The Business of Sports, SEICon II Roundtable

Sports professor Riccaro, $1.3 trillion dollar business of sports on the record with maybe the most profound podcast we've had.

A in months, not just because of any individual, but because of the collective synergy and tremendous potential of CO2.

We'll talk about that in a minute, but we remember that the sports business 50 years ago was the back of the envelope.

Now it's over 1.3 trillion.

CO2, Bellagio, July 8th through 10, we'll have the founder talk about it.

It used to be that all you needed to do to be in the sports business was have an agent who thinks you're an agent.

Now there are over 440 schools and institutions that do sports management, law, marketing, development, and this is now kind of the pinnacle as we have a conference that in essence brings it all together.

Sean Geraghty, CEO of Circle and conceptualizer and founder of CCON.

Uh, Jeremy Jordan, the dean of the uh Falk College of Sports and Human Dynamics, uh, Jay Vickers, COO UNLV Sports Innovation Institute, coming together.

For an amazing conference and an amazing event.

Sean, let's start with you.

When did the vision, the epiphany hatch in your mind for CCon when and one, and when did you realize that this was going to be a reality?

Yeah, good morning.

Well, actually, uh, as we get to Jay and to uh and to Dean Jordan, they'll speak a bit more about that, but, uh, uh, actually, my thought was during COVID to have uh uh start to endow students from our Fat College.

I've been on the proud member of the advisory board there for about 15 years now.

And living in Las Vegas, I always felt Las Vegas was and as you see now, is pretty much the epicenter of what sports entertainment and innovation are about, uh, and I was with a couple of our associates.

Uh, Dave Salinger and Doctor Rodney Paul coming out here to look at what we might do with that when, uh, gentleman Dale Eals with Las Vegas events.

A friend of mine that I was talking to about this endeavor asked me if I'd met Jay, Jay Vickers with UNLV and I had not, and Jay will tell you more about actually the inception and, and how this all came about.

But uh I can tell you for Syracuse University and for you and LV to come together, sit in a room, and then Uh, propagates something that I think is extraordinarily special and exciting is something I'm very proud to be a part of.

I think they'll elaborate more about it, but we're excited about the partnership and, and where, where it is and more importantly, where it will go.

Well, they will certainly elaborate in just a few minutes, but let's talk about CCO 1 as a launch pad into CCO 2.

A 200 speakers, 30 sponsors, 50 sessions, 157,000 LinkedIn impressions within 30 days.

How did the uniqueness amidst the clutter of these thought leadership conferences come off so well?

Well, thank you, Rick.

And first of all, we're very proud to have you with us, uh, uh, overseeing and monitoring our keynotes and really helping us to curate this.

But ultimately, what we wanted to do was take the full consideration of what today's landscape looks like, as you say, uh, you know, the world used to be Jerry Maguire if you were in sports, and it was Uh, that's pretty much how it all summed up.

But in the end today, what we really wanted to do, and I think it went off well for a first year event, we also learned a lot, uh, a, uh, curate the content a little less so people can see more and give people more time to interact.

But what we wanted to do is change the landscape.

To do that, you had to change the Makeup of the topics, the speakers, we wanted public-private sector, academia, we wanted health sciences, we want team sports and leagues.

And how do you bring them all together in a way where people can be authentic, be high-level, and come away with truly unique, uh, perspectives, but most importantly with new relationships.

Yeah.

And the relationships obviously will transcend after the first event.

Uh, before we go to Jeremy, talk a little bit about your proud expansion, the Bellagio on July 8th through 10.

Uh, it's a tremendous partnership and, uh, you know, JQ Leadership Las Vegas had an opportunity to meet with one of his friends with MGM Bellagio, and we've had great partnerships with them in the past.

And uh the opportunity came about, uh, to have Bellagio as a host and you obviously we think no one does it better than MGM and Bellagio is at the top of their uh of their uh flagpole.

So from our standpoint, we love the partnership, we love the amenities.

