Sport Marketing

Windy Dees, PhD, is an associate professor of sport administration in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami. Her research expertise is in corporate sponsorship effectiveness and event marketing strategies, and how sport organizations can use these forms of marketing communication to enhance live events and generate revenue. Dees’ research has examined a multitude of variables, including brand awareness, brand and event personality, image transfer, sponsorship effectiveness, purchase behaviors, and a multitude of event marketing and management factors. Her research has been published in Sport Marketing Quarterly, International Journal of Sport Management, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Journal of Sponsorship, and Sport Management Education Journal.

Dees serves as the graduate program director for sport administration at the University of Miami. She has served as president of the Sport Marketing Association, executive editor of the Global Sport Business Journal, editorial board member for Sport Marketing Quarterly, and guest reviewer for many other sport management academic journals. Prior to entering academia, she was an account executive for Synergy Sports Marketing in Orlando, Florida, selling and servicing corporate sponsorships in professional golf.

Dees earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and communications from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida; her master’s degree in exercise and sport sciences from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida; and her doctorate in sport management from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. She is frequently invited to be a sport business expert in publications such as Forbes, Bleacher Report, Variety, and Dallas Morning News and has been a guest on ESPN Radio.

Patrick Walsh, PhD, is an associate professor of sport management in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University. He previously held faculty positions at Indiana University and the University of Miami. His research focuses on the brand management practices of sport organizations and how they can best harness the power of their brand to further their business objectives. He has examined topics such as the effectiveness of brand extensions in sports, the rebranding of sport organizations, and the use of new media forums—specifically sport video games and social media outlets—as marketing and branding tools. His research has been published in journals such as Sport Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, and Journal of Consumer Marketing. Walsh has also served on the editorial boards of Sport Marketing Quarterly, International Journal of Sport Management, and Journal of Global Sport Management, and he was an executive board member of the Sport Marketing Association. In 2016, he was named a research fellow of the Sport Marketing Association, which honors individual accomplishments and excellence in sport marketing research.

Prior to entering academia, Walsh worked in marketing with the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills and was an associate with Velocity Sports and Entertainment (now MKTG), where he developed and executed strategic marketing plans for a number of today’s top sponsors of professional and collegiate sport properties. Walsh earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises from Syracuse University, a master’s degree in sport administration from Canisius College, and a doctorate in kinesiology with an emphasis in sport management from the University of Minnesota.

Chad McEvoy, EdD, is vice provost for faculty affairs at Northern Illinois University, having previously served as a faculty member at Illinois State University and Syracuse University. McEvoy previously served as chair of the department of kinesiology and physical education at Northern Illinois University from 2015 to 2019.

McEvoy has coauthored three textbooks in the sport management discipline, and his research has been featured in more than 100 media outlets, such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and USA Today. In June 2008, he served as a panelist before the prestigious Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics in a discussion on the effectiveness of NCAA penalties for rule violations. McEvoy’s research has also been published in leading sport management academic journals such as the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, and Sport Marketing Quarterly.

McEvoy served as president of the Sport Marketing Association and has previously held the roles of founding editor of Case Studies in Sport Management and coeditor of the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics. McEvoy was the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Sutton Award, awarded by the Sport Marketing Association each year to an educator best exemplifying the organization’s mission to expand the body of knowledge in sport marketing through close connection to the sport industry.

Steve McKelvey, JD, joined the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at University of Massachusetts–Amherst in 2002, after spending 15 years in the sport industry in New York City.

His sport marketing, sponsorship, and sales experience includes six years in the corporate sponsorship division of Major League Baseball, where he served a pivotal role in the creation of the league’s corporate sponsorship program and was instrumental in the generation of over $50 million in corporate sponsorship revenues. He subsequently spent six years building a profitable in-house sport marketing agency within one of the country’s leading sport magazine publishers, developing and implementing sales promotions for clients like Wise Snacks, Beck’s Beer, Century 21 Real Estate, U.S. Postal Service, and Suzuki.

Prior to joining the University of Massachusetts faculty, he taught as an adjunct professor of sport law at the Seton Hall School of Law. He has authored articles on sport marketing, licensing, and the law for publications such as American Business Law Journal, Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, Seton Hall Journal of Sport Law, Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport, Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, Sports Business Journal, and Brandweek.

McKelvey holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Amherst College, a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts sport management program, and a juris doctorate from Seton Hall School of Law. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1993.

