Ben Sturner

Manhattan Sports Business Academy: Innovative Summer Program where Sports Business Leaders are Made

by Holly Koski|January 5th, 2012

Every year, thousands of students across the country search for sports internships to break into the sports business industry. In this ultra-competitive field, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to gain as much as experience as possible and meet influential people in just a few few short months of the summer.

Students need to maximize their time in order to truly get a comprehensive and worth-while experience. However, many students lack the skill and resources to truly make the most of their internship and fail to translate their experiences to a full-time job.

A New Model of Sports Internships

A new program called the Manhattan Sports Business Academy, aims to change traditional sports internships. Founded by Leverage Agency CEO, Ben Sturner, MSBA has launched to prepare students for the sports industry in an eight-week immersion in a sports business leadership program catered to give college students a jump start into the sports business world through internship, mentorship, and networking in the mecca of sports, New York City.

MSBA is not your average sports internship program as you can see below from their mission statement:

“It is our goal to broaden the traditional internship into a 360-degree experience that helps college students prepare for their future career in the business of sports. At MSBA, we strive to increase the value of internships by incorporating additional academic, interactive, and entertainment components; we do this through group outings, networking events, a weekly speaker series, and providing one-on-one mentorships with established and successful industry executives”.

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About Holly Koski

Holly Koski is a Senior graduating in December from Indiana University majoring in Sports Marketing & Management. As the Sports Networker Marketing Intern, she is responsible for managing the Sports Networker Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages while promoting Sports Networker content through various online marketing strategies.

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Top Sports Social Media Professionals of 2010

by Lewis Howes|December 13th, 2010

The year has flown by and it’s been a great one for sports and social media. In the last year, we’ve seen almost every professional sports team start to create a social media strategy, and none of it would have been possible without the many creative people at work in the sports industry. As a result we’ve created a poll to see who, in your opinion is the MVP of social media sports professionals in 2010!

On the ballot, we have SB Nation CEO Jim Bankoff, New York Jets‘ Matthew Higgins, Digital Royalty‘s Amy Jo Martin, CNBC’s Darren Rovell, Brian Gainor from Partnership Activation, Russell Scibetti from the Business of Sports, Leverage Agency’s Ben Sturner, David Barton-Ginger of All Blacks, Daniel McLaren from the UK Sports Network, Darren Heitner from Sports Agent Blog, Jason Peck from JasonFPeck.com, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Scott Phelps, Ash Read from FundSport.com, and Vaynermedia’s Stephanie Bagley and Sam Taggart. All of these individuals have been hustling their rears off to platform themselves as leading pioneers in this new space. Also, feel free to add your own suggestion in the ballot below, as we’re sure to have forgotten some great people. Don’t forget to click submit!

EDIT: Voting is now closed. Thank you everyone for their responses. We had over 2400 votes. Look for more posts this week to announce the winner.
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About Lewis Howes

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|March 6th, 2010

Bob Arum Says Deal Reached For Yankee Stadium To Host June Bout

Top Rank Chair Bob Arum Thursday night said that Yankee Stadium will host a June 5 bout between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto, according to Dave Skretta of the AP.
Yankee Stadium could hold 30,000-35,000 fans for Foreman-Cotto bout.

(www.sportsbusinessdaily.com)

LPGA renews Blue Diamond, signs Florida’s Natural

By John Lombardo

The LPGA has renewed its sponsorship deal with Blue Diamond Almonds and signed Florida’s Natural Brand citrus growers as an official partner.

(www.sportsbusinessjournal.com)

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About Ben Sturner

Ben Sturner is the Founder and CEO of Leverage Agency, one of the most respected, innovative, resourceful and ambitious sports and entertainment branding sponsorship agencies on Madison Avenue. Sturner has taken his multi-million dollar business from a small start-up in his New York City apartment to a premiere agency that has secured deals for clients including: Jimmy Kimmel Live, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball, KFC, Gillette, Progressive Insurance, Southwest Airlines, Reebok, Comcast, Anheuser Busch, Fremantle Media, Mark Burnett Productions and NBC’s Prime Time Celebrity Apprentice, Reveille, Radical Media, as well as other top-tier brands. Ben has been named NYC Entrepreneur of the month in TrueNYC.com and has been interviewed and featured on ESPN, NBC, CNBC, USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL as an expert in sports and entertainment sponsorship.

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|February 19th, 2010

Time buy would move AVP to ESPN and ABC

By Terry Lefton & John Ourand

The AVP is close to finalizing a deal with ESPN, ending an association with NBC that dates to 1990.
As part of the time-buy agreement, ABC would carry four events, while ESPN2 will carry the rest of the AVP’s schedule, which has yet to be released.

