Sunday Forum: The team vs. league debate

Good morning. Hope you’re having a great weekend. A few things to start your week.

• Why a team’s promotional idea went sideways with the NBA
• Anecdotes, quotes and photos of the week
• Takeaways from the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
• This Week’s Forum: How team and league executives view each other

One of the funnier stories from SBJ’s visit with Billy Payne was when I asked about his days playing football at the University of Georgia under then-relatively new coach Vince Dooley. Payne was a top receiver for the Dawgs, but one day, Dooley called Payne into his office and said, “We’re moving you to the defensive line.” A shocked Payne asked Dooley, “Why? I led the team in receptions last year and believe I’m our best receiver.” Dooley didn’t miss a beat: “We found someone better.” Payne laughs now when he says, “He was right — they were better than me.”

→ The story of the week that drew the most comments among sources was the NBA stepping in to cancel the Atlanta Hawks’ celebration of the city’s Magic City club on the evening the team is set to take on the Orlando Magic. There’s a lot to unpack here. A number of team and league executives — not just at the NBA — weren’t surprised by the NBA’s actions, knowing how fiercely Commissioner Adam Silver protects the league’s image, and the likelihood of negative headlines and the subject dominating talk shows and social media. Many were surprised the idea even got past the initial discussion stages. That said, we have to consider the fact that team co-owner Jami Gertz — actress and producer — executive produced a Starz docuseries on the 40-year-old club and its impact on Atlanta culture. The team’s game-night event was intended to celebrate the club’s role in Atlanta’s food, music and merchandise scenes. The early sentiment in Atlanta was overwhelmingly positive, and the team saw very strong ticket and merchandise sales around it.

But let’s face it: While Magic City is more than an adult club, the promotion didn’t pass the eye test. People read the headlines and it’s hard to get past “NBA Team Celebrates Strip Club.” The Hawks organization has a tremendous amount of respect in sports circles; they are very smart and good operators. They pushed forward with an idea feeling they understood their market better than anyone, and they are surely disappointed with the outcome. Would they go through with this again? Likely not, but they live and learn, and I expect they will continue to be bold in connecting their brand with the Atlanta marketplace.

→ I received a number of emails this week about the World Cup and the challenges facing host cities, especially in Foxborough, Mass., where issues have since been resolved. If you read one story this week about the World Cup, read this excellent piece in the Boston Globe with the headline “Can’t seem to get their act together’: Boston’s bold dream of hosting World Cup is on shaky ground.” A lot of excellent reporting and a few takeaways:

• Boston Soccer ’26 host committee “appears well short of the $170 million goal it said it needed to stage a World Cup that could draw 2 million visitors to Greater Boston. Exactly how short remains a mystery.” Boston Soccer ’26 revealed it only has $2 million in the bank, though it said it anticipates depositing another $30 million soon.

• What’s made it even harder for the host committees is that FIFA has “already locked in exclusive sponsorship deals … that effectively shut out many regional players from World Cup action.”

Now, World Cup host cities across the U.S. should get some relief, as federal funds earmarked for safety and security are set to begin flowing to organizers after a protracted delay. Regardless, the Globe story is worth your time.

→ Notes and quotes from a day at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference:

• A kickoff panel at Sloan featured KAGR CEO/conference co-founder Jessica Gelman, NFL CFO Christine Dorfler and FSG partner and CEO Sam Kennedy. Asked what they’d like to see in the sports industry:

Gelman: “A female commissioner of a men’s league.”

Kennedy: “More positivity from the media.”

Dorfler: “More hyper-focus on the fan is the start of everything.”

• Their advice for young people wanting to get into the sports business:

Dorfler: “You got to learn. You got to listen. You got to learn and you got to grind. Learning can come in a variety of ways. Sports is such a broad industry. There’s so many indirect inputs and outputs. And so learn, be thirsty and continue to grind.”

Kennedy: “Build a network of your personal network of friends, colleagues that can help you. That care about you. Not the company you work for, not the league that you’re in, but people that care about you and want to help you in your career. They can be in the sports business or outside of the sports business, but rely on them for guidance and mentorship. That is hugely important.”