Bernard J. Mullin, PhD, is chairman and CEO of the Aspire Group, a leading global management and marketing consulting business focusing on the sport and entertainment industry. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of Atlanta Spirit LLC, where he was responsible for overseeing all team and business operations for the NBA's Hawks and NHL's Thrashers and management of the world-class Philips Arena.

Mullin’s more than 30 years of experience in the sport management industry has involved executive positions with professional teams and leagues, where he specializes in start-ups and turnarounds, breaking numerous all-time league ticket sales and attendance records. In addition to his position in Atlanta, Mullin served as the NBA’s senior vice president of marketing and team business operations, president and general manager of the IHL’s Denver Grizzlies, senior vice president of business operations for the Colorado Rockies, and senior vice president of business for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has also acted as the owner’s representative on major design and construction projects, including Coors Field and University of Denver’s award-winning athletic facilities.

Before and during his career in professional sports, Mullin spent several years in intercollegiate athletics and higher education. He served as vice chancellor of athletics for the University of Denver and as professor of sport management at the University of Massachusetts. Mullin holds a doctorate in business, an MBA, and a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Kansas, where he coached the varsity soccer program. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business studies from Coventry University in England, where he played soccer semiprofessionally for the Oxford City Football Club.

Stephen Hardy, PhD, was a professor of kinesiology and affiliate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) until his retirement in 2014. In 2003 through 2004, he served as interim vice provost for undergraduate studies. Hardy has also taught at the University of Massachusetts (where he earned his doctorate), the University of Washington, Robert Morris College, and Carnegie Mellon University. Over three decades, he taught courses in sport marketing, athletic administration, and sport history as well as a popular introduction to the sport industry.

Besides Sport Marketing, his publications include How Boston Played (1982, 2003) and numerous articles, book chapters, and reviews in academic presses. He is completing a coauthored history of ice hockey. His reviews and opinions have appeared in popular outlets such as the Boston Globe, New York Times, and Sports Business Journal. From 1995 to 1999, he was coeditor of Sport Marketing Quarterly. In 1997, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education. He has won college and university awards for excellence in research and teaching.

Hardy also has extensive experience in college athletics. He played hockey for Bowdoin College in the late 1960s and cocaptained the 1969-1970 team with his twin brother, Earl. After coaching stints at Vermont Academy and Amherst College, he joined the Eastern College Athletic Conference in 1976, where he served as assistant commissioner and hockey supervisor until 1979. During that time, he supervised collegiate championships in venues such as the Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden, and he worked closely with the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee and its affiliated championships. He served on the board of directors of the America East Athletic Conference from 2000 to 2002. In 2003, he was selected by the Hockey East Association as one of 20 special friends to celebrate the league’s 20th anniversary. At UNH he served as faculty representative to the NCAA and chaired the president’s athletics advisory committee from 1996 to 2011. He is a founder of the Charles E. Holt Archives of American Hockey, located at UNH’s Dimond Library. He lives with his wife, Donna, in Durham, New Hampshire.

William A. Sutton, EdD, was the founding director and a professor in the sport and entertainment business management graduate program in the management department at the University of South Florida. He is the founder and principal of Bill Sutton & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in strategic marketing and revenue enhancement. Sutton has gained national recognition for his ability to meld practical experience in professional sports with academic analysis and interpretation.

His consulting clients cover a who’s who of professional athletics: the NBA, WNBA, NHL, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, MSG Sports, and New York Mets. Sutton frequently serves as an expert on the sport business industry. His insights and commentary have appeared in a variety of media outlets: USA Today, New York Times, CNBC.com, Washington Times, Fox Business, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Advertising Age, and Brandweek. On the international front, Sutton is a contributor to the Italian publications Basketball Gigante and FIBA Assist.

Sutton served as vice president of team marketing and business operations for the National Basketball Association. In addition to working at the NBA, Sutton was past president of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), a founding member and past president of the Sport Marketing Association (SMA), president of the Southern Sport Management Association, a special events coordinator for the city of Pittsburgh, a YMCA director, vice president of information services for an international sport marketing firm, and commissioner of the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference. He was inducted into the College of Education Hall of Fame at Oklahoma State University (2003) and was an inaugural member of the Robert Morris University Sport Management Hall of Fame (2006). He has received lifetime achievement awards from the Southern Sport Management Association (2012) and the Sport Entertainment & Venues Tomorrow conference at the University of South Carolina. He lives with his wife, Sharon, in Tampa and Clearwater Beach, Florida.