SBJ Unpacks: Wrigley Field benefiting from an adventurer’s touch

Tonight in Unpacks: Morgan Bucciferro traveled in college. She spent her early days in sports running races where competitors battled through mud and fire. That adventurous spirit is an asset as she puts on concerts and other events at one of MLB’s most hallowed ballparks, reports SBJ’s David Broughton in this week’s magazine.

Also tonight:

• MLB proposal includes ‘cornerstone’ mechanism to retain stars
• SEC, Allstate ink wide-ranging deal for women’s sports
• Can ‘clutch’ be quantified? This tool says yes
• Op-ed: Women’s sports has the road map for reaching Gen Z

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour discusses Blazers owner Tom Dondon’s comments that the team has “little or no interest” in spending on a Moda Center renovation, the SEC and Allstate’s deal to support and spotlight women’s sports, what Sony’s significant investment means for Cosm’s growth potential and more.

It is kismet that Morgan Bucciferro, who began her sports business career operating 5K races in which competitors battled mud, fire and other obstacles, now spearheads the staging of concerts, ice hockey, golf, football, volleyball and the growing roster of other non-baseball events at one of the world’s most iconic ballparks.

Since joining the Chicago Cubs in 2016 as assistant director of event operations and security, the Joliet, Ill., native has created a résumé for Wrigley Field that is becoming almost as diverse as her own.

In addition to improving the campus’ security operations, she has helped run more than 50 concerts — roughly two-thirds of the total concerts ever held at the ballpark. Bucciferro also helped design the operating layout for Gallagher Way, the outdoor entertainment area adjacent to the ballpark, so that it could host a wider variety of events.

In February, she was handed the reins to the operations side of Wrigley Field Events, which last year included 18 major events (see list), 670 private events held around the ballpark’s campus and more than 200 public events at Gallagher Way.

Getting there was, quite literally, a hike.

Her college experience at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C., was a success by any measure: She graduated magna cum laude with a major in communications and a minor in international relations. She honed her leadership skills as captain of the volleyball team and as a youth coach near campus.

But it was her senior year abroad at La Universidad Nebrija in Madrid that provided her the opportunity to visit Morocco, Ireland, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria and Slovenia. It changed her life.

“The trip helped shape who I am today, as it pushed me to get out of my comfort zone, allowed me to meet new people and experience different cultures, all while learning,” she said. ”I learned a lot about myself and found kindness in strangers everywhere I went.”

After college, she moved back home — “2010 was not a good time to be looking for a job,” she said — and took an internship with Chicago-based Red Frog Events, whose primary property was Warrior Dash, one of the most successful obstacle-event operators of the “mud-run” era, eventually staging dozens of annual competitions that drew nearly 1 million participants in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

During her five years there, she also helped launch and was named director of operations of the Firefly Music Festival at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware.

She said it “catapulted” her love for producing events.

“We would live in Dover for the entire month of the festival, and it was a dream come true to be able to produce something so special,” she said. “With sports being such a large part of who I am, working a big event is literally the exact same thing, because I’m always surrounded by others who have a common goal.”

In the fall of 2015, she left the company and spent five months on a “backpacking and volunteering trip” in Peru and Chile. After returning home for the holidays, she planned to go to Southeast Asia and Africa “to continue my little round-the-world-adventure.”

A friend sent her a job description for the Cubs’ assistant director of security and event operations position, which took her down her current decadelong journey.

She is a member of the Stadium Managers Association and its Women in Leadership Deliver cohort, which supports a cause she is adamant about.

“Being a mom in sports operations, it’s incredibly important to me to show my daughters [ages 2 and 4] and other young girls that there is a space for them in this industry,” said Bucciferro. “I brought my oldest daughter to The Frozen Confines: Big Ten Hockey Series last year [which included three men’s games and one women’s game] to show her not only that women can compete at the highest level, but that women also play a critical role in bringing these events to life. By seeing ‘Mom’ in action, I want my girls to see that women belong in every part of sports, from the field to the boardroom to the operations teams that create unforgettable experiences for fans.”

MLB introduced as part of its reserve-clause proposal Thursday a “cornerstone player” mechanism where teams would be able to offer an extra year and a greater percentage of the salary cap to retain their max contract free agents.

Starting in 2027, teams signing a free agent could offer a max of five years and a max first-year salary of 15% of the salary cap ($202M total). Teams re-signing their own player could offer a max of six years and a max first-year salary of 16% of the salary cap ($265M).

