Val Ackerman - BIG EAST Conference Commissioner, B

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that next workout. Champion your recovery with core power. Learn more at corepower.com. Mark Cuban, how you do anything is how you do everything. If you're not, you don't pay attention to detail on the little things, you're not gonna be an habit of paying attention to detail for the big things. Can Griffey Jr. Hey, where's his hat backwards? Well, where my hat's backwards? Because my dad had

a throw and I wonder where his hat is. And if I put a hat on at 8.6 and you know, he's got a 8.5 and I got like a little five that's not going to be staying on my head. Genie bus. Thank you for having me. Let a nice turnout. It's good to see everybody. John Smolts. If you don't have the imagination and the willingness to

fail or not being afraid to fail, I don't think you can be truly great. Candace Parker. I have so much hope for this generation coming up that I've grown up with women in sports, in leadership roles, on television, speaking about sports, speaking knowledgeably about sports. How a guess all? To me, the word that I've done and the humanitarian work that I've done has always given me

great perspective has allowed me to keep my feet on the ground and has really put and reminded me what's truly important. That was for Seattle. Just to name a few. Welcome to sports business radio. Now here's Brian Burger. Thanks for joining us on this edition of sports business radio. Got a great guest lined up for you this week. The first woman to serve as president of

USA basketball. She's basketball hall of fame or really a trailblazing executive for women in sports. She worked with David Stern and Rick Welts and other guests who appeared on this show and you know was there at the NBA League office in the heyday of the NBA back in the late 1980s. She's early 1990s. His work was some of the best executives in sports and she herself

is one of those. So I think you'll learn a lot from Val Acrimon on this week's edition of sports business radio. I'm joined by Brian Griggs. Griggs. How are you? I'm doing good. And yeah, I learned a lot listening to the Valley interview because she's just kind of a no G. She's been around for a while and has served some major roles. I like how you

guys talked about David Stern in both your connection with him. But yeah, she man, she does a lot of a lot of good stuff and knows a lot of people and knows how to lead. It's a fun conversation. All right, before we get to that interview, let's discuss some headlines. Number one, the best news that we could have hoped for when we did the show last

week. Demar Hamlin of the Buffalo bills is back in Buffalo. He's still hospitalized. But he's back in Buffalo. What an amazing week of recovery for him. You can't say enough about the medical staff with the bills with the Cincinnati Bengals, the team at University of Cincinnati. What they've done with him and the care that they've done. They've given to him has allowed him to regain his

neurological capabilities. And he's able to walk. They did all the things that they needed to do in order to pull off what looks like a miraculous recovery for him. So what great news, Greg. Yeah, man, what a week. I mean, I was glued to that Buffalo bills game on Sunday, just because I had to see how it was going to happen. And the tributes and the

fans, then the opening kickoff return. I was like, bawling. I mean, I was chills. It was just out. Absolutely amazing. I mean, what a week for the NFL. I thought the tributes were awesome. I thought the route, you know, the applause instead of a moment of silence. It was a applause. Let's get this guy pumped up and him tweeting from this hospital bed. I mean, wow,

it was just a what a cool week that, you know, a week before we're in the depths. And everybody's worried sick. And then a week later, here we are, you know, enjoying his life and his recovery. So that was awesome. And kudos to the bills for many things. But one thing that I particularly took note of is, you know, they introduced the medical staff and the

trainers. It was really great that the bills did that. And like you said, what an emotional game, you know, the bills are in the playoffs now, by the way, Demar Hamland's foundation, the fundraising efforts that we told you about last week, they're now up over $8 million. So, you know, people have rallied around Demar Hamland. The lot of good being done in the world and, you

know, most importantly, it's great to see him active in alert and looking like, he's on the road to recovery. Yeah. I think his opening goal for that, GoFundME was $2,500 for the kids. And now it's over 8 million, I mean, that's got to be, when he heard that, I would love to see his reaction, because that's just fascinating. And yeah, there's good, humanity is good. People

are good when they come together like you go back to being bad, you know, I don't know, we're gonna go to the game ball, and they come together like this, and that's that's fun to see. And I love how you mentioned to the, the Gameball was given to the guy that administered CPR first. How cool is that? I mean, that's another chill moment. Yeah, well deserved.

