Digital Strategies for RBC Wealth Management, breaks down the decision-making, strategy and execution of the financial services company's sponsorship of Major League Soccer, including the importance of exclusivity, local opportunities and Apple TV+.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Tony Schiller, co-founder of Paragon Marketing Group, examines the role of leaders in creating cultures, advancing careers and achieving personal and business goals, in addition to tackling some of the top issues facing sponsors and properties today.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Luke Drake, Vice President of Commercial Partnerships for Qatar Airways discusses the airline's extensive portfolio of global, regional and local commercial partnerships and their role in achieving communications and business-building objectives in a competitive environment.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Michael Schreiber, Founder & CEO of Playfly Sports, explores multiple areas of revenue generation for sports rightsholders, from content development and data utilization to streaming video and hospitality opportunities at the high and low ends.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Tom Valdiserri, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Kemper Lesnik, discusses the opportunities and challenges involved in running the sports PR, marketing and event management agency responsible for such events as the Maui Jim Maui Invitational college basketball tournament and the McDonald's All-American Games high school hoops tourney.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Bettina Cornwell, Head of the Department of Marketing, and the Philip H. Knight Chair and Professor of Marketing at the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon shares findings from her research into how and why sponsorship works (or doesn't). Among the insights discussed: authenticity is more important than fit and fans don't quickly forget previous sponsors, so new partners must put in the work to overcome those long memories. For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Brad Ross, Vice President of Global Sports & Entertainment Marketing and Partnerships for The Coca-Cola Company takes a deep dive into the sponsorship leader's strategy, execution and measurement of its worldwide partnerships, including sponsorship's role in a complex organization, the impact of technology and negotiating flexibility into long-term deals.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

David Paro, Head of Global Sponsorships for MoneyGram International, delivers the what, how and why behind the P2P payments company's decision to jump into sports partnerships with a title sponsorship of the Haas Formula 1 team, including objectives, activation and measurement plans.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Chris Bontempo, Chief Marketing Officer, IBM Americas, puts the role of sports and entertainment partnerships—from legacy sponsorships with US Open tennis, The Masters golf tournament and Wimbledon to newer relationships with ESPN Fantasy Football and others—in perspective for a global B2B tech giant. Chris discusses the value of technology showcases, relationship building with today's customer buying committees and the ability to follow the data to track impact and return on investment.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Joey Graziano, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Event Strategy & Development for the NBA shares how the league is throwing out the playbook and taking a new approach to special events as it looks to move beyond content.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Carl Thomas, Senior Vice President of Sales & Platform Development for ASM Global, discusses how the three-year-old company is creating opportunities for brands across the 350-plus venues it manages worldwide.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Michael Goldstein, Vice President, Head of Sponsorships, North America for Mastercard, puts the payment technology systems company's vast portfolio of partnerships in perspective—from targeting various audiences to meeting business and marketing goals.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

As we mark two years since the introduction of the All Access Interview Series, we look back at some of the best insights that were offered on the podcast throughout 2022.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Steve Gray, Group Vice President of Marketing for UKG, and Pete Falcone, Owner and CEO of JP Sports and Entertainment share the strategy and objectives behind the enterprise software giant's athlete ambassador program, as well as how agency and client work together to achieve goals.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Jan Liebchen, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategic Partnerships & Sponsorships for M&T Bank, discusses the bank's strategy and objectives for its wide-ranging portfolio, its decentralized decision-making structure, performance measurement and more.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Nick Baker, Chief Operating Officer of AEG Global Partnerships, offers his take on building relationships, the importance of small businesses, what's happening in premium seating, crypto deals and more.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Erin Pryor, Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer for First Horizon Bank, charts the regional financial services firm's sponsorship strategy, screening process, and evaluation methods, as well as the importance of coordination between central and local offices.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

John Brody, Chief Revenue Officer for LEARFIELD, joins the podcast to examine a host of new developments in college athletics and what they mean for schools, student athletes and their brand and media partners.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Elizabeth Lindsey, President, Brands and Properties for Wasserman, discusses a host of current issues in sponsorship, including how brands must remain true to themselves, the importance of understanding what consumers want and need, and whether there is a “right” way to sell women's sports partnerships.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Steven Fuld, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Sony Corporation of America, takes us inside the company's loyalty program and discusses the shift in consumer loyalty drivers that has led to Sony Rewards' expansion into live events.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Ricardo Fort, Founder of Sport by Fort Consulting and former Head of Global Sponsorship for Coca-Cola and Visa, discusses why brands must move away from vanity measures, the ability sponsors have—or don't have—to influence properties, and which rightsholders are getting it right. For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Jeff Hundley, CEO of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, addresses the many aspects of running a bowl organization in a time of changing market dynamics and the evolving college football landscape.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Alex Baldwin, President of the Korn Ferry Tour, delivers an inside look at how the “pathway to the PGA Tour” differentiates itself when working with corporate partners, as well as plans to grow the circuit and tell the stories of its players.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Michael Konradi, Chief Marketing Officer of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, shares an inside look at the multiple aspects of hosting, producing, marketing and promoting post-season bowl games and the challenges that lie ahead.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Ed Horne, President of 160over90, assesses the competitive landscape for sports, entertainment and culture marketing agencies like his, and identifies what brands and rights holders can do to be successful in connecting with consumers through their passion points.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff provides an update on the state of the playoff and what's next for the organization, its brand and its fans.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Meka White Morris, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer for the Minnesota Twins, explores how teams, leagues, venues and events can prepare for growth by updating their approach to fan engagement, hiring and diversity, equity and inclusion.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Jim Overbeck, Senior Vice President of Marketing for enterprise security leader Fortinet, shares how a B2B marketer quickly made its mark through strategic decision-making, smart execution and comprehensive data management.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.

Charles Nieves, Vice President of Marketing for GameDay Vodka, shares the story of an upstart's use of collegiate and NFL partnerships to compete with spirits industry giants and gain affinity and trial among sports fans.For more information on the TicketManager Partner Summit, click here.