Episode 229 Snippets: Aileen McManamon of 5T Sports

Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 229: Aileen McManamon
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
On episode 229 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil
chatted with Aileen McManamon, founder and managing partner of
5T Sports.
What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. To hear the
full interview and more, check out the podcast on all podcast
platforms and at www.dsmsports.net.

Aileen’s Career Path
I am from Cleveland, Ohio, I'm a very proud Clevelander…so I am a
big Browns, Cavs and Guardians fan. I do like the [Guardians] name
change. I got my undergrad in economics and then a grad degree in
international business and promptly ran away to Germany and
worked there for five years in the car industry. That's where I got my
full-on start in sports, essentially, because as a brand director for Fiat
and Alfa Romeo, I was running all of our marketing and advertising
and a big chunk of that in sports, of course, when you're in the car
business.

“Then I jumped back to the US and worked for about a dozen years in
technology, because that was right ahead of the birth of the world
wide web and lots of things were exploding and really exciting new
stuff [was emerging], and I always liked being part of exciting new
things. So I did that in a couple of different capacities and then I
ended up in Vancouver, Canada. I was still working in technology, but
they won that Olympic bid and I'm like, ‘Oh, I could go back to doing
the fun stuff, maybe in this town.’
“So I took a flyer and I jumped back into the sports industry with my
own company…It has been 14 years, since 2008.”

About Aileen’s business 5T Sports Group
“Well, I was taking that jump from tech into sports and I thought, ‘Oh man, I
haven't been in this industry, even though I really follow it closely in the business
of it too.’ So I thought, ‘What skills can I bring to this industry?’ And then I was
also thinking about what is going on in the sports industry that I think needs help…
“So the first thing I saw was at that point 2006, 2007, [there was not] not enough
technology deployed in sports. You'll know that from your own experience and
background in the tech space — you know, you said mobile ticketing [or CRM] to
somebody and they were like, ‘What are you talking about?’...I saw sustainability
was an issue. I was like, ‘This is a really wasteful industry and there's a lot of room
for improvement on that front’ — I’m an economist by training, [so I] hate waste.

“And then the third part was that I felt like our pro sports were starting
to pull away from community. Everything was getting flashier [and]
more professional, glitzier, big broadcast, luxury suites. And, you know,
as a kid growing up in Cleveland, I needed that. I needed to be able to get
in on that $2 ticket, you know…And I just felt like that was falling away.
“So those were the three principles that I started the company on was
technology, sustainability and community, and reconnecting the
professional sports industry to those elements, to power it forward. And
I thought this is where I know a little something about a little
something.”

On early learnings from brand marketing for Fiat and Alfa Romeo
“There are two things to look at — there's the auto industry in general.
And what does brand look like? Very emotionally-driven; I think,
maybe more so for us in North America and [some] other countries of
Europe. But in Germany, [they’re] very technology-driven, as well.
That's a high-performance car…So what does brand success look like
or what are you trying to drive there is a) ‘Hey, you gotta love this car,
you have to have a response to it.’

“But in general, we're looking at foot traffic through the dealership.
We want test drives, we want leads. So in sports, a lot of that was
around creating that emotional connection to the car, but also get
getting those leads in. So one of the ways that we focused on that —
and again, here's a difference between a German manufacturer in
Germany and an Italian auto manufacturer in Germany — it's very
hard to compete against the Germans on the technology side. It's not
impossible, but I mean I won't say to compete, but to compete in the
consumer's mind on that.

“Germans are rightly very proud of their engineering skill. They do build
beautiful things and very robust things. So they're not gonna look too well
beyond a German brand; you have to come at them in a different way. So we
would come at them with the passion and the emotion and all the things that
they would go to Italy on vacation for, the beauty of it. So we're selling the car
based on its looks and riveting up those emotions.
“One of the ways that we did that was to focus on cycling as our big pillar of
the marketing brand. So Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, all the national
federations; and cycling racing is very big in Europe. We would pitch that with,
well, ‘You really prefer to be on your bike, but sometimes you need a car to get
to [where you want to go]’. So we even had a sustainability pitch back then.”

