Moving Missions Forward

MOVING

FORWARD

Photo by Brendon Kleen for Global Sport Institute

The college sports landscape completely changed this past academic year, with name, image, and likeness laws passing across the country and universities finally leaning into athletes’ ability to make money while competing for amateur athletic programs. Having long studied and counseled around athlete experience and post-career transitions, the Global Sport Institute quickly became a go-to source for expertise and strategy around NIL.

GSI Associate Director of Innovation Programs Jeff Kunowski was invited to join the Sun Devil Athletics name, image and likeness committee, recognizing his one-on-one work with athletes to shape their NIL brands while also advising the university’s athletic department on how to support athletes who hoped to build careers and brands outside of sport during their time at school. At the second annual Sun Devil Athletics Venture Challenge, two NIL companies took home prizes. VO2, a blockchain-based athlete-fan interaction platform, won $10,000 and beta testing opportunities with SDA. Get Gifted, an NIL brand management app started by Sun Devil football athlete Michael Matus, will beta test the app with SDA as well.

Through a partnership with Phoenix-based OH Predictive Insights, GSI also pounced quickly to uncover public opinion on NIL in the United States. Generally, the poll found Americans supported NIL, though many worried about inequitable income distribution or athletes partnering with unsavory companies.

“There was a lot of consternation initially about the destruction of college sports, the end of amateurism, and what does this mean for college sports,” GSI CEO Kenneth Shropshire told KJZZ, the Arizona affiliate of National Public Radio. “Our poll showed, everybody’s pretty much OK with it. ” At Global Sport Matters, reporter Allison Torres Burtka wrote that athletes do not only use NIL to earn money for themselves, but also to give back to their communities. Burtka interviewed a vice president at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania, where Heisman Trophy winner Kenny Pickett set up a summer camp and philanthropy program.

At the same time that NIL upended college sport, athletes everywhere continued to evaluate their post-career options more closely and arm themselves with the knowledge necessary for making smart business decisions. GSI extended its partnership with the NBA G League and its professional pathway program, in which elite young athletes play on the Ignite team rather than a college squad. Through an “Essentials of Sports Business” course, Ignite players earn college credit while gaining lessons in labor, financial literacy, personal branding, and more.

For the first time in 2022, GSI was able to meet in-person with Ignite players, coaches and staff, and these meetings culminated in a season-ending education session that also involved lessons in entrepreneurship and real estate.

“This is a business first and not a game first,” Ignite guard Scoot Henderson said. “I’m going to keep that for a very long time. ”

As the business of sport grows and athletes gain a greater share of the power in the industry, GSI has the resources and insight to help guide athletes in all professional endeavors, during and after their careers.

“NIL offers student-athletes the opportunity to formalize that, and organize that, and to put a brand around it. And from that brand can come real resources that can move missions forward. ”

— Scott Koskoski, vice president of advancement Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania

Global Sport Institute visits NBA G-League headquarters in Walnut Creek, CA Photo by Brendon Kleen for Global Sport Institute

MOVING MISSIONS FORWARD... Across the Industry

By building partnerships with professional teams, leagues and organizations in the sports industry, we are able to reimagine solutions to challenges in sport. This year, we provided learning opportunities to the newly-signed athletes in the NBA’s G League, shared research findings focused on diversity, equity and inclusion in partnership with Pro Sports Assembly and launched the inaugural Arizona Coyotes Venture Challenge to support entrepreneurship and innovation through funding and beta testing.

As calls for diversity, equity and inclusion have increased globally, Pro Sports Assembly emerged in 2020 as a convenor for those in professional sport dedicated to improving the industry. In 2021, we led the creation of the Sports Equity Research Project, which included the research survey Business Case for Diversity in Sport that focused on understanding sports fan and consumer sentiments toward DEI initiatives in professional sports.

In June, our team presented the survey findings to over 100 invited members of Pro Sports Assembly, from middle management and executive levels of front office sports, and facilitated a session using The ASU Spark Method (™) aimed at driving actionable solutions through collaboration and conversation. Our continued partnership will provide Pro Sports Assembly with the data and knowledge to better understand the issues in sport it aims to solve.

Pro Sports Assembly

“Working with GSI on important research for professional sports leaders provided Pro Sports Assembly members with insightful data to drive their decision-making and discernment around strategy and staffing, impacting both their external and internal facing operations. We’re just getting started with this partnership and look forward to GSI’s continual impact. ”

— Laura Dixon, President and Executive

Director, Pro Sports Assembly

Arizona Coyotes

The Arizona Coyotes’ commitment to supporting innovation in sport was the catalyst for creating the Arizona Coyotes Venture Challenge, the first collaboration between the Institute and the Coyotes. The program features $60,000 in awarded funding and an opportunity for ventures to work alongside the Southwest’s first pro hockey team. At our inaugural event, “Suji”, a compression band firm using technology to maximize recovery and workout through scientifically calibrated pressure levels, emerged as the top prize winner, with $30,000 in funding and 15 hours of legal services by DLA Piper.

