MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference: Panels

Overview

Agenda

Sponsors

Speakers

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History
2007 Keynotes
2007 Panels

2007 Panels

To see details on one of the panels from the inaugural 2007 MIT Sloan Sports Conference, please click the link below.

Sponsorship
Fan Management
Personnel Decisions
Media Rights
League Management
Minor Leagues
Sports Technology
Basketball Analytics
Career

Panel: Minor/ Emerging Leagues

DESCRIPTION

How does running a minor league team differ from a major league team? What models or approaches are necessary to run a successful minor league franchise? With your best players often taken away in the middle of the season, what constitutes success? How do independent teams function in a minor league system that is tied to a major league system -- is being independent an advantage or a disadvantage? How can a minor league team impact the success of the parent franchise? Can a city support a major and minor league team in the same sport? In 20 years, which non-major American sport will be the most successful?

PANELISTS

Judy Walden Scarafile is the President of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Serving in various capacities for the Cape Cod Baseball League during the past 37 years, Scarafile became the first woman to be inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2003. Starting as official scorer, the UConn grad rose through the ranks, first as publicity assistant to Dick Bresciani, then as league publicist, secretary, deputy commissioner, VP and in 1991, became the league's first female president. In her 16th year as president of the nation's premier summer college league, she oversees administration, finance, league meetings, public relations and marketing, and organized the league's Strategic Planning Committee. Scarafile became the first director of corporate development and has procured over 50 corporate sponsors, enabling the league to produce an annual budget of $550,000. She was named to the Yawkey Foundation Board of Trustees and is chair of its grants committee. Scarafile was named Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year, was presented with the Clara Barton Award by the American Red Cross and is a volunteer for the Cape Cod Stranding (whales) Network. Judy is a past recipient of the Amateur Baseball Woman of the Year by USA Baseball. She and her husband Peter are both pharmacists and live in Barnstable Village, MA.

Jason Chandler is General Manager of the Boston Cannons Major League Lacrosse team. Chandler is a native of Hanover, MA and has been part of the Cannons organization since the team’s inception in 2001. He previously served as Boston’s Assistant General Manager and Director of Public Relations. During Chandler’s tenure as Assistant General Manager, he was directly involved in marketing, public relations, sales and player administration. In that time the Cannons became the MLL’s first profitable team, a threshold they have consistently maintained. Chandler has been a key contributor to the growth of the Cannons organization. He helped transition the team from its original home in Lowell, to its current home at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. The Cannons have consistently grown their fan base and perennially lead the MLL in attendance. The team has hosted the past two MLL New Balance Championship Weekends with record crowds.

Chandler will continue his role overseeing all Cannons PR initiatives. In addition to his work with the Cannons, he also served as Director of Public Relations for Major League Lacrosse last season. Chandler also works extensively in the field of sports broadcasting. He is the lead play-by-play announcer for men’s collegiate lacrosse on College Sports Television. He served as a “Sports Flash” announcer on Sports Radio WEEI AM 850 in Boston, MA. Chandler handles all play-by-play responsibilities for Cannons radio and television. He has also served as the lead sideline reporter for the MLL Game of the Week on ESPN2.

Chris Alpert is Vice President of Basketball Operations and Player Personnel for the NBA Development League. Alpert served two years as coordinator of basketball operations, a year as director and one as senior director for the D-League before being promoted to his current position. Under the direction of NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson and D-League President Phil Evans, Alpert's duties include oversight of D-League player personnel, coaching, officiating, on-court policy and procedures, as well as scheduling. His role as senior director of player personnel makes him responsible for evaluating, recruiting and signing players for the D-League.

After serving as Southeastern regional scout for the New York Knicks from 1997-2001, Alpert also spent the summer of 2001 scouting for the Milwaukee Bucks before coming on board with the D-League. His responsibilities with the Knicks included evaluating top collegiate prospects and submitting monthly reports on the top players. He scouted the NIKE Desert Classic for the Bucks in preparation for the 2001 NBA Draft.

Doug Homer joined the United States Soccer Foundation team in June 2003 following work as a Development Officer for Neighbors’ Consejo, a social service agency that focuses on meeting the needs of homeless and working poor Latino immigrants new to Washington, DC.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Kyrgyz Republic, Doug worked on various fundraising, educational and international development projects in Russia, Central Asia and various former Soviet Republics. He is fluent in Russian and Turkish. In 2000 he earned a Master of Arts degree in Instructional Systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Davis and Elkins College in 1993. He demonstrated his abilities outside the classroom as well by playing four years for the Davis and Elkins’ men’s soccer team, earning a two-time All-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) selection and Adidas Academic All-American during his senior year.

In 1998, Doug became the Founder and President of the Friends of Senator Soccer Alumni Association, a nonprofit organization established to support the College’s men’s and women’s intercollegiate soccer teams and to promote fellowship between the teams and alumni.

Most of Doug’s free time is spent coaching a boy’s under-18 travel soccer team based in Arlington, VA. The team travels extensively and recently placed in the quarterfinals of the 2004 Virginia State Cup. He holds a United States Soccer Federation (USSF) National B Coaching Diploma and an Advanced National Diploma from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).

MODERATOR

Kevin Goldstein, a resident of Chicago, Illinois, is a baseball writer with Baseball Prospectus. Goldstein joined BP in 2006. To date, Goldstein is the only person who has written for both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America, where he worked beginning in June of 2003. Before that, Goldstein built up a sterling reputation for credibility in prospect valuation with his website The Prospect Report. He now writes the Future Shock column on BaseballProspectus.com, and will be determining the BP Top 100 Prospects in this year's Baseball Prospectus annual. Goldstein's hiring was largely viewed as a result of a desire by Baseball Prospectus to acknowledge the value and place of scouting in player valuation.