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Rick Wade is Senior Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Outreach at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he leads the organization’s work connecting small businesses, athletes, and the broader business community to the sports economy. He grew up in Lancaster, South Carolina. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of South Carolina and a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. His career has moved between business and government. He served as chief of staff to South Carolina’s lieutenant governor and as a vice president at Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, and he ran for South Carolina Secretary of State. In 2007 he joined then-Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as a senior advisor. He later served at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he led trade missions around the world. After founding a global advisory firm, Rick began working with the U.S. Chamber as a consultant in 2016. He has been there ever since and has served six years on the board of USA Track & Field. 00:00 Welcome to The ROAR Podcast 00:47 Rick's non-linear path:  01:45 The phone call from Senator Obama 02:56 From Commerce to consulting, and crashing the Chamber's party 05:06 What the U.S. Chamber is, and why it's focused on sports 08:48 Mega events as long-term economic engines 12:24 Sports districts and why "all business is local" 13:58 Using data to drive policy 15:33 Small businesses and AI adoption 18:24 Balancing large tenants and local businesses in districts 19:35 The 2027 NFL Draft and small business procurement 21:11 Athletes as "pro CEOs" and the Hiring Our Athletes idea 24:43 NIL and support for college athletes 25:21 Why athlete entrepreneurs need different support 27:54 Leading across the public and private sectors 32:08 Sport as a unifier and sports diplomacy 33:32 What brings Rick joy 37:51 What's next for Rick and the Chamber 38:55 Wrap-up: "Let's ROAR together"

We’re resurfacing one of our favorite conversations this week. Kirtan Mehta, Chief External Affairs Officer for the Washington Commanders, joined Caroline Valvardi for a clear-eyed look at one of the most complex real estate projects in American sports — and it’s only gotten more relