Sportstravel Podcast

This is the second time we’ve had Al Kidd and Jennifer Stoll on the SportsTravel Podcast. The last time was in early 2020 when the pandemic was just becoming evident and an incredible amount of unknown lied ahead. The Sports Events & Tourism Assocaition had just released data from its first comprehensive State of the Industry report, which covered data from 2019 — right before the world fell off a cliff. In turns out the timing of that study couldn’t have been more perfect since it reflected the high point of the industry, and offered a benchmark to use to determine how the recovery from the global pandemic would be measured in years to come. That 2019 report showed that sports-related travel had a direct economic impact of $45 billion that year. Fast forward to now, and Sports ETA has its latest data that covers how bad things got in 2020, but more importantly, how things rebounded in 2021. The headline number out of the latest report, sponsored by the Northstar Meetings Group,  is that sports-related trave

Starting June 5 at Exploria Stadium, the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games will unite more than 5,500 athletes and coaches from all 50 states and the Caribbean and 125,000 spectators. This event will have 19 Olympic-style team and individual sports and 30 events at venues across Orlando. We talked with the president and chief executive officer of this year’s Games, JoeDzaluk, about the work that has gone into setting up the event over the past four years, how COVID interrupted and changed planning, how Orlando has adopted the Games as a major event and much more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the many sports vying for the chance to be included in the program for the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles is teqball, a soccer-based sport founded in 2014 in Hungary. Played on a specially curved table called a Teq Table, the sport has 60 official registered clubs and will have several tournament events throughout the summer on ESPN’s various platforms. We talked with AJNwosu, the chief executive officer of USA Teqball, about what the sport is about, his introduction to teqball, growing the sport across the country, its Olympic dreams and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Neil Schwartz, the president and chief data officer of SBRnet, has spent decades researching sports fans, including their willingness to travel. In his company’s latest research report — the 2022 Study of Sports Fans — he has insights on which sports fans travel the most to attend or participate in events. He also has research showing which specific collegiate and professional teams’ fans are most likely to travel to away games in different sports. The data also analyze esports fans and their willingness to travel to events, reaching some interesting conclusions. Combined, the data offer a fascinating insight into the mindset of the traveling sports fan and provide valuable information for destinations and venues looking to book events in the future. Schwartz will also be a featured presenter at the upcoming EsportsTravel Summit, June 21–23, in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he will present more of his esports research. For more information on that event, visit esportstravelsummit.com. See omnystudio.com/lis

The United States will host the Rugby World Cup in 2031 and Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2033, planting a flag in the ground for the sport stateside by World Rugby, the international federation in charge of the event. The announcement also completes a remarkable comeback for USA Rugby, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020 before it emerged from bankruptcy last year. In this episode, SportsTravel Managing Editor Matt Traub talked with RossYoungand JimBrown about the bid process, the emotions of World Rugby’s official announcement, deciding on 2031 and 2033 for the tournaments it wanted to host, what this will mean for the sport throughout the United States, what the organization has learned from when it hosted the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Championship in San Francisco and much more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the increasing competitive collegiate landscape, it is becoming harder and harder to stand out. But Coastal Carolina University is a prime example of a university that has managed its growth well, fielding a football team that has become a powerhouse out of nowhere in recent years and a formidable basketball program. Its new football stadium is already paying dividends, hosting the Myrtle Beach Bowl, one of the newest bowl games on the schedule. Coastal’s longtime athletics director, MattHogue, joined us recently to explain how one school has plotted its growth and what other universities and communities can learn about how to make a splash on the largest stage possible. We hope you enjoy the conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ScottHowson was named president of the American Hockey League in February 2020 with plans for a short transition period before assuming control ahead of the 2020–2021 season. Obviously the sports landscape, along with the world landscape, looks a lot different now than it did a little more than two years ago. Howson worked during the pandemic to steer the league through a shortened 2020–2021 season that saw no Calder Cup playoffs. This season, the AHL has steered through the winter difficulties of the omicron variant to put itself on track for a full regular season and playoffs thanks to the support of medical experts and the National Hockey League as well. The AHL’s future also looks bright with the incoming addition of a team in the Coachella Valley starting next season in a new venue. In this episode, Howson talks with SportsTravel managing editor MattTraub about how a kid who grew up loving hockey turned it into not just a playing career but a post-playing career as a sports executive. See omnystudio.co

