SBJ Executive Editor and Publisher Abe Madkour, Emmy-winning actor Jon Hamm and the Stanley Cup seemed on as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman accepted his Lifetime Achievement Award.marc bryan-brown

New York City’s Times Square is used to internet hosting its share of stars, however the lineup that gathered on the Marriott Marquis for the Sports Business Awards was particularly glittering: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, MLS Commissioner Don Garber and NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Marie Donoghue, Amazon vp of worldwide sports activities video. ESPN’s Elle Duncan and Jay Williams hosted the festivities, and Emmy-winning actor Jon Hamm offered the Lifetime Achievement Award to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who was joined on stage by the Stanley Cup.

Those luminaries have been joined by a report crowd of practically 1,200 who crammed the ballroom for the sports activities trade’s greatest night time and, arguably, most spectacular assortment of sports activities leaders so far.

By night’s finish, 15 particular person awards had been handed out, plus the Celebration of Service award to the Sloane Stephens Foundation and the Lifetime recognition. The total winner, nevertheless, could have been ladies’s sports activities, which continued its momentum by taking residence a number of honors. That tone was set from the very first class, when Michele Kang received the inaugural Deal of the Year award for her acquisition of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, accomplished in March 2022. Judges gave factors for not solely the deal’s $35 million buy worth — on the time a report for a ladies’s sports activities group — but additionally for the complexity of a transaction during which Kang allied with present restricted companions to outmaneuver a competing bid.

There was additionally no denying the influence that sale had all through the panorama of ladies’s sports activities, which Kang argued is deserving of serious monetary commitments.

“I wanted to do this deal to prove a point, that women’s soccer is not a charity. It should not be sold for a couple million as if it’s a nonprofit,” Kang mentioned. “It has incredible commercial viability, and if we don’t believe in our own product, who would believe it?”

Kang expanded on her objective and imaginative and prescient backstage, detailing how the Spirit acquisition — at seven occasions the prior league report transaction worth — was meant to blaze a path that different traders are already following. “As you’ve seen in the expansion process, now our expansion fees are $53 million. Who would have thought, right?” mentioned Kang. “So this is all kind of building upon one another, and I would say the tipping point has been reached. … There is no one business model right now; a lot of teams are coming in from different angles, and they’re all equally successful. And that’s what it takes, just more dollars to come in.” Kang mentioned she additionally hoped that she would encourage extra ladies to enter the ranks of sports activities possession all through each males’s and ladies’s leagues.

Washington Spirit proprietor Michele Kang received the primary Deal of the Year award.marc bryan-brown

The most raucous cheers for Kang’s win got here from none aside from Angel City FC’s desk, led by fellow feminine homeowners Kara Nortman and Julie Uhrman. They had an opportunity to rejoice once more later within the night time when Angel City received for Team of the Year, incomes a uncommon standing ovation from the gang.

An energized Uhrman, flanked on stage by the group’s feminine management, laid out the mission assertion for the ladies’s soccer membership that shattered each data and expectations in its 2022 debut. “Angel City is built with purpose and passion,” mentioned Uhrman. “With a goal to be profitable and prove that women’s sports is not only something that people follow and care about, but is investable and can be a billion-dollar business.”

The membership was valued at over $100 million by traders earlier than enjoying a single recreation, and in its first season was answerable for practically 40% of all NWSL income. “Nobody thought we could sell out a stadium. Nobody thought we could generate north of $50 million in sponsorship revenue,” continued Uhrman. “This is not going to be the [last] time we’re at this podium, I can promise you that, because there is no limit to what this team can do.”

The worth and energy of ladies’s sports activities was a theme highlighted by different SBA winners. The U.S. Open received the trophy for Sports Event of the Year, largely because of the influence of Serena Williams’ farewell efficiency, which helped drive report viewership and attendance figures. In receiving the award, Stacey Allaster, the USTA’s chief govt {of professional} tennis and U.S. Open event director, famous the 2023 occasion will mark 50 years of equal prize cash.

