13. Ramsey Baker, SVP, Aggregate Sports – Selling Olympic Sport Sponsorships
Farrell Sports Business Podcast
Interviews with unicorns from sports business and their unique stories, dreams, ideas, insights, innovations, flops and career paths. Get a unique perspective of the inner workings of jobs working in sports beyond just pro sports leagues. Hosted by 30-year sports business veteran Matt Farrell, President of Farrell Sports and CEO of Bat Around.
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Farrell Sports Business (00:00)
In this week's Farrell Sports Business Podcast, we're going to talk about the Olympics and keep that as a theme and selling the national governing bodies from a commercial and sponsorship standpoint. I'm the host, Matt Farrell. Today's guest, we're really going to break down where an NGB or a national governing body fits in the commercial landscape of the Olympic world. How they work, how they function.
what deals look like. We're going to break down some specific deals. And also with the guests, we talked a little bit off camera that so many people think that the Olympic sports in the United States in particular are government funded and they're not. And so we're really just going to break down those deals. Longtime Olympic marketer and sponsorship person, an absolute pro.
is the Senior Vice President for Aggregate Sports and former Executive Director and CMO at U .S. Figure Skating, the guest this week, Olympic edition, Ramsey Baker.
Farrell Sports Business (01:15)
Ramsey, welcome. So excited to talk to you today.
Ramsey Baker (01:19)
Matt, thanks for having me. I'm excited to join you and especially at this crazy and important time of year as we look forward to tomorrow and the kickoff of the Olympics.
Farrell Sports Business (01:30)
I love it. It's an exciting time. And I'm actually more excited about this one than I have been in a long time. So it should be a fun one. Well, we're going to get to a lot, especially, but I want to start with your career. You can you give us the overview of aggregate sports, your role? and then we'll talk about a little your path, how you got
Ramsey Baker (01:53)
Yeah, great aggregate sports. I've been with the company for about a year and a half now, but it feels much longer and it feels longer because of the fact that I've known the co -founders of the company.
for a decade and a half. I worked with them as clients while I was at U .S. Figure Skating in various different roles, both when they were aggregate and then when they founded the company in 2020, but then also before that when they were with previous companies helping us on the sales of sponsorship packages and our media rights associated with U .S. Figure Skating. And so it was really great to be able to kind of join them and now be on
other side of those relationships after spending so much time getting to know them. And in that time, you know, I mentioned U .S. figure skating. I was there for 18 years. The first 16 in various roles across the, I would say, external relations from sponsorship and media rights, communications, marketing, some of our fundraising. And then the last two, I served as the executive director of the organization. So have been around the Olympic movement for quite a long
and at Aggregate we continue to have a lot of NGB partners which for me is a great way to kind of stay connected into the movement, stay connected with people that I developed relationships with over the years and really feel like I can contribute not just with one sport now but across multiple sports within the Olympics.
Farrell Sports Business (03:30)
So as you look at aggregate and we're going to get into some specific clients and examples a little bit later, but how do you try to position the agency? What's your niche? Is there one? what's your specialty
Ramsey Baker (03:43)
Yeah, you we are a boutique agency. So we're small, we're pretty nimble. We're New York City based. I'm based out in Colorado Springs though, to be able to manage a lot of our relationships in the Olympic space. We also have somebody who's based in Atlanta who does some sales for us. We have offices in London as well. So we're kind of diverse in who we represent and we work with. NGBs for sure, but then we also work with a number of sport properties that I
fit into the same world or the same realm that national governing bodies do. Tremendous assets, usually a lot of history, but maybe not the internal infrastructure to be able to fully take advantage of those commercial aspects that they have and be able to drive as much revenue as they'd like to be able to through those assets. It could be from the fact of an NGB a lot of times being nonprofit, they don't have the staff, to also some of the properties we work with.
startup. They're getting their feet underneath them. They don't have the resources to be able to pour into the sponsorship sales side of things or media rights area. So we can go in and help them in that space. And then oftentimes as well, they might be in a situation where they're a challenger in a well -established sport industry. So maybe they're not the tier one or tier two within a sport, but there's a niche for them and they just need help
able to navigate through that.
Farrell Sports Business (05:15)
I like that description. So I want to spend some time talking about national governing bodies. And I know you know this, but I was at USA swimming, you were at us figure skating. we're talking about like USA gymnastics, track and field, USA hockey. I I've always found when it comes to as a commercial property, corporate America kind of gets what I get if I invest in the U S Olympic and Paralympic committee. I know what I
If I sign an athlete as an ambassador, but the NGBs are kind of in this middle ground. can you talk generally about the types of assets that an NGB might have that really differentiate it or even compliment, you know, a USOPC or an athlete
Ramsey Baker (06:06)
Yeah, it's interesting that and I have this conversation all the time with people and you you lived it. You know, we've talked about it in the past too. And when we sat in a room, you know, years and years ago, and I think when we were trying to pool assets together from no pun intended from from swimming and figure skating and maybe some others to try to figure out how to make it work. I would say that even most corporations in brands understand what they're going to get when they do a deal with a major stick and balls sport.
and with an athlete from a professional sense and maybe more on the collegiate side now as NIL has really expanded and those deals are getting done. I still don't think that there's a full awareness and understanding of what they're going to get when they do a deal with the IOC or the USOPC or LA 28. I think a lot of brands go into it thinking it's going to be the same type of situation that they're going to get into when they do a professional sports deal and it's not. It's completely different. know when you're buying the rings and
the rights to those rings. You're kind of getting that notoriety and you're getting that brand association, but you don't have necessarily the games or the extensions into the fan base quite the same way that you would. You don't have that authentic connection to the people who are living the lifestyle of whatever sport that might be you're interested in. And I think that's where the NGBs really come into play.
Because when you when you work with an NGB, not only are you tapping into the fan base, but you're tapping into that lifestyle aspect, their membership. The mass majority of national governing bodies have a membership base that is kind of their backbone. So you're getting people who are not only kind of following the sport and participating in the sport, but those who are say are facilitating participation. So coaches,
parents and those aren't things that you touch on when you do a deal with a you know an NBA or a Major League Baseball or NHL NFL those kind of things you're really just touching on fans when you when you get into those types of deals and when you do a deal with the US OPC or the or the IOC you're really on the top tier of the elite and you don't have that connection point to really where the sport is rooted and and NGBs really offer
unique way to connect there.
Farrell Sports Business (08:36)
It's a great description. I always found like, and this is an oversimplification, but some of those deals are very either media, like the USOPC IOC level, very media driven or intellectual property driven. I always used to describe swimming is quality audience and immensely loyal. They're, you know, they're the people who
At events and tournaments for weeks at a time, days at a time, and maybe that has its downsides in other areas, but from a sponsor standpoint, I felt that that bred immense loyalty to partners that are involved in their
Ramsey Baker (09:17)
Yeah, loyalty, passion. think what's interesting is brands have become very, very aware of who their audience is. And they're also...
very acutely aware of how connecting with different parts of their audience needs to be done in a specific way. Because you can measure everything it seems like now. I think the old approach of one message reaches everybody and we kind of just assume that it's going to connect the way we put it out there as a brand or as a company you say, this is my message. Everyone's going to connect with that message the way I want them to. Well, now we know that that's not true. Everyone's going to connect with that message
way they want to, not the way necessarily you wanted them to. So more more brands have gotten to the point where they say, we need to segment our audiences, we need to segment our consumers, we need to reach them in very specific ways. I think when you talk about an NGB, you know you're getting people who are extremely passionate about the sport and you can talk to them a little bit differently than you would if someone was kind of on the surface. If they maybe were just
who participated in something from a recreational standpoint, but the athletes who are involved and are members of national governing bodies and the families who are involved and the people who are supporting through volunteerism, who are all part of that membership base, truly are living that life every single day. So when you message to them and you support the organization that they spend so much time around, it's an
connection that I think you really can't get in too many other ways.
Farrell Sports Business (11:07)
So again, going back to swimming and at the time I was there, BMW was involved and Marriott was involved. Toyota was coming into the Olympic world as I was actually leaving, but BMW and Marriott, I won't say they didn't care, but they didn't need USA swimming from a brand recognition standpoint. Like, Hey, we we've, we've got that. BMW wanted to.
tap into our audience for test drives. Marriott wanted to tap into our audience for group bookings, our team bookings for, for travel heads and beds. And it was dialed in on their metrics. Any examples where you're just off the top of your head that you think of, gosh, partners from figure skating or other that just really tapped in and got it from an NGB perspective of how
Ramsey Baker (11:46)
Heads and beds.
Farrell Sports Business (12:05)
Activate it and get a
Ramsey Baker (12:07)
You know, it's interesting because I think...