Players under the reserve clause (younger players that are not yet eligible for free agency) could sign longer-team deals based on service time, with maxes ranging from 12 years, $500M (no service) to seven years, $304M (five years of service).

Other proposals include 30-year-old players going to free agency after five years as opposed to six; an increase in the minimum salary from $780,000 to $1M for players with at least two years of service; a pre-arbitration bonus pool increase from $50M to $65M; the elimination of qualifying offer and deferred contracts; and arbitration remaining in place.

The league said in a statement:

“The biggest issue baseball fans want solved to strengthen the game is fixing the payroll disparity that leaves too many fans without hope of their team competing for a World Series title. Every other major U.S. sport has tackled this problem, and every year more small market teams in those leagues have a chance to win. The salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field, allowing us greater flexibility to address longstanding player priorities while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50. Today, in addition to proposing the largest ever increase in the minimum salary, earned by over half of MLB players, we accepted two landmark changes to free agency that have been in place for 50 years. We agreed to both the MLBPA’s proposal to provide earlier access to free agency, and their proposal to eliminate the qualifying offer system, a provision players view as a drag on free agency. We also proposed to eliminate deferred compensation and to create a new ‘Cornerstone Player’ provision similar to the NBA’s ‘Bird Rights’ to give every team a fair shot at retaining their fans’ favorite star players. We will continue working with the MLBPA during the bargaining process to improve the game for teams, players and fans.”

Shortly after the league posted a thread covering its proposal, which includes a hard salary cap and floor system, overhaul of the amateur system, and reserve-clause changes, to its 13.2M followers on X, MLBPA Interim Exec Dir Bruce Meyer said he still expects a lockout after the expiration of the CBA on Dec. 1, with the sides “very far apart.”

Meyer also anticipates the league and the union will meet again prior to the All-Star Game on July 14 in Philadelphia.

“I will tell you with all honesty, I have never seen this degree of unity at this point among agents and players. I think, honestly, the league has done us a favor,” Meyer said. “Because their proposals are, in fact, so obviously and extremely bad for players at all levels that it’s actually been a benefit for our unity.

“Anybody who is banking on Major League Baseball players cracking, it’s never happened. It’s not going to happen. That’s why we’re the only ones who don’t have a salary cap.”

The SEC and Allstate are slated to announce a new multiyear agreement centered on women’s sports, Sports Business Journal has learned. An official announcement is expected on Thursday, while financial details were not immediately available.

The deal, which was brokered through Disney Advertising, is slated to include the creation of the Allstate SEC Women’s Champions Cup, a title sponsorship of next year’s SEC Nation bus and a presenting sponsorship of the SEC awards. The Allstate SEC Women’s Champions Cup will spotlight female athletes across the league, along with a year-long competition where schools earn points based on their teams’ performance in regular and postseason play.

The agreement would also see Allstate become the first title sponsor of the SEC women’s volleyball tournament and the broadcast presenting presenting sponsor of the SEC women’s soccer tournament on SEC Network. The company, too, is set to maintain its position as an official sponsor for all conference championship events.

With an SEC deal, Allstate would serve as the official insurance partner of all Power Four conferences. Its recent Power Four deals have also included a number of new title sponsorship plays like the ACC softball and men’s lacrosse tournaments and the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament.

Free agents in sports only seldom move within the same city, but such is the case with longtime Cubs marketer Alex Seyferth (a member of SBJ’s 2026 Forty Under 40 class), CRO for the Blackhawks. Seyferth has been with the Cubs for 13 years, most recently as SVP/corporate partnerships. He’s also worked for Marquee 60, the agency owned by the Ricketts family holding company that also owns the Cubs, and the Eagles before that.

“Of course, this is a somewhat bittersweet, but really, it’s too good an opportunity to say no to,” Seyferth said.

It’s a similar situation to when Seyferth started at the Cubs, with an accompanying real estate project. Blackhawks and Bulls ownership are teaming on the 1901 Project, a planned $7 billion mixed-use development on 55 acres of parking lots around the United Center.

A replacement for Seyferth at the Cubs has not been named.

I regret to inform you that I am not very clutch.

Normally, it’s my colleague Joe Lemire who experiments with new tech for our recurring Sandbox Series. But this week, it was me dipping my toe into the test zone — and I recoiled with a wounded ego.

