Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

People and Pop Culture

Closing Shot: Tags, You’re It!

This year marks the 15th consecutive year that Sports Business Journal has ranked the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business. We thought it would be fun to look back at our first list, in 2004, when we put Paul Tagliabue at No. 1.

Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue topped our first Most Influential list, but he was only one of more than 200 sports executives SBJ recognized with various rankings in 2004.

You could call 2004 the year of the ranking for Sports Business Journal.

 

While our first listing of the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business was the highlight, SBJ produced separate Top 20 rankings across a whopping 13 categories throughout that year: sports advertising, motorsports, baseball, agents, facility design and development, golf, action sports, Olympics, tennis, football, basketball, sports media and collegiate sports. Over the year, we ranked more than 200 sports leaders across those segments.

 

Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue topped our first Most Influential list. The supporting story said:

 

“As they stress in business school: leverage, leverage, leverage. In sports business, no one has more of it than the NFL — and at the point of it all is Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.”

 

Tagliabue’s leadership and dealmaking that year included media rights extensions with Fox, CBS and DirecTV worth a combined $11.5 billion, and extensions with Visa ($300 million), Gatorade ($384 million) and PepsiCo ($560 million).

 

Top 10 From 2004

1. Paul Tagliabue, NFL
2. George Bodenheimer, ESPN/ABC Sports
3. Dick Ebersol, NBC Sports
4. David Hill, Fox Sports
5. David Stern, NBA
6. Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch
7. Bud Selig, MLB
8. Phil Knight, Nike
9. Sean McManus, CBS Sports
10. Brian France, NASCAR

Looking beyond No. 1, the list speaks to the shifting sands in the sports business. Of the 50 executives, only 16 still work with the same property as they did in 2004. Most have either retired or moved on to other organizations. Seven are on this year’s ranking; seven have passed.

 

Some notables on that first list:

 

Tony Ponturo (No. 6): Ponturo earned his spot as vice president of global media and sports marketing at Anheuser-Busch. A-B has maintained a position on the annual ranking based on its spending power but, as proof of the fluid changes since its purchase by InBev in 2008, the company has been represented by nine different executives since Ponturo.

 

Larry Probst (No. 37): Probst was ranked not for his future role with the USOC, but for his influence as chairman and CEO of Electronic Arts, whose video games padded the pockets of leagues and shaped their image among young consumers.

 

Mark Schweitzer (No. 42): The senior vice president of marketing for Nextel was fresh off the company’s massive $10-year, $750 million NASCAR title sponsorship. In another nod to NASCAR’s strength at the time, Brian France and Bill France Jr. each made the list in separate spots.

 

U.S. Sen. John McCain (No. 49): The late senator had given MLB an ultimatum to come up with an effective steroid testing program or risk Congress taking a hard look at baseball’s federal antitrust exemption. His efforts increased the pressure on the league and union to reach an agreement on testing more quickly.

 

For the 2004 installment, and every one since then, you can bet we received some “what were you thinking” feedback. A few executives have even been known to answer calls from SBJ reporters by identifying themselves by their ranking.

 

“Hello, this is No. 17.”

 

Once you go through this year’s list, let us know what you think.   

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/Journal/Issues/2018/12/17/People-and-Pop-Culture/Closing-Shot.aspx

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

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2018/12/17/People-and-Pop-Culture/Closing-Shot.aspx

CLOSE