You you had the Marriott deal at figure skating when you were with Hilton. And that was really all about heads and beds. It was about driving people into using their hotel properties. And especially for us, was unique. And I'll say they even dialed it in more. Often a lot of the events that we had took place in winter months in locations where they didn't normally have high traffic. So they were actually able to deliver
to their brands and their properties in different markets across the country, hotel traffic at their lowest points of time during the year. So it was a very strategic deal with us. You know, they were supporting the Olympic movement in general, but I think one of the reasons why it was really successful relationship with us and they did some additional extensions they didn't do with others is because we could show them value at a time where they couldn't get value typically. So that was
I think a really good and a strategic use of the relationship I would say you know it's interesting too. You know we had a partnership with When I was at figure skating with PNG for a while when they were still active in the area of makeup more so than they are now and and You know obviously with with figure skating there was a lot of use of makeup in the audience into the profile there fit them very well, but they actually got trial
and would set up a figure skating event typically if you've ever been to one. People go to practice all morning long, then they go to the competition all afternoon and then into the night. And oftentimes they're at the arena for eight hours at a time or more, which is a really long time. And P &G and the makeup brands leaned into that and actually created like refreshing stations where people could get their hair and makeup done using their product and showing
them how that product could be used on the go. And it didn't have to be just a, you know, apply in the morning. It could be a, here's the way you can use X, Y, or Z product throughout the day to be able to keep you feeling fresh and keep you feeling new and, you know, the way you wanted to present. So again, that was a very strategic use because they saw how our fans activated around the sport and they said, wait, that's a great way for us to tell our story in an authentic way that
could be then used across social media campaigns and in other ways to connect with others who maybe weren't at the event.
Farrell Sports Business (14:48)
So now the U S officially has two domestic Olympic games coming up. LA 28 for the summer Salt Lake 2034 for the winter, fairly broad question Ramsey, but a just overall opportunity for the NGBs. But honestly, with some of the organizing committees, there's sometimes an NGB fits and sometimes it doesn't fit in the overall sales, but
So how do you see the US horizon for the next decade?
Ramsey Baker (15:22)
Yeah, the next 10 years for Olympic sport in the United States is going to be critical. I think it's, you know, obviously taking advantage of the opportunity that lies ahead with LA in 28 and the momentum that'll take all the way to Salt Lake in 34. And I think those organizers.
have made huge, huge commitments financially to bring the games to the United States. And I think one of the things, and I kind of get on the soapbox a little bit about this sometimes when I talk to some of my colleagues in the NGB world and those across, and I just say, because I think there's always been this feeling of like, we should benefit from, and we should be able to get this, or we should be able to get that when the Olympics come to the United
States and and you know, I'm out from pushing now the fact of step back from that a minute realize this is more of an opportunity, but it's an opportunity that you have to take advantage of. think the NGB is that are extremely proactive and those who say this is this is the time for us to invest in ourselves invest in our membership and invest in our growth and maybe be willing to take a little bit more strategic risk than they've taken in the past.
I think those are the national governing bodies that you're going to see flourish and get the most out of the opportunity that comes with two domestic games six years apart. I think the national governing bodies that kind of sit back and almost take the approach of, well, the games are coming to the US on the US NGB. I should get this or I should get that as a benefit from it. I think those days are gone. I think maybe there used to be a little bit of that kind of trickle down and it just happened.
think you can still have the same successes and probably even more than you had before, but I think it now needs to be something that you go out and take.
Not every ENGB is going to be set up to be able to do that. I think that's where, you know, a company like ours at aggregate can be extremely helpful in helping them put a strategy together and maybe execute against it. But what I would really love to see is that all of the ENGBs kind of realize this is our moment. Let's make it happen and not wait for it to happen.
Farrell Sports Business (17:43)
Great, great advice. So I want to like, maybe anatomy of a deal key elements, not exactly a speed round, but the context is if I sponsor a minor league baseball team, I pretty much know what I'm going to get. I'm going to some stadium signage, some hospitality, some tickets, some IP same with maybe if I sponsored the Denver Broncos, but a lot of these deals you construct are a lot more creative than that. The assets are just different.
it maybe we can just go through a few examples and not looking for financials if you want to share them great but not looking for that. You you helped with the Samsonite deal for gymnastics. What type of assets would be in
Ramsey Baker (18:28)
Yeah, I think Samsonite's a great example there because a lot of people might think from the outside looking in and other NGVs might think this too, right? Because you look at gymnastics and you say, well, they're different than I am because they have commercial inventory on NBC and you can watch their broadcast and things like that. The deal with Samsonite had nothing to do with traditional linear media. It was all about access to the athletes, access to the events, storytelling and content creation.
for Samsonite to show how as a travel based company and the athletes in the national governing body and USA Gymnastics who those athletes are traveling all over the world to become members of Team USA. They're traveling when they are members of Team USA. And that's a stressful thing going to competitions and Samsonite wanted to be able to show, hey, we can make it less stressful for these athletes and at the same time we can tell their story and amplify who they are and show their personalities.
