Sports Organizations
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Dan Payne has been named CEO of USA Rugby. He most recently served as athletic director for Life University in Marietta, Georgia, where he added 10 varsity sports programs. Payne also served as the university’s director of rugby.

Los Angeles 2024, the group bidding to host the Olympic Summer Games, has appointed Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, as vice-chair of its board of directors. Iger previously served as president and chief operating officer of The Walt Disney Company. He also served as chairman of the ABC Group and as president of Walt Disney International.

Nick Raffaele has been named executive director of the CareerBuilder Challenge Golf Tournament in La Quinta, California, and CEO of Desert Classic Charities. A golf industry veteran, Raffaele previously was vice-president of global sports marketing at Callaway Golf, where he managed relationships with players on the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and LPGA.

Kevin Penn has been appointed chief of business operations at the United States Olympic Committee. In this newly created position, Penn will provide direct oversight for USOC corporate departments. He most recently served as senior vice-president of strategy and administration at Highwoods Properties, a publicly traded real estate investment trust headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The National Hockey League has awarded Las Vegas an expansion franchise, the city’s first major professional franchise. The team will begin play in the 2017 – 2018 season and will play its home games in the recently opened T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip.

WME-IMG has acquired UFC for a reported $4 billion. Silver Lake Partners and KKR will join WME-IMG as strategic investors, along with MSD Capital, L.P., and MSD Partners, L.P., which will provide preferred equity financing. Upon closing of the deal, UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta will step down from day-to-day operations, but he and his brother, Frank Fertitta III, will retain a minority interest in the organization. The Fertitta brothers purchased UFC in 2001 for $2 million and have built it into one of the largest sports organizations in the world.

The National Football League, National Football League Players Association and Cirque du Soleil have announced plans for an NFL attraction in New York’s Times Square. Spanning 40,000 square feet, the four-story exhibit will include a 350-seat theater, educational programming, on-site retail, food and beverage offerings and artifacts on display. The multimedia attraction is scheduled to open the fall of 2017.

The International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee have signed a long-term agreement supporting the Paralympic movement. The agreement will run through 2032 and will build on the current partnerships and cooperation agreements that were signed prior to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America / USA Softball, the national governing body for softball in the United States, will be known as just USA Softball, effective January 1, 2017. The rename and rebrand also includes a new logo, shaped like home plate.

Additionally, the Amateur Softball Association / USA Softball has partnered with Major League Baseball in support of the “Play Ball” initiative. ASA/USA Softball will help promote “Play Ball” throughout the 70 local associations across the United States and will assist MLB and its baseball clubs in conducting Softball Series events.

USA Baseball and Major League Baseball have announced a five-year extension to their longstanding partnership agreement. The agreement will continue support of national team programs and create a sport development department, which will be a cooperative effort between the two organizations to grow the game of baseball as well as provide educational resources for coaches, players, parents and umpires. The original partnership was announced in 2006.

Brent Giles, chief sustainability officer of Powdr, has announced his retirement after 40 years with the adventure lifestyle company. During his tenure, Powdr invested more than $7 million in energy and sustainability initiatives and reduced its overall carbon footprint by 63 percent.

Hosts & Suppliers

Don Schumacher, executive director of the National Association of Sports Commissions, will step down in 2017 after having served as the association’s only executive director for 23 years. A search committee has been formed and is expected to name a successor by March 2017.

The International Association of Venue Managers has appointed Brad Mayne as its new president and CEO. He will also serve as president and CEO of the IAVM Foundation. Both organizations are based in Coppell, Texas. Mayne formerly was president and CEO of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Arlan J. (A.J.) Frels has been named executive director of the La Crosse County (Wisconsin) Convention & Visitors Bureau. Frels most recently led the Carson Valley (Nevada) Visitors Authority, which encompasses four communities within the Great Basin area of Lake Tahoe. 

Traverse City Tourism (Michigan) has selected Trevor Tkach, executive director of the National Cherry Festival, to serve as its new president and CEO. Tkach has worked for the National Cherry Festival since 2007, serving as business development manager and interim executive director before being named as its permanent executive director in 2012.

Hank Abate has been appointed executive vice-president of venue management at Madison Square Garden Co. With more than three decades in the entertainment facilities management industry, Abate most recently served as senior vicepresident of Spectra venue management at Comcast Spectacor.

Dale Adams has been appointed general manager of Gila River Arena, the 18,300-seat arena that is home to the National Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes. Adams will retain his role as vice-president of content development at AEG Facilities. Prior to starting at AEG Facilities in 2007, Adams served as vice-president of sales and touring at Premier Exhibitions.

Kerri Kapich has been named to the newly created position of chief operating officer for the San Diego Tourism Authority. Kapich previously was senior vice-president of marketing and strategic partnerships. She is currently the chair of Visit California’s Research Committee and is a member of its Marketing Advisory Board.

The Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau has unveiled a new brand platform, logo and creative for marketing the city’s tourism initiatives, which will include a new website going live this month to replace GoToLouisville. com. The new Louisville brand platform features a logo that includes a fleur de lis and the date of the city’s founding in 1778. The city had been using its previous logo and branding since 2007.

Rick Shahum has been appointed senior account executive at GES, a global, full-service provider for live events. Shahum previously directed business development for TBA Global.