On lifestyle and more common participatory sports vs. others and the value prop for
sponsors
“Yeah, I mean, I think it's a little bit of both. I think you'll see certain other outlier
brands, like if you think of Subaru, they're pitching you a lifestyle, right? They've
decided who they're going for. They want those outdoorsy people, the person that’s
going mountain biking and camping and kayaking. They'll almost never show you a car
in an ad that doesn't have a rack on the back or on the roof, or a tent in the ad. So I
think most brands are trying to get back around to that lifestyle feeling.
“But, specific to the car industry, there's such a proliferation of cars now. I mean, it's
insane to me when I tell you that in my area here, where I live, there's someone driving
around in a Bentley SUV. Why does Bentley make an SUV? That's a huge disconnect,
but obviously at least one person bought one. Or even just Porsche making an SUV is a
little bit odd to me. But are we going back to the lifestyle versus the brand? Yeah, but
even a sports property has a brand. It has a personality.”

On brands getting a voice as social media grew in the 2000s
“Yeah, I mean, that’s a whole eight-series podcast, isn't it? I guess when it
comes down to it — we've gone through the whole influencer phase as well,
which is still happening, but people can smell manufactured content…I
guess, you know, we're calling it web 3.0, but it’s really [web] 2.5, let's say it
became much more of a conversation. The early days of web 2.0 was just,
okay, you could interact on my website, I could put something up and you
could shout back at me. But then we got to that place where it was an actual
real back and forth conversation, as opposed to the brand just pushing out
[content] and maybe they can disguise it behind an influencer and pushing
out, but we all know that that isn't really quite what's working anymore.

“What we see are interesting things — one of my favorite examples in the last
little bit, [was] that minute where the Super League was formed in Europe. So
for listeners who aren't aware, among the European football clubs, there were
six English teams and three Spanish and three Italian teams that wanted to
break away and have a league that would have non-relegation, and then they
would be able to guarantee printing the money and all that good stuff.
“That's very out of sync with how football really works over there. It's a little
bit more fan-owned and controlled. Sometimes, literally, sometimes just to
the fan. So anyway, these leagues decided all of a sudden to break away. Fans
were livid, and Heineken came out and ran the best ad ever within 24 hours;
they had this thing out there and it said, ‘Don't drink and start a league.’

“[The teams] announced this league, I think on Friday, snd by Monday
it was a dead-in-the-water idea because fans were so upset. They're
like, ‘We'll never cross your threshold again.’ So there, you had
Heineken saying, ‘Look, we're partners with nearly all of those clubs or
most of them, and we're partners with UEFA around the Champions
League. We're partners with so many things around football, but we're
not gonna let that stand in the way of our relationship with our fans,
which are consumers. We sense how they feel right now, and we're
gonna take all that energy and just channel it into what they really are
thinking and feeling.’ A fantastic example of this era of branding.
Branding is values now, and it’s truly living your values.”

“I think a lot of [the motivation to take a stand] comes from inside…
Maybe it's a little Pollyanna, but it's not so much we and them, it's not
us — we're the brand and those are our consumers now. It's like, well,
‘We're the consumer too. We're all in; it's us.’ Like ‘what do we
collectively think here?’ So I think part of that as well is an evolution
in business where employees have a lot more say no matter what part
of the company they're working from.”

On brands having a position and fans demanding it
“I think it really has [evolved] from the point where people were
saying, ‘Okay, I'm a fan and that's my team starting to take a timeout
from their teams, at times, and saying, ‘You know what, I'm just not
feeling the league [or team], isn't handling things.’ Like perhaps, the
NFL and the concussion situation, a lot of people were like ‘Maybe I'll
spend a little less time on Sunday [watching]. I'm still interested in
the sport and I love it, but I'm just not feeling so great about how I'm
spending, not just my dollars, but my time, because we all sense that
almost viscerally when things are off and they're not feeling right.

“So I think it's evolved from that. I'm not gung ho anymore. It's not a blind
loyalty…We’re becoming more critical. And now it’s evolved even more forward
because we know this particular generation of fans — they have a greater affinity to
the athlete than they do to the team. Even for those of us who are old school
loyalists — like, nobody's gonna push me off on my Cleveland teams, although I'm
having a moment right now, I will say, with one of them. I'm not alone. There are
probably about 50,000 fans that are having a moment. But you make space for
other athletes in your fandom. You make space for even athletes that you're not
particularly a fan of, you might have never seen them play, but you just love what
they stand for.
“So this is an interesting evolution of that is that what we find is the more that
someone stands for, the more drawn people are to that. Some people may be put
off by it, but at least you know where they stand.”

On brands and teams balancing taking a stance on everything ‘important’
vs. dedicating their resources to a few issues/causes
“This is where the technology helps you a lot because if you're in
conversations with your fans on social, for instance, if you have a good
presence on social and you're following that conversation, you'll know
what they care about more, and what they care about less. And when
something happens in your community, you better be there on it, right?
Whether it's in your wheelhouse or not in your wheelhouse, that's when
to make a statement…As you say, statements — that's a poster on the
wall. That's a key opportunity to say ‘This is something that we care
deeply about, and this is how we do that.’

“So one of the things that we, when we work with either a team, a
league or a brand, we talk to them about what's material to your
business and sustainability — it's called a materiality index, what's
material to your business? Obviously, the NBA is quite attuned to
issues in the black community, it's pretty material to their business.
That's a vast percentage of their athletes, it's the markets they operate
in, it's a vast percentage of their fan base. But it’s also a cultural thing
as well. Like, there is a lot more of the African American culture is
infused and there's a lot of crossover in the NBA that I think the other
leagues could only aspire to. So obviously that's an issue that that's
really critical for them to focus on.

“If you look at something like the NFL, then it's a little bit more health
and safety, and that kind of thing. And when it comes down to things
around the environment, well, frankly, it doesn't matter where you
are…Here in the Northwest, we have wildfires…everyone's
experiencing flooding, everyone's experiencing these once-in-a-
millennium events that seem to be really more frequent. So yeah,
making a statement, you know, can you come out one of these things?
Actually, the best approach is to really sit down and say, what are our
values? What's most important to us if we're the San Diego Padres or
the Miami Dolphins or whatever, the New York Jets…It's figuring out
what is really core to your sport.”

On how much brands and organizations are explicitly now
documenting their values and mission
“I mean, like everything you have your leaders, you have your middle
of the road, you have your laggards. After 2020 — I’d say 2020 is the
year everybody got religion. We had concussive culture shocks,
climate shocks, social issue shocks, so everybody was like, okay, we
need to figure this out. But I mean, they do have values. They do have
really stated values and some really live those out.

“In the last little bit, I've had a pretty good view to MLB and how they live
out their values, and it's really quite stunning. Just as an example, this
last All-Star game in Los Angeles, between MLB and the Dodgers, and the
Dodgers Foundation as part of it, they spent $6 million in the local
community. Not on the All-Star game, that's the community legacy
money. They rebuilt a veteran's homeless shelter and not a small one, an
80-bed shelter that can house people for up to two years. They rebuilt a
Boys and Girls club, they rebuild fields everywhere and they leave legacy
money behind. They don't just come in and tidy it up and then walk away,
they make sure that there's legacy money there to keep that going. They
make sure it's all networked into the local community that's gonna then
use those facilities. It's really something that isn't talked about enough.”

On storytelling of sustainability and other CSR efforts through content
“I mean, (showcasing cleaning protocol for COVID) is a really great example to follow
through. I think, old school sports, if it had happened, they would've been like, ‘Yep,
we're reopening and come if you want, or don't, that's your choice, but we're open.’
Maybe if you move ahead to the (early 2000s) they might've said, Hey, you know, we're
clean, and Clorox is sponsoring us and blah, blah, blah, and we're clean. And now you
get this deeper, richer storytelling of ‘Let us explain to you how much we care for you as
a fan and how we want you to feel comfortable in our building.’ You can't imagine any
owner or front office saying something like that 20 years ago, even 10 years ago; they
would've just pushed information out and not worried about how people absorbed it.
But this is the power of social for us now is that people spend a little bit more time
trying to get it right because they'll get that instant feedback. So there's a lot of read and
react. I think what happens as entities are communicating with their fans and when
they get slapped on the wrist, they're like, okay, we heard you, we're gonna rethink
this.”

