That's incredibly insightful Dan, thank you for sharing
You've enjoyed an illustrious career, what is one piece of advice you would give to someone interested in working in the sports industry?
Great advice Dan!
You have traveled across the globe. In fact, it's funny because you and I have run into each other in Australia as well as London. You meet so many people across the world, is there you have met in your global travels that have just truly inspired you?
Yeah. I would say at the top of that list is a guy by the name of Anthony Everard, who was the head of the Big Bash League, which was a league that we worked incredibly closely with Anthony and his team on from Australia. The Big Bash League is more of a modern version of cricket, so I'd say to the American audience it would be if the NFL launched the Arena Football League under its own umbrella but Tom Brady and Drew Brees played in the league, that would be essentially what Anthony did.
What I learned from Anthony was the courage to actually act on an idea and then to see it through ..."
, and you can imagine that night before the first game seven years ago, butterflies in the stomach, "Are people going to show up? What's it going to be like?" and just that confidence and that vision to stay the course.
Then now that we're in year seven of the league, to continue to innovate on the innovation is what Anthony does really well, and even with his leadership team they launched a women's version of the BBL. It's now I think the fifth highest average attendance league in the world, so it's really working, but the ability to take risks and then not get complacent. I think a lot of the teams and leagues, sometimes you just start a program, maybe it's a kids club, maybe it's a Tuesday night promotion that's just okay and mediocre, or things that are going really well that you don't continue to push the boundaries. I think that Anthony to me is a perfect representative of somebody that constantly does that and is trying to be a change agent for a changing brand, and the results speak for itself is a perfect example of that.
I am such a believer in that this is such a wonderful community of people that I believe, and this is the journalist in me, but be curious and an open mind is such a wonderful thing because whether you're internal with a team, you're at an organization like ours at 4FRONT that's trying to push the boundaries of what a team can do, I think the art of possible and new thinking, it's never been a more fun time to be able to do that.
The curiosity of seeing what a brand does at a grocery store and how you can apply it to your team or how a music artist or an entertainment company goes about their business and applying it, that curiosity and that spark is the thing that I love, and I think those are the folks that are very adaptable in that world that's looking around the corner and looking five years out.
DAN MIGALA INTERVIEW
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