All right, the other headline we wanted to talk about is that Georgia, the Bulldog's one, the college football national championship, the biggest margin of victory in a bowl game, ever 65 to 7 over TCU. Greg, this was a route. I would imagine the TV ratings are gonna be pretty dismal. It was already a pretty regional matchup. And, you know, Georgia put it on him early and

often. And, you know, I would imagine not many people were sticking around to see the end of that one unless you were a diehard Georgia Bulldogs football fan. Yeah, I think 55 unanswered points to is the most in a national title game to lots of records beat last night. And yeah, I mean, it was just it was a classic blowout. I mean, I was texting with

you in our photographer, Brad Kinzer and saying, let's put him in the NFL playoffs. I mean, it looks like they're that good. They could play against you know, put him up against anybody. Let's see what happens because they were just on point from the get go. And he was a route. I did enjoy the mega cast. I went over and watched the sky view for a

while, which was kind of cool. They didn't have any play by play. So you got to hear the sounds of the field and the bands and the crowd and the whistles and the quarterback clapping his hands. And that was kind of fun. So I did enjoy the mega cast and I bounced around through the ESPN networks. All right. Interesting out here. Not a lot of people

know this. But back in 1988, Miami Heat President Pat Rodgers came down 2010, Kazeta Carmuda ranks mostly in his hands when the fight going to back inz out so he could get into the wild. If you see you4 the number two terminalys he's happened there in the age got to get permission from Pat Riley he will get royalties from everything so that's a big victory for

Pat Riley potentially as well the Georgia Bulldogs going for the three pete. See this is why we we encourage you to tune into sports business radio you get tips and little tidbits like that that you'd never know I mean that is that's awesome and he could he's a smart guy we love him we love what he's done with Miami and other teams and man he could

make a killing on that because you can already see the shirts you know in the stands you know hashtag three pete or whatever it is that's that'll be fun to watch that story yeah all right before we get to the interview with Val Ackerman of the Pig East Conference I was in Maui and I went to a PJ tour event my I first time in a

few years and I was really interested to see the event up close especially because the last time I went to a PJ tour event the Louvre tour was not in existence so there was no competition for the PJ tour they've really had them enough for many many years on the pro golf circuit for the men it was interesting what I found Greg's let's just say that

things haven't changed that much you would think when there's competition you know things would change so yes they've up the prize money yes they've you know done some things to incentivize the players to remain on the PJ tour versus popping over to the Louvre tour like many players did but here's some things that I found so you know last year we heard about this player impact

program and Tiger Woods was bonus 15 million dollars and other golfers were bonus for generating positive media and social media covered for the PJ tour so I was like wow okay I'm on Maui this is an event where there's not a ton of media because it's expensive to get from the mainland to Maui and stay here for a week and you know I was like I

bet you the access to the players is it's not a big deal. It's gonna be pretty good so like I would do for any other event I'm covering I put in a request with the PR people hey you know I'd like to talk to a player or even an executive about the upcoming PJ tour season and you know just have other general questions. You know I

put my request in it wasn't a full weekend advance but it was enough time you know before the tournament started you know I saw how busy warm down. Busy the players were when they were here 39 players in the field at the century tournament of champions not one could take the time to participate in an interview not one PJ tour executive how to chance to sit

down with me and talk about the upcoming season and remember you've got competition now with the Louvre tour so you should be promoting hey this is what we're doing this is the change as we've made this is how things are different this is why the PJ tour is still the best golf tour on the planet nobody so I happen to be walking the course for the

pro-am on Wednesday and I chit-chat it with a few people including the father of one of the golfers and I'm not going to name the golfer because I don't want to get him in trouble and I said to the father of the golfer hey at a curiosity what do you think of the player impact program and he said well I think it's great you know Tiger

deserves that money when tigers generating positive publicity for the tour you know we all win and I said does your son ever get approached by the PJ tour PR people about doing interviews because I mean look you literally have money at stake now with this player impact program if you generate positive media and social media coverage for the tour that gets factored into your bonus at

the end of the year this is this is money available for you. Well what I think is really great is that you have a lot of money to get the money out of the game. What I found is the PJ tour never actually came to this player and said hey Brian Berger from sports business radio would like to speak with you that could have been an

opportunity for positive publicity for the tour. I wasn't going to do a negative or controversial interview with the player but what happens and it happens a lot and sports is the PR people don't want to bother the players or in this case oh these are individual contractors so we're not going to do it. So the way that the PJ tour players did media throughout the week

is a couple of more available via press conference before the tournament started and then at the end of the round you know they'd stand on the first t box and if you wanted to do a pool interview which is multiple reporters interviewing one player at one time you could do that but there was no opportunity for one on one interview. And anyone listening to the show

knows that's what we do you know we're not interested in press conference sound or pool interviews we want one on one interviews. So after connecting some dots here talking to some people what I've learned is even though you have this player impact program and you've got bonuses available to the players for generating positive media and social media coverage the opportunities like the one I presented are

not always brought to the players. That's not good because the players are missing out on opportunities to promote the sport and I've said this for a long time you know you look at like the 10th guy on the NBA bench we know about him we know what he's doing on social media we know the video games he likes we know it his family looks like we

know a lot about the 10th guy on the bench on an NBA team. We don't know much about major league baseball players I couldn't tell you five things about Mike trout and he's one of the best players in baseball. I couldn't tell you five things about John rom who just won the century tournament of champions and is one of the best golfers in the world Justin

