SBJ Unpacks: Meet SBJ’s New Voices Under 30

Tonight in Unpacks: SBJ introduces its seventh class of New Voices Under 30, which represents the rising generation of leaders and influencers across all sectors of sports business.

Also tonight:

• Alabama, U.S. Navy ink deal that includes on-field logos
• T-Mobile Arena to remain Vegas home for TKO Group through 2030
• Ravens’ new private events business taking advantage of renovated M&T Bank Stadium’s new premium spaces
• Op-ed: Where will the college sports business market go? Look at the birth of the American sports betting market

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour looks at FIFA’s efforts to remove the naming rights sponsors from stadiums hosting 2026 World Cup matches, Apollo Global Management’s plans for a new sports investment vehicle, the Brewers recent success on- and off-field and more.

Sports Business Journal’s seventh class of New Voices Under 30 represents the rising generation of leaders and influencers across all sectors of sports business. SBJ and presenting partners Ally, Anheuser-Busch, TurnkeyZRG and Verizon will recognize the entire class at a special event on Nov. 20 at The Venue at Hard Rock Hotel in New York.

SBJ selected individuals for their ability to break boundaries and lead their organizations in bold and innovative work, all before the age of 30. Nearly 150 nominees were considered. A special section in the Nov. 10 issue of SBJ will profile these young executives.

For more information on the New Voices Under 30 program, visit www.sbjnewvoicesunder30.com.

Class of 2025

Ankit Ahuja, Basketball Operations Executive, CAA Sports

Nick Andreos, Manager, Gaming, PGA Tour

Gregory Cartagena, Director, Basketball Technology Research and Partnerships, National Basketball Association

Emily Cosler, Vice President, Strategy, U.S. Soccer Federation

Rheann Engelke, Head of Women’s Sports, Range Sports

Grant Gilbert, Vice President, Basketball and Business Operations, Cleveland Cavaliers

Johanna Goldblatt, Programming and Acquisitions Manager, ESPN

Jimmy Gowen, Strategic Partnerships Associate, Jersey Mike’s

Ellie Hannan, Director, Fan and Market Insights, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee

Mitch Heimbach, Director, Business Development, rEvolution Marketing

Sara Hwang, Director, Strategic Initiatives Analyst, National Basketball Association

Nicole Ianni, Senior Manager, Suite Services, Los Angeles Rams

Aaron Klevan, Director, Men’s Basketball, Wasserman

Maddie Kraft, Director, TrailRunner International Sports

Isabel Lapus, Director, Valuation and Consulting, Innovative Partnerships Group

Carter Lin, Head of U.S. Recruiting and Sports Agent, IMG Tennis, part of WME

Daniel Machado, Senior Manager, Partnership Marketing, Major League Soccer

Emily Malmstrom, Vice President, Head of Communications and Chief of Staff, Comcast Spectacor; Chief of Staff, Philadelphia Soccer 2026

Lauren Mendez, Senior Product Manager, Major League Baseball

Maxwell Miranda, Director, Consumer Insights, NASCAR

Karla Montiel, Director, Revenue and Talent, WWE

Nikhil Morar, Manager, Business Analytics and Strategy, Los Angeles Lakers

Tory Palmer, Head of Direct Investing, Bolt Ventures

Greyson Rubin, Architect, Senior Associate, Populous

Matt Simon, Senior Manager, Global Partnerships, National Football League

Zoe Sprout, Account Director, Client Consulting + Global Olympic & Paralympic Marketing, GMR Marketing

Paige Strong, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Miami Marlins

Benjamin Troester, Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief of Staff to CFO/COO, Legends and ASM Global

Jalen Woodward, Senior Manager, Brand Consulting and Solutions, OVG Global Partnerships

Eddie Zaykowski, Manager, Club Business Development, National Hockey League

Sponsor logos are coming to Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, as Alabama is set to announce a partnership with the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base (MIB) Program that will include activations around Crimson Tide football, sources told Sports Business Journal.