About perceived values embodied by certifications like LEED venues
“[LEED certifications for buildings] are hard to earn. But once it’s earned, it
doesn’t necessarily have to be maintained. You can build a LEED platinum
building, but if you don't operate it according to kind of a LEED-platinum way,
then it's just like your house. You could build a beautiful house, but if you don't
maintain it, then it could be a complete haunted house wreck shack There is a
LEED standard for operations, and that's the more important one that I would
look for. Do we need to educate the fans about that? I think that's a little bit
going into the weeds for our fan. For the fans who get it, they'll be like, oh, wow,
I know LEED is good, I know I've seen that before. It's a good thing, I've heard
of it, that's great, I'm happy they're doing that. I don't know that the average
fan needs to be that educated on it.

“I think what's more important now in the space that I'm quite
focused on and is very controversial and fun is ESG, this concept of
environmental and social governance, which is an evolution of CSR
[corporate social responsibility], which is an evolution of
philanthropy. But fundamentally, environmental and social
governance beyond the SEC reporting, it means you're operating to a
set of values and principles that means [you] care about
environmental issues, you care about social issues, you care about
people issues, you care about economic issues and you take on my
business decisions with all of that in mind, not just the next quarter's
financial results.”

About ‘greenwashing’ in sports
“Coming back to the digital and the social connection, there's a
greater emphasis on transparency, and that's part of this whole ESG
movement as well. A big part of that is reporting — not just saying,
‘Oh, we're doing this’, you have to report in to people and they'll know
whether you're doing it. But more importantly than that, your own
employees will know.

“You know, in 2020 I watched amazing things happening where employees will
out their own companies if they're not doing what they say they're doing. You
saw tech workers walk out when they say, ‘We're not actually a gender equal or
a racially equal company. We're horrible and we're not gonna take it and we
want change or we're walking out.’ You saw it with Black Lives Matter. There
was actually an amazing crowdsourced set of Google Slides that came out very
quickly after Black Tuesday, and it was brand managers — [companies’] own
brand managers in some cases — putting up, ‘This is what my company says
they're doing, this is what they are doing. Here's the gap or here's the reality of
it. It was like 200 slides of 200 different brands of people outing their
companies in real time. I was sitting there watching it get populated in some
cases going ‘Oh my God.’ So that's the risk that you run, right?

“So in terms of greenwashing, it's really not worth it. It's like they say, it takes
you 20 years to build a reputation and about a minute to lose it. Are people
trying? Yes, but I think there's also an extra harshness. People will just assume
that a high carbon industry, like oil and gas, like automotive, like aviation, are
just awful because there’s such high pollution, but in fact, when you look at
individual companies, you can see how they're working very hard toward a
transition. Not all of them, but I always say it's like a class full of students, they
might all flunk a certain test, but that doesn't mean that you don't have A
students, B students, C students, D students, right? Or it's like looking at one
student and saying, well, they flunk this test, but normally they're an A student,
or they're a B student or whatever. So their carbon and their environmental
record is one part of it — it's a pretty important part right now and it's one we
should keep a lot of pressure on them for.

“But I think we also have to acknowledge what they're doing, some of
these companies, to advance things, to go in the right direction
because there's a lot of investment being made. Look at the car
industry, how quickly they're trying to move from combustion engines
to EVs. Now we could all slap them on the wrist pretty hard and say,
well, you should have been there 30 years ago. Yes, they should have.
But they're moving now. So I think there's more good that can be
done by saying ‘We see you. Good work so far, we expect more,’ just
like a coach would [say] to an athlete, ‘That was a pretty good day out
there, but tomorrow we're gonna push it another step further.”

