SportsTravel Podcast

The team at SportsTravel has racked up thousands of miles this past year in the name of sports-related travel, attending sporting events at all levels from youth tournaments to the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl. Along the way, we’ve assembled some observations of those events and the logistics behind them. In this conversation, Executive Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz, Managing Editor Matt Traub and Associate Editor Justin Shaw recap some of what stood out to them and stories in the industry that resonated as well. And they’ll take out the crystal ball for some thoughts on trends they’re watching in 2025, events they’re looking forward to as well as some bold predictions for the industry and some teams they think might win it all in the year ahead.

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At this year’s TEAMS Conference, Indianapolis was announced as the winner of Best Host City at the SportsTravel Awards. Since July of 2023, Indianapolis has hosted events that total an estimated $500 million in economic impact, including the 2023 Big Ten Football Championship, the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, the 2024 NFL Combine, 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball First and Second Rounds, and the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming. And there’s plenty more still to come the rest of this year and in the future. Leonard Hoops and Patrick Talty join the podcast to discuss the Big Ten Conference, look back at some of 2023’s biggest events and look ahead to 2025 while also talking about how Visit Indy and the Indiana Sports Corp work together on events. 

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After serving as chief executive officer of USA Weightlifting for nearly 10 years, Phil Andrews was appointed USA Fencing CEO in August 2022 to oversee the national governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of fencing in the United States. This past summer, USA Fencing won four medals overall at the Olympic Summer Games in Paris, including its first ever team Olympic gold in women’s foil and Lee Kiefer repeating as women’s foil gold medalist in an all-American gold medal match against Lauren Scruggs. With the LA28 Games four years away, it’s a big time in the U.S. Olympic sports movement and Phil discusses what USA Fencing has planned to capitalize on its Paris success, how it puts together an events calendar and what it looks for in partners and much more.

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The NCAA is in a transformative era and that includes its championship landscape. Acrobatics and tumbling, equestrian, rugby, stunt, triathlon and women's wrestling are working their way through the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women program with the hopes of gaining enough university participation to become NCAA championships — with some on the cusp of joining the ranks. In this recording from the TEAMS Conference & Expo held recently in Anaheim, the leaders of these efforts discuss where they are in the process and what destinations can do now to help build out other events leading up to a championship, including camps, clinics and combines.

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As president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, Geoff Freeman is the leading advocate for the more than $1 trillion U.S. travel and hospitality industry. In this role, he is charged with positioning the industry to seize emerging opportunities and further establishing travel as a vital economic force in the United States. Before taking over at U.S. Travel, Freeman was president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, the trade association for America’s $2.1 trillion food, beverage and consumer products industry. And before that, he served five years as president and CEO of the American Gaming Association. So his background in lobbying for interests of various industries is substantial, including, of course, the travel industry. He’s also a father of three who has made the circuit of amateur sports travel, so he knows what he speaks when he discusses the sports-related travel market.

Now, with some of the world’s most high-profile events headed to the United States over the next decade, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Los Angeles, the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup, 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup and 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Utah, the time has arrived where these mega events may lead to policy changes. Chief among those is the issue of visa wait times, which can be hundreds of days for people wanting to enter the United States from certain countries, including several expected to compete less than two years from now in the World Cup. For some of those fans, unless something changes, it may already be too late to get to those matches in 2026. These are important issues, especially for destinations that are investing millions of dollars in hosting matches with the expectation that they will lead to foreign visitation.

These are some of the themes we’ll be discussing with Freeman on stage at the TEAMS Conference and Expo, September 23­–26, in Anaheim, California. But in this episode, we introduce the discussion with Freeman and talk about ways destinations of all sizes can better advocate and lobby for the important work they do day in and day out.

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Ezra Frech was born a congenital amputee but started off his athletic career mostly competing against non-disabled athletes. It was when he was 8 years old that his father took him to his first para competition, and given that support, he was able to perform at his highest level.

After that day, Ezra and his father made a promise to each other that they would bring para events to Southern California, and with that, Angel City Sports was born. Angel City Sports is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that provides year-round adaptive sports opportunities for kids, adults and veterans with physical disabilities or visual impairments. And now, Frech is a Paralympic gold medalist, having won the 100 meters and the high jump T63 at the Paris Games.

