Ep. 479 - Jim Goodman (Ticket Systems Innovator)

04/13/15 • 40 min

Fewer people have seen the dawn of online ticketing like Jim Goodman, who was the first person to advocate for Ticketmaster to have a presence on the web. After that point, Goodman left to run ticketing for Walt Disney, then established Tickets.com's presence as a Ticketmaster competitor, including a merger that yielded Major League Baseball as an owner. Goodman explains some of the ways that online ticketing got started, including how his efforts resulted in those $16 service fees on a $17 ticket, and why those service fees continue to exist today. Goodman spares no punches in his wide-ranging opinions on promoters, teams, service fees, the StubHub vs Ticketmaster & Golden State Warriors lawsuit, and the secondary market as a whole. Goodman speaks about having 'boots on the ground' experience and why the ticket industry has hurt itself by not hiring those with that type real work experience into their upper eschelon. Twitter: @JimGoodman

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Ep. 478 - Brad Smith (Assist AD/External Relations, Morehead State)

Brad Smith has been an idea maker in sports since 2003, when he had to sell tickets in the south with the Mississippi Sea Wolves of the Southern Professional Hockey League. Now moving onto stints at Texas A&M, Middle Tennessee State, Alabama-Birmingham and Morehead State, Smith has used his revenue generation skills to drum up business and fan support for the athletic departments he has served in. Smith talks about how to navigate old traditions, starting some new ones, in the hopes of innovating while respecting the institution's past efforts. Twitter: @BradSmithMSU

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Ep. 480 - Dena Freeman-Patton (Associate AD, CSUB)

A former student-athlete at Liberty University, Dena Freeman-Patton understands the educational needs of those she mentors. Heading up the academic side of the athletic department at CSU-Bakersfield, Freeman-Patton shares her view on the challenges facing current student-athletes, as well as attempting to beat back some of the misconceptions that the educational system may have on athletes and academics overall. Freeman-Patton talks about remodeling an academic support system in order to best coordinate over 500 student-athletes each quarter. Twitter: @BMoreDFP