On the mutually beneficial goals and incentives for companies to do right
by CSR and use their platform while simultaneously helping their bottom
line and brand loyalty
“That's the most important thing that sports can do actually, because the
sports industry is a component of everything going on. It’s still relatively
small; as large as the sports industry is it’s still a small component of the
overall economy. But like you say, the platform that they have is quite
substantial. Where they should approach it from is saying, ‘We're not
doing this because, It's a nice thing to do, or it's the right thing to do.’
You're doing it at this point to preserve your business on the
environmental side.

“So energy, water waste — as you know, you're in San Diego, on the west
coast water's [an issue]...California's introduced some pretty heavy-duty
legislation requiring water reuse, all kinds of water conservation measures
that are permanent; not just, ‘Oh, it's a drought, so we're gonna put on the
long watering restrictions and we're gonna take them back off again.’ This is
gonna be kind of permanent stuff.
“So if you're an entity that wants to survive, you're gonna have to figure that
out. Even if their fans [feel otherwise], they're gonna be like, well, you know
what, we need water for people, so that kind of takes precedent over, you
know, Sunday's game; but at the end of the day, that will get shut off for
non-priority things, right? We've seen it happen in a number of world cities.

“So there are a lot of reasons to do this, one is self-preservation is a
big one. But on the upside, it's being able to, demonstrate, ‘Hey, look,
we've taken this little microcosm’ — every stadium or arena is a
miniature city. It's got restaurants, it's got all these things going on;
there's transportation going on and around it. So there are a lot of
opportunities to both test and showcase these kinds of technologies
that if they can run this stadium, well, sure they can run your office
building, or they can run your home in some cases, and then
leveraging that platform out to both the business community and the
fans is great leverage…”

On fans expecting their favorite athletes to share their values and take
action
“I think we've seen some good examples. It's probably not as well-known
down south unless you're a hockey fan, but I'm sitting here in
Vancouver, Canada and Hockey Canada has been in a pretty horrific
[sexual assault] scandal for the last four or five months…You know [how
big] hockey is up here, right? It’s getting pushed a little off that podium…
[Hockey Canada] have some very significant sponsors who have been
invested for a long time in that space. It's hard for [sponsors] to
immediately walk away from a property, but they handled it very wisely.

“The first one that came out was Scotiabank and [they] said, ‘This is
unacceptable. These are our values and they're not reflected in this situation. So
what we're gonna do is pull back.’ They were very clear about the actions they
were gonna take. They didn't just make a statement and stick it on the wall.
They said ‘We’re gonna pull back all of our advertising from the men's game.
We're gonna pull it back from this particular event,’ the World Junior
Championships, which is a big deal for them in this market. ‘We will continue
our funding for grassroots hockey and for women's hockey.’ So that was a way
that a brand came out with a very ugly situation where you're risking a lot being
associated with this particular federation right now. it's quite bad, and here you
are a company that spends millions and millions on your brand, so you have to
make a hard decision there. And I think in the past the knee-jerk reaction
would've been to walk away.

“An example more close to home was what happened with the now
[Washington] Commanders [NFL team] where they were given a
timeline. It was [team sponsor] FedEx that stood up and said, ‘We
think we've kind of had enough. We've been talking [and] you have
two weeks because we honestly cannot risk that damage to our brand
to continue to associate with your brand.’
“So I think similarly athletes can take that stand where they have a
partnership and say, ‘I'm not comfortable with what's happening
here. So we're gonna have a conversation about and we're gonna solve
it together.’

“I think we had a similar example in the PGA, as well. On the flip side,
one of the players [Phil Mickelson] made some remarks that were not
terrific and some of the partners dropped him and other partners
said, ‘Well, let's try and see if we can make this a teachable moment,’
and they worked together and had him come out and talk about
[being] ashamed of what he said. That particular brand had values
that value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and they said, ‘Look, we're
all about trying to advance this. You're pulling it down. Let's figure
out how to make you part of the advancement through this mistake
that you've made.’”