This interview, recorded before the Games through the P&G Athletes for Good Fund, discusses his preparations ahead of his trip and competition in Paris, his work in the Paralympic space, his hopes for the 2028 Paralympic Summer Games in Los Angeles and much more.

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Like many Olympians and Paralympians, Susannah Scaroni has had to overcome her share of challenges. In her case, a car accident at the age of 5 caused her to need a wheelchair for mobility, a journey that led her to adaptive sports. Her initial experience was not positive. But when she discovered a welcoming adaptive sports program in Spokane, Washington, her interest grew.

As her training grew, so did her accomplishments. And eventually that led to a spot on the Paralympic team at the 2012 London Games in the marathon, which has become something of a specialty. She competed again in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020 and in Paris will compete in her fourth Paralympic Games, having qualified for the marathon, the 800 meter, the 1500 meter and the 5000 meter races.

While she has traveled the world competing in some of the biggest events around, the process has not been easy, and still poses challenges. Not all event organizers are doing the best they can to accommodate adaptive sports athletes, even at events as large as the World Championships. In this discussion, we trace Saroni’s journey to adaptive sports, talk about her experience at the Paralympics and other major sports events and delve into things event organizers and host cities can and should be thinking about when it comes to the next generation of para athletes.

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You may not immediately recognize the name Danny Boy O’Connor. But if you’ve turned on a radio or attended an in-person sports event in the last 30 years you certainly know his music. As a co-founder of the group House of Pain, he was on the ground floor of the group’s biggest crossover hit, “Jump Around.”

As you’ll hear in this conversation, he was a connoisseur of music growing up in New York and then Los Angeles. He also was immersed in hip hop culture, including the breaking scene. So when the sports version of break dancing takes center stage in Paris, he’ll be watching with keen interest. In this episode we’ll talk a bit about what breaking has meant to him and what it continues to mean to participants around the world.

But we’re also going to talk a surprising amount about tourism, specifically what O'Connor has accomplished in an effort to preserve the legacy of the book and movie version of “The Outsiders.” Years after House Pain, he found himself on tour through Tulsa where the book was based, and found the house used in the film as the home of the brothers who make up the main characters. Shocked at what had become of the home, he led an effort to purchase and restore it, an effort that has now led to a museum to the franchise, which also saw a Broadway musical version debut last year that took home a Tony Award for Best Muscial. In the process of restoring the home, O'Connor not only fell in love with the town, but he has become one of its biggest tourism advocates.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about all of these things and you may come out surprised at how the worlds of music, sports and tourism can often interact seamlessly.

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Dan Butterly has been the commissioner of the Big West Conference since July 1, 2020. He took the job at a time when Covid was wreaking havoc on the sports landscape and led the conference through uncertain times. Butterly has negotiated a large streaming contract with ESPN-plus and has ambitious designs for the future of the conference and its athletics. He is a member of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Competition and Oversight Committees, and the NCAA Council Working Group on NIL.

In this episode, Butterly discusses the ever-changing worlds of NIL and conference realignment, how the Big West can capitalize from the demise of the Pac-12, getting his conference more exposure, and what went into the decision to move the men's and women's basketball championship tournaments from California to Henderson, Nevada.

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The Lionel Messi effect in his second season with Inter Miami is well underway in Major League Soccer, which has had five matches this season with an attendance of more than 60,000 or higher. MLS’ total attendance is up 13 percent compared to the same date last season and with the Copa America ongoing, the international club competition will segway into one of Major League Soccer’s main in-season points of emphasis, the Leagues Cup matching up each team from MLS and Liga MX in Mexico.

Executive Vice President Camilo Durana joined the podcast recently to discuss the state of the league, the upcoming second annual Leagues Cup, MLS’ developing relationship with Liga MX, broadening the league’s reach through Soccer United Marketing, and upcoming FIFA events in the U.S. highlighted by the 2026 World Cup and of course the effect of Messi within the league’s international reputation.

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