SBJ Behind the Scenes: A story of global growth

If there was a prevailing theme at the CAA World Congress of Sports, one might call it “Sports Without Borders.”

Panelists touted the benefits of taking events such as NFL games and WrestleMania overseas, creating North American-affiliated properties on other continents like NBA Europe, hosting global competitions like the FIFA men’s World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics on U.S. soil or broadcasting domestic leagues abroad like MLS Season Pass on Apple.

Many of the more than 1,200 attendees who took in three days of SBJ programming echoed those topics in the hallways of the JW Marriott at L.A. Live while also reacting to headlines of the week. From the news around the future of LIV Golf to Live Nation, it was a tough week to have “liv” in your name.

The importance of storytelling through broadcast networks and digital media was also prominent, with executives from Netflix, Fox Sports, NBCUniversal, USA Sports and Disney all taking the stage, as well as a pair of content creators with more than 65 million combined subscribers on YouTube.

In all, there were five franchise owners onstage, including Chelsea’s Behdad Eghbali and BSE’s Clara Wu Tsai, who don’t make many public appearances. There were three team presidents or CEOs, as well as C-suite or SVP-level executives from MLB, the Premier League, MLS, TKO Group, the PWHL, NBA, Concacaf and two from the NFL, along with leadership from CAA, AEG and Fanatics.

The reach of the CAA World Congress of Sports spread far beyond the hotel into L.A. Live and greater Los Angeles, as more than a dozen private dinners, parties and happy hours were organized, not to mention outings to a documentary premiere, a Shohei Ohtani start at Dodger Stadium, an NBA playoff game between the Warriors and Clippers and the LOVB playoffs in Long Beach.

As Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks said of Zlatan Ibrahimović accepting a deal to be a World Cup analyst, the soccer star called to say, “OK, I am in, and you can fire everyone else.” May we all take that confidence into our next job. ...

Four of SBJ’s Champions Class of 2026 were honored in person during a luncheon and panel discussion on Wednesday. After a video showcasing the previous Champions honorees, SBJ’s Abe Madkour stressed how these were the pioneers of the industry.

“Without their efforts, there likely would be no events like the CAA World Congress of Sports,” he said.

He introduced Proskauer’s Brad Ruskin, whose firm has sponsored the luncheon for years, and Ruskin noted how each of the honorees “are giants of this industry.”

Friends and family were seated in the front at reserved tables — Levy’s Andy Lansing had his wife, Ellyn, and children Liza and Jason; Steve Greenberg had his wife, Myrna, and sat with fellow honoree Chris Plonksy. Arn Tellem sat with his wife, Nancy, and sons Matt and Eric, both working in sports.

Greenberg stressed the power of relationships and noted his long-time friendship with Tellem, and how special it was they were being honored in the same year; Lansing stressed how family and relationships were the key to any success he’s had; Plonsky noted the importance of college athletics and urged everyone to do what they can to make the system more sustainable; and Tellem grew emotional when discussing his relationship with Greenberg, which goes back decades, to his love of representing talent and how sports makes a difference in society.

The four then took part in a panel led by Proskauer’s Joe Leccese that included videos from the two honorees unable to make it: James Brown and Billy Payne (his Champions profile ran in early April).

With the CAA World Congress of Sports happening amid the footprint of the LA28 Olympics, several discussions turned to the potential for that event. It’ll include flag football for the first time in Games history, something that came with the backing of the NFL as the sport sought inclusion in the Olympics.

“We don’t want to be a one and done,” said Renie Anderson, chief revenue officer and EVP, NFL partnerships. “This isn’t the breakdancing of the Olympics.”

Quip aside, the short history of breaking in Paris 2024 is illustrative. Like flag football, it was a sport put forward by the organizing committee. While culturally relevant in France, it went viral (not in the best way) and is unlikely to be back in future Games.

The future of flag in the Olympics beyond LA28 faces similar questions, with the influence of the NFL weighing less on future organizing committees (currently only Brisbane 2032).

But Anderson reiterated the NFL’s support outside of the Olympics.

“It’s a short time within the Olympics, but at the same time, you’re going to see some great stuff here during the Super Bowl in L.A. honoring flag and amplifying that,” she said. “And I think it’s going to be something that’s going to be around for a long time.”

Few events are bigger than the Oscars, and AEG CRO Todd Goldstein gave attendees at the CAA World Congress of Sports some great insight on how his company snagged the Academy Awards starting in 2029. That news, which broke late last month, will see the Oscars — operated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — move from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood to the Peacock Theater (adjacent to Crypto.com Arena).

