SportsTravel Podcast

Colie Edison may not have the traditional background for the leader of one of North America’s professional sports leagues. Early in her career she appeared on MTV’s “The Real World,” but was able to take that background in entertainment and marketing and carve a path for herself into the real world of bowling. Bowling has seen considerable consolidation in recent years with Bowlero Corp. now operating more than 300 recreational bowling centers around the country, including those that used to be under the AMF and Brunswick brands. Last year, the company made more headlines by purchasing the PBA Tour. Edison, who had been Bowleros’ chief customer officer, was named CEO of the league. Now the company has plans to take advantage of a rare synergy in sports—owning a large part of bowling’s recreational side as well as the professional side. And a new television contract with Fox, after years with ABC and ESPN, has the tour’s events on live television more than in generations. In this conversation with SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, Edison discusses why the company was interested in the pro league, how it intends to combine the different sides of the sport, the changing demographics of the casual bowler, what the tour looks for in host venues and how it plans to bring athletes from other sports into the mix to help promote its future events.

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Technology in sports is everywhere, from the ticket you purchase for an event to your experience at the venue. And for amateur sports organizations in particular, technology is changing the way their participants register for events and experience those events in the months leading up to the game—or even when they are on site waiting for their next match. As the founder and CEO of EventConnect, Jason Parker is leading the effort to modernize the process of event registration. And in the process, the veteran of sports hospitality and experiences is changing the way event organizers should approach the use of technology to make their own lives easier and to help people signing up for their events. In this discussion with SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, Parker discusses the trends he is seeing in technology as it relates to sports events, how his own background paved the way for his current company and why event organizers should be embracing new tech at every turn they can.

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In sports, sometimes it’s ideal for teams to peak at the right time. And USA Weightlifting would appear to be doing just that, especially when it comes to its elite athletes. The U.S. team is coming off its best showing in nearly 30 years at the IWF World Championships and its best showing in 20 years at the Pan Am Games. And the team appears poised to medal again in Tokyo after ending a 16-year drought at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio. Off the field of competition, things are headed in the right direction as well under the leadership of Phil Andrews, who has been CEO since 2016 and has been with the organization since 2013. A fundraising campaign ahead of Tokyo is on pace to raise $500,000 that will help pay for a unique training center for U.S. athletes at the Games. And several U.S. cities have been able to host international events thanks in part to USA Weightlifting’s concerted push to be more involved internationally. The sport of weightlifting has its challenges, including those outlined in a recent documentary that alleged new doping violations of overseas athletes and raised governance questions about the international federation. But Andrews is helping to lead the sport into a new era.

In this conversation with SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, Andrews discusses his entry into the Olympic movement, the NGB’s unique plans for Tokyo, why food costs need to be packaged into the NGB’s event room rates and what makes an ideal host venue for the organization.

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At some point, something at your sports event is likely to go wrong. How you prepare for and respond to that inevitability will determine how your event is experienced and perceived by participants and spectators alike. For nearly 10 years, Frank Supovitz was senior vice president of events for the National Football League, responsible for all the league’s events including the Super Bowl. In that capacity, he saw all numbers of scenarios, including the unexpected blackout during the 2013 game in New Orleans. In a new book, “What to Do When Things Go Wrong,” Supovitz has put together a game plan for organizers and meeting planners of all kinds based on his own experiences, which also included 13 years organizing events for the National Hockey League. In this podcast, Supovitz discusses how event organizers can plan for the unexpected, how the NFL responded to some of its most challenging moments and how some of the league’s events have grown considerably over the years.

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The Denver-based U.S. Center for SafeSport was created in 2017 by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to tackle one of the most difficult issues in sports: the safety of the athletes competing. The scandal at USA Gymnastics has underscored just how serious the problems of sexual abuse and other forms of abuse have become for athletes competing in the Olympic and Paralympic movement. The statistics are staggering. While the center initially received about 40 complaints a month when it opened, it now receives nearly 240 a month, with an open caseload of more than 1,000 allegations needing investigation. In July, Ju’Riese Colónwas named the center’s new CEO, joining the organization after serving as the vice president of child and club safety at the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and previously serving as executive director of prevention and outreach for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Her challenges with the U.S. Center for SafeSport include keeping up with the growing caseload and navigating the delicate politics over which organizations should be funding the center’s work and how. In this podcast, Colóndiscusses why she took on the job, how the center is prioritizing its work and what host cities and the sports-event industry should be considering and doing when it comes to protecting the athletes competing at events.

