Julie Fabsik-Swarts has spent her career on the much less visible side of sports: the funding, governance, safety, officiating, and infrastructure that determine whether athletes and entire sports have the opportunity to succeed.

As President and CEO of the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association, Julie shares her learnings across gymnastics, Olympic and amateur sports, nonprofits, athlete safety, and now scuba diving. 

There are very different realities facing smaller sports organizations, and leaders may be simultaneously trying to grow participation, support elite athletes, raise money, manage boards, and make limited resources stretch further.

Julie also explores how technology could reshape scuba diving, the growing challenge of parent behavior in youth sports, and what she has learned about leading sports organizations through periods of change.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why executives at smaller Olympic sports spend too much time chasing funding instead of developing the sport
• How AI-enabled masks, diver tracking, and new safety technology could change the scuba experience
• Why out-of-control parents have become one of the biggest reasons officials walk away from youth sports 
• What 45 years of gymnastics judging taught Julie about subjectivity
• What Julie looks for when she takes over a sports organization — and why some nonprofits end up “spinning” 

Resources and Links:

Connect with Julie Fabsik-Swarts on LinkedIn and learn more about the Diving Equipment & Marketing Association on their website.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

Golf may be one of the most complicated sports to produce digitally and on television. Every championship takes place on a different course, across hundreds of acres, with dozens of players competing simultaneously — and the USGA has to deliver that experience across broadcast, streaming, mobile, and digital products.

Dave Giancola, Senior Director of Global Media at the USGA, joins Dave to talk about how his role evolved from broadcast into a broader global media function spanning both traditional coverage and fan-facing digital products. He shares how the USGA thinks about connecting its 15 national championships, extending the audience beyond the U.S. Open, and using technology to create a more continuous relationship with golf fans throughout the season.

Dave also discusses how the USGA measures digital success beyond raw impressions, why the organization views technology as central to growing the game, and how major events like LA 2028 could introduce new audiences to golf on a global scale.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why the USGA replaced separate championship apps with one unified product spanning all 15 national championships
• How AI is generating shot-by-shot insights, clipping highlights, reframing vertical video, and distributing content automatically
• Why the USGA draws a hard distinction between AI that feels novel and AI that  improves the fan experience
• How personalization helped drive a 75% increase in player favoriting inside the USGA app
• Why SeatGeek’s value to the USGA goes beyond ticketing, and what made its technology stack compelling

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dave Giancola on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

How do sports teams achieve faster alignment, fewer reworks, and digital products that move from idea to launch more reliably?

Bora Nikolic’s views of technology in the sports industry have helped shape many of the fan experiences you see from leading sports properties today. And today, he’s challenging the idea that design is about aesthetics, arguing instead that it’s an execution discipline.

Dave and Bora look ahead at what’s changing, from accessibility, to AI accelerating how teams research, prototype, and align across functions. Bora also shares why the next phase of fan experience will be defined by connected, multimodal journeys that span platforms, environments, and moments that matter to fans.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What allows digital products in sports to actually ship on time and at scale
• How teams can modernize digital experiences without losing fan trust 
• What friction really looks like across the fan journey, and why clarity and predictability matter more than visual polish
• Why accessibility needs to be embedded into design systems from the start 
• How AI-enabled prototypes are changing how stakeholders evaluate and approve digital products

Resources and Links:

Connect with Bora Nikolic on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

With WTGL preparing to launch this November, TMRW Sports is scaling a shared-services model built to run team operations more efficiently than teams could on their own, and confronting a structural challenge: how do you build fan affinity for a team with no home arena?

Kara Baker, VP of Team Marketing and Business Operations at TMRW Sports, joins Dave to talk about her multidisciplinary career, how TMBO evolved as teams scaled, why some teams tap into ownership groups' existing infrastructure while others rely entirely on the league, and what she's learned from teams maturing at different speeds.

Kara also discusses the opportunity WTGL creates around women's golf, the international makeup of the LPGA player base, and why the league is betting on player storytelling to build fandom without the benefit of a home stadium.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why fan research shows people are fans of individual golfers first, and what that means for building team loyalty
• Why WTGL is launching in November and December instead of alongside TGL
• How Boston Common Golf and Motor City are tapping Fenway Sports Group and the Detroit Lions to build local awareness
• Why TMRW Sports believes WTGL’s international player mix could create a broader global audience than TGL

Resources and Links:

Connect with Kara Baker on LinkedIn and learn more about TMRW Sports on their website.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

What REALLY makes a business worth buying, and what should founders actually optimize for? 

In this candid conversation, Dave sits down with longtime friend and former business partner Igor Ulis, partner at Hudson Technology Systems. Igor traces his path from “dumb kid in college” who thought writing code was enough to get rich in the dot-com boom, to building and scaling a global sports technology services company that ultimately sold to Infront. 

Dave and Igor get into the mechanics of valuation in the real world — multiples on revenue vs. profit, the importance of cash generation, and why buyers care so much about whether the business can run without the founder in the room. 

Igor also explains how services businesses live or die on utilization, pricing discipline, hiring, and the “art and science” of estimating complex projects. They dig into the tradeoffs of taking loss-leader work,why “follow your passion,” “fail fast,” and “work on the business, not in the business” are incomplete clichés, and how to avoid underpricing your value just to win logos.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why most founders misunderstand what makes a services business scalable, and the ONE metric Igor would force every operator to master
• Why “loss-leader work” is almost always a trap, and the moments at Omnigon when underpricing nearly cost them big
• The project-estimation approach Igor used to protect margins on massive sports builds
• What really changes after an acquisition: new accountability, pressure of managing up, and an unexpected “MBA-level” crash course
• The culture challenges that emerge once a service team crosses 100+ people

Resources and Links:

Connect with Igor Ulis on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

The Heisman Trophy is one of the most recognizable symbols in college sports. Now, as college athletics undergoes massive structural change, the organization behind the trophy is entering a new era of its own.