The deal, which was negotiated by Learfield’s Crimson Tide Sports Marketing, will see a logo for the joint initiative -- “Build Giants Alabama” -- displayed on the 25-yard lines at Saban Field. The agreement also includes in-venue messaging from Nick Saban. The field logos are slated to be in place when Alabama takes on UL-Monroe on Saturday. Terms of the deal were not immediately available, while an official announcement is expected on Wednesday.

The Maritime Industrial Base Program leads varying initiatives designed to ensure America has the industrial capacity to build and sustain its naval fleet. The “Build Giants Alabama” initiative and partnership with Alabama, specifically, are designed to help support the Navy’s need for 25,000 new trade workers annually to build submarines, surface ships, and unmanned vessels. It also complements varying Alabama workforce initiatives, including the Alabama Community College Maritime Training Program, which will train more than 1,400 workers in ship fitting, pipe fitting and welding.

Commercial sponsor advertisements on football fields have only been allowed since June 2024 after the NCAA adjusted its rules to accommodate such activations. Alabama becomes the ninth SEC school to add a corporate partnership logo to its field in some form or fashion and the fourth over the last month following South Carolina (Blanchard Machinery), Auburn (YellaWood) and Texas (Humann).

While new venue projects are being rumored for the Las Vegas area, TKO Group Holdings will continue to call T-Mobile Arena its main home for the foreseeable future after reaching a contract extension with the facility. This morning, TKO will announce it has renewed its partnership through 2030 with the arena, which is owned by a joint venture between MGM Resorts International and AEG. UFC will continue to host a minimum of four events annually at the arena, the same number as the prior term, while WWE will newly commit to holding two there annually during the same period.

After the 20,000-seat arena opened in spring 2016, the deal between the sides began in 2017 and has resulted in 20 sold-out UFC fight cards, including five of the top 10 highest-grossing events in property history. At the time, the deal was touted as being historic in that the sides said it marked the first time a non stick-and-ball sports franchise was named an anchor tenant of a major sports and entertainment venue. As part of the extended term, TKO’s properties will continue to have a major branding presence inside and outside the arena with welcome signage, branded activations and retail space inside the lobby alongside the Golden Knights.

TKO will also host affiliated events at the arena during UFC’s annual International Fight Week in the summer. TKO EVP/Event Development & Operations Peter Dropick, who helped lead negotiations for the original term in 2017, was also integral in negotiating the extension on the property side. The deal has exclusivity, with TKO calling the arena its “official home” in Las Vegas.

The extension comes despite the fact that there was apparent tension last year between the sides over what UFC President & CEO Dana White said at the time was T-Mobile Arena’s decision to allow Premier Boxing Champions to put on a Canelo Alvarez fight during Mexican Independence Day weekend. UFC ended up putting on a show across town at the Sphere on the same night. UFC also hosts events in Las Vegas at its owned Apex facility about 30 minutes from the Strip.

The $489 million renovation of M&T Bank Stadium has created a slew of new spaces that, in turn, have spawned a Ravens private events business: Relentless Events. A business line of the Ravens sitting under Rich Tamayo’s Stadium Operations group, Relentless has more than a dozen M&T Bank Stadium spaces available to rent, including the entire stadium or its playing field, which can host up to 4,000 guests. Eleven of the spaces were built or have been recently renovated, and three more locations will be ready for the 2026 season.

“You have someone coming in for a business meeting and then they want to have a pre-event and a post-event, all of that can happen here in the stadium, different spaces, different areas, while in another part of the stadium several proms are going on, and you have the parking structure for all of that around us,” Tamayo said. “One-stop shop.”

Events businesses are nothing new for teams, but they’re especially critical for NFL stadiums, which have more open dates to fill in a calendar year than any other type of pro sports venue. And the slew of renovations and new stadiums under construction across the NFL are arming teams with a greater variety of settings for all kinds of occasions.

Tamayo wouldn’t share any revenue projections from the new business line but said the goal is to double the number of events from M&T Bank Stadium’s last year without any construction (2022), which would land between 200 and 250 private events each year. Relentless’ business doesn’t include concerts or soccer matches, which the Ravens will still stage.