Gelman: “If you’re here, then you have a passion and a vision of how you want to consume. You will be the people who will be figuring it out for the future. Sports analytics was not a thing when I entered the industry 25 years ago. … Whatever sports is going to become, it’s going to be driven by you. So go and find those things. Just because this is how it’s been done does not mean that’s how it should be done.”

• Don’t expect the new 76ers-Flyers’ jointly owned arena to tout the largest venue board when it opens in 2030. 76ers limited partner David Adelman, who is taking a lead on developing the shared venue, said at Sloan that he’s focused on other technology. “There was this big race in arenas to have the biggest scoreboard ever,” he said. “You will see something different in Philadelphia. I have a vision; I think it should change. Bigger is not always better. Changing the in-arena experience, changing how people feel in an arena and the energy and the production.” He noted that he took 20 people to Universal’s Epic Universe because “I wanted to understand more about holograms, lighting, sound and technology — because that is the future.”

• Two interesting points from a very worthwhile panel on sports sponsorships:

United Airlines Chief Advertising Officer Maggie Schmerin expressed the often-heard frustration of properties not doing the basic homework in understanding United business principles when pitching a sponsorship. “There’s so much out there about what’s important to us. Our business strategy is rooted in seven hub cities that we have here in this country … Delta, American have different hub cities. So, I am always shocked when I get a proposal for a team and a hub city of a competitor. That just does not make sense for me. We don’t have the growth opportunity there. … So to do a deal for a Detroit team, when that’s a competitor’s hub, just does not make sense, just like Delta wouldn’t do a sports deal in Houston or Denver, where I call home. So really knowing the business before you come in [is critical].”

PepsiCo VP/Sports & Entertainment Carolyn Braff shared an area for improvement in their sponsorship assessment: “Predictive analytics. I would love us to be better at that in the sponsorship space. We’re really good at it on the media side. We know if we put a dollar against this or against that across paid media, we understand what that does because we have good ROI models based on past performance. We’re not quite there yet on the sponsorship side to say, ”OK, if I pick this team or that athlete, what does that do for my conversion? What does that do for my audiences?’ … I’d love us to get better about that.”

• When asked which arena or venue trend is overhyped, two panelists weighed in.

NBA President/New Business Ventures Amy Brooks: “I’m not a huge fan of all-you-can-eat tickets. It’s a hotly debated topic, but I think there are better ways to deliver more quality to the fans.”

Oak View Group CBO Amy Latimer: “The mixed-use development can be a double-edged sword. If you’re not careful, you could build something that isn’t active on non-event days. So you have to really be thoughtful about the curation of events, and yes, it has to be welcoming, but you want it to be a destination on non-event days. So, if people [focus] so much on the events and they forget about making it a part of the community — not that it dies or goes away, I just don’t think it’ll be successful.”

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

• “Since he arrived, he changed everything at Nike. It was tough before.” — Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the head of the Qatar sovereign wealth fund’s sports investment arm that owns the French soccer team Paris Saint-Germain, on new CEO Elliott Hill, who is working very hard to improve relationships with not just athletes, but also teams and leagues.

• “There’s not a private equity firm making a coaching decision. The controlling owner still controls the team.” — NFL CFO Christine Dorfler, pushing back on any notion of PE having an active role in NFL team investments.

• “I used to have to spend maybe 60% of this pitch explaining NWSL, women’s sports, women’s soccer. I don’t have to do that anymore.” — Denver Summit FC CEO Jen Millet, on the changing conversation with sponsors when it comes to women’s sports.

• “The sports business is not that hard. Just think like a fan, and 9 1/2 times out of 10, that’s the right answer.” — PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who showed humble, relatable leadership during his “State of the Tour” address at The Players.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Golf participation data released this week offered two eye-opening figures:

• Women playing on-course golf is up a whopping 46% from 2019.

• People of color playing is up an even more impressive 61% from 2019.

Both establish new highs, point to the strong growth of the game and are real opportunities for those targeting these audiences with new products and offerings.

→ If you missed Morning Buzzcast, check out this week’s episodes here.

→ Check out our Faces and Places and photos of the week below, where we have the Arizona Cardinals’ Hike for Special Needs event, Fox Sports and Boys & Girls Clubs of America marking 100 days to the World Cup and more.

→ Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

→ Join nearly 500 leaders in soccer as MLS, Concacaf, U.S. Soccer and SBJ present the Business of Soccer conference March 25-26 in Atlanta. The two days will feature leaders in the sport talking about the critical issues facing soccer. It’s truly a must-attend event if you are invested in the sport. Also, we are only four weeks away from the CAA World Congress of Sports at L.A. Live.

Now to this week’s Forum, which looks at the relationship dynamics between leagues and teams.

The relationship dynamic between a league and its teams traditionally has been respectful and delicate but can be bumpy at times. Conventional wisdom says a league operates to support its teams, and the two should be in lockstep. But that’s too simplistic, as the goals are not always aligned and the mindsets can vary. There has been the familiar “they don’t know what it’s like to be in our shoes” from both sides, and recent conversations indicate little has changed. That’s not really surprising, or necessarily a bad thing.

When David Stern launched the NBA’s team market and business operations division — TMBO — in 2000, he significantly shifted the relationship to have the league help make each club’s business stronger — i.e., the league assisting its teams. Other leagues followed suit, in some form, and for years, a team services division would spend a lot of time in a market to understand fan/business/corporate trends; assess staff; and develop strategies and execution, among other things. Today, there are fewer market visits, as leagues focus on data and analytical trends to suggest what teams should do.

Many argue today that leagues are less focused on their respective teams’ business and more on leaguewide revenue and their overarching goals. That’s not bad, and many would say that’s how it should be. But it does affect relationships and alignment. Many believe there hasn’t been enough cross-pollination that would drive respect and trust — not enough team people have worked at the league office, and not enough league executives have worked for a team.

Team leaders bemoan, “Sure, the league has a ton of alums from Bain, McKinsey or other top consulting firms, but none of them have worked in a local market.” They argue that consulting/MBA experience doesn’t provide an understanding of the day-to-day challenges at a franchise; that understanding numbers, trends and data doesn’t mean one understands the levers that drive those numbers or how to get to those goals. There are the territory battles in which teams feel the league office is driving so much revenue at the expense of the teams being able to generate their own.

There are information and knowledge gaps. Team leaders — from the VP level and higher — are constantly seeking insight about league-office dynamics and power structure: Who is in the commissioner’s inner circle? Who has influence? Who is being boxed out? Who is on the rise? Teams want to be heard and supported, and want to feel as if the central office understands what they’re dealing with. Specifically, when it comes to MLB team executives I’ve spoken with recently, they are seeking real transparency as they try to be fully up to speed when it comes to the sensitive upcoming labor talks. Teams want to hear from MLB about the various scenarios and considerations related to labor negotiations, while the league office is understandably staying optimistic, positive and not portraying any gloom of a disturbance.

When you step back, does any of this really matter or prevent success, or is it just the insecurities of not being in the room? I push back on team complaints, feeling that sports for too long have suffered from the same approach undertaken by people with the same background, skill set and playbook. I’ve argued that fresh eyes are additive and likely beneficial.

League executives are less pointed about their relationship with teams. They stress that anyone sitting in the central office must think about the greater good while responding to the needs of a larger group of owners who have different agendas and financial resources, but who are all aggressively pushing for growth. They admit they are focused on competing across the entire sports landscape and argue that teams aren’t forced to think bigger and more globally. Many concede that they are focused internally, and on what their boss — the commissioner — wants, not externally on local operators.

When I want insight into which teams are executing well from top to bottom, or which are some of the best-operated organizations, I ask other teams, not league officials. League executives know the teams that deliver top-line revenue or may be active in the community, but they are less familiar with who runs a well-operated organization with strong talent, versus those fortunate to having winning teams that support any efforts.

There is a lot here: Teams believe a league should be working on their behalf, but they chafe when it offers recommendations. Leagues get frustrated when teams underperform on talent, execution and operations, as it brings down the entire sport. A team certainly knows its market best, but teams do not have a monopoly on great ideas. Leagues deliver a tremendous amount of financial and expert resources, but not every league “best practice” will work in every market.

Everyone has a side — “league first” or “team first.” There’s no right answer, but it’s a debate and challenge that continues to exist.

Abraham Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.