Over the years, we’ve had a lot of conversations with sports business entrepreneurs. One thing they all share is a certain degree of risk tolerance. But even the most daring of them pale in comparison when it comes to this episode’s guest.

At 17 years old, Davyeon Ross left his home in Trinidad and Tobago and headed to Kansas to get his college degree and play basketball. Now Kansas winters aren’t for the feint of heart, most especially for someone who grew up on a tropical island off the coast of Venezuela. Were there some thoughts about going back? For sure. But Davyeon persisted, and in doing so learned a of essential lessons about himself.

Those lessons serve him today as the co-Founder and CEO of ShotTracker, a company that sits squarely at the white hot intersection of sport and technology integration. ShotTracker’s sensor-based system automatically captures basketball statistics and performance analytics in real time, and is currently in use by over 75 men's and women's college basketball programs. Former NBA Commissioner David Stern and Magic Johnson are among the company’s investors.

In our conversation, Davyeon recounts his journey from that small island in the Caribbean to leading an innovative sports tech company. We discuss ShotTracker’s growth and the inevitable pivots that come with leading a start-up company. We also talks about working with coaches, how the company is leveraging its tech to improve fan experience, and why his favorite words in business are “wouldn’t it be cool if…”

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

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Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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It wasn’t too long ago that we had Peter Murray on this show to talk about his transition from running the Professional Fighters League to serving as the CEO of the Pro Bowlers Association. And if you think that’s an interesting career segue, let me introduce you to this episode’s guest, Patrick Lindsey.

You see, not that long ago, Patrick was running the PGA Tour stop in Las Vegas, the Shriner’s Open. When the sponsorship of that tournament fell through, Patrick began looking for his next opportunity, which he quickly found. In the form of serving as the SVP and General Manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Now a golf tournament is obviously a much different animal from a NASCAR race. Or is it? Lindsay actually sees a lot of cross over between the two, and sees his golf experience as being essential for getting him ready for managing a motorsports venue.

In our conversation, Patrick and I talk about his big job transition, and what he’s still learning on the fly. We dive into the current state of motorsports, why golf fans and NASCAR fans really aren’t that different, and how he keeps his events competitive in the face of new sports and entertainment competition in Las Vegas. He also reveals what he’ll be wearing the next time the world’s largest EDM festival rolls into town.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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If you’re looking to buy a used stadium urinal, boy, have I got a deal for you.

Well, in truth, I don’t have a deal for you. But Brandon Steiner, the founder of Steiner Sports and CollectibleXchange sure does. That’s because Steiner is in the process of dismantling HighMark Stadium, the former home of the Buffalo Bills, and in doing so, is offering a catalog of items from that venue for sale. As you can imagine, the fanatical members of the Bills Mafia are snapping them up. Urinals included.

Steiner began his legendary sports business career by repping members of the New York Yankees for their corporate appearances. And living by his entrepreneurial mantra of “what else?”, he expanded that business to include collectibles, fan experiences and more.So when it came time for the Yankees to move to their new home in the Bronx, Steiner pitched the idea of managing the sale of pieces of Yankee Stadium history. HighMark Stadium is now the 7th stadium disassembly he’s managed.

Our conversation is full of stories and insights from Steiner’s remarkable and eclectic sports business history.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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Sports business is built on big transactions. In this new feature of the Sports Business Conversations podcast, we’ll take a close look at how some of these transactions came to be. It’s called “The Room Where It Happened”, and in it, we’ll deconstruct a recent sports transaction with the person who helped put all the pieces together.

This time, Eryn McMahan of Longhorn Sports Properties and Learfield is taking us into the Room Where it Happened, where she’ll pull back the curtain on the partnership she crafted with Humann to put their brand on every single one of the Longhorns playing surfaces.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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Hey this is Dave Almy of ADC Partners, and welcome the 100th episode of the sports business conversations podcast.

And look, I realize that in the grand scheme of things, making it to 100 podcast episodes isn’t exactly up there with stupendous human achievements like landing on the moon, writing Hamlet, or inventing bourbon (and thank YOU, Elijah Craig).

But it’s something worth celebrating a little bit, for sure. And frankly, I thought long and hard about who I wanted to feature on this momentous episode. For a while, I thought I wanted to try and chase down one of the White Whales of sports business like NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell or FIFA President Gianni Infantino. But everyone hears from them all the time, and frankly their PR people don’t let them say all that interesting.

So I opted to go a completely different direction and take it all the way back to the beginning of my long history of working in and around audio. Over 40 years back in fact, to the moment when I met my Freshman year college roommate.

When Jonathan Karl first walked into our dorm room in the mid 1980’s, I obviously had no way of knowing that he’d become a defining voice in journalism and one of the most important observers of this particularly tumultuous political era.

But that’s exactly what he’s done. Jon is currently the Senior Washington Correspondent for ABC News, and has written 4 books about Donald Trump, his campaigns, and his presidencies. He’s uniquely well suited to do so, since he’s known the President for over 30 years when he first met him as a cub reporter for the NY Post.

His latest book, “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign the Changed America”, builds upon the first 3 books and reflects Jon’s extensive personal history of reporting on the President. And somehow he manages to do so in the objective manner that has always been the cornerstone of his reporting.

No matter how you feel about Donald Trump and this political moment, I think you’ll find our conversation interesting, informative and revealing. And if you’re thinking “Hey, Dave, this doesn’t have anything to do with sports”, stop right there. As Seattle Seahawk Hall of Famer and US House Representative Steve Largent once remarked: "They say politics is a contact sport, and I have to agree with that." So you can, too.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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We're going to go out on a limb and say that if you’re listening to this podcast, you have a connection to high school sports. You’re probably not playing them at the moment, but we bet you did at some point. Maybe you have kids who play them now.