Which is a great deal if you think about it from the standpoint of it's good for the NGB because you've got a first -in -class world -class brand in Samsonite who's connecting with you and telling your story. And it's great for the athlete as well because they're getting out there from a personality standpoint and building their own brand. And you know I mentioned name image likeness and I L earlier more opportunity for that athlete than to build upon what they're able to do there because
more people know about them, other brands can attach to them. So it's kind of a win -win -win situation for the brand, for the national governing body, and for the athlete. So that was all based on content storytelling and realizing that the brand offered something that could help the athlete and the NGBs in what they do naturally on a day -to -day basis.
Farrell Sports Business (20:21)
So this one I'm anxious to learn because I just don't know much about it, but combat global.
Ramsey Baker (20:27)
Yeah. Yeah. So, Cavate Global is a, no, that's all right, is a Hispanic -focused mixed martial arts. So, think UFC, but really with a Hispanic audience focus.
Farrell Sports Business (20:31)
Forgive me, okay?
Ramsey Baker (20:46)
and the athletes were competing in it. And they did a partnership with Dune, the movie. And it's not a movie that for myself, I wasn't really familiar with it. There's a cult following for this movie. There's a huge audience that follows it. But I guess there's two kind of houses within the movie that's set in the future. And what they did was they partnered with it for one of their first fights of the year.
and they do all of their fights at one location down in Miami and they film it basically made for television in a studio that is a fight arena. So it's a really kind of different approach to it. But they had all of the athletes on one side of the card represent one of the houses within Dune and all the fighters on the other side represent the other house. so that fans could be able to kind of cheer for the one that
that they liked in the movie. But what was really cool in the lead up is all of the marketing for that fight night in the broadcast that they had integrated footage from the film in with footage of the fighters kind of fighting. So it kind of just built this drama and this storyline. And if you were a fan of of Combate Global and you saw these ads and you saw all the marketing, maybe you were going to tune in now and you were really interested to explore the movie. Or if you were
fan of the movie and again the cult following now all of a sudden you were going to follow and you wanted to tune into the fights for Combate Global and so it was a great way for them to come together and merge their audiences and both grow who they were able to reach.
Farrell Sports Business (22:31)
One more and then we'll, I want to just talk about your early career and start in sports, but the soccer tournament with Pat and Pat McAfee.
Ramsey Baker (22:40)
Yeah, so if people are familiar with the tournament model, the basketball tournament has been around for over a decade. This is the 11th year of the basketball tournament and people are probably are more familiar with that. And that's a million dollar winner take all summer basketball tournament. Kind of one and done. It's just a bracket and you play your games and they play to the champion and they win.
A year ago, they started the same thing for soccer. 7v7 soccer tournament, smaller size pitch, shorter games, kind of a cool ending format to the game so that every single goal ended with a target score goal or a golden goal. So you didn't have kind of the time wasting that goes on in a traditional soccer game. You actually had to score to end the game. So really cool format. Win or take all, win a million dollars again for the team.
In the first year they had the tournament, it was just one bracket. They did have a women's team come in and play that represented the women's national team. This past year they actually did two brackets of men's and a women's tournament, both for a million dollar prize. But the first year they were on NBC and then this past year they hired aggregate to help with them to be able to do their media rights. And we were able to help them secure a deal on ESPN for the
and ESPN Plus for all of the games across the tournament. The unique part with Pat McAfee, and I think this is a great example of how a media rights deal can be more than just what it looks like on the surface. With Pat McAfee being associated with Disney and ESPN and everything there, and his show being so wildly popular, even though was a kicker in the NFL, he had a background in playing soccer, he ended up putting a team
to TST into the soccer tournament and then he broadcast his show for a week live from the venue where the tournament was going on which was great marketing for the event just got the word out there more the popularity of it so here they were doing a media rights agreement that extended into kind of this marketing opportunity and a growth through McAfee's audience and then getting him to participate in the tournament itself
as a player and there were viral moments because he had an assist in one of their games that everyone was talking about across social media. So it's again, it's looking how can we be creative? How can a sport property to say, I don't want just a deal with someone because I want it to be transactional. It's like, how can we have a deal that helps us grow and be more than what we kind of went into the partnership with? And yeah, money's a big driver obviously.
you have your meteorites and you need that. But I think they understand the footprint and growing the notoriety for their tournament and they were able to do that this past year. So next year will be even a bigger situation for them.