It fits very well with our program, with our activations, and, you know, the last thing I would say, the true mission of CON is you look at it through the eyes of Dee Jordan, uh, and Jay, and what we're all looking to do is to enhance the brands of Syracuse Fall College, UNLV Sports Innovation.

We want enrich our faculty to be more armed to do great things.

And ultimately it is about our, our alumni and our students having great internships and having great you know, working experience out in the field.

That's really our goal with this conference.

And, and without being too much of a shill, but if the world focuses on July 8th through 10 and sees all of the expansion capabilities plus all your international stuff, we'll talk about that later.

This is a seminal moment for thought leadership in the $1.3 trillion dollar business of sport.

And we understand that.

Uh, Jeremy, let's talk about Syracuse for a second.

Obviously the Dean of Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, your history is great, Temple, and as you were there, sports tourism, hospitality management, NCA faculty athlete rep, the sport Industry Research Center, there's a whole lot that you brought to the table before even Syracuse.

How did that diversity allow you to expand your vision and expand this world even larger?

Yeah, and, and Rick, thanks for allowing me to be part of this session today.

We're, we're just so proud to be a partner with UNLV and CCO.

It's had a huge impact on the college, uh, even after, uh, one year, and we're, we're excited about where things are headed.

Um, you know, my past experiences really allowed me to come to Syracuse and have a shared vision with our advisory board, with our faculty and staff, with university leadership on how we differentiate the university through sport.

Uh, not just our intercollegiate athletic programs and our club sports and our intramurals, but having an independent academic unit that's focused on, uh, sport related disciplines and research and thought leadership.

And so, as of July 1, Falk College will become the fault College of sport, and we think it's one of, uh, maybe the only one in the US and our one institution which has an independent college that's focused exclusively on sport.

Uh, and so we're really excited about what that's going to allow us to do as a college, what that's going to allow us to do for our students.

And, and one of the keys to us being successful moving forward is partnerships, and this conference is about partnerships with UNLB who's a tremendous partner, uh, and Sean said before you don't often see academic institutions partnering like this, but, but we're better off because of it and so we're looking to grow what we can do, uh, with, with the new partners that we'll meet this year.

And I can validate being kind of one of the authors of the leather helmet days 50 years ago when my people in law school said there's no such thing as sports law, and even if there is, we don't teach it.

We've come a long way and now with your announcement in July, I can absolutely confirm that this is a seminal moment as well.

But you look at your program and it's not just traditional sports management, which everybody calls it when they don't know what else to call it.

But you take a look at communication and public health and e-sport and sport analytics, all of those cutting edge issues, but plus you have this uh uh legacy built in, uh, you know, John Walhack leaves ESPN, becomes your athletic director, all of the famous broadcasters in sports are Syracuse folks.

What makes you so special?

I again, I think it's the history at Syracuse that we've been able to build upon, um, our athletic history.

You, you mentioned, uh, you know, media and broadcast and, and the work that Newhouse has done and the partnerships we've formed with them.

It, it just is, and, and I think the other piece of it is, we have, uh, an amazing alumni base who has such a high affinity for the university, and they, they remain committed to the success of the institution and not just through philanthropy, but creating opportunities for students.

That might not be available at other institutions.

You talked about that there's over 400 sport management programs in the US and they tend to look more similar than different.

And so what are we doing at Syracuse University that has us stand out like a UNLV stands out?

And, and so what we really think it is, is, is these partnerships and the experiential learning and the access to our amazing alumni network and what they're willing to do for us.

So you know, Sean Gerty comes along and he is an offensive lineman of some significant repute at Syracuse already and you know he's going to be taking it to the next level.

So trace the relationship a little of it was before you were dean, but a lot of it is after.

So talk about your relationship with Sean, how you first met, how you turned this vision into reality from your perspective.

So I, I wanna give Sean a lot of credit because he's part of an advisory board that has some pretty significant names that people would recognize, which has been a huge asset for Falk College, but he had the energy and the vision to galvanize that group and, and to have a shared focus on how do we.

