Overview
Agenda
Sponsors
Speakers
Travel & Logistics
History Register |
press room Conference will highlight the increasing role of analytics in sports Cambridge, Mass., January 15, 2008 – As sports leagues and franchises face increasing pressure to drive and sustain profitability, leaders are increasingly turning to techniques from the corporate business world. On February 9, 2008 the 2nd Annual MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference will explore the role of analytics in managing successful professional teams and leagues. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets and Jessica Gelman, the Kraft Sports Group and New England Patriots director of New Business Development and Operational Initiatives, are co-chairing the conference. Slated keynote speaker is Wycliffe (Wyc) Grousbeck, managing partner, governor and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Celtics. For the first time in a conference setting, key decision makers from all 2007 professional championship teams will come together in “Defending the Title,” a panel which will seek to answer the critical questions of what to do after a team has won a championship. Panelists will include:
• Bill Polian, President of the Indianapolis Colts; The session will be moderated by Major League Baseball journalist and ESPN Commentator Peter Gammons. Another panel, “Improving the Game – the Future of Professional Sports,” will feature Bill James, Senior Baseball Operations Advisor for the Boston Red Sox and author of Bill James Baseball Abstracts; John Walsh, senior vice president of ESPN; former Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, and Randy Vataha, Managing Director of GamePlan, LLC., a leading sports investment bank. The group will discuss tactics and strategies to improve the future of the major professional sports. A panel on branding and revenue will be led by Lou DePaoli, executive vice president and Chief Marketing Officer of the Atlanta Hawks; Sam Kennedy, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing with the Boston Red Sox; and Kristin Bernert vice president of Team Business Development for WNBA. This year’s conference will also explore how to apply analytics to make draft, free agent, and trade decisions in baseball, basketball, and football; sports technology; gaming; broadcasting; and venue management and development. Industry professionals and MBA students from more than one dozen leading institutions are expected to attend. Josh Miller, MIT Sloan MBA 2009, says, “I’ve always had a passion for sports. Now, in the Bill James era, it’s become a more viable career path for analytically-minded professionals.” The conference will take place on February 9th on the MIT campus in the Ray and Marie Stata Center, Building 32, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge. Registration starts at 7:45am. The conference will run from 9am to 5:30pm followed by a networking reception. For more information and to register for the MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference, please visit: http://www.sloansportsconference.com or contact Chris Johnson at 617-529-0316. The Second Annual MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference is sponsored by:
Stratbridge, a supplier of sports industry technology for teams in the NBA and NHL: (www.stratbridge.com); For over fifty years, the MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been one of the world's leading academic sources of innovation in management theory and practice. With students from more than 60 countries, it develops effective, innovative, and principled leaders who advance the global economy.
About the MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media & Sports Club
For media requests or information on conference press passes, please contact Paul Denning (617-253-0576, denning@mit.edu) or Patricia Favreau (617-253-3492, pfavreau@mit.edu) from the MIT Sloan Office of Media Relations.
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