When it comes to human performance, clutch is still a polarizing topic. Is it even real? The analytical stat heads say no, but anyone who’s seen a game-winning shot or a career-defining performance by a star athlete may beg to differ. So, what if you could evaluate people based on their likelihood to perform in high-pressure situations?

NTangible has figured out how to measure it.

The platform, which provides mental scouting assessments for athletes for multiple sports, was created by President/CEO Dan Connerty. Its testing, which features open-ended and multiple-choice answers, uses AI to analyze things like thought process, perspective and wording.

Connerty has been on this startup adventure full-time since 2024, with NTangible now in use in 40 NCAA programs (including Boston College and Florida Atlantic). Last year, the company became the official mental fitness partner of RFK Racing to evaluate and support its pit crew members.

Based in Canada, Connerty spent most of his time in the baseball development space as a former collegiate and pro athlete. He was the principal director of Baseball Development Group from 2017 to 2019, and during that time, he got to know industrial psychologist Ed Levine. And it started this ongoing pursuit.

“At the time I go, ‘We’re going to reach a point where we cap out what we can measure physically — it’s going to happen,’” Connerty recounted to me. “Mental has always been this black box ... nobody wants to touch it.”

Enter the Clutch Factor score, which evaluates mental performance in clutch scenarios. In roughly 20 minutes, I ran through a handful of pictures depicting various scenarios. (I did a basketball test since it’s the sport I played the most.) One was an image of a player shooting a free throw, the next was a ball handler staring down a full-court press, and others were similar in-game scenarios. I had a chance to pick my perspective of the play, who I would be and what I’d be planning to do next. I also shared my past experiences of higher-pressure situations.

When I finished the test, I was given a score of 663. That figure is out of 1,000, which placed me in the average category. Connerty said the scores can be quite predictive of college success (NTangible can test athletes as young as 13). The athletes who score in the 750-799 range are twice as likely to play a Division I sport. Above 800? We’re talking a potential all-conference or All-American honoree. Example: Texas freshman P/UT Hannah Wells produced the highest Clutch Factor score in the country. She helped the Longhorns win their second consecutive College World Series softball championship earlier this month.

After sharing my lack of clutchness, I could tell you about my days as a newspaper college football reporter. I was constantly combating the harshest deadlines, filing stories that squeaked in just early enough to make the next day’s edition, some of which I won national awards for. But I won’t do that.

The good news for me (and other users)? Because my clutchness can now be measured, I can also improve it, according to Connerty.

“Our psychologists have said, at minimum, if you wanted to redo it, six months,” he said about retesting. “Usually, this should be an annual test just to see where you are. If you think of the Clutch Factor score as your capacity to perform at your top range, not every day are you going to be there.

“This is something where your score can fluctuate based on experiential parameters.”

That’s totally it! I had an off day. I’m sure of it. Case closed.

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Gen Z is often described as distracted or disengaged. But new research suggests something very different: Young people are paying attention. They are paying close attention, in fact, to sports, gaming and the social issues shaping their world.

Two recent national studies, one from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and another from Parity, point to the same conclusion: Sports culture is one of the most powerful entry points for engaging the next generation on the issues they care about most. And within that ecosystem, one group of voices stands out for their credibility and influence: women athletes.

Together, the findings outline a road map for how leagues, brands, and media organizations can connect with Gen Z in ways that feel authentic and meaningful.

Sports are a gateway to the issues Gen Z cares about

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s research makes something clear: Sports are deeply embedded in Gen Z life, not just as entertainment but also as a source of identity, belonging and community.

Seventy-seven percent of teens say sports are a good way to learn about problems affecting society. Eighty percent support athletes, coaches and teams speaking about issues that affect people. And 78% support athletes speaking specifically about racism and discrimination.

Importantly, this engagement isn’t passive. Seventy-one percent of teens recall seeing anti-racism efforts in sports, and among those who did, 77% took action as a result.

The issues young people care about most (mental health, bullying, racism, discrimination and homelessness) are not abstract policy conversations to them. They are human challenges. And sports provide one of the few public arenas where those conversations can unfold in ways that feel accessible rather than political.

For Gen Z, sports are not just something to watch. They are something to learn from.

The arena now extends far beyond the field

Gen Z doesn’t experience sports in just one place.

One-in-three teens regularly plays sports video games such as NBA2K, Madden, MLB: The Show or EA Sports FC. Gaming spaces increasingly function as cultural environments where identity, representation and social issues show up alongside competition. Increasingly, these reflect the evolving sports landscape itself. Both NBA2K and EA Sports FC include women’s teams and athletes, giving young fans more opportunities to engage with women athletes as part of everyday sports culture, not as a separate category, but as part of the same competitive universe.