Elevate Fault College and Syracuse by being leaders in this space, and one of the ways to do that is this public-private partnership where we have, it's not just a purely academic conference, it's not just purely industry, it's bringing those groups together and having conversations on how they can both grow by these through these partnerships.

Uh, and so, you know, sometimes as a leader, my job is to not get in the way and with Sean and and the team, they just have had this strong vision and so it's just like what can we do to support it?

Uh, and it's having our students be part of it, our faculty and staff bringing our own partnerships and and industry partners to, to the event and, and so it's just.

It's been hugely significant for us, especially at this time in the history of the college where we launched the College of Sport and really shift our focus to have CCO as a platform for us to share what we're going to do moving forward is really impactful.

Well, I can vouch for, especially after what you're doing July 1, that, you know, one of the key with the relationship with Sean is to get out of the way and let him move forward because there are so many good things in the future.

Uh, Jay, let's talk for a couple of minutes as COO of the UNLV Sports Innovation Institute.

First, from your perspective, it's Learfield in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois and Arizona and Fresno State, your football at Notre Dame.

We don't need to harp on all of that.

We don't have a lot of time, but your diversity and experience prepared you for your role very uniquely as well, correct?

Uh, that'd be absolutely correct.

And again, thanks for having us on this session.

Uh, it's great to see you again, Rick, as well as everyone here on the team.

Um, I think there's a lot of things that you can go through your career journey that can prepare you for things that may be unknown.

Um, CCO is one of those things that was unknown, but also was something that I really had a vision and a drive to want to do from the very beginning, um, starting back in 2020.

Um, leading to 2021, um, I actually had some really great conversations with our key leaders in our, in our city, um, starting with Lawrence Epstein, and at that point, I was given a challenge to see if we can put a stake in the ground, if you will, in this emerging sports and entertainment capital that we have here in Las Vegas.

And the key there is what I love about UFC is they think outside the box and they also think bigger.

And what you see about CCO, um, we're already doing things that are not necessarily within the box which is partnering with another institution of higher learning, uh, and not just any institution or great institution in Syracuse and one of the best schools which is the.

Uh, College of Sport, which is coming on July 1st as stated by Dean Jordan.

Uh, but to have these relationships and also work with Circle and um have a visionary like Sean who allows us also to look at it and say, how do we move forward?

How do we get this done?

And then the key to that relationship is Um, and I will always say this is Sean and I are taking the 1st 6 months together and getting to know each other, just really understanding who we are, not only as professionals, but as people.

So to let you know that CCO is built through love, not just through, hey, how do we get people engaged and do all the things that we talked about education, collaboration and deal making, but really was built through two people um saying, hey, we really love this idea, but more importantly, I like you.

How can we make this work?

How can we get together and really do something that will galvanize the sports entertainment ecosystem?

And in the first year, I think we're able to accomplish that.

Well, not only did you accomplish it, but one of the mandates that you were just talking about then almost guarantees a long-term expansion future, not just a first date, absolutely, and that that's built through long term relationships and again going back to um the experience that each of us have that allows us to go into meetings whether Dean Jordan is there, um, Adam, Tiffany, Sean, or myself, we know that.

We are representing each institution, um, each organization, each sponsor, um, it's our duty to represent those folks in a very high fashion, and we do that.

And I think when you look at MGM and our new partnership with Bellagio, that's the reason why, um, that happened.

Um, we enjoyed our time at Virgin.

Uh, they were very good to us, but I feel like going to MGM is now we're home.

Um, I started conversations with what was then.

A different name than CCO, um, and hopefully with a partnership with MGM before I met Sean.

And we had this little thing come to our city called the Super Bowl.

You may have heard of it.

And once it came, you know, all eyes was focused on, um, our largest event in our country.

And with that, I still felt the need to keep pushing because in order to pull off events of that magnitude and that's our city was able to do it in the shortest time frame every game to a city to pull off a Super Bowl and to be able to.