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Obstacle course races were once considered a fad in the sports-event industry. But some organizations have withstood the test of time, including Tough Mudder, one of the first companies in the space. Still, their journey hasn’t come without growing pains. Recent forays to diversify the business and tweak their traditional events had left some hardcore fans disappointed. Now, however, the organization is turning around their participation rates and event calendar by going back to their roots. And leading the charge is Kyle McLaughlin, who has skyrocketed up the leadership since joining in May 2018 with a background in event production from New York Road Runners, the organizers of the New York City Marathon. After serving as senior vice president of live events and later president of Tough Mudder, McLaughlin was named CEO in July. In this podcast with SportsTravel’s Jason Gewirtz, McLaughlin discusses where the organization has been, what markets are ripe for expansion and how Tough Mudder has survived where others have not.

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There was a time when simply enjoying the competition of a live sporting event was enough to keep spectators engaged. In recent years, that has become even more challenging for sports organizations and venues alike. Fans expect more today from the experience than they did in years past. And companies like Xperiel are leading the new wave of spectator engagement, creating predictive games for fans in the arena and stadium and using augmented reality to help them play their own games within a game using the venue’s scoreboard. Those are just two examples and they’re already in place at NBA arenas and NFL stadiums. In this episode of the SportsTravel Podcast, Xperiel Co-Founder and CEO Alex Hertel explains how his company is changing the landscape for fans, what the future holds for the live-event experience and how you can catch a virtual T-shirt shot from a virtual cannon on the scoreboard—and get a real shirt delivered to you for your accomplishment.

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When you think of the fastest-growing sports by participation, you might be surprised by which activities are gaining the most traction. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, the sport seeing one of the biggest increases over the past three years has been BMX, up nearly 9 percent in participation over that time. That's no surprise to USA BMX, the national governing body for the sport, which has seen not only participation grow, but also the number of venues that cities are investing in to attract the sport and its largest events. And there are plenty of events. USA BMX sanctions more than 12,000 races a year and organizes its own national event series that has had cities reaching out to get a piece of the action. The world is taking notice as well. In 2020, Houston will host the UCI BMX World Championships at a new venue about to open. One of the key leaders in all of that growth and development has been John David, the chief operating officer of USA BMX and a longtime board member of the National Association of Sports Commissions, now known as the Sports Events & Tourism Association. In this podcast with SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, David explains how the NGB has partnered with the sports tourism industry to grow its events, how the governing body has changed its approach to entry-level participants, the organization's upcoming move from Arizona to Oklahoma and how USA BMX engages with cities that may not even have a track.

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When you think of Topgolf, you’re likely not thinking about esports. But the entertainment company whose high-end driving ranges have become a phenomenon of sorts continues to branch out into new areas. The latest of those is the creation of Esports Lounges at six of their properties in an effort to attract a new audience to their venues and to plant a flag in the growing esports market. In this conversation with SportsTravel Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, Topgolf Media President YuChiang Cheng discusses Topgolf’s interest in esports, the company’s target audience for events and his own background in gaming and sports.

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Every four years, soccer gets a huge profile boost through the FIFA World Cup. With the Women’s World Cup set for France in 2019, soccer leaders in the United States are hopeful that the defending champion U.S. Women’s National Team will once again make a deep run and keep interest high when the event is done. Such a run should only stand to benefit the National Women’s Soccer League, which is entering its record-breaking seventh season as the only professional soccer league for women in the country. In this podcast, NWSL President Amanda Duffy discusses her rise in the organization, how the league intends to capitalize on World Cup fever and her predictions for who will hoist the trophy in France. 

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