If you went back to 1997, you would find a sports-event industry that was truly in its infancy. The National Association of Sports Commissions, now known as Sports ETA, was only a few years old itself at the time. It was a few years prior to that when Tim Schneider started to identify something interesting in the other magazine that he published called Association News. Why were so many sports organizations reading a magazine about association management, he wondered? The answer was that they were on the hunt for destinations and venues to host their events, and no other publication seemed to have information about those available locations and venues. Like the true entrepreneur he is, Schneider decided to come up with a product to fix that. While the magazine took a few years to materialize, that innovative thinking eventually led to issue one of SportsTravel, published 25 years ago in January 1997. In the years since, the magazine has grown with new departments and features, and has successfully made the l

The Women’s Final Four in Minneapolis was the biggest gathering in women’s college basketball since the pandemic began more than two years ago. And in the light of last year’s NCAA gender equity report, all eyes were on the destination to make sure that women’s sports were celebrated not only on the court and in the Target Center, but that the experience extended beyond the arena to every detail including how the city and NCAA partners treated the event — including where people stayed during the weekend. Julius Robinson, the senior vice president and global brand leader for Marriott Hotels, joined SportsTravel managing editor MattTraub on location in Minneapolis to discuss how Marriott plans for big events like the Women’s Final Four, what it’s like working with the NCAA as its official hotel partner, how important sports-related travel has been to Marriott's business the past two years, sports tourism trends the hotel chain has seen lately and what the one big sports event he still would like to check off h

There is nothing quite as valuable to sports organizations and destinations that host their events than data. And one of the leading organizations that has been diving into data analysis for years is the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The association, whose members include sporting goods and fitness brands, manufacturers, retailers and maerkters, has one of the deepest data pools in the country, annually surveying Americans 6 years old and up about their levels of participation in a list of sports that now tops 120 different activities. Every year, the association issues a Topline Report detailing which of those sports and activities are on the upswing and which are headed down. Toss in a worldwide pandemic that has fundamentally shifted the way everyone participates in the activities they love and you’ve got a data set that is ripe for analysis and contemplation for all who organize sports events at all levels. Tom Cove has been the assocaition’s longtime president and CEO and his take on why some s

When the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association announced that it was moving its annual men's and women's conference basketball tournament to Baltimore after 13 years in Charlotte, North Carolina, it sent shockwaves shockwaves through the collegiate landscape. The event, which attracts about 100,000 people with an estimated economic impact of $50 million has become about much more than basketball or even economic development. The ancillary events surrounding the tournament that crowns champions from 12 Historically Black Colleges and Universities is a career expo, a party, a reunion, a cultural exploration, an experience. At the helm of the conference is someone who has seen her own success on the court and off — Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams. When she was hired nine years ago, she was the first Black women to lead a major collegiate conference. Today, she is one of four, progress that she says is not satisfying enough. [article_sidebar]Before joining the CIAA, McWilliams spent nearly a decade at the

The Sports and Fitness Industry Association has made it official in its latest trends report: pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the country. Over the past two years, participation is up 39 percent, including an increase of more than 20 percent from 2019 to 2020 when the pandemic helped drive the sport’s appeal. Leading the charge on the sport’s growth is USA Pickleball, which boasts 50,000 members and a robust events series that is also gaining momentum. Stu Upson, a veteran of the sports-events industry has been CEO since December 2020 and is leading the organization into the future with new sponsorship deals, broadcast deals for its largest events and a steady hand as the sport navigates questions of a gap in venues and a rapid rise of manufacturers and others wanting in on the action. In addition, professional leagues are sprouting, including some that are inking impressive hosting deals in some of the largest sports venues in the country. In this conversation with SportsTravel Executive Editor a

Skiing and snowboarding have always been among the spotlight sports at the Olympic Winter Games and the 2022 Games in Beijing will be no different with MikaelaShiffrin and ChloeKim being among the biggest names for Team USA. But getting to Beijing and passing strict COVID protocols has been a hot topic in the Olympic world, among many others as China hosts another major sporting event. Named as the president and chief executive officer for U.S. Ski and Snowboard in September, SophieGoldschmidt joined the national governing body off a stint as CEO of the World Surf League, with international experience ranging from the NBA to the WTA Tour and the Rugby Football Union. Goldschmidt joined SportsTravel Senior Editor MattTraub recently for a conversation about the logistical hurdles that athletes will face to get to Beijing, health and safety protocols the organization has implemented this winter ahead of the Olympics, being the first female president and CEO of the national governing body, balancing the needs of

The Ironman Group has been a leader in mass participation events for years. The company’s portfolio now extends well beyond the Ironman triathlon series itself and includes the Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series, the multi-day road cycling event series Haute Route and a strategic partnership with UTMB Group, which organizes ultra-trail running events. The company has also been expanding its virtual events during the pandemic and recently acquired the indoor virtual cycling app, FulGaz, to further push into the ever-growing world of connected fitness. After Ironman's in-person races dropped off the calendar at the start of the pandemic in 2020, they began coming back in 2021 and expectations are high for the 2022 calendar. In this conversation between Ironman Group CEO Andrew Messick and SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, Messick discusses how the race series brought back its events, the outlook for the coming year and how the organization uses its own proprietary CRM system to help determine future h