Goldstein referenced the unique nature of the plaza at L.A. Live to really blow out an awards event, like has been done with the Primetime Emmys at the Peacock Theater since 2008.

“We want to do as much as we can with events to be able to get dollars into the coffers of AEG, and we do it in a way where it’s a nice setting, and the environment is hopefully something you want to be able to use and come back to often,” he said. “It’s a red carpet environment that’s basically twice the size, from a square footage standpoint, of what anyone else in Los Angeles can do. And it’s what the celebrities and the influencers and the property owners themselves need and desire. And we feel like we’re providing a service that makes it better than maybe where they were doing it before.”

The hotel lobby and back halls of the CAA World Congress of Sports are typically buzzing with some of the industry’s top dealmakers. The banking crowd this year included Andrew Brown of A&W Capital, Accelerate Sports’ Brent Lawrence, Inner Circle Sports’ Steve Horowitz, J.P. Morgan’s Jordan Kessler, LionTree’s Alex Michael, Sixth Street’s Russell Wolff and Dan Zweben from Moelis. Top law firms have been spending big to staff up sports M&A departments, and some of the recent hires in attendance included Jason Krochak and Frank Saviano, who joined Kirkland & Ellis in October, as well as Eric Geffner and Michael Kuh, who earlier this month landed at Simpson Thacher along with former NBA lawyer Matthew Carpenter-Dennis.

SBJ’s Joe Lemire spotted several sports business executives Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, chatting with Ketchum’s Patrick Wixted, FloSports’ Seth Hart, Transmit CCO Bo Han and WolfCycle’s Ryan Miller. The usher of that section was Sachi Hamilton, the great-niece of Jackie Robinson — on Jackie Robinson Day at the ballpark. New Balance execs also went to the game to watch two of the players under their brand umbrella: the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the Mets’ Francisco Lindor.

Ahead of their onstage sessions Wednesday, Premier League CCO Will Brass and Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin had a long chat in the green room, talking about EA Sports’ licensing of video games.

The Rams’ Joanna Hunter and baseball reporter Evan Drellich of The Athletic are old high school friends who caught up on the concourse. Continuing the theme, Publicis VP/Business Development Brett Becks and SeatGeek’s Bob Sivik have been friends since attending rival high schools less than two miles apart in suburban Cleveland.

Netflix’s Bela Bajaria noted that “I can text like a teenager.” Speaking of texting, ESPN’s Shams Charania was also spotted in the lobby. No word if he landed any scoops.

LA84 Foundation President and CEO Renata Simril was seen chatting with Barbara Bouza, executive director of market strategies at CannonDesign.

Fun fact: Netflix’s Elle Duncan has 20,000-plus unread emails. NFL EVP and CRO Renie Anderson said she had zero.

New Balance’s Global Brand President and CMO Chris Davis discussed the brand’s 1906 origins onstage. It “first started off not even in the footwear game. We started off by making arch supports that go into shoes. And William J. Riley, the founder of New Balance — it’s actually a really funny story — he was fascinated with chickens, and he was always fascinated by the fact that chickens could have these big bodies and these really skinny legs that supported these big bodies. And he said, ‘There has to be something about their feet that enables this to happen.’ So he essentially created arch supports that mimic the foundation of a chicken’s foot that gave better stability, better comfort, better balance, hence the name ‘New Balance.’ It wasn’t until 1961 when New Balance created our first running shoe, which was 55 years later.”

Local legend Shawn Green, the former Dodgers slugger, attended the event on behalf of his startup, Greenfly.

Buccaneers safety Miles Killebrew said the one job he could not do was Colin Cowherd’s — they met earlier in the green room and took a selfie together.

Happy SBJ Days: Spotted walking by the escalator just below the main ballroom was Henry Winkler. Since his back was turned, we couldn’t verify if he was or wasn’t wearing a WCOS lanyard.

A slew of execs attended the SBJ’s and CAA’s Speakers Reception on Tuesday, including CAA’s Michael Levine, Howie Nuchow, Paul Danforth, Tom Young, Matt Kramer, Alan Gold, Bob Stanley, Fabian Stechel and Kevin Belbey. Also in attendance were Centennial Yards’ Brian McGowan, Disney’s Ken Potrock, MLB’s Uzma Rawn Dowler, Anschutz’s Cole Finegan, Kevin Demoff of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, AEG’s Todd Goldstein, AXS’s Tom Andrus, Next League’s Dave Nugent and McDermott’s Tom Conaghan, Greg Berson and Henry Smokler (who just joined the law firm from the PGA of America).

