DAN SHELL, who has orchestrated the growth of Fox Sports’ collegiate multimedia rights business over the last four years, has left the company to rejoin IMG College in a yet-to-be-announced role, industry sources say. He is expected to continue his work in multimedia rights, where IMG College owns the rights at 75 schools. Shell, a SportsBusiness Journal/Daily Forty Under 40 winner, joined Fox in January '12 as GM of the USC property. He later negotiated the rights for Fox at Georgetown and Villanova, and most recently Michigan State, in a deal that will pay the Spartans $150M as part of a 15-year package. In Shell’s previous stint at IMG, the former college basketball coach ran regional sales and also managed the West Coast Conference property.
BIG MOVE FOR VAN WAGNER: Meanwhile, MIKE WOLFERT has been hired by Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment as a Senior VP/Business Development for the company’s college division. He joins VWSE after a 16-year run at ISP Sports and IMG, where he served as IMG College VP/Revenue Solutions. In his new role, Wolfert will oversee the development of collegiate multimedia rights and report to VWSE Exec VP MIKE PALISI. Chief among Wolfert's duties, Palisi said, will be introducing VWSE’s various capacities to college clients in team and venue services, including naming rights, stadium design, sponsorship and advertising, technology consulting, content development and production, and premium seating and sales strategies. At IMG College, Wolfert specialized in generating value for mid-major schools in sponsorships. He also helped develop the first outsourcing model for fundraising.