Thomas was there Jordan's speed was there and you know I see them interacting with the fans and they look like great guys. Why not give them the opportunity to promote themselves humanize themselves tell the stories of the tour more they keep all these golfers at an arms length and we don't get to know them. And then they wonder why don't we have better TV ratings why

isn't there more intersting golf why are players like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson and Brooks Capka and Bryce Bryce and De Shamba leaving our tour to go to the live tour. These are problems for the PJ tour. Greg's if they're continue to attract fans to their sport we need to know who these players are a little bit. I mean we don't need to know everything about

them and when I present an opportunity for the fans to get to know. They know these players a little bit and you know they have a lot of things going on off the golf course and the PJ tour who has incentivize them to generate positive media and social media doesn't even bring them the request. That's bad for the players and I don't even know if the

players know that this is going on you know I'm sure a lot of them your top players they don't care they can get word out whenever they want. But some of the middle to lower tier players if they have an opportunity to make a few million dollars at the end of the day. The year via this player impact program and you're depriving them of that opportunity

because you're not bringing them media requests shame on the PJ tour. The other thing that I found really interesting with the tour is how they treat the volunteers you know I've been around a lot of events I used to work for the Portland Trailblazers. I know the dirty little secret in sports is event organizers they want to save money and what's the easiest fastest way to

save money instead of paying an employee. To do a job you have volunteers I mean this happens at the Super Bowl it happens at the end of 500 it happens at golf tournaments you have lots of volunteers. You're saving lots of money from not paying employees to do those jobs you're asking volunteers to work long hours you're putting them in situations where they've got to be

front facing and deal with crowds who may be going into areas they shouldn't be going into and I was really. I guess the lack of thank yous from the PJ tour the sponsor you know okay if you get like a little lunch box or you get a little bag or you get a you know here's $20 off your appetizer at the restaurant and you've been working

a full week and you've been making this tournament what it was and especially the returning volunteers who have been coming year after year after year nothing's done to recognize them or to single the them out or to thank them. Do you think it motivates the volunteers to want to come back the next year? No of course not. So take better care of the volunteers do nicer

things for them recognize them. You know I've always said in business take care of the people that take care of you and you know Griggs I've always tried to take care of you and Bradkins are a photographer who you just mentioned and anyone who's working sports here for the summit. You do the little things you show the appreciation you make sure the accommodations are good you

make sure people get paid it on time you know all of those things in order to keep them happy because when you find good people you want to retain those people but with the volunteers a lot of them at these events are treated as afterthoughts oh if they go away or don't come back the next year we'll just find more volunteers somewhere else. You're losing knowledge

you're losing someone who volunteered and wanted to be part of your first place and I was disappointed to see how the volunteers were treated it's not like they were treated. They weren't abused but they could have been treated much better and thanked more and you know you've got the sponsor involved on this with century. You know while I aren't there are more things being done. I

mean heck take the money you're saving from not paying employees and put that towards doing some things for the volunteers. So you know little bit disappointed with what I saw from the PGA tour in Maui the golf was great the courses great. The weather was great you know really interesting ending with Colomore Cava collapsing essentially in John Rom coming from behind to shoot a 10 under

63 on the last day it was exciting tournament I got to see Ken Griffey Jr. in the program Chris Burman you know it's fun but come on PGA tour do better. Be better with the player impact program actually take requests to the players make your executives. Available for one-on-one interviews to promote your sport and your tour especially when you've got the live tour who is now.

Giving you competition and you know you're not the only game in town anymore so that's my rant on the PGA tour grigs you know again I've got many years. Back around as the host of the show for nineteen years I worked in sports I'm the founder of the sports PR seven so when I see PR people basically not wanting to waste a favor. And take a

request to any one of the 39 players in the field it's not like I said all right give me John Rom are bust give me Jordan's teeth or bust give me Justin Thomas or bust give me anyone any one of the thirty nine players in the field and by the way no offense to anyone in the field but there were some players in the field that

I'd never heard of before. So you're telling me those guys don't want to get their names out there a little bit and promote what they're doing and try and elevate you know the awareness about who they are and you know the fact that they're newer to the tour and what they're doing you're depriving those golfers of that opportunity. And you know I've had owners on this

show I've had very important people on the show in the last nineteen years and you couldn't find one executive. It's not like I said get me the commissioner get me the prize. I said anyone from the PJ tour who can discuss the upcoming season not one person made available so that's not how you promote your sport it's not how you promote your tour and you know

I just wanted to get that off my chest before we get to the interview with Balakerman who you know like I said earlier is one of the great trailblazing executives in sports in the last 40 years. Griggs thoughts. Yeah it's a great rant and it's it's a great thing. It's a disconnect you know I think leave it to the player to make the choice you know

the PR people have to get those requests to them let them make the choice if they don't want to talk to you or don't want to talk to whoever that it's on them. But the PR people that's the disconnect they're not doing what they need to be doing that's the job of a PR person is to give your client these opportunities and like you mentioned half

that that you know crew on the on the on the course nobody knows you know it's not all all stars it's not all these big names like why would they not want to come on we've had bubble a couple times and he loves it. We have great shows with them I think there's just some disconnects there and it's it's sad to hear about the volunteers too

because those volunteers are going to leave with a distaste against PGA tour and probably not going to want to come back when all you got to do is just give them something simple you know give them some free food give them something there give them something that shows hey we are happier here and you traveled to Hawaii to do this so I think I think you

bring up great points and now with the competition in the live tour I mean PGA's got to bring it up they just got to bring it up it's not they're not the NFL and they're going to keep losing momentum as the lift to two and they're going to keep it going. If they don't promote these guys one more thing the PGA tour does that I thought

was interesting and it's so old fashioned. If you are a fan and you take a clip or you're a media member and you take a clip and it's 10 seconds and you put it out on social media the PGA tour will ask you to take it down. This didn't happen to me but it happened to someone else this clip got almost two million views. So that's

promoting the tour that's promoting the golfer who was in the clip it's promoting awareness of the tournament you might want to get to your TV and watch this wow look at those beautiful views from Maui. I mean I'm not going to watch the coverage but a one minute clip or a 30 second clip or a 15 second clip you're going to ask people to take that

down. I mean how many times greats if we seen buzzer beaters in the NBA or a great catch in the NFL or a great something at a college sports event and there's a clip of it on social media and it goes viral and it wasn't shot by the media photographer it was shot by a fan but what it does is it goes viral and it promotes

interest for the sport. When I saw that the PGA tour is asking someone to take a clip down that had almost two million views on it and you know they're doing this to protect their broadcast partner. I thought is this the 1980s here like what are we doing like let people share content from the tournament you're not the NFL you're not the NBA you're the PGA

tour. And unless it's the masters you are trying to get as many eyeballs to your sport and your venue is possible. So. You know long story short in a lot of ways the PGA tour still operates like it's the 1980s they need to come in touch with reality and current times. You know there's a lot of bad things you can say about the live tour and

where the money comes from but one of the things are doing is they're pushing the envelope and they're doing things differently and they're making their players more accessible and they're making the sport more accessible and they're doing things like where they're in shorts and you know they're trying different things if the PGA tour is going to be stuck in the past who knows you know what's

going to become of the tour but that broadcast clip thing I just thought that's ridiculous. Yeah I mean and you see it even on NBA promos they'll use some of these fan videos in the promos because they're so cool the court side shot you know down the field looking at the touchdown catch I mean that's that's what makes social media fun is seeing these clips from

people that are there and you're like oh I got to get to a good point. Again this is too cool I got to see a buzzer beater I got to see a game winning touchdown or feel a goal I mean that's just a no brainer you got to let these fans promote your stuff and I can't believe they made them take it down that is shocking.

Well look golf is kind of looked at as an elitist sport anyways I like golf I play golf you know like you said we've had bubble wats and jack Nicholas we've had golfers on this show. So it's not like I'm here to you know criticize golf but what the PGA tour is doing they need to get what the current times they just you know are behind

the times and I think they're going to continue to be pushed by live and frankly other sports and they're going to become less and less relevant unless they get their players out there more and actually take interview request to them so that they can promote the sport let people share little bit more. So I think I'm going to have some good tips on social media without

demanding that they take them down. Get in touch with today's world PGA tour because you're operating like it's the 1980s. Yeah it's time to step it up and it's visibly showing that they're stuck in 1980 and like you said it's it's not the NBA it's not the NFL they've got to do stuff to help promote this and when you got fans taking videos helping you promote

for free like that's a no brainer keep it going and get these get these players you know on interviews it's funny you don't see players on any podcast you don't see them on any interviews like PGA players are just gone you don't see them unless it's a press conference after a match that's about all you see and that's not right. You're going to get a daily

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inside tracker.com forward slash SBR. That's inside tracker.com forward slash SBR. Now back to sports business radio with Brian burger. My guest is Val Ackerman she is the commissioner of the biggest conference. She's the founding president of the WNBA. First woman to serve as president of USA basketball. She's a basketball Hall of Famer. Val thanks so much for joining me on Sports Business Radio. I've wanted to

have you on for a long time and it's an honor to have you on. Oh it's a pleasure to be here. So thanks for having me. All right. Let's start off with your grandfather and your father were involved in athletics. How did that shape your career because you were a pretty good player. You were a pretty elite high school in college basketball player yourself. Well the

answer is a lot. I think we're often influenced by the activities or endeavors or professional applications of our parents and that was certainly the case with me. My dad was a high school athletics director who played a lot of sports when he was growing up and successfully so he was a great all-around athlete. And so he was really my hero. And someone I tried to emulate

in many ways. My grandfather his father was also an AD and had played sports and had coached and sort of done that whole you know had sort of gone from you know spot to spot. So that was sort of you made a big impression on me also. So you know that I thought at one point I'd be an AD also and I've never got to be

in that role. But being a commissioner has been pretty close in many respects and I do credit them for you know inspiring in me the my interest in working in sports as a career. Let's go back. To the late 1980s early 90s you're working in the MBA League office in New York with our late great friend David Stern who was the commissioner at the time. Rick

Welts was also in the League office. So really amazing sports executives came out of that time and in that office. You were a staff attorney. What was that like? What was the period of time like? What did you learn from working there at that time? Well I'm very you know fortunate because I I was at. Had a chance to work at the NBA for 16 years.

I started out when David was in his fourth years commissioner. And my journey took me to both the men's side of basketball including as his chief of staff. And then later as the first president of the WNBA which really we can you know anybody who cares about that. Like should credit David for making that league ago. And I learned so much from working at David's side.

He was a brilliant guy you know Brian she said brilliant guy could sort of like look around corners. If you will and really you know sort of understand what was coming next in the sports world whether it was international or technology or the importance of women. To the game of basketball he he just sort of got he got that. And the league that he built was

really very nimble in the early years so we were just sort of very entrepreneurial and. Everything was a go and give it a try and the bureaucracy that you see among many sports organizations was absent. In the early years that I was at the NBA which made it really fun. And so I came up as a lawyer to begin with started out as a staff attorney.

It was hired by Gary Batman who was then the general counsel of the NBA now. Of course the commissioner of the NHL. So I started out in the legal department and then I moved over to the commissioners office. And then eventually landed with the WNBA. So to be. I was able to learn from people like Russ. Granite deputy commissioner Rick Welts who you mentioned chief marketing

officer at that time. So many others I can't I can't list them all. It was it made for very robust formative years for me working in pro sports and you know a lot of what I do today. Frankly sort of. Harkens me back to what I learned from David Rick Russ and others when I was on the job many years ago at the league. So it's

interesting to me you were in a. I was a attorney David was an attorney Adam Silver it wasn't attorney Gary Batman was an attorney. What is it about being an attorney that helps be a commissioner as well. It does help. And while I haven't practiced like law in a long time. It's still very handy when I have to think about an issue or try to tackle

a problem. I think some of it is you know there's risk. There's legal risk. So the areas that one sort of finds oneself when you're operating in the sports environment. So to have a handle on sort of how to ask the right questions about risk assessment. In my you know my case I think for others other lawyers in this business sort of stems back to that

legal training. Presidents matter. So you know a good example might be a disciplinary matter. It's really helpful to be able to say okay we have this situation where we might have to impose a. Penal deep or sanction how we ever had this before and if so what did we do then because you have to you know prove that you're fair. If you have a similar fact

set you want to handle it. If you can in the same way. So there's no sense of unfairness in terms of how you meet it out of a punishment for example. So precedence really go at the core of you know legal of legal training. And then the last piece I'd say is when you go to law school you really there's a work ethic involved with getting

through law school in one piece. And so you know it's just grinding you know you have to be ready for every exam you have to be ready frankly for every class in case you get called on by the professor you don't want to embarrass yourself. It's a secratic method of course. And so you really get into this mindset of preparation. Sometimes over preparation for a meeting

or for some situation that you're in. And so you know that's you know a lot of what I. How I've sort of built my you know my work you know my way of doing things is just being really ready for as much as I can as much as time will permit. And I think that again that that level of preparation and that mindset of being prepared.

Again dates back to my days as a law student. Yeah that's great insight. The MBA has offices all over the world now when you are working there. How many people were in the league office. Well when I started there were under 100 I think I was employee number 98. Oh yeah. That was in 1988 34 years ago. And then David double company the next year and

doubled it again the year after. So he grew it pretty quickly to 500. As I remember. And then it's you know it's grown since then added international offices. But it was really a very special time to be at the league when it was under 100. Because we were on a floor and a half. David would walk the halls put his head into your office say what

are you working on. He was sort of like a micro manager. So he wanted to know what he also was doing and you're like you know go be the CEO you know go back to your office and let us do our jobs. But you know it was really a fun time and the league as I said grew quickly and the business took off with the first

stream team for example and what that meant for the NBA's international growth. And then of course you know technology and endeavors and the start of the WNBA were also very very exciting and you know to be a part of. And so I was very fortunate to be on the ground floor of a lot of that. So walk us through that conversation when David approaches you I'm

assuming and says hey Val. We need you to lead this operation the WNBA we're starting a women's basketball league. How does that conversation take place and how does that get off the ground. Well really it didn't happen that abruptly. Brian it wasn't sort of dropped out of the sky. There was a run up to the launch of the league. We sort of all pick up on

my comment about USA basketball. You know you'll take a long history lesson and shrink it. The NBA was very involved in the first dream team if you will the first time that NBA players played in the Olympics in Barcelona was in 1992. And the NBA because of that decision by Fiba the international federal organization. The NBA had to work very closely with USA basketball with all

the details that went into feeling that team. Not just operationally but commercially. And dealing with the US Olympic Committee and Fiba and other entities. And so we had this foundation of working with USA basketball on the men's side that led to supporting USA basketball on the women's side in advance of the 96 Olympics in Atlanta. For that Olympics USA basketball with the NBA's support put together.

A team of players that traveled for 10 months before the games and trained and toured and that really was our way at the NBA of testing the waters. To determine if there was interest in the highest levels of women's basketball that we could. Arlay into a league. And I was very involved in that effort in that tour of that team ESPN actually did a documentary on

that team called Dream on. Three part documentary that aired last June in connection with some title nine films. ESPN had produced. So I recommend strongly to your listeners and viewers. Check that out. It was really a very interesting story of how we brought that team together and what their journey was over that 10 12 month period. So anyway, we were sort of in the women's basketball

business through that team. In 95 96 and I was spearheading that for the league. And so as that team was unfolding we were in the back room sort of quietly putting together a business plan for a WNBA that would launch the following summer in 97. And I was very involved in that as well. So the answer to your question is when David and Russ got around

asking me, Hey, you know, we would you be interested. I think in we all modesty I was sort of the natural because I've been working on the national team endeavor. I was a you know women's basketball person of sorts because of my playing career. And so it wasn't a surprise that they asked me but it was an honor. A tremendous. I was just honored that they

asked me to do it. And I had to confer with my husband Charlie. We had young children at that time. It was clear. It was going to be a lot of work. My husband was amazing and said, I'm supportive. I'm supportive, which made it happen. And so that was that was it. And the rest I guess you could say sort of became history here is that

we then took off and did the planning and you know. The NBA has become I would imagine you have a great amount of pride knowing that you know again you are part of the the early days. No, no question. I mean it's it's sometimes strange to be honest because I was so deeply involved in the league. You know in its formative years it's infancy. And now

it's I don't know it's I think it's past being a teenager or whatever 26 27 years later. So it's it's more advanced in terms of its longevity and what it's accomplished. And I'm you know been gone a while. So I'm I'm more of a very much an observer at this point. But I do have very very vivid memories. Very strong emotional and vivid memories of those

early years. And what it took to get the league off the ground. And what the, you know, frankly, how hard it was to deal with the naysayers at that time because people were not ready. 26. We were ahead of our time. I think in some ways. So we had to deal with this notion that people just really weren't ready for a women's pro basketball league and

the ways they are now. And you're seeing that in the embrace of other sports now and in the embrace of the WNBA now. In ways that weren't possible a generation ago. But it is great to see you know see the traction and the players are remarkable. And you know I'm I'm the biggest cheerleader here. I hope they continue to build. And you know we're going to

be able to do that. And it would become what the NBA became on the men's side. That would be the ultimate goal. I hope that happens. It feels like we've come a long way with women's sports. You see the growth of the WNBA the growth of the NWSL. But there's still a long way to go. There's you know not nearly as much investment in women's sports

as there is in men's sports. What needs to happen for women's sports to continue to grow in this country. Well I think. The connection between women's sports and a couple of ways and they all have a pathway. I think to do more do better. One is participation, which Title IX opened the doors on that now 50 years ago. And it's night and day how many more

women and girls play sports, including at the high school and collegiate levels. Thanks to Title IX. And you know I hope you know for me growing up as a young girl in New Jersey in the 60s opportunities to play sports weren't that plentiful. And now they are for young girls. So that to me is progress. But can we make it more plentiful? Sure. Can we do

more at the high school and collegiate level. I'm sure we can. So for me, you know that's just competent leadership. The force of federal law. You know resource deployment thoughtfully and you know competently we'll get there. That's participation. Number two is women as fans. I mean we're seeing now every major sports organization has to recognize the importance of women in its pandemic graphic. And so you

know we're seeing more efforts, you know made around building that. I think for women sports at the elite level building the fan base is critically important. That's how those sports are going to grow revenues. By getting more fans who are dipping into their wallets. The by tickets who are watching games on TV, which drives up viewership. And that gets advertisers interested. And that gets networks interested.

And that's where the money comes from at the end of the day. So building fan support. Women fans and fans. And more generally for women sports, I think is important. And then you know the last two pieces for me are building these pro leagues WNBA and WSL maybe someday there'll be a WNHL women's pro volleyball. You name it. You know we were more in the infant

stages. Adolescent stages with the women's pro leagues and we see on the men's side where the leagues are very mature. So building those elite platforms Olympics high end of college sports, et cetera, is it to do. And then last but not least in this, you know, really resonates with me as women as leaders. I mean when I was coming up, there were no women that I

had to look up to working at the NBA. I mean, I had great mentors and David and Russ and Rick and others. But I didn't have like female role models who are executives. And that was really, you know, when I was bringing kid, you know, when I had my kids, when I was at the league, that was, I was really on a solitary journey. There was

nobody I could say, Hey, how do I do this job and have children at home? I had to figure that out. So now you've got more women, more women who are working mothers like myself. But we need more women generally to lead sports organizations. And it'd be great if, you know, former athletes become leaders as I did because we understand the ins and outs. We said

others might not. So that piece, the leadership piece and getting it to happen not only domestically but globally, I think is on my list of to do. And it just, you know, it's going to be the passage of time. It's going to be good leadership to, you know, it's going to be a lot of work. We're going to accelerate these, you know, these developments, keep them

going. I think it's a combination of factors, but I'm optimistic. I think we're, we made a lot of progress. We have a work to do, but we're going to get, we're going to get to where we need to get to. How does it feel to you to be a mentor to so many? Like you said, you know, when you were in that league office, there weren't

other women in the office and knowing that you could kind of look to as a mentor. You've been that for so many people. How does that feel to you? It's important to me. I mean, I don't, I do it because I'm I mean, because it just uses that, I didn't have that. I didn't have, you know, someone to call or, particularly on these, you know, these

working mother, yeah, you know, challenges. Or, you know, sort of, okay, you're a woman working in a predominantly male profession. How do you, how do you do that? How do you know, what are some tips on how to be effective in that environment? I mean, I didn't, I just had to figure it out on my own for the most part. So I do feel a responsibility

to, to help any, any, you know, young woman or or colleague who calls me and not many do to say, how do I get into the business? What does it take to be successful? Can you give me some guidance on sort of, you know, how to get in the door? How to advance? I mean, I, I never say no, when I get these inquiries. And again,

because I, I didn't have it, I feel doubly responsible to make sure that the women who are going to take my place at some point, you know, we're all links in a chain. And we all want to work a good shit. So watch that. That's not very resolved. Just for the most part. Yeah. That's a big problem. That's a big problem. That's 18 years. And one

over halfway into that I just realized, you know, there's a leak that as I said, I mean, I don't need that Labor Un magazine, but particularly as you sort of aid people learn how to write the business. And God knows everything. And even if it's not apart from a child, it's just manner but as I said, that it's not dealing with things all over the world.

And I always looked at the conferences such a fan from afar. You know, there have been lots of changes over your reign. And certainly since I was a kid. But, you know, where's the conference right now? I know, you know, basketball is the revenue driver. There is no more football. How's the conference doing? How's the health of the conference? It's good. It's really good. I'm with

you. I was a fan too. And I remember when the old Big East was breaking up 10 years ago, 10, 12 years ago, after a bunch of defections in the preceding half a dozen years, I was actually teaching a sports business class, sports management class at Columbia University. And we were using the breakup of the old Big East as a case study in my class. Wow.

It was very ironic when they finally did it. They broke away. You know, and then had to find a commissioner that I was approached about that. It was just, it was incredible. Sort of sequence. And it was a lot of events. You know, those memorable months. But, you know, we are now, thanks for the plug, giving me the chance to make the plug. We're now 10

years into what I call the New Big East. We sponsor 22 sports. Men's and women's basketball are, our lead. We don't sponsor football. Although we have a few schools that play football. We don't manage it for them. But, you know, we're based here in New York City. She can see from my backdrop here, from early days of Providence in Providence, Rhode Island. We are, you know,

wholly committed to our athletes, the academic development of them, their, you know, our schools call it the development of the whole person. We do a lot of activities to bring together the common missions of our schools outside of athletics. So we do work in mental health. We do work in diversity, equity, inclusion. You know, we're trying, we did our part with sort of title nine awareness

last year. And so I think the conference right now is it's stable. It's in a very good position. In terms of how relevant we are nationally, in terms of the, you know, our competitive prospects. We have very high graduation rates. Second only to the Ivy League and the Patriot League and the Big East. And, you know, we're trying to be leader like because college sports right

now is going through an interesting time period. There's lots of challenges in front of the space. And we're trying very hard to do our part to make sure that college sports stay as writ large, stay strong and healthy in the years to come. Because they you know, they're, you know, we're in the people development business. That was me. I went to college on a basketball scholarship.

I mean, I'm the person I am today because I wasn't athlete at my school. So many of us went through that experience, believe in it. And so we, you know, we want to make sure the college sports stays healthy and strong for the many athletes who sport, especially for the ones who sports don't generate any revenue. Because I think given some of the changes that maybe

a underfoot with college sports, those sports, those athletes could be vulnerable in the future. Because of how the heck and not the reality of the economics in college sports. But it's been very exciting. And Fox Sports has been a terrific television partner for us. I want to give them a lot of credit for brings to this point over 10 years. And I think the future of

the conference remains very bright. We've seen NIL in the last year or so. You know, you talk about changes of foot. What are some of those changes that you see coming? Well, it remains to be seen, Brian, you know, where we go now a year and a half into NIL, just to sort of remind everybody, NIL went live July of 21. There were sort of pressures

from many states on the NCA's rules at that time, which did not allow for players to enter into endorsement deals that allowed them to basically sell their name, image and likeness rights to companies in exchange for services. That wasn't allowed. It is now the challenge. And that's good thing. That's a good thing. That's good NIL. The good part of NIL is that these opportunities exist, that

it's not just the high profile, men's basketball and football players, it's athletes and women's sports and Olympic sports that have the ability to make some money. And it's educational because to do these endeavors, you got to be a little bit of a business person. Strike the right deal and to be thoughtful about, you know, how to manage your time because you got to go to class

and play your sports still to stay eligible. You got to go to college. Class, so, you know, there's been a learning experience, I think, for these endeavors, it's been a positive. The challenging part of NIL right now is there is no single standard in terms of how it's managed. Many states have laws that are vary from state to state that create some confusion. These endeavors are

not supposed to be used as basically bribes to go to a particular school. There's supposed to be for nothing. You have to do real work to get the NIL money. It can't just be because you're the starting point guard on the basketball team. That's what we call pay for play. So sorting out, you know, what I would call legitimate NIL from fraudulent NIL has been a

work in progress for, you know, NCAA schools. And I don't know, you know, where that's headed. I mean, I, you know, it has to get sorted out whether Congress becomes involved in sorting it out as remains to be seen. Something that that would be necessary to do the sort of work that we're doing. And I think that's the starting. But you know, I don't have the

crystal ball and we're going to be in a year or two. But again, I think that's the balance right now is the good part of NIL and what it's done for income and education versus the more challenging compliance side of NIL that tries, you know, is intended to keep it a fair playing field and prevent undue harm to the athletes because of, you know, undue influences

in the process who might not have their best interest at heart. Had a manage those two, that those two areas. Just a couple of minutes left. I think it's a good thing to do. I think at some point you went to UCLA. So I've got to ask you USC UCLA, they move to the big 10. I'm a West coaster. So I look at that and go

wait a minute. This is totally out of the norm from what I grew up with. Are we going to see more seismic shifts in the college landscape ahead where people are going to the conferences that offer the most amount of money? Possibly. I mean, that's sort of what's happening now. If you stop to think. Think about it. And that's the right that every school has, frankly,

to figure out what setup is the best in, you know, in the best interest of that school long term. And some of that may be competitive. Some of it may be based on values and geography and some of it, frankly, maybe financial. It may just flat out be for the money. Hey. And so I, the answer to your question is yes, I don't think I don't

have the crystal ball here. And I don't know. I don't have inside information on any movements that I've heard about that are looming. But I do think that it's very possible that you could see other changes in configurations and and and with realignment. I will note my observation is a lot of it is football driven. That's really the driving force the engine on some of these

moves because you know if you stop to think about the travel that might be involved. If a school is moving to a conference that's first further away geographically, you know, football is one thing. If you're playing once a week and half the time you're at home, a cross country trip may be manageable. And is manageable. But if you're the volleyball team traveling two or three times

a week, then long distances really are a factor. And in my, in my opinion, really need to be thought through completely thoroughly by the participating schools. Yeah. Because that's, you know, that's you've got student athlete interest, miss class time, everything, you know, going on at that point plus cost. Right. That gets real expensive real fan. So I, you know, yes, I think more could happen. And,

you know, for every cotton lessing I'll say it's very conference commission. We're all just keeping our our eye on it. I mean, we're not doing our jobs. If we're not monitoring these changes, trying to, you know, think through what are the nuances there. And importantly, what it would mean for our group of schools. About acumen, the commissioner of the biggest conference. I feel like we could

talk for hours. You are a wealth of history and information. And I just appreciate you. Making the time to join me on sports business radio continued success to you. Great. Thanks, Brian. Happy New Year to you and look forward to it. Having another conversation with you in the future. Thanks, Val. Take care. This episode of sports business radio is brought to you by Underdog fantasy. The

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up with promo code SBR. And get started right away with a free match on your first deposit up to $100. Well, that's it for this edition of sports business radio. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks to our team at sports business radio. Brian Griggs, Josh Blank, Ryan Nakajima. And our friends at CG sports who power sports business radio. CG young Matt Amarlin, Nicole Wardle and Calvin Works.

I'm Brian burger. Have a great week and we'll talk to you soon right here on sports. Business radio. This and every SBR podcast is available on Apple podcasts. Spotify, Stitcher and your favorite listening app. Follow sports business radio on Facebook, Twitter at SBRadio, Instagram at sportsbusinessradio.com.