The Business of Sports with Rick Horrow

Sports professor Riccaro $1.3 trillion dollar business of sports.

You're on the record.

We have a special guest that cuts across so many issues these days with the NIL House settlement pretty much done, but now what are the implications?

How do you deal with it?

High school, women's sports.

It has more questions than answers, but you would have said 30 years ago that athletes would be paid, uh, college athletes, high school athletes above the board with no reproach and uh uh front and center would have been laughed at.

Now obviously.

It is the norm and the people who want to protect the athletes in the future are those to be commended.

Dr.

Tawanna Smith has worked with more than 60 NBA, WNBA, NFL, EuroLeague, Chinese basketball League, and other players, protecting them and giving them advice and doing an athletes abroad summit at the CCON conference, which everybody knows about the second week in July in Vegas at the Bellagio.

Dr.

Smith, how are you?

I'm wonderful on this Friday.

How are you?

Wonderful.

Thank you very much for this.

So, so tell us early about your stellar basketball career at Ole Miss.

Yeah, it was a great experience, uh, playing in the SEC, which I am biased, but I believe is the best women's basketball conference in the country, uh, and playing against the angel recess of the world.

I think it teaches you a lot about being tough and so I had a great career, made a lot of great relationships and still very connected to the university.

Uh, and, and obviously, uh, women's basketball has changed so much, uh, between the early, let's call them the Nancy Leibman days, although she probably killed me because those weren't the old days, but uh they were, you know, midpoint.

The Ann Myers days, Nancy Leiberman days, etc. etc.

Uh, what's the biggest difference, would you say between today's women's college basketball and the, let's say, 1970s?

Yeah, um, I would definitely say it's uh more physical, faster game, but I do think that with some of the things that I'm sure we'll speak a little bit more about with NIL and just the business around the game, um, I think that has expanded so many opportunities for women in a really good way, um, that allowed them to be a little bit more competitive with the men's games in that arena.

So, you finish at Ole Miss and you go to Europe, uh, that experience was eye-opening, I presume?

It was.

I always ask people to put traveling outside the United States on their bucket list because it would really uh change your perspective to connect with people.

On a human level through sports and the game of basketball.

I had the honor of playing in Holland and in Spain and they were incredible experiences, not just to play in front of an insane fan base, um, but to connect with people who may not speak the same language, right? uh but who have a heart to learn.

And try to understand people from another culture.

So it's a great experience that I hope everyone gets an opportunity to experience at some point in their lives.

The American women's basketball team has been the best on the court for the longest time at the risk of sounding a tad xenophobic, but the world has caught up a little bit, wouldn't you say?

Very much so, uh, and one key difference is that, um, players abroad get the opportunity to play as pros at younger ages, and so their focus on fundamentals, um, start a lot earlier than they do here in the United States.

Where Americans are typically stronger and more athletic, um, you do see, as we find more WNBA players and other American athletes playing abroad, it helps them broaden their game quite a bit because they're able to pick up the fundamental side as well.

We'll get into the off-court stuff that's what we're primarily here for.

But one more on-court question, what do we, uh, we, what do the American basketball establishment, male and female, uh, do to make sure that we retain the advantage that they've had for so many years?

Yeah, I, I still think that there is the entertainment factor, right, that is not lost.

You have the true love of the game, the competitiveness of sport, uh, but then you have the entertainment factor that I think, uh, the American leagues are just still, um, far ahead, right?

But the other countries and those other leagues are gaining, but I think they're far ahead as far as creating a true family and uh experience for viewers rather than just the game itself.

So, after Europe, uh, you decide to be a financial advisor and you know, we're better than Merrill Lynch, and then you register.

So talk us through those years.

Yeah, it was exciting to delve into something else.

I am one athlete who suffered a season ending injury at an early age.

I tore my ACL in high school, and I think that it was a blessing in many ways because it showed me how finite this time is as a player, um, and so it was an easy decision to retire in the way.

That I stayed connected to sport was to manage the finances of professional athletes.

It kept me in this world while pursuing, you know, this, this discipline that um I really enjoyed learning about.

And so I learned a lot about the psyche of an athlete and it was great perspective being a former player and now professional working with athletes.

So when I was growing up and finished law school in the Stone Age back when they sent smoke signals as opposed to uh telephones.

Uh, the only qualification you needed to be an agent was to have some sucker who call you an agent.

Today is a little bit different, I know, and there are a lot of people who purport to manage money, but very few who become president and founder of the athlete's Nexus.

Kudos to you and tell us about it.

Thank you, thank you.

I don't think I realized this at the time where I started as just a financial advisor.

Working with athletes will quickly show you they have a lot of needs beyond just the financial component and so um I've essentially carved my own lane, which still is sort of non-existent uh in the space of true player management where I'm able to take care of their professional needs beyond just financial we're starting businesses, nonprofit.