CAA Premium Experience, a division of entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency, has entered a long-term partnership with Major League Baseball. CAA Premium Experience will serve as the league’s official event and hospitality partner starting with the 2016 MLB All-Star Week.

Learfield Sports, the exclusive multimedia rights holder for 120 collegiate properties, has acquired GoVision, a provider of large-scale LED video displays and related services. GoVision will continue to operate under its name and brand and all current employees will remain with the firm.

Sites & Venues

ESPN has chosen Minneapolis as the North American host city for the X Games for 2017 and 2018. The event will be staged at U.S. Bank Stadium July 13–16, 2017, and July 19–22, 2018. Minneapolis was one of several cities bidding for the event after ESPN announced it would leave Austin, Texas, where the games have been staged since 2014.

The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team will play an international friendly against Cuba at Estadio Pedro Marrero in Havana, Cuba, marking the United States’ second visit to Cuba in the last 69 years. The match will be broadcast live on the ESPN and Univision networks on October 7.

The United States Olympic Committee, in partnership with USA Hockey, USA Luge and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, has announced the lineup of the first Team USA Winter Champions Series. The single-day television event will feature a snowboard big air competition in Copper Mountain, Colorado; women’s hockey in Plymouth, Michigan; and the FIL Luge World Cup in Park City, Utah. The event will be broadcast on NBC and NBCSN on December 17.

Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, have been selected to host the 2025 and 2026 U.S. Opens, respectively. The 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont will be held June 12–15. The 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills will take place June 18–21.

The Hampton Roads (Virginia) Sports Commission has announced the launch of the Hampton Roads Hero Games, a new event created to recognize the law enforcement, fire, EMT and EMS “heroes” of the region. The games, scheduled for October 5–8, will feature eight sporting events that will take place at locations including the Virginia Beach Fire Training Center, River Crest Community Center, Ocean View Golf Course, Indian River Community Center, C2 Shooting Center and the Virginia Beach Sportsplex.

The 2017 Major Series of Putting will make its debut in Las Vegas next March. The putting championship will be held at a 20,000-square-foot, 18-hole putting course created by Nicklaus Design. The event will offer a variety of putting tournaments with prize money expected to exceed $10 million.

The Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau and Trident Sports have announced the launch of the inaugural Tri Fort Worth triathalon, with the first event to be held May 7, 2017. The one-day event will include 140.6- and 70.3- mile routes that start at Marine Creek Lake, span across the city and finish in the heart of downtown Fort Worth.

The 2017 Minor League Baseball Triple- A All-Star Game will be held at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington. Hosted by the Tacoma Rainiers, the game will be held July 12, 2017, and will be televised nationally on MLB Network.

In an effort to take on the issue of childhood obesity, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has announced plans for the creation of Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience, a new exhibit that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2018. The $35 million, 7.5- acre project will feature components including an Indianapolis Colts football experience, the Sports Legends Pavilion & Plaza and a family fitness path.

Sponsors & Licensing

Olympic Channel Services has partnered with 27 international sports federations to collaborate on content for the Olympic Channel. The channel— which will be headquartered in Madrid—will broadcast live sports events, news and athlete stories, historical Olympic footage and official film from the International Olympic Committee’s archives.

Thorne Research, a personalized health solutions company, has recently partnered with a number of national governing bodies including USA Gymnastics, USA Triathlon and USA Taekwondo. Thorne Research will provide national-team members with nutritional supplements, nutritional testing and educational materials among other offerings.

Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. has entered a five-year agreement with the NCAA. In addition to serving as the official softball of the NCAA Championships for the 2017–2021 seasons, Rawlings will have exclusive rights to promote, market and sell the NCAA Championship softball through its retail channels.

Rio 2016 has partnered with Off!, resulting in the Olympic Games’ first official insect repellent sponsorship. The company, based under the SC Johnson umbrella, will distribute free bottles of insect repellent to athletes and volunteers at the Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro beginning August 5.

Eckrich has announced a partnership with the College Football Playoff to become the official smoked sausage and deli meat sponsor of the 2017 College Football Playoff. As part of the sponsorship, Eckrich will launch the Road to the National Championship sweepstakes where 14 fans around the country will have the chance to throw for $1 million at some of the biggest college football games of the year.

And Finally…

The National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame & Chick-fil-A Fan Experience have announced a new program that will grant active duty and retired service men and women free admission to the Hall of Fame. Located in downtown Atlanta, the College Football Hall of Fame has recognized 48 combined inductees from the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy and the United States Air Force Academy.

Note: The above “Press Box” information is available – with photos – in this PDF file.

This current issue of SportsTravel can be viewed in digital format online by clicking here.

SportsTravel, the sports world’s event magazine, is published by Los Angeles-based Schneider Publishing Company, which also publishes Association News. Founded in 1997, SportsTravel was the first magazine to identify and serve the sports-related travel and event industry. Schneider Publishing organizes the TEAMS Conference & Expo, the world’s largest gathering of sports-event organizers. TEAMS ’16 will be held September 26–29, 2016, in Atlantic City. In addition, Schneider Publishing organizes the Meetings Quest trade-show series for corporate and association meeting planners. The travel markets served by Schneider Publishing generate 106 million hotel room nights annually. For more information, visit SchneiderPublishing.com or call toll-free 877-577-3700 or 310-577-3700 if dialing from outside the United States.
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Media Contact:
Timothy Schneider
310-577-3700
Schneider Publishing Company, Inc.