Photo courtesy of the Arizona Coyotes

“It has been an honor to partner with the Global Sport Institute and Arizona State University to support ASU students, faculty and community-based entrepreneurs with the Coyotes Venture Challenge. Innovation is a key focus for our organization, and we seek to be at the forefront of the confluence between sports, media, entertainment and technology. ”

— Xavier Gutierrez, President and CEO at Arizona Coyotes

MOVING MISSIONS FORWARD... Across the University

Just as sport unites communities from diverse backgrounds, we are connecting across Arizona State University. This year, we collaborated with the J. Orin Edson Institute for Entrepreneurship + Innovation on a learning workshop for youth entrepreneurship and careers in sport at ASU’s Herald Examiner Building in downtown Los Angeles, joined the Media Enterprise to amplify the work of Global Sport Matters, and partnered with the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands to host a virtual conversation as part of ASU Art Museum’s exhibit “Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration. ”

In 2022, Global Sport Matters began contributing to the shared goals of the ASU Media Enterprise, a growing collective of media properties committed to driving conversations that matter, aimed at the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves. As part of this centralized media group, the Global Sport Institute will spread knowledge around sport and its role in the world at an even greater scale. To begin the journey, a Global Sport Matters story on athlete mental health helped kick off a series at Future Tense by Slate called “State of Mind,” which seeks mental health solutions in society and industry.

ASU Media Enterprise

“GSI’s work at the intersection of sports, culture and community is enriching and valuable. ASU Media Enterprise is part of sharing and amplifying that knowledge for the communities we serve, here and globally. Together, we can create and distribute key sports insights to drive learning in communities everywhere. ”

— Mi-Ai Parrish, managing director

ASU Media Enterprise

Photos courtesy of ASU Media Enterprisse

Toward a Different Kind of Winning: Nurturing Black Creativity and Masculinity

On January 20, 2022, Global Sport Institute along with ASU Center for Imagination in the Borderlands and the ASU Art Museum hosted “Toward a Different Kind of Winning: Nurturing Black Creativity and Masculinity” with Freedom Reads Founder and Director Reginald Dwayne Betts and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mitchell Jackson, moderated by Global Sport Institute CEO Kenneth L. Shropshire.

Photos courtesy of the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at ASU

“What you see in sports is kind of improvisation, that it is creative. I think the challenge is to help people see that it is creative, but that it actually maps onto other things like writing. ”

— Reginald Dwayne Betts, Freedom Reads

MOVING MISSIONS FORWARD... ASU in California

In early June, at an event at Arizona State University’s California Center in Los Angeles, a group of middle school students from General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. Middle School in Compton, California, received insight and hands-on learning from industry insiders about the variety of sports careers they might one day pursue. The event, titled “The Global Sport of Entrepreneurship,” was part of an ongoing partnership between the Global Sport Institute, Sun Devil Athletics, and the J. Orin Edson Institute for Entrepreneurship + Innovation, and was a kickoff of GSI’s presence in L.A.

GSI convened experts from several disciplines for “Making Moves Beyond the Game, ” a panel conversation on how innovation and creativity are key components in careers throughout sport. These experts included staff from Verizon, the Los Angeles Rams and Overtime Elite as well as ASU associate athletic director Alonzo Jones. Later, students pitched sports-centered business ideas to a panel of judges from GSI and Edson E+I. “Sport can be an exciting and engaging platform for innovation and this recent activation between the Global Sport Institute, Edson E+I and Davis Middle School was no exception,” said Jeff Kunowski, the associate director of innovation programs at GSI.

The Global Sport Institute aims to continue engaging local partners from sports leaders to students and young athletes as it builds a presence in California. This first engagement with Davis Middle School and Edson E+I reinforced that the sports world is in good hands, so long as the voices and minds that will lead it tomorrow are nurtured and empowered.

“From sustainability to artistic expression to equity and inclusion, the young people who will become our next generation of sports thinkers wowed me with their thoughtfulness and unique ideas,” said Karina Bohn, chief operating officer at the Global Sport Institute. “It’s refreshing to know we are in good hands with the future generation. ”

Left to right: Alonzo Jones (SDA), Shea Dawson (Overtime), Jacques McClendon (LA Rams), Jeffrey Kunowski (GSI).

Global Sport of Entrepreneurship with Davis Middle School students at ASU California Center in Los Angeles. Photo by Lauren Justice Photos courtesy of ASU Knowledge Enterprise.

Photo by Lauren Justice Photos courtesy of ASU Knowledge Enterprise