Director of Private Events Kimone Kocica, one of Relentless’ two full-time staffers, joined the Ravens from the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, home to Baltimore’s symphony. Seeing M&T Bank Stadium’s new Roof Deck convinced her to take her first job in sports.

“It’s my favorite thing that we have so many rooms because they’re all so different,” she said. “I can host two events for the same group, and it won’t feel like they’re in the same venue.”

Boston Legacy FC has hired Jennifer van Dijk as its first team president, bringing the longtime sports and entertainment executive on board as the club prepares to start play next year.

For van Dijk, the move brought her the kinds of things she wasn’t sure she could find in her next job -- a championship city with a team that could harness the growth of women’s sports and an ownership group committed to building a new franchise.

“I got to know and understand more about what they’re building and the vision and commitment, and frankly, it became irresistible. I was lucky I got the call,” van Dijk told SBJ last week, just four days into the job.

“What I was really looking for in my next opportunity was frankly something I thought was kind of a unicorn in finding an entrepreneurial opportunity within big sports.”

Boston checked those boxes for van Dijk. And for Legacy FC, van Dijk’s resume of leadership, driving sponsorship and creating culture made her a fit for the expansion club.

An SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in 2015, van Dijk held executive roles at the NBA, Clippers, Wasserman and IMG. Since leaving her second stint at Wasserman in 2020, van Dijk has led three startups (Hoonigan, Dapper Labs and Superplastic). Most recently, she was the CEO of animation company Superplastic for the past two years.

Legacy FC used Egon Zehnder in the search for its first team president.

“From my first conversation with Jen, I was immediately impressed by her strength as a leader, her vision for Boston Legacy Football Club, and her prior experience with a variety of different organizations,” Jennifer Epstein, controlling owner of the club, told SBJ. “We did our diligence, and it was continually shared with me that Jen is phenomenal at building great cultures. And that’s where we are right now. We’re building the foundation, and we need someone who can be the leader at the top - someone who motivates, inspires, and continues to bring exemplary people alongside her to do something generational here.”

Building a culture, a fan base and revenue

The club has been part of the rapid growth in women’s sports, with Epstein and her partners paying a $53M expansion fee in 2023. Legacy FC has already built up a team of around 30 on the business side, including CRO Amina Bulman.

Now it’s looking to van Dijk to leverage her decades of experience in men’s sports and at agencies to build a new culture and fan base and grow revenue concurrently.

For van Dijk, first priorities fall on supporting the staff as it puts together the team that will take the field in March as the organization builds a sustainable business infrastructure that can be scaled up as the club and its fan base grow. While the club can use her prior experience, learn from other NWSL expansion clubs and use business analytics to help do that, part of that is co-creating rituals with supporters of the team and building authentic connections.

“This is a hire that is going to just change the direction of where we’re going,” Epstein said. “We’re doing something big. It’s hard, but I have a lot of confidence that Jen is going to play a huge role in helping us achieve our vision.”

The role is an opportunity that was enough to draw van Dijk to the East Coast, where she attended Mount Holyoke College in Western Massachusetts. Long based in Southern California, she joked that her former NBA colleagues would give her grief upon learning the news. During her time with the league, she turned down the chance to relocate to N.Y.

Now she’ll need that winter coat after all. Still mid-transition -- with her wife and dogs set to move in the next couple of months -- even the Boston winters couldn’t keep her away from a chance like this one.

“This is such an exciting opportunity to partner with Jen and her partners and really bring this incredible organization together,” van Dijk said. “It’s just the best spot in the world to be doing it at the best time.”

This story was featured in the latest SBJ Morning Buzzcast, our daily podcast that brings you the hottest stories in sports business in less than 15 minutes. Listen to the episode below and subscribe on all major podcast platforms. Apple | Spotify | YouTube

The ACC has spent the better part of two years trying to rebrand.

“Accomplish Greatness,” the league’s tagline as part of an ongoing partnership with Wasserman, has been at the center of those efforts.

Now? There’s a new look to the ACC and Wasserman’s work -- bobbleheads.