Wasserman received for Best Talent Representation of the Year. Not solely does the company have a long-running historical past of ladies’s sports activities illustration, however judges have been significantly eager on Wasserman’s, and particularly agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas’, efforts to get shopper and WNBA star Brittney Griner residence from Russia. “That heritage for us, and having the history and being there first and launching The Collective, which is our program around women for brands and for representation,” mentioned Jason Ranne, Wasserman COO and govt vp of expertise illustration. “I just think it’s synonymous with our history, and so it’s genuine, it’s authentic to us.”

A report crowd of practically 1,200 crammed the ballroom.marc bryan-brown

Fox Sports CEO and govt producer Eric Shanks echoed the significance of ladies’s sports activities to the community in backstage remarks following Fox’s win for Best in Sports Media. “Our first World Cup was the 2015 Women’s World Cup. We made the commitment to put as much effort into the women’s as the men’s, and that had never happened before,” Shanks mentioned. “We feel like we were there at the very beginning of this explosion of women’s sports. … We feel really proud to have been part of it and kind of kept that going in trying to be the standard bearer for women’s sports in this country.”

This 12 months’s Sports Business Awards proved to be an particularly significant one for Shanks, who additionally earned Sports Executive of the Year honors. Fox’s banner 12 months was led by a landmark rights cope with the Big Ten and profitable broadcasts of the Super Bowl, World Cup and World Series, amongst different main occasions.

Fox wasn’t the one legacy property to go residence with {hardware}. The NFL received Sports League of the Year for the primary time since 2010. The 111-year-old Fenway Park, which hosted the NHL’s Winter Classic in January, earned Sports Facility of the Year honors. And the NHL celebrated a win for Sports Breakthrough of the Year for its digitally enhanced dasherboards, a advertising and marketing initiative years within the making.

The NHL had in depth illustration within the ballroom from each the league and its groups, together with New York Islanders proprietor Jon Ledecky, to rejoice Bettman’s Lifetime Achievement Award. During his remarks, Hamm, a hockey superfan who recalled watching Blues video games by way of cigarette smoke on the previous St. Louis Arena, outlined the trajectory of the NHL beneath the management of Bettman since he took over the position in 1993.

“The once mom-and-pop regional league that brought in a total of less than $500 million per year the season before he was hired is now a $6 billion global sports and media powerhouse,” mentioned Hamm. “That is turning it around, in a league in which a Blues fan wonders about when we’ll be back in the finals, but does not worry about when his team is going to leave St. Louis.”

Some of the sports activities world’s high leaders additionally lent their voice to a video honoring Bettman, together with commissioners Rob Manfred of MLB, Adam Silver of the NBA and Roger Goodell of the NFL, in addition to Monumental Sports & Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ted Leonsis and NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, amongst others.

Bettman mirrored on his 5 a long time in professional sports activities, which included mentoring beneath former NBA Commissioner David Stern, presiding over practically 60% of all of the NHL video games ever performed and marveling at how far he’d come since paying 50 cents for a ticket to look at the New York Rangers as a child within the Sixties: “When I sat in the balcony of the old Garden, I never thought that the first time I would see the Rangers win the Stanley Cup, I would be the one presenting it!”

The 30-year commissioner — who made clear that he has no speedy plans for retirement — closed on a theme that had been a foundational speaking level all through the night: The energy of sports activities to vary lives.

“Let’s all continue every day to serve our constituents in the most creative and fun ways possible,” Bettman mentioned. “Let’s strive to honor our temporary custody of the public trust called sports to inspire our communities, to teach life skills to our young people and to leave each of our sports organizations in a far better place than the one in which we found it. And that, for any of us, is a lifetime achievement.”

Sports Business Awards: The Winners

Deal of the Year — Michele Kang’s acquisition of the Washington Spirit
Best in Sports Betting — FanDuel
Best in Sports Social Media — Bleacher Report
Best Talent Representation — Wasserman
Sports Event of the Year — U.S. Open
Athletic Director of the Year — J.D. Wicker, San Diego State
Best in Sports Media — Fox Sports
Best in Property Consulting, Sales and Client Services — Elevate
Sports Sponsor of the Year — T-Mobile U.S.
Sports Facility of the Year — Fenway Park
Sports Breakthrough of the Year — NHL: Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards
Best in Agency Creativity and Innovation — MKTG Sports + Entertainment
Sports Team of the Year — Angel City FC
Sports Executive of the Year — Eric Shanks, Fox Sports
Sports League of the Year — NFL