Do that in that short time frame that takes the intellectual capital and I wanted to really highlight the intellectual capital of sports entertainment in Las Vegas, but also I have this added negative of um being able to utilize intellectual capital of Syracuse.

And so those are the things that are really exciting about what we're doing and how we're driving this agenda forward.

Well, one more comment about UNLV's part of this, then we'll turn it back over to Sean for a couple of minutes.

You know, when you talk about your three.

A pinnacles and platforms, the sports data and analytics and sports science and sports management.

You read 400 different stories all over academia, and they hint at some of that.

Yours is real.

The relationship with Syracuse, the practicum with UNLV, and the city of Vegas, the CCon circle relationship.

You're doing it.

A lot of people are talking about it.

You're doing it.

Uh, plans for the future as far as UNLV are concerned.

I think the plans are to continue to have great engagement like we have now, but also more importantly is being focused on how do we continue to expand the sports and entertainment ecosystem not only in our, in our community, but how do we affect those in other communities.

And that goes, that leads us to our vertical events that we have.

Plan for CCO, it leads us to um how we can have an international presence.

I think the future is bright, um, as you said, no, as you look at this economy overall, it's 1.3 trillion is what you said.

Yeah.

It may be 1.4.

And, and, and we're just scratching the surface of what that looks like.

We're just scratching the surface of what education looks like in the space as well as what is the innovation.

You know, there's so many unanswered questions that we need to continue to ask and study.

I think we have the right faculty um that are interested to do it.

They just never had the, the, um, I would say the turbo boosters if you will.

Of people behind them, whether it's deans or others, and that's where CO fulfills an opportunity gap where we can bring folks together and really turbocharge those conversations and get people super excited about, you know, this is why this is important.

This is why sports technology, sports performance, mental health, brain health, uh, military health, and first responder health.

While all these things are super important into this ecosystem, and I always tell people to say, hey, you have 15 pillars of excellence.

Um, what does sports research innovation stand for?

I said well anything that comes to your mind as it relates to sports and entertainment, that's what it is.

And because this ecosystem is vast, it's broad, it's engaging, and it really wants people to be successful and reach heights that we've never seen before.

Mr.

Gerty, so you know, years ago we're in the post-pandemic.

How do we recover?

We've all written about this.

We were at a point where 40% of the industry was basically at risk three weeks into post Rudy Gobert shut the industry down, and you've kind of helped bring it way back.

It took a lot of vision, but creativity, survival of the fittest, collaboration more than anything else, relationships that these both of these guys talk about so significantly.

A proud of the move to the Bellagio.

I know you can talk a little bit about the USA Today relationship.

That will be more reserved for another day with that as we move forward with that.

But talk a little bit about, you know, your feeling as this history evolved.

And I appreciate it and uh you know, a little bit of history with Circle.

Our first and largest client really coming out of the gate was MGM.

Uh, we, we were, we were, had the opportunity to produce, uh, their outdoor entertainment venues, the MGM Festival village, the grounds, which brought us to events like Rock and Rio, I Heart Radio Festival at the beginning.

Paintings of Route 91, obviously a tragic end, but it became one of the best, uh, entertainment events, uh, in the world at that time.

But, uh, we're very grateful to MGM and also very grateful to UNLV and Syracuse University.

Uh, you know, being a blue-collar kid from Worcester, Mass, going to Syracuse to play football, arguably my grades, probably don't get me there.

It's that opportunity that, you know, that, that was given to me.

I'm always grateful that Syracuse University, to my friends, to be on the uh Falk College Advisory board was Uh, probably one of the most uh exciting things that's happened in my life outside of my, my children.

So, uh, you know, from my standpoint, I think it's a big opportunity.

It's also a big responsibility.

And the last thing I'd say is, as you know, uh, you travel the world, you know, you've seen everything, you are truly a diplomat in the world of sports entertainment.

You've represented your industry and your alma mater very proudly, and you hear the words now sports diplomacy and sports power.

You hear the Taylor Swift effect.