Farrell Sports Business (25:47)
Go back to the beginning. I just want to reset. Where'd you go to school and how did you get your break working in sports?
Ramsey Baker (25:57)
So I did my undergrad at Union College, is in Schenectady, New York, small liberal arts college. studied economics, economics and geology. I thought I was going to law school for environmental law. That changed very quickly. I actually took.
Farrell Sports Business (26:14)
I didn't know that one.
Ramsey Baker (26:15)
Yeah, I gonna say, I took a year off. I deferred my admissions to a couple of law schools to study that just to make sure it was what I really wanted to do and obviously then found a path that it wasn't. you know, so was interesting, but I didn't start right away in sport. I started in college admissions and I was working on a college campus. I was doing some coaching, you know, at a local high school. I was helping out a little bit with
of the teams on campus, loved to be able to keep that sports side going because I'd been an athlete myself all the way through and loved that. I said, okay, I'm going to go to grad school now after three years and I applied to a bunch of sport management programs thinking, I'm just going to make this transition and I'm going to apply, of course, to the best sport management programs that are out there. One of them was Ohio University and I really wanted to go there.
Farrell Sports Business (27:15)
Great
Ramsey Baker (27:15)
Yeah, I didn't get into the program and I was shocked. mean my scores were good. I was a good student in undergrad and I went and I met with them afterwards and I said, you know, why didn't I get in? And it was probably the best advice in the career break. It's interesting to think that you get a career break when you get rejected on something. But I was told that you don't have any experience in sport. We want people who are not making a transition in their career. We want people who
that they want this to be their career, to come into our program. So I kind of, I was like okay and I took that to heart and I had, I worked for another year in college admissions but I took vacations.
during that year to go do little internships. A week here, two weeks there. All of my vacation time that next year was spent kind of finding internships in sport that I could get experience with. And I was always the guy who was a few years out of college who had a real job and there were freshmen and sophomores in college who were working as an intern as well. So it was kind of a unique setting but I ended up meeting the person who then hired me into my first job in the sports
industry through one of those internships. And then later down the line, ended up going and doing my MBA at Georgia State and worked in the athletic department and got into college athletics. I think it was just a really interesting time for me because I just thought it was going to be such an easy transition because I loved sport. But that advice was great because it led into then the experiences that showed me all the different aspects that the sports industry
had and where you could go as a professional in it. And it, guess, maybe set my mind right from the very beginning that it was an industry you were going to have to really network and build relationships in if you wanted to be able to move on and succeed.
Farrell Sports Business (29:14)
It's excellent advice. I didn't know that whole bootstrapping story from your background. That's great. We can gloss over that part. Anything I didn't ask you could be a shameless plug for something that you're aggregate or working on. Just you get the final
Ramsey Baker (29:19)
Yeah, it's a long time ago now.
final word.
I guess my shameless plug will be more about, and hopefully this word gets out to brands, so I'll put it out there into the ether so that people can kind of start to understand it, believe it, and talk about it. But tomorrow's gonna be the opening ceremonies for the games in Paris. And if you look back from the opening ceremonies for the games that took place in Beijing,
There were 902 days between those opening ceremonies and the Paris opening ceremonies. 902 days. The number of days between the opening ceremonies of Paris and the opening ceremonies for Milan is 561 days.
almost an entire year of a shorter period. And I try to always talk about this and educate folks about it, that the timeline between summer games and winter games and winter games and summer games is totally different. So brands need to be thinking about the Winter Olympics now. They can't wait. With those 561 days, you can even shorten it say it's 516 days if you think about from the end of the Paralympics to the start of the games in Milan in
So if they're thinking about signing a deal, exploring, signing a deal, building a strategy and executing, it's not a lot of time. And we just need to continue to educate companies and brands about this so that they realize that they can't just wait. You know, they have to get on top of that now. There's NGBs who are ready to activate with them and have those conversations. And before these Paris games are even done, brands should be thinking about
they going to attack Milan, how are they going to attack 2026 because it's going to be here before they know it.
Farrell Sports Business (31:34)
Ramsey, always a pleasure, just so insightful and informative, and you're just a, a pro. And obviously we both have some NGB, passion, to grow that part of it. So thank you so much for joining Ramsey. I really, really appreciate
Ramsey Baker (31:52)
Matt, I get a chance to talk to you, I love it. I love what you're doing with this podcast. And yeah, I look forward to continuing the conversation and cheering on Team USA over the next few weeks. It's gonna be really exciting. All right, take care, Matt.
Farrell Sports Business (32:05)
I agree. Thank you, Ramsey.
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