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Sports Business Awards

Sports Executive of the Year

Brian France
NASCAR

In the past year, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France helped oversee a sea change to the sport’s ownership structure by greenlighting the design of what is now known as NASCAR’s charter system. France wasn’t necessarily involved in all of the day-to-day negotiations in hammering out the deal, but his initial approval and continued support of the system was essential to getting it done given his and his family’s pivotal role in the sport.

While his father and grandfather, the other two men who have overseen the sport since its founding, were known for ruling with an iron fist, France has shown a willingness to create a system more akin to stick-and-ball leagues, with teams gaining greater say in the governance of the sport.

Beyond the charter deal, France led NASCAR to five-year track sanctioning agreements, providing stability to the racetracks’ business model. And on the competition front, a new elimination-style playoff format drove digital traffic and ratings, generating the most-watched finale in a decade.

Stan Kroenke
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment

Last month, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones described Stan Kroenke as “sent from above” to facilitate the NFL’s return to Los Angeles. Not many outside of Jones’ orbit are likely to concede that the Rams owner and chairman was divinely inspired, least of all those in St. Louis who may never forgive him for taking the team to the West Coast. But what Jones was getting at is what makes Kroenke a nominee: Only someone with his unique qualifications could have removed the NFL’s black mark — its 20-year absence from Los Angeles.

Even the rival Carson project, which owners ultimately rejected, came about only in response to Kroenke’s bold move in January 2015 to unilaterally announce a stadium project in Inglewood, Calif.

Kroenke’s supersized wallet and the economic issues in a midsized market like St. Louis were also factors in getting the Rams to Los Angeles, but don’t ignore the bravado of the real estate titan who grew tired of waiting for the NFL’s interminable process in Los Angeles to lead somewhere.

Love him or hate him for his westward move, Kroenke’s moxie got the NFL back to the U.S. entertainment capital.

Joe Lacob
Golden State Warriors

As co-owner and chief executive officer of the Golden State Warriors, Joe Lacob has helped write one of the greatest success stories in sports.

The Warriors have seen huge spikes in virtually every business metric, not to mention winning the 2015 NBA championship and then this season going 73-9 in setting an NBA regular-season winning record.

Lacob also is front and center on the team’s effort to build a privately funded $1 billion arena and commercial development in San Francisco. The project already is backed by a naming-rights agreement with JPMorgan Chase, a deal that was signed three years before the facility is schedule to open.

Since paying $450 million for the team in 2010, Lacob and his ownership group also have pushed the franchise forward by leveraging its presence in Silicon Valley. The team used virtual reality to live-stream its season-opening game this season, a first in the NBA. But there’s much more to the story than VR as the Warriors have set new digital and social media standards throughout professional sports.

Rob Manfred
Major League Baseball

Rob Manfred entered the job as Major League Baseball’s 10th commissioner with massive shoes to fill given the impact of his predecessor, Bud Selig. But in short order, Manfred not only established himself as his own man but made seismic changes in how baseball goes to market, conducts its business and interacts with key constituencies.

Manfred’s first major move was to unify the sport’s previously disparate online and offline business interests under a single organizational structure, immediately yielding dividends in the form of record industry revenue and several new or renewed partnerships. He then unveiled an unprecedented league initiative in youth baseball participation and engagement, made several moves to restructure MLB’s instant replay and pace-of-play rules, and broke through a stubborn, years-long logjam to begin in-market streaming for Fox regional sports networks.

Not done, Manfred also led MLB to reach a historic agreement with the MLB Players Association that created a joint policy on domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Mark Parker
Nike

After being crowned the successor to Nike founder Phil Knight, CEO Mark Parker maintained the company’s tradition of bold deal making, but the Nike lifer also showed his willingness to push the company to new levels.

How so? Try setting a goal to reach $50 billion in revenue by fiscal year 2020. A big part of that will be tied to the company’s push globally, with international markets already contributing more than 60 percent of the company’s revenue. Toward that goal, Nike hired its first chief digital officer to build upon its e-commerce markets overseas.

Back home in the U.S., Nike reached a massive, $1 billion deal for the NBA’s jersey rights, continued to sign top athletes, and locked down key college programs including Michigan, Ohio State and Texas. And while the college space provided a broader palette for uniform design, Nike even found an opening in the tradition-rich NFL with the debut of Color Rush uniforms.

The company stepped up efforts to reach women, raised the revenue bar for its iconic Jordan Brand by looking beyond the hoops market, and continued to invest heavily in technology and innovation.

Such moves, under Parker’s direction, have analysts bullish on Nike’s future and its ability to revitalize the marketplace.

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.

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