A lot of countries now, like Australia, I think our country more and more, F1, World Cup, Olympics.

It's sports diplomacy and it's sports power, you know, it's, it's really the greatest vehicle to change the world and hopefully in a, in a very good way.

So I think we all have a great opportunity, but we also have a, a great responsibility to, uh, to, to be thoughtful about how we proceed with uh CCO and the things we do.

All right, all three of you starting with Jeremy.

Sport CCO 2 will be an overwhelming success if If we continue to explore deeper partnerships with new opportunities in sport, I mean, this is a forward facing conference, so we're not really concerned about where things are at right now.

We're thinking about where things are going to be at the next 5, 1015 years and so to continue to have that mindset as we engage with each other, I think we'll continue to make it successful.

J Uh, I second what Dean Jordan says, but I think we just have to continue to keep the pedal to the gas and really understand what are the needs of this ecosystem and involved with it.

So it's forever evolving.

It's gonna continue to change.

There's always gonna to be conversations that need to be had and answers that need to be.

Um, that need to be answered.

And so we're questions that need to be answered and so those are the things I'm really excited about.

I think there's something that will never, uh, keep us bored if you will, and that's the beauty of sports and it just brings people together, which is the true magic piece that sports has and I think that's where CCO leads everyone is bringing folks together.

Doctor Gerty.

Uh, we'll be successful if we continue to hold ourselves highly accountable, accountable to the outcomes and the experiences of our guests, our attendees, our partners, and our sponsors.

We want this to be the best experience in the world.

Therefore, we have to continue to hold ourselves accountable to working hard to try to deliver that for each person that is kind enough to be with us.

All right, as we close, this is kind of really important for all three of you, and you need to be pretty candid about it.

Uh, UNLV and Syracuse go back to October 4th of last year.

Syracuse pulls out a hard fought 44, 41 overtime win.

Uh, Jay, did UNLV get hosed or was that a correct result?

You know what, I think it was a game of two really good teams that were, that played their hearts out.

And I always feel like um there's never one play that can decide a game.

Um, that's the beauty of, in my opinion, the ultimate team sport football.

There are so many factors that have to happen.

There's so many.

Ways that the ball has to bounce and um you control your own destiny.

There's so many times that game could have been over for either side and either team.

So I'm not gonna blame that on one play or um a couple plays.

I'm gonna look at it as a truest and not just as a, not just as a fan, that's one-sided.

Um, Syracuse could have won and in regulation, we could have won in regulation and uh it ended the way that it needed to end on that day.

Man, you are really, really, really good.

That was an excellent political answer.

Uh, Jeremy, your last comment on this, uh, you got out political, Mr. politician there.

What's your answer on that one?

I think it was one of the most exciting games of the year and, and in recent history for Syracuse.

Something special happened with Syracuse football last year and, and, you know, that game.

It was just uh symbolic of the exciting season that we were able to have, which we hadn't had for a while.

So there's a lot of energy around Syracuse football, and we would love the chance to, to partner with UNLV again on a game because it, it was Uh, I think success, uh, in all areas, uh, unfortunately, someone, you know, had to take the L, but in terms of fan experience, and I know the orange showed up in, in strong numbers out in UNLV and, and so, um, it was a great opportunity.

Well, you know, Wild Hack is part of these ongoing podcasts, so we'll get it to him and we'll see how that all shakes out.

So finally, Sean, you know, you went to Syracuse, you live in Vegas, uh, UNLV is one of your significant partners.

So give me the answer to that question.

You know, I think I'm gonna stay with Dean Jordan on this 12 great programs where the best is yet to come.

Yeah, look, I can't, I mean, all three of you are wonderful.

There's no debate here.

I can't stir the pot.

All I can say is it is going to be incredible thought leadership epiphany, not just on July 1 with the Syracuse Metamorphosis, but the July 8th and 9 and 10 and all the content we're going to do together and all the exciting guests.

I can't wait to be part of this.

Sports professor Rick Harrow, speak with you all soon.