(www.sportsbusinessjournal.com)

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|February 12th, 2010

espn360

Rebranding: ESPN360 Becomes ESPN3 In April

By David Goetzl

The online live sports hub, ESPN360.com, will be rebranded ESPN3.com in April. ESPN3 will be available in 50 million homes, free to subscribers of broadband providers that have agreed to pay ESPN a TV-style fee to offer it.
ESPN has not used Web lexicon recently in referring to ESPN360 — classifying it instead as a network. In a statement, ESPN executive Sean Bratches, who oversees marketing, said the ESPN3 switch “closely aligns with the existing name convention” for ESPN channels. Expansion from the 1979 flagship began with ESPN2 in 1993.

(www.mediapost.com)

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|January 22nd, 2010

Leverage, Top Rank partner for boxing upfront presentation

By Jon Show

The Leverage Agency and Top Rank will partner this Saturday on what they are calling the first advertising and sponsorship upfront in the history of boxing.
Other boxing promoters and networks like ESPN aggregate the rights to multiple fights as part of advertising and sponsorship sales, but industry insiders believe this is the first time a promoter has partnered with an agency and television networks to package rights for a formal upfront-style boxing presentation.
Under a multiyear relationship, Top Rank and the Leverage Agency are pooling sponsorship and advertising rights to 48 fights in 2010, including 12 pay-per-view events and 36 events on FSN or Fox Sports en Español. The 12 PPV events will feature three “super fights,” including Manny Pacquiao’s bout at Cowboys Stadium against Joshua Clottey on March 13.

(www.sportsbusinessjournal.com)

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|January 15th, 2010

Haiti In Rubble: Marketers, Aid Groups Rush To Help

By Karl Greenbery

Coca-Cola has pledged $1 million through the Coca-Cola Foundation to the American Red Cross for disaster-relief efforts in Haiti. The company says it is also providing bottled water and other products through its bottler in the adjacent Dominican Republic.
The General Motors Foundation has donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross relief fund to help Haiti. GM also has provided a direct web-link that its employees can use to contribute personally to the Red Cross disaster fund. The company says its 10-year-old GM Global Aid has facilitated over $15 million in donations for disaster relief worldwide.
Wireless customers of AT&T can send $10 donations to the Red Cross International Relief Fund from their mobile devices by typing the word HAITI and sending it to 90999. AT&T says all money donated will be passed on to the Red Cross.
ConAgra has donated $100,000 to the ARC. The gift is in addition to ConAgra’s membership in the ARC’s Annual Disaster Giving Program, a commitment of $1 million over five years, per the ARC.
TD Bank is donating $100,000 to the Red Cross to support the earthquake-relief efforts. Kraft has given $25,000 to the ARC.

(www.mediapost.com)

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|December 25th, 2009

TV Revs: ’09 Down 22%, Rise Predicted in ’10

By Wayne Friedman

BIA/Kelsey, a financial advisor to local media companies, estimates that TV stations’ ad revenues will rise 3% in 2010 — or $500 million — to $16.1 billion.
The media group now says 2009 will end at $15.6 billion, down 22.4% from last year’s $20.1 billion mark.
TV stations reached an all-time ad revenue record in 2006, when it was at $22.8 billion.
BIA says 2011 will see negative growth again — in part because it is a non-Olympic, non-political year.
BIA estimates by 2013, stations will only inch forward to $16.4 billion; however, it notes that TV stations have not been at such levels since the mid-1990s.

(www.mediapost.com)

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|December 18th, 2009

72% Of Advertisers See More Digital Spending In 2010

By Erik Sass

A regional survey of 8,500 senior advertising, marketing and media executives by Round2 Communications found that 72% predict they will increase their spending on digital media in the coming year.
Along with the good news for digital media, the survey (which focused on executives from companies headquartered in the Western U.S.) delivered some bad news for traditional: 86% of the respondents say they expect their spending on traditional media — including broadcast TV and radio and print newspapers and magazines — to remain even (45.7%) or decline (40.3%) in 2010.
But despite all the negative publicity, it’s worth noting that print still garners the lion’s share of media spending, with 47% of those surveyed saying print is their single biggest media investment.

(www.mediapost.com)

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

by Ben Sturner|December 11th, 2009

Gatorade Drops Tiger (the Drink)

By Kenneth Hein

After less than two years, Gatorade is dropping Tiger Focus from its portfolio. There has been a great deal of buzz around the announcement given its timing. However, the plans have been in the works for months.