Doesn’t matter. Whatever your connection or association, you know what a big deal high school sports are to students, families and communities.

And that passion is what drives Adam Gouttierre, VP of Media for Hudl.

For the uninitiated, Hudl provides video services to over 4000 high schools across the country. (The serve other sports verticals as well, but HS is their wheelhouse). They provide things like coaching analysis, game streaming, video hardware, and stuff like that. Millions of people watch their highlights and games on Hudl every week.

And Adam is in charge of packaging up all that content, and helping brands use it to reach their core audiences, wherever they may be.

In our conversation, we talk about Adam’s journey through the early days of online advertising markets, and what drew him to Hudl. We discuss the immense growth of Hudl, how the company makes high school sports accessible to brands, and his advice for what makes great storytelling content in sports.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

FOLLOW US

Here's where you can find us:

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If you’re like me, when someone mentions “bowling”, you get a flood of memories. For me, those memories include things like past birthday parties for my kids, the casual/only slightly ironic Friday night out with friends, and the ill-fated league I joined with my college classmate my junior year. Hey, the beer was cheap and we made cool shirts.

For Peter Murray, the new CEO of the Professional Bowlers Association and Head of Media for Lucky Strike Entertainment, those memories, and the fact that almost all of us share some version of them, are key to his plans to grow bowling into a global sports juggernaut.

Murray certainly has the experience needed to pull it off. Prior to the PBA, he was the driving force behind the epic growth of the Professional Fighters League, which he helped transform from a regional MMA backwater and into a global media property. He sees bowling in much the same light: a popular sport that’s been underexposed and is prime for a cultural makeover.

In our conversation, Pete and I talk about his journey from cage matches to bowling lanes. We dive into the opportunity he sees for the sport, what strategies he’ll carry over from his time at the PFL, how the new HBO series “Born to Bowl” is already impacting the game, and much, much more.

The former almost NYPD cop also shares what skills he thinks carry over most from policing to running a pro sports enterprise. So stay tuned for that.

We don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a little soccer tournament coming to North America this summer. It’s apparently kind of a big deal.

In reality, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest version of the global event ever attempted. The most host nations. The most teams in competition. The most number of games. A global economic impact estimated at over $80 billion.

As CEO of New York/New Jersey FIFA World Cup Host Committee, Alex Lasry is responsible for helping bring this enormous event to life in North America’s largest market. He’ll be there when the Cup kicks off in the Meadowlands on June 13, and he’ll be there when the final whistle blows for the Championship game on July 19.

With about 50 days to go before the Cup, Alex took time out to talk about what goes into putting on the biggest sporting event in the world. We cover off how his unique blend of political and sports business background prepared him for this moment, how he’s addressing concerns about cost and accessibility, and what’s left to do before the first match kicks off.

Here’s your unexpected piece of sports business trivia for the day. According to Arctos, which is a major player in sports private equity, professional sports franchise values have compounded at a rate 13.0% per year for the last sixty years.

So it turns out that this whole sports ownership thing can actually be pretty lucrative. Which is why it’s currently boom times for teams looking for investors, and for the folks who help put together these kinds of deals.

It’s also why Tim Browne’s phone rang two or three times during our podcast recording.

After a decade as the an in-house counsel at the NBA, Tim is now a sports and entertainment lawyer for Barnes and Thornberg in Nashville TN. While there, he’s helped ownership groups purchase teams, helped land expansion franchises, and pulled apart contracts having to do with every aspect of team operations and revenue.

In our conversation, we dive into Tim’s sports law career, which began with legendary NBA commissioner David Stern sitting in on his first interview with the League. We look at the increasingly complex issues surrounding mammoth sports transactions, the advice he gives to prospective ownership groups, the legal turmoil surrounding NIL contracts in college sports, and much more. And as a parting gift, he’ll even give you the best piece of negotiating advice he’s ever received.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

FOLLOW US

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Safe to say that the most common expression used to describe the current state of Name-Image-Likeness and college sports is “it’s the Wild West.” Which, in reality, may actually do a disservice to the wild west. There’s no way that period could be as nuts as this one…

Clearly NIL has completely upended college sports. In doing so, it’s produced a fabulously dynamic environment for new businesses that claim to have solutions for this burgeoning marketplace. In that sense, it really is a lot like the wild west and its accompanying Gold Rush.

But what sometimes gets lost in the frenzy to capitalize on NIL is that this entire market is being built on the back of very young adults, the vast majority of whom are away from home for the first time in their lives, and who lack a support network to make sure their interests are protected and their approach to NIL is sound.

Enter Stephen Bienko and 42U. A former college athlete himself, Bienko took a look at what was happening with NIL and recognized the vulnerability of these young athletes. So he launched 42U, which has a goal of giving athletes the tools and support they need to build their brands, recognize their authentic selves, and prepare themselves for life after their playing careers.

In our conversation, Bienko dives into both his athletic background and his entrepreneurial journey. We discuss the launch of 42U, their partnership with the Big 10, and what he believes is missing in the current NIL environment.

The former New Jersey State Trooper will also reveal his most memorable traffic stop.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

FOLLOW US

Here's where you can find us:

• LinkedIn: adc-partners
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• Threads: adc_partners_podcast
• Youtube: @adcpartners
• Homepage: adcpartners.com/podcast

Mentioned in this episode:

ADC Partners: Your trusted college sports business partner

ADC Partners