BY STEVE IRVINE PHOTO BY GARY COSBY JR.
J
im Carabin has spent his entire adult career in athletics. For the past 20 years, thanks to his work, he’s had a frontrow seat for one of the most successful tenures of perhaps the most prestigious athletic program in college sports. Needless to say, it’s been a fun ride. “Without a doubt, it’s been the highlight of my career,” Carabin said of his time at the University of Alabama. “When we got here, the football team wasn’t doing that well. To be a part of this, the last 11 seasons with coach (Nick) Saban, to see the job (coach) Avery Johnson is doing with men’s basketball, the golf programs winning national championships, gymnastics winning a national championship, softball winning a College World Series — it’s been an incredible run and hopefully it won’t end anytime soon.” Carabin is the vice president and general manager of Crimson Tide Sports Marketing, which is the multimedia rights holder of UA athletics. Count everything that falls under the CTSM umbrella on your hands and you might need to bring a friend along. It starts with a radio network, which includes more than 70 affiliates in football, and coaches’ radio and television shows. “I think, sometimes, people think of Crimson Tide Sports Marketing, they see us in football or hear us in men’s basketball, but we touch all the varsity sports,” Carabin said. A short list of responsibilities includes signage at each home event, game programs, digital engagement — with RollTide.com as the most visible arm of that — sponsorships, corporate hospitality, game promotions, concession and pouring rights, and sale of chairback seats for football. It includes much more. “There is something different just about every day,” Carabin said. Carabin’s professional journey to Tuscaloosa began with jobs in minor league athletics. He grew into a senior sales account executive in the NBA with the Detroit Pistons. After nearly three years with the
Pistons, the Bowling Green State University graduate came to the University of Alabama as the director of sales for CTSM in February of 1998. Take away a four-year stint as an associate commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference and he’s been with UA ever since. Things are a bit different during his second stint with the Crimson Tide. To begin with, Learfield, which is his employer, had five properties when Carabin first came to Tuscaloosa. Today, Learfield has more than 130 properties. “As college football has expanded, so has our national platform,” Carabin said. Alabama’s football success also plays a big role in the CTSM growth. “I would say it’s definitely a mixture of both — just in the popularity that you’ve seen with the SEC Network and all the different channels that are out there, to ESPN’s growth and the dedication to every single game being on television somewhere,” Carabin said. “Our partners want to be a part of that. We have so many different opportunities now to be involved with Alabama athletics. Of course, they want to be a part of what’s going on here — national (football) titles five out of nine years have helped along the way.” Carabin’s role changed 10 years ago when he became the general manager. “To go from really being a sales representative, where you have the focus of everything you’re doing being sales-related,” Carabin said, “you’re chasing your own number, where now it’s the whole entire property. I think I’ve grown to be aware of everything in the entire property and look at it from a 30,000foot view. The first 10 years, it was more your own book of business that you were creating. Now, it’s the entire property from the radio affiliates to concessions to all of the different things that we touch.” He also learned quickly — doing both jobs — that downtime doesn’t come often. With football and men’s basketball, work on the following season is full speed during the current season. August is perhaps the busiest month of the year with football on the horizon. “It’s one thing after another,” Carabin said. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
Name: Jim Carabin Age: 52 Hometown: Dayton, Ohio Personal: Wife, Debbie; children, Benjamin, Ethan and Madison. People who have influenced my life: Bart Wolstein — gave me my first job in sports right out of college — and Mal Moore (the late Alabama athletic director). Something people don’t know about me: Youngest of seven children with three older brothers and three older sisters. My proudest achievement: Professionally … when Crimson Tide Sports Marketing was named Learfield Property of the Year in 2017. Why I do what I do: I enjoy working in sports and working for such a great company at Learfield.
“Without a doubt, it’s been the highlight of my career.” — JIM CARABIN, OF HIS TIME AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA. 79
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