Uh, I am helping them solicit marketing endorsements, PR media for their image building, but essentially I'm managing the other members on their team, their attorneys, their accountants to provide more oversight to this whole concept of being an athlete CEO when you don't have a lot of time to invest in those things if you're going to be successful on the court and on the field.

Um, and so I've had my practice for over 18 years and continues to evolve.

And at night, if don't, if people don't think that she continues to work.

She writes the book, uh, Surviving the Lights, the Professional athlete's playbook, uh, to avoiding the curse, uh, and you plan TOO, uh, and guiding your athlete to wealth and the best mental health.

Uh, there's so many titles that attach to so many things that you do.

Tell us about the writings.

Yeah, it's important to share this insight with the scores and scores of athletes, I mean the millions beyond just those who make it to the professional level.

As I found myself dealing with all of these issues off the court and off the field with my players and kind of putting out fires, I found it necessary to try to package that insight in a way.

That could be useful to a wider breadth of athletes in a proactive way so that if they're exposed to these things, they're preparing to be professionals and not just the athletes side of this, that maybe we could see better outcomes through these players who are really leaders in their communities and all around the world.

So I wanted to see that ripple effect down to the youth.

We were all excited in the industry broadly defined when then President Emert said we recognize the fact that athletes deserve to get paid.

We'll be back to you in a few months with a memo, and then we have crickets and the courts decide what to do as far as the ultimate solution.

Now we have a solution broadly defined.

You think it's fair?

Will it create a positive template going forward?

Uh, I'm not sure it's entirely fair, but that does not mean that many of the players who are benefiting now are not deserving, right?

Uh, I'll be honest, and I'm having these conversations with with experts and thought leaders in this space.

I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen next, but I do know as the collegiate game continues to move more of a professional model. in every sense of the word.

My concern is where the academic side of this falls um as we spend quite a bit of attention on the financial aspect uh of the game, which is mainly an entertainment medium.

Yeah.

And your University of Memphis now obviously specializing in effective communication, career transition.

Student athlete readiness.

Student athlete readiness is a wonderful phrase because student athletes are never ready.

You just get them a little more ready than they might have been otherwise.

Yeah, we all understand that.

So certainty, I guess when you talk to a handful of random ADs has been the most important issue.

Now we're in the planning process.

Most athletic directors, you think, understand the severity and the seriousness of the next few months as far as enlightened planning.

Absolutely, and I wouldn't, uh, you know, you couldn't pay me any amount of money to want to be in their shoes right now and have to navigate this, uh, from a personnel, uh, morale, retention perspective because a lot of these things happening, uh, put some institutions at a competitive advantage over others that, you know, how do you recruit and keep, right?

The, the top talent when you have um it just basically boils down to.

Money, um, and so I'm sure there are a lot of sleepless nights, uh, you know, happening right now for many in the administration.

No, you're wrong.

Everybody in the administration, not many.

So what, what worries you most?

Is it leveling the playing field?

Is it the Olympic sports?

Is it the women's post-Title IX definition?

Is it the creep of high school athletes?

Is it all of that?

Yeah, it's all of that, but more importantly for me as someone who really, you know, thinks of herself as this athlete's advocate, right?

Again, with all of this attention on the business side, the financial implications of, you know, the game.

Where does the preparation, the education, the development from a skill perspective, because we've seen athletes make a lot of money.

The money doesn't solve the problem, right?

And they still end up struggling as they go through the sport, get on the other side, and they're trying to figure out life.

Money doesn't solve mental health issues, right?

Uh, money.

And solve poor decision making and so my concern is um do we have the time and are we willing to invest the money, the personnel, and all of those things into the life development of these players so that this opportunity becomes one they can benefit from far beyond their years in college?

Tell us about the athlete abroad summit and the uh teaching or the wrapping it into the broader CO umbrella.

Yeah, very excited about this collaboration.

As you know, CO is all about sports and innovation, so you're thinking forward thinkers, uh, you know, change makers, trailblazers, and so to align with them has been exciting.

As a former international player, uh, who has worked with, you know, players from all of the major leagues, I had a client, uh, Sonny Weems, who's my co-founder of this experience.

Uh, former NBA player still currently playing in China, uh, championship athlete by all means, uh, we realize that this particular subset of the athlete population, the American athlete who is playing in the league outside the United States, has no home base.

There is no, um, players association, there's no centralized place that these players, which can.

Be in the thousands of players across all sports, where do they go when they need information?

They don't have 401ks that they're contributing to.

They don't have support systems and so we wanted to create space for these thousands of athletes to come together, to learn, to connect and collaborate in ways that can foster their growth and eventually their transition out of the game in a meaningful way.

The Women's Sports Foundation, a lot of these other entities ought to help you.