On athletes championing sustainability as their main cause
“I mean there are athletes out there [supporting it]. There are quite a few,
a little bit more in Europe than here, but there certainly are strong ones
[in North America] as well. Here's the thing, these aren't separate things,
right? They're all interrelated. So as you have athletes speaking about
social justice, they're also speaking about having things not taken away
from everyone for the benefit of the few. It's a very similar concept in the
environment. You have folks who are pulling natural resources and
damaging ecosystems and doing things that damage something that
really truly belongs to everyone for the benefit of a few. There's a term for
that that we have called environmental justice.

“I think this was one of — if there's a silver lining to COVID —I think it helped
people understand these connections better; that it wasn't ‘choose this or choose
that.’ And I experienced that in my work because I found that I was working either
in social silos or environmental silos, but once we did stop going to work and all
those cars were off the road and we could breathe a little easier, and all of a sudden
a whole lot of birds were in our neighborhoods that we never noticed before
because they really weren't there. Just that appreciation for being able to go
outside. We had appreciation for our local businesses that we maybe had driven
past to go get something a little bit cheaper at the big box store. We started to
understand, ‘Oh, wait a minute, you know I need to support that local business
because he's the last guy in town that has toilet paper and it doesn't matter that
he's charging 5 cents more for the giant pack than the big box store. I would gladly
at this point pay a hundred dollars more for it, so I'm so glad he's here,’ and same
with your local restaurant, right? You don't appreciate it until it's almost gone.

“So I think people started to understand, ‘Oh, that's why I need to
support local businesses. That's why I really need to be better about
caring for the environment, maybe driving a little bit less so that I
personally can enjoy this cleaner air; it's my personal action that
actually gets a net benefit for me.’ But at the same time seeing the
disproportionate suffering of the people who take care of us, who are
typically people from our less-advantaged communities and how
suddenly they rose in value in our eyes as well, collectively.”

Aileen tells about her sting as general manager of the Vancouver
Canadians, a minor league baseball team in Vancouver
“That was my cup of coffee, as we say in baseball. So the Vancouver
Canadians at the time were the single-A short-season affiliate of the
Oakland A’s. It was a really interesting time to be associated with A’s
because it was right around the time, or shortly after, [that]
Moneyball had come out, so the Oakland A’s were the talk of the
town.

“It was pretty amazing in a way because that had been my dream as a kid to work in baseball. I
always wanted to go work for the [Cleveland] Guardians and they haven't hired me yet…I came
in [to Vancouver] as the GM and it was pretty interesting and bold of the new ownership group
because I was introduced in the paper as ‘Little League mom chosen to run Vancouver
Canadians.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, okay. That doesn't make those guys look real good.’
“But I did bring the business background to it, that's why they hired me. It was pretty
fascinating. I mean, they were looking at a renaissance, they had renovated the stadium. A lot
of people would say, ‘I love the Canadians.’ And I'm like, ‘Really? When was the last time you
were there?’ Because I knew that the team had been floundering. The attendance had been
going down. [People would answer] ‘Oh yeah, I guess maybe it's been about 10 years [since
their last game].’ I'm like, yeah, that's the problem, so that's what we're here to fix.
“I'm happy to say they're doing [well] and they're thriving and doing really well now. But yeah,
[it was the] experience of a lifetime.”

The most memorable campaign or initiative in Aileen’s career so far
”There's one that I really like that I won't take for my own career, but
it was done up here and wasn't seen very widely, and that was the BC
Lions - the CFL team. [They] did a multiyear campaign called ‘Be
More than a Bystander,’ and it was an anti-domestic violence
campaign that had the players going out to schools and talking about
how, even as a kid, you can recognize it, and, what you can do about
it, which I thought was just really brilliant and very powerful to put
that out there.

“It was a multifaceted campaign, but I think bringing that into that space where
children are especially vulnerable and especially if they're younger men or are a
little bit older boys, there's a lot of powerlessness in that moment of being maybe
12 or 14 [years-old] and you're certainly not able to overpower a grown man, but
you're being given a set of tools. So I think that was a very important campaign. I
would love to see that replicated elsewhere. So that's one that's always stood with
me as a memorable one.
“Then another one that's kind of a little bit more fun and lighthearted, and I've seen
it done a couple other places, [was] a breast cancer awareness campaign where they
had people come and bring bras a and donate them, and ring the inside of the
stands with the bras and brand new bras. And then those were of course donated to
women's shelters. So I love that embracing of the female fans, embracing of the
community as a whole.”