Seventy percent of teens support video games including storylines or characters that represent different problems or lived experiences. Moments such as NBA2K pausing its online servers during George Floyd’s memorial in 2020 demonstrate how digital sports spaces can reflect the same cultural conversations happening across the broader sports ecosystem.

For a generation growing up across multiple screens, sports culture travels fluidly between stadiums, social platforms, and virtual worlds. The opportunity to engage Gen Z travels with it.

The Women’s sports generation

While the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s research helps explain where Gen Z is engaging, Parity’s research helps explain who they trust inside those spaces.

Gen Z is the generation most likely to believe women athletes genuinely stand behind the products they promote. They are also more likely than older generations to say sponsorship of women athletes increases their likelihood of supporting a brand. Women athletes are increasingly seen not only as competitors, but as credible cultural leaders. That represents a meaningful shift in the influence landscape.

And Gen Z reports feeling pride in supporting organizations aligned with their values.

Authenticity is the bridge between engagement and influence

One theme connects both studies: authenticity.

Young people want to know that when athletes speak about important issues, they are doing so from personal conviction, not only because they were asked to.

This is an arena where women athletes have long stood out.

Ninety-four percent of athletes in the Parity community report having at least one cause they are passionate about and want to use their platform to support. Many have consistently spoken about gender equity, mental health, racial justice, LGBTQ inclusion, and community empowerment — not as marketing campaigns, but as lived priorities.

Because those issues often intersect with their own experiences, their advocacy resonates differently.

For Gen Z, authenticity builds trust. And trust drives action.

The industry now has a clear road map

Taken together, these findings point to a clear path forward for leagues, brands, teams, and media organizations looking to connect with younger audiences.

First, recognize that sports, and increasingly gaming, are civic spaces for youth engagement.

Second, support athletes who speak authentically about the issues shaping their communities.

Third, invest meaningfully in women’s sports as a channel for cultural influence, not just audience growth.

And fourth, build partnerships that reflect the values Gen Z cares about most. Notably, Gen Z is the age group most likely to say gender equality is personally important to them, making investment in women athletes not only culturally relevant, but strategically aligned.

Ignoring these signals means missing one of the most important opportunities to connect with the next generation.

Sports can be a platform for social good

Sports have always helped shape culture. But for Gen Z, they serve an even broader role.

Sports are where identity forms.

Where community develops.

Where values become visible.

Where belonging takes shape.

When athletes speak authentically about the issues that matter, young people listen. And when those voices come from athletes they trust, especially women athletes, the impact extends far beyond the game itself.

Gen Z is sending a clear message: They want sports to reflect the world they hope to build.

Executives across industries have spent years trying to figure out how to reach Gen Z. The road map is already here.

Risa Isard is the director of research and insights at Parity. Alisha Greenberg is the founder of Rounding Third LLC and co-founder of the Sports and Entertainment Impact Collective (SEIC), a grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.

• This week’s episode of the SBJ Sports Media Podcast features Austin Karp digging into the NBA Draft, NASCAR’s debut in San Diego and Linda Cohn’s “SportsCenter” legacy. He also chats with Fox Sports lead analyst Stu Holden to break down what’s happened so far in the World Cup.
• The USMNT’s 2-0 win over Australia on Friday in the second game of the FIFA World Cup group stage drew 23.1 million viewers across Fox and Telemundo, short of the U.S. TV soccer record of 27.5 million set during U.S.-Paraguay to open the tourney, reports Karp.
• Karp also writes that Concacaf and Fox Sports renewed an English-language media-rights deal that will now go through 2029 that will keep the Gold Cup on the network and add the Nations League for the 2026-27 and 2028-29 cycles.
• The International Tennis Federation’s rebrand to “World Tennis” is now in effect, with CEO Ross Hutchins outlining five forward-looking pillars as the organization seeks a new identity, reports SBJ’s Rob Schaefer.
• The Familie is turning to Garmai Momolu, a seasoned builder of football divisions and player brands, as its VP/clients services, writes SBJ’s Irving Mejia-Hilario.
• The X Games League, the new action sports league that kicks off its first summer season this weekend in Sacramento, sold São Paulo team to Ali El Ali, the CEO Emirati offshore energy logistics firm ZMI Holdings, notes SBJ’s Chris Smith.