CAA Sports hosted an intimate dinner party Wednesday evening at E.Baldi in Beverly Hills, bringing together 25 influential female leaders from across the industry. CAA leaders in attendance included Aubree Curtis, Marissa Dishaw, Dania Echeverri, Liz Gray, Melissa Heiter, Beth McClinton, Lisa Metelus, Liv Montella, Natalie Tran and Ida Ziniti.

The Team held its 16th Annual Women of Sport Cocktail Reception at the Grammy Museum on Wednesday night. Spotted at the event were Boston Legacy FC President Jennifer van Dijk, Athletes Unlimited’s Vanessa Taveras, Parity’s Mandy Anderson and former Elevate exec Molly Mazzolini. The Team had a large gathering at its event, including Elizabeth Lindsey, Amy Segal (the managing director of its newly launched leadership advisory and executive search practice), Circe Wallace and the Collective’s Thayer Lavielle. For more on the dinner, see the coverage from SBJ’s Terry Lefton.

Katsuya at L.A. Live hosted three law firm parties Tuesday night. Diners seen in and around the noted sushi house included Third Space Capital’s Heather Brooks Karatz, IPG’s Jeff Marks, Greenberg Traurig’s Brian Michael Cooper and Inner Circle’s Steve Horowitz and David Abrams.

AEG hosted a Happy Hour on Wednesday night at its newly renovated offices on the third floor, with more open meeting spaces, an open TV room and outdoor patio overlooking L.A. Live. Spotted that night: AEG’s Todd Goldstein, Michelle Kajiwara, Katie Pandolfo, Russell Silvers and Nick Baker; CAA’s Alan Gold, Fox Sports’ Jordan Bazant, the NFL’s Ingrid Petri, ZRG’s Len Perna, Penske Racing’s Jonathan Gibson, BeCore’s Steve Dupee, The Team’s Elizabeth Lindsey, Angel City’s Julie Uhrman and the LA84 Foundation’s Renata Simril.

ZRG Partners hosted a private dinner at Fleming’s on Wednesday night. Among those in attendance were ZRG’s Len Perna, Rick Alessandri and Jamie Spencer, along with the Raiders’ Sandra Douglass Morgan, Sixth Street Partners’ Russell Wolff, the Dodgers’ Royce Cohen and former CBS News chief Wendy McMahon.

Dan Mannix’s Underdog & Co. hosted around 40 guests Wednesday night for an al fresco dinner at Rossoblu. Guests outside of the Underdog agency family: Innovative Partnerships’ Jeff Marks, L.A. Marathon’s Karen O’Connell, MLB Players Inc.’s Evan Kaplan, and Carl Thomas of DRVN Sports and Entertainment. The guests from Underdog’s agency consortium included BeCore’s Mark Billick and Steve Dupee.

NRG hosted a private dinner at Bacari on Wednesday night, and among those in attendance were NRG’s Jay Kaufman, Comcast’s Jenna Kurath, Finn Partners’ John Acunto, Diddo’s Rishi Nair and Ryan Sullivan and TKO Group’s Jacob Stillman.

With SBJ’s CAA World Congress of Sports wrapping up in L.A. on Thursday, here is a list of topics and stories that have come out of the event over the past three days:

• Garber pushes back against MLS skepticism at World Congress
• Bela Bajaria lays out Netflix’s thinking around sports content
• Inflation, industry issues discussed at CAA World Congress of Sports opening
• WCOS: Execs dish on what it takes to build out successful big events
• Fox’s Eric Shanks goes deep on World Cup, landing Zlatan Ibrahimovic
• Nick Khan peels back curtain on TKO’s drive to elevate properties, grow business
• CAA World Congress of Sports: Women’s sports needs new narratives to continue growth
• CAA World Congress of Sports: Leagues, brands lean into creator content
• Fanatics’ Michael Rubin touts ‘massive growth’ potential in collectibles, global and prediction markets
• New Balance, Samsung CMOs outline new playbook built on risk and collaboration
• Chelsea owner Behdad Eghbali: Regulation is beneficial for European soccer
• The value of brand sponsorships comes from ‘building’ with customers
• The Team holds its annual women’s event at World Congress of Sports

SBJ would like to express our sincere gratitude to each of our sponsors, speakers, attendees and other guests for their participation in and support of the CAA World Congress of Sports.

With World Congress behind us, the countdown begins for our next big week of events in NYC: SBJ Tech Week (May 18-20 at The Times Center), the Sports Business Awards: Tech (May 18 at the Hard Rock Hotel) and the Sports Business Awards (May 20 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square).

Also: See our event slate for 2026.