Menu
People and Pop Culture

Wally Hayward Leaving Cubs After Three Years To Form Joint Venture With Ricketts Family

Veteran sports marketer WALLY HAYWARD is leaving his position as Cubs Exec VP and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer to form W Partners, a joint venture with the RICKETTS family that owns the club. W Partners will represent various teams, leagues and athletes on the sell side for sponsorship sales. The Cubs will be the entity’s first client as team pursues an aggressive renovation of Wrigley Field and a new Spring Training facility in Mesa, Ariz., and the Ricketts family seeks to develop a boutique hotel next to Wrigley in partnership with Starwood Corp. Hayward joined the Cubs in November '09 shortly after the Ricketts family purchased the club following a stint as Relay Worldwide Chair & CEO. "I believe strongly in the Ricketts and their mission for the Cubs," Hayward said. "This allows me to continue to try to do great work on behalf of the Cubs but also have that entrepreneurial spirit." With an extensive series of expiring Cubs sponsorship deals following the '13 season, the shift will allow Hayward to focus more specifically on those matters without also having responsibility as he did for marketing, ticketing, broadcasting and other matters. W Partners, more than six months in development, will be based in the Wrigleyville neighborhood near the ballpark. Joining Hayward in the venture will be Cubs Managing Dir of Corporate Partnerships SAMANTHA COGHILL and Partnership Coordinator MEGAN CORNISH. Hayward's position with the Cubs will not be replaced, and the existing sponsorship sales group will now report to Cubs VP/Ticket Sales & Service COLIN FAULKNER.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/01/31/People-and-Pop-Culture/Hayward.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/01/31/People-and-Pop-Culture/Hayward.aspx

CLOSE