The sustainability issue that fans value the most right now. And the issue that
Aileen thinks fans should be valuing more or caring about more
“I couldn't say what they value the most right now because I think that differs,
and what they see the most of course is recycling. But what I'd say about what
they should value more is, coming back to my earlier point, all issues are local.
So what you see around you is what you should care about the most.
Obviously, it affects you the most. In your neck of the woods [southern
California], certainly, water is an issue that people should care a lot about.
“In Texas, I think you probably wanna worry a little bit about energy. But all
issues are local at the end of the day…”

“Sports are not just kind of a stage broadcast platform, but also a
unifying platform. When we go to see sports, that's where you're
gonna see a professor and a plumber sitting next to each other, or a
Republican and a Democrat…people are sitting side by side that are
coming from very different backgrounds, but in that moment they're
united in that passion for the [team], everybody's pulling on that
same rope. So this is really the lever that our sports teams can use, the
broadcast and the medium. And of course people are paying
attention, so you can use whatever medium you have to speak to the
issue, but that's just the putting the poster on the wall…

“We're united in our dislike for the other team…So imagine things like
getting your fans all rolling on a food bank challenge…this is where
some of these things fall flat; they're like, oh, bring a can [of food] to
the game…How about, ‘Hey, let's beat the other guys. We're gonna do
better than them [on donating food]. Our team might lose today, but
this is in our control as fans.’ So you can really rally people around
taking actions collectively. And even when it has a little bit of
animosity to it, that's okay because you have to press the emotional
buttons that people respond to. And sometimes that's, if a big game is
coming up, press that button.”

What is one of the key differences between sports properties and
Canada and sports properties in the US?
“I would say the US still tends to be the most innovative in sports.
Although we're seeing, if you follow the work of Sports Innovation
Lab, they'll put out their list of the most innovative teams around the
world and that is a very global list. But I would say, on par, we tend to
be a bit more innovative in terms of, ‘Hey, this is a new technology,
let's go play with that.’

“I just did a whole report on us sports tech innovation for a European
entity and just seeing how much we'll play with things to test them out,
but that is catching on. So that's a big difference. And I know that’s one
that I've been made more aware of lately as Europeans are elevating
women's football quite a bit ‚— and I can tell you that's been a massive
leap forward in about three years in terms of how they've invested in the
game and the attendance records just going crazy. A good friend and
colleague over there said to me, he's like, ‘Man, I went to that women's
game, [it was] such a different atmosphere. It was so friendly and people
were really happy and cheering. It wasn't this kind of embedded anger
and vitriol’ that comes with their long history, in European men's soccer.

“So they were like, ‘Wow, this was so different.’ And what he said to
me, he goes, ‘I felt like I was at a game in the US.’ And I'm like, ‘Well,
okay. Certain games wouldn't feel like that, but many of them do.
Because you could be sitting next to a Steelers fan and still be nice to
them, you're not gonna try and beat them up. There may be some
trash talking, but generally we're a little bit more jovial. So that's a
difference that I see.”

A standout organization in the sports space that Aileen wants to call out that does a
great job in driving sustainability goals
“I think on this one I'm gonna call out the Minnesota Twins. They've really been at
it for quite a while. I mean, there are many to call out. I could also [call out] the
Golden State Warriors. They do a great job as well…But when we talk about the
broader sustainability right now, in terms of who's living that most evolved version
of it, it's absolutely hands down Angel City FC.
“They know what their values are and they're living them out every day. And you
know what? This is a great example for everybody else. They're killing it. They're
taking in more sponsorship money than any MLS club is. They have brands lined
up that wanna be a part of that organization; that doesn't usually happen that way.
It's the sports property knocking on doors going’ We want your money.’”

The most memorable sports event that Aileen has ever been at
‘If I think of what really went right into my core in terms of being at the actual
game was the then Indians, now Guardians, 1995 World Series game three.
Because I think I just sat there for the first three innings staring down at the World
Series emblem on the field going, ‘I can't believe it. I can't believe it.’...So I'm not
even sure what happened in the first three innings of that game, because I was in a
fog.
“But after that, I would say going to the Cavs parade [after winning the NBA
Championship] was pretty fantastic. I jumped on a plane and that was joy beyond
joy. I was actually, dating myself, at the 1990 Tour de France, uh, when Greg
LeMond won the Tour de France. That was a great moment for Americans in
cycling and in European sports…”

Aileen’s favorite sports venue she’s been to
“That is a tough one. I'm pretty partial to Progressive Field [home of
the Cleveland Guardians] for the way the restaurants are laid out
there. I spend a lot of time at what is now T-Mobile Park [home of the
Seattle Mariners] But in terms of very cool innovations happening in
the venue, I would say it's Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam. They
have an innovation lab in the stadium. A tech innovation lab in the
stadium. So they're piloting stuff all the time.”

The best meal to get in Vancouver and where to get
it. And the best meal to get in Cleveland
“Best meal in Vancouver is almost always gonna be
sushi. If you're just a sushi fan, it's relatively
inexpensive. Although a lot of people will say now
it's ramen, but I'm a sushi person. So where to get it
— Mizu is one of the top places…In Cleveland…I
would say my hands down favorite is El Carnicero in
Lakewood, Ohio, which is a suburb just west of the
city, and that's a Mexican place…[Get the] carrots
elote as an appetizer — that will make you rethink
carrots. I think it would make Bugs Bunny question
his entire life. But they also do a trio of guacs that's
to die for. You can't go wrong on that menu.”

What is the order of sports fandom for fans in Canada?
“I think right now, in order, NHL is still king for sure when you take the entire
country, but the NBA is right up there, for the Raptors; it helps when you win a
championship. So I would say the NBA is right there and very popular. And Canada
has a very large immigrant community, right? So it’s something that they can relate
to a little bit more sometimes than the NHL, [it’s a] very multicultural society up
here.
“After that, I would say probably the NFL. There's a lot of affinity for NFL teams;
it's [based on] what I see and what are people wearing. There's I think something
crazy, like 10% of the Seahawks season ticket holders are Canadian, and I know a
lot of people go to Buffalo [for Bills games] as well. After that, MLB, but maybe less
so; definitely there's a lot of affinity for Premier League [soccer] here.

“And then I couldn't speak to your fringe stuff, but for sure when you
UFC is on everybody's all in on that. And then of course, like the rest
of the world, [Canada is] quite taken with F1 now, and you've got two
Canadian drivers in there. But, again, I think that's still gonna be a
sport that's a little off to the side. And I'll certainly tell you, Canadians
enjoy their Olympians quite a bit. I think it's more common…And I
know I didn't really mention soccer in here, obviously that's a big deal
and we do have three teams [in MLS]. I don't know their broadcast
numbers, but I just don't feel that, viscerally, from people [that
they’re that into it]...”

Aileen’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“One of my all-time favorites and this goes a ways back is for sure JW
Cannon (@cannonjw on Twitter), who is always tweeting about really
cool stuff in sponsorship. He catches some really funny stuff and he's
a funny guy, and he'll loop quite a few people in. So there's probably a
group of four or five people if you’re following his tweets, you see the
same cast of suspects…
“Wendy Dees (@GetDeesTweets) is good to follow too. She's always
got some great commentary…”

Where to find Aileen and her company 5T Sports Group
Find Aileen on Twitter at @Ms_SportsBiz and visit 5tsports.com

@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Thanks again to Aileen for being so generous with her time to share
her knowledge, experience, and expertise with me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to the podcast, follow me
on LinkedIn and on Twitter @njh287, and visit www.dsmsports.net.

Episode 229 Snippets: Aileen McManamon of 5T Sports

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Episode 229 Snippets: Aileen McManamon of 5T Sports