Indianapolis has hosted eight NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Fours and is known as one of the best college sports cities in the country. On Monday, January 10, it will for the first time host the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, becoming the first cold-weather city to host the event and the first city that does not have a regular bowl game to host the CFP. SusanBaughman has extensive experience in making big events special in Indianapolis as the senior vice president of the Indiana Sports Corp for more than two decades before taking the role as president for the CFP’s local host committee in Indianapolis. SportsTravel Senior Editor Matt Traub talked with Baughman about planning for the CFP title game, what goes into the local leadup for such an event, how the CFP differs from the NCAA’s Final Four and much more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As chief operating officer of Chicago Event Management, which organizes the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Mike Nishi has been the logistics lead for the race since 1990. What started out with 6,000 runners has grown to the one of the largest marathons in the world. In 2019, more than 45,000 people finished the race. After the 2020 race was forced to go virtual, the 2021 race on October 10 proved to be one of the most challenging in the event’s history as COVID regulations forced event organizers to operate differently than they had in the past. In doing so, the Chicago Marathon became the first of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors to be run in person since the pandemic began. In this episode, learn what it took to produce the race, how organizers handled COVID protocols, how organizers communicated with participants and what major takeaways Nishi has for event organizers and host cities staging their own events in a post-COVID world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Danny Martin has known esports for years even before the industry was calling itself esports. In college, he was the one who would fix video game consoles for his classmates when things broke down. That led to him organizing what were essentially esports tournaments from his dorm room or apartment, allowing him to assess all ends of what would be soon become an industry in itself. Martin sees the long-term play now for the esports industry in developing not only elite athletes that can play in the professional leagues, but all the behind-the-scenes professionals that make live events possible: broadcasters, videographers, graphic designers, coders, event organizers and more. Through his company, Esposure, he has built a technology platform and lab where each of these aspects of the industry can live under one roof. Esposure is a company based near Dallas that offers a curriculum designed for high school students wanting to dive into all these different specialities. And now they can do it in an actual venue,

Nashville Superspeedway reopened in June 2021 and was on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule for the first time this past season. Leading the track’s renaissance both within the Nashville and NASCAR communities is ErikMoses, a longtime leader in mid-Atlantic sports and entertainment circles with an extensive background in sports tourism as senior vice president at Events DC for more than a decade, He also worked as CEO of the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission and as president of the XFL's DC Defenders. SportsTravel Senior Editor Matt Traub talked with Moses during the Sports ETA Annual Symposium about building back Nashville Superspeedway’s reputation, planning a NASCAR weekend in the midst of the ongoing pandemic and the sport’s diversity efforts with Moses being the first Black executive of a track. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Greg Sankey has been the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference since 2015 and is generally regarded as one of the more powerful people in collegiate athletics, given the SEC’s dominance over college football. But Sankey’s career spans multiple regions and divisions across the NCAA, from working in Central New York as the director of intramural sports at Division III Utica College to the Southland Conference, where he was named commissioner in 1996 before joining the SEC in 2002. Though college athletics has experienced changes throughout the decades, this current period may rank among the most volatile ever. Between the debate about name, image and likeness, and the NCAA’s future, expansion of the college football playoff and more, Sankey and the SEC are at the center of it all — including the earth-shaking news in college sports this summer when it invited powerhouse programs Oklahoma and Texas to join the SEC, making it a future 16-team superleague. SportsTravel Senior Editor Matt Traub talked with Sa

The San Francisco 49ers were one of the few NFL teams that did not have fans at a single home game last season because of the pandemic, finishing the season with its last two scheduled home games being played in Arizona. This year the 49ers have been able to play to capacity crowds at Levi’s Stadium while also opening a new club space and unveiling an innovative food and beverage program for season-ticket holders. As general manager of the stadium, Jim Mercurio has seen and just about done it all for the 49ers in his three decades with the organization, dating to the days of Candlestick Park and now the past several years at Levi’s Stadium, which has hosted not only the 49ers but a Super Bowl, CFP National Championship Game and WWE WrestleMania among other major events. SportsTravel Senior Editor Matt Traub talked with Mercurio about health and safety at Levi’s Stadium this season, making sure event workers are up to speed on the latest protocols, preparing the stadium for an enhanced and updated fan experien