They clearly should and would and will, but the equity owners of franchises, those with real dollars ought to help you as well, don't you think?

Yes, and I think we're moving in that direction.

Um, part of what we're facing is an educational issue for those individuals as well.

It's not just for the athletes to understand what's available to them, it's for the opportunity that these other leagues should understand.

You have WNBA.

Players, a great deal of them will find themselves during that offseason playing abroad.

Um, and this isn't just confined to basketball.

You've got Major League soccer abroad, you've got professional volleyball players abroad, you've got all types of sports, football players, and so Once we think of them in the same way we think of our military individuals because they're facing some of the same things where they're assimilating into another culture and but they're still American citizens, right?

How do we support them?

I think that we'll begin to see many of those collaborations.

We are working alongside some of the different departments in the NBA, uh, and we're excited about that as well as the WNBA, but I think that we'll see more leagues understand this, uh, gap.

Yes, well.

It is incredible that you've identified something like this and analogized to the military because it is so true and before your life here, it's very rare to hear a group response to our athletes abroad and how they're dealt with relative. to non-union and otherwise, what is going to be one of the biggest impacts over the next few years?

Is it going to be the continued globalization of media, which means American athletes will get more abroad?

Is it maybe partially the 2028 Olympics because everybody's coming here?

Is it also that women's sports is growing by billions and billions?

Is it a combination of all of that?

Absolutely, and, and if you notice there are professional sports leagues, i.e. the NBA, uh, who recognize the value there to the point that they're currently raising billions of dollars with other private investors to try to establish an entire new league abroad.

Uh, you make a great point with the globalization of media as we are providing access to people who, um, otherwise. wouldn't be able to experience these things.

There comes opportunity.

Uh, in the same way that we're talking about NIL is a big deal through this sort of marketing of brands.

Same thing can happen abroad, uh, with these players in these leagues across all the sports, and it can be a great equalizer in women's sports.

So absolutely.

What is the responsibility for those out there in the industry?

To help you, Is it the agents?

Is it the parents, uh, is it the athletic directors?

It's all of that?

Yeah, it is collective at every um stop in this chain, every person who has a vested interest in raising and educating these players, uh, you know, for example, uh, you know, I talk about the HBCUs and next year we're working on a couple of collaborations with collectives, uh, because for these players making it to NBA, NFL, Major League baseball, while It's not impossible, um, it is just for many reasons, visibility, resources, etc.

Playing abroad offers an opportunity for these players and these institutions, um, to continue to play at the highest level, which then makes them usually more engaged donors who can turn around and give, um, and so every person who has a vested interest in this ecosystem, uh, should want them to.

Be more informed and prepared and to take advantage of the upswing, um, in international sports.

Are, are we, maybe too, I'm gonna ask you, are we excited because NIL as it's come to be defined is broadly opening up all of these possibilities for everybody, not just to traditional sports, but debate, e-sports everywhere else.

Uh, are we worried that it's the wild, wild, wild west with no, uh, governance in sight?

In some ways, right, uh, sometimes you can have too many options or there can be too much noise that people lose sight of the very simple solutions that are right in front of them.

Um, I do think that.

That can even still be beneficial for some sectors within this industry, uh, but as we are, are really concerned about empowering the athlete, um, I am concerned about how fast and how quickly things are moving and how the athlete bears all the risk in these situations.

All right, so you've been in this business for over 18 years, and you ever get a feeling that you were born maybe 20 years too early?

Often, often, often.

All of my mentors share the same.

They're at least 20 years my senior and I am just an avid learner.

I get really excited to learn and find solutions, uh, to things that help other people, so.

It is relative, right?

So you're sitting there watching Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese and and I SQ and all I could do that.

But, but it's, it's you got to deal with what you got.

Yeah, that.

Are you uh so I assume you're excited about C.

I am so excited about CCO for so many reasons.

Um, I did get an opportunity to attend last year, um, although our conferences happened at the same time, the energy, uh, the innovation, again, that's the thing that gets me excited, but more importantly, the people who are coming together to collaborate and discuss solutions, um, was just amazing.

Uh, I'm especially looking forward to some of the amazing activations that they'll have, uh, around the Glam jam, uh, which is a space that is devoted to highlighting women, you know, movers and shakers in the sports, um, arena, and so just very excited to share space with them and be a part of what they're doing as well.

Well, I will tell you that the industry is, uh, that much better for having you in it.

Really excited to be part of this world and CCO, looking forward to seeing you in Vegas and watching the career survive, thrive, and triumph.

I appreciate it.

I'm getting ready.

I understand it's extremely hot in Vegas right now, uh, so it should be fine in just a couple of weeks, but I really appreciate you.

And much more, much hotter in a couple of weeks.

Yes, sports professor Rick Harrell, speak with you soon.