Center For Sports Business & Research Announces New Board, Inaugural Meeting

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (June 19, 2008) – The Center for Sports Business & Research, which launched in January at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, has formed a new advisory board consisting of leading industry experts from sports finance, management, and marketing. The new board will hold its first meeting on June 25 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.

The board's 24 members includes representation from all of the major professional sports leagues, as well as members from the various other sectors that make up the sports business industry, including sports apparel and equipment, consumer goods, food and beverage, professional and college teams, marketing and advertising, media, and sponsors.

Board members include such recognized sports business names as Ernie Accorsi, veteran NFL General Manager; Kim Armour, chief financial officer, Versus Network; Chris Bevilacqua, principal, Sports Capital Partners Worldwide; Dean Jordan, senior vice president, Wasserman Media Group; Jim Plake, executive vice president and CFO, Pittsburgh Pirates; Darren Rovell, author and sports business reporter, CNBC; and Mike Stevens, senior vice president, PGA, and president of the Champions Tour.

A complete list of the advisory board's new membership is available online at www.smeal.psu.edu/csbr/board-members.

"We are very appreciative of the board members for their willingness to help guide our early development," remarked Wayne DeSarbo, executive director of the center and Smeal Distinguished Professor of Marketing. "In addition to their knowledge of industry issues and trends and their willingness to help us expand our network of industry partners, our board members will play an important role as we seek to create a research center that is both unique and distinctive at the intersection of the sports industry and a major university."

The center's activities will encompass multiple objectives:

• developing quality academic research in the sports business arena

• addressing practitioner problems

• encouraging career development and placement for Smeal students

• examining the educational needs of sports business management

• developing relationships and partnerships with key members of the sports business community

• devising seminars and presentations for sports business personnel to interact with Smeal's faculty and students
  

The advisory board serves the center as its connection to the front lines of the sports business industry. Board members provide the center with ideas and support for its research agenda, and keep the center in tune to the latest trends and developments in the fast-paced sports business industry. Advisory board meetings and other center activities afford board members opportunities to network with students interested in the sports industry and with their colleagues from across the sports business spectrum.

About the Center for Sports Business & Research
Under the leadership of Executive Director Wayne DeSarbo and Associate Director Andrew Bergstein, the Center for Sports Business & Research focuses on the development of first-rate academic and applied empirical research in the sports industry, while helping to define educational opportunities for students looking to start careers in sports business. Drawing on Penn State's rich athletic tradition and working closely with two other University sports research centers in communications and law, the Center for Sports Business & Research seeks to bridge the gap between existing academic research on sports business and relevant practitioner issues in the industry.

For more information, visit www.smeal.psu.edu/csbr.