Jeff Price, CEO of Heisman, joins Dave to share how his background across the NBA, Gatorade, Mastercard, Sports Illustrated, and the PGA of America prepared him to lead an iconic brand through its next phase of growth.

Jeff discusses the changing college sports landscape, purpose-driven partnerships, and why philanthropy remains central to Heisman’s long-term vision. He also shares how Heisman is thinking about developing future leaders and creating a broader impact through sport.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How Heisman is redesigning the fan vote to make it more meaningful throughout the college football season
• How Heisman Hopefuls is using EA Sports rankings, analytics, and fan voting to expand the consideration set
• Why Heisman is exploring flag football as a new growth and accessibility opportunity
• What Heisman learned from watching schools build their own player campaigns 
• How Heisman is creating entirely new sponsorship inventory beyond trophy weekend

Resources and Links:

Connect with Jeff Price on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

In an industry being reshaped by NIL, the transfer portal, and private capital, one question is becoming unavoidable: how do leaders make principled decisions when everything feels up for grabs?

Investor Andrew Siegel breaks down what leaders in sports and tech often underestimate, like the emotional complexity of teams, the tension between performance and values, and how managing people becomes exponentially harder when competition, money, and public scrutiny intensify.

Drawing on his experience spanning venture investing, media, hospitality, and board leadership, alongside his academic background in philosophy and religion, Andrew shares why leadership ultimately comes down to “people peopling,” how he evaluates alignment versus raw talent, and what traits he believes matter most for navigating disruption in modern sports organizations.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How Andrew’s background in theology and philosophy helps executives make better “people decisions” during times of disruption
• The Trust–Loyalty–Integrity lens Andrew uses to decide which founders, boards, and companies to back 
• What NIL and the transfer portal reveal about the end of amateur hour in college sports, and why Andrew thinks private capital and commercial incentives are reshaping the system
• The repeatable investing behavior Andrew believes operators and executives need to focus on 

Resources and Links:

Connect with Andrew Siegel on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

Bank of America Stadium is undergoing a $1.3 billion renovation, but Tepper Sports & Entertainment isn’t just thinking about new seats. The bigger question is, what will get fans off the couch and into a stadium in 2030?

Bryan Lodigiani, VP of Business Strategy and Analytics, talks to Dave about why personalization and creating experiences fans can’t get at home are shaping the renovation. He also shares how TSE uses data to understand the surprisingly different audiences behind the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC.

Bryan breaks down where AI is already creating value across ticket sales, partnerships, and marketing, why not every business problem requires an AI solution, and how Charlotte’s rapid growth is creating new opportunities for sports and entertainment.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why some “AI problems” are actually process or automation problems in disguise
• How TSE is designing stadium products specifically to create an entry point for younger fans
• What Bryan learned trying to break into sports after a career in banking, consulting, and retail
• The new Sales Experience Center that can pull up the exact game you attended and the moment that made you a fan

Resources and Links:

Connect with Bryan Lodigiani on LinkedIn and learn more about Tepper Sports & Entertainment on their website.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

A tablet that turns basketball into vibrations sounds like a novelty. Today, roughly half the NBA carries one, and Ticketmaster is footing the bill.

In this conversation, OneCourt co-founder and COO Antyush Bollini explains how a college project became Sports Business Journal’s Sports Technology of the Year, and how partnerships with leagues, clubs, and brands helped the company reach the market. 

Antyush also shares what OneCourt learned from its earliest pilot with the Portland Trail Blazers, how the company is approaching media and tracking-data rights, and why founders must validate not only whether a solution works, but whether customers will actually pay for it.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How OneCourt moved from hand-built prototypes and 3D-printed parts to preparing a scalable consumer product
• The feature that inspired a fan to check the score and game clock 700 times during one game
• What the Portland Trail Blazers risked by becoming OneCourt’s first in-venue pilot partner
• How a viral fan video helped OneCourt move from cold outreach to inbound interest from NBA teams
• The three tests Antyush believes every startup idea must pass 

Resources and Links:

Connect with Antyush Bollini on LinkedIn and learn more about OneCourt on their website.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.

Sidearm Sports powers the digital experience for the vast majority of major college athletics programs, but George Scott believes the next challenge is much bigger than publishing scores, schedules, and game recaps. 

With roughly 85% of Power Four schools and 90% of Division I programs in its network, Sidearm occupies a unique position in the college sports landscape. George joins Dave to trace his path from Fans Only and the NFL to YinzCam and Sidearm, and explains how those experiences shaped his view of digital fandom.

George offers a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of serving major programs alongside the Division II and Division III schools, what the changing economics of football and basketball could mean for smaller sports, and why uncertainty around NIL and athlete compensation makes long-term planning difficult.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why an 18-year old will download a college app (and keeps it for life), but not an NFL team app
• What sports organizations risk getting wrong when they prioritize data collection
• How Sidearm uses Learfield for ticketing, content production, and licensing to create more revenue opportunities
• How Sidearm's AI partner Noda turns raw game video into written stories in each school's own voice

Resources and Links:

Connect with George Scott on LinkedIn and learn more about Sidearm Sports on their website.

Learn more about Next League on our website and LinkedIn. We are leading sports organizations into the digital future.

Dave’s book is available now! Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology: How To Make Smart Decisions That Drive Your Organization Forward.