“The world of college athletics has been heavy with a lot of deep things that are not fun,” ACC VP/Creative Strategy Martha Schwab told SBJ. “This brings the fun back into sports a bit, and it brings the fun back into what we can say and what we can do, lighten it up and have a good time, but still [have a] message.”

The ACC debuted one of four new spots centered on mascot bobblehead characters during Week 1 in a series that will continue throughout the rest of the football campaign and into basketball season.

Conversations around a new ad campaign or revamp of the ACC’s ongoing PR efforts began in earnest as two years ago. Those discussions persisted into fall 2024, when Wasserman Chief Creative Officer Danny Nunez (a 2025 Forty Under 40 honoree) presented the idea to ADs. That same meeting included each admin voicing their own character during the ACC’s take on a Hollywood table read.

More creative showcasing and essentially a final thumbs up vote on the spots was conducted during a gathering of ADs during ACC spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida, in May.

The commercials themselves were shot over three days at a studio in Brooklyn. Set designers created a dorm room out of moving walls, while one person was responsible for actually tapping the bobbleheads before each take to ensure their, er, heads bobbled during filming.

“This year we just felt like there was an opportunity to elevate, to try something different,” ACC Chief Communications Officer Amy Yakola said. “There’s that discussion of college athletics, but it’s also directly tied to culture. You have so many different platforms you can look at. How [do you] capture people’s attention? This was an opportunity to really do that.”

That bobbleheads were the vessel to make new waves on linear and social is layered. In short, highlights are everywhere and grow stale by the week. There’s something more evergreen about mascots and, in this case, their bobblehead representations that provides for more flexibility and creativity in an ad spot.

“We can give them voices because mascots usually don’t have voices,” Schwab explained. “... We can make it fun. We can make it reactive. They can say things that our coaches can’t say. They can say things that our student athletes can’t say. Same thing with the conference office.”

The timing of the new spots, too, is convenient.

The ACC enjoyed its share of excitement in Week 1 as Miami dispatched Notre Dame and Florida State eviscerated Alabama. North Carolina, despite getting run off the field by TCU, also earned its share of pregame attention for the beginning of the Bill Belichick era.

The bobbleheads are a fun new addition to the megaphone the ACC is attempting to speak through.

Winning, though, cures plenty of ills.

This year’s National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) conference was held a timely two days after the conclusion of the landmark House settlement, which now allows universities to pay their athletes directly. For three days, the conference floor was abuzz with discussions about the new $20.5 million salary cap, how universities will create revenue to pay athletes directly, and all the new products and services popping up to support this dynamic new era and the changing economics of college sports. The follow-up to every discussion led to questions of “I wonder where all of this is going,” and “What is the market going to look like six months or a year from now?”

It’s natural to speculate about an unknown future. Instead, those in college sports searching for answers should look to another nascent industry in American sports. This one seemingly opened overnight and offers many parallels to what the NIL category may evolve into. That category is sports betting. While it may seem heretical to speak of sports betting and college sports in the same sentence (even though in June 2025, the state of Louisiana passed a bill to increase its sports betting tax from 15% to 21.5%, with the difference going to fund Division I athletics in the state), the birth of these open markets have more similarities than you may think.

Wide Open Spaces

The Supreme Court’s repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018 opened the door for states to legalize sports betting with little regulation in place. It was described as a Wild West market — a land grab and a manifest destiny for investors, entrepreneurs and innovators looking to make their mark, disrupt the establishment and create value in a market with a blank canvas and a massively hungry end-user.

Walking around the NACDA floor, you could certainly feel that same Wild West spirit in the air. While the conference was anchored by legacy companies providing traditional services (turf, scoreboards, stadium management services, etc.) to the nation’s athletic directors, there was also a new breed of startups and venture-backed entrepreneurs showcasing technology, data, athlete marketing and revenue generation services. There is a massive opportunity in this market, and smart minds are looking to stake their claim before huge swaths of regulation are put in place.

Monoliths

The early days of sports betting were categorized by a handful of monoliths dominating the landscape. Fast forward to today, the duopoly of FanDuel and DraftKings hasn’t changed since those early days.

In the business of college sports, it seems the FanDuel and DraftKings of the space are Opendorse, Learfield, BluePrint and Playfly, with additional category companions and startups jockeying for position and vying for market share.

Lack of Infrastructure

In 2018 when PASPA was repealed, many products and services weren’t ready for the insatiable demand from consumers. Companies lacked the infrastructure, talent and human capital necessary to create the best products and services possible. It was a game of catch-up, creating technology and user experiences to slowly separate themselves from their category companions and competitors.

Right now, the college market seems to be following the same pattern. The House ruling has blown open the floodgates. Many schools and forward-thinking companies prepared for life in a post-House world and have the internal infrastructure or technological grasp to make strategic moves. However, many schools haven’t rebuilt their internal mechanisms to include people or offices in charge of salary cap, capital raising, or even payment processing. The proverbial plane is being built as it’s being flown.

Lessons from Sports Betting

There are a number of timely things that happened to the sports betting market that may be different for the college sports market.

In 2020 and 2021, capital was readily available and investors were willing to deploy it into smart and exciting sports betting and fantasy companies. A common thought among investors and insiders in the industry was that the monoliths would engage in a land grab of M&A to gobble up challengers and gain market share by boosting their technology and UX for their customers.

However, what actually happened was the opposite. The monoliths did not create an M&A arms race. Instead, their market position and available cash allowed them to create a waiting game, enabling them to outlast startups and other challengers. Those startups burned cash trying to compete and gain market share from the monoliths, and eventually, they folded. The availability of deployable capital acted as a double-edged sword as the startups and mid-tier companies took money to create longer runways for themselves, thinking they may be acquisition targets or perhaps obtain margins of market share. As of this writing, FanDuel and DraftKings’ waiting strategy has prevailed. The capital markets have shrunk significantly since 2021, and the duopoly holds nearly 60% of the available market share in the U.S., leaving a trail of challengers, technology and UX solutions dead in their wake.

For the college sports market, a different future can unfold. In 2025, available capital is ready, but much harder to come by, as VCs and investors are looking to deploy smarter. Companies can’t just have a good idea. To create ownership in the market, companies need to have an exceptional strategy for how their product or service will change the landscape of college sports and be profitable. There is no patience anymore for those with a good idea but who are hoping to figure out revenue later.

The market for the business of college sports hasn’t been written yet, but in looking at the early days of the sports betting market, investors, entrepreneurs and executives would be wise to how see college sports is quickly coming to a significant growth inflection point. The question will be if the market demands innovation, integration and change, or if it will be happy with the status quo.

Mike Adorno is senior vice president of communications for Digital Sport by Hot Paper Lantern.

• Fox Sports says it averaged 1.362 million viewers for the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series campaign that wrapped up last weekend, the best performance for the property since 2008, reports SBJ’s Adam Stern.
• South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang signed a three-year deal with Monumental Sports & Entertainment to place its logo on the Capitals’ home jerseys and the soon-to-be-announced third jerseys for home games at Capital One Arena, reports SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario.
• The Chicago Stars will play the 2026 NWSL season at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium, the lakefront stadium on the campus of Northwestern, reports SBJ’s Bret McCormick.
• The N.Y. Jets signed FlyHouse, a private aviation company, to a five-year sponsorship that includes exclusive branding in MetLife Stadium’s visitor locker room, reports SBJ’s Ben Fischer.
• The Visa Presale Draw, running Sept. 10-19, officially kicks off general ticket sales for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, reports McCormick.
• In the buildup to “AEW All Out” at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Sept. 20, AEW PPVs will stream live on HBO Max ad-free for $39.99 for U.S. subscribers, reports Mejia-Hilario.
• Levy is taking over food and beverage service at Sports Illustrated Stadium, effective for the 2026 MLS season, reports McCormick.
• The PGA of America rolled out plans for its “Ryder Cup Live” around the matches later this month in N.Y., including watch party kits for the event in two varieties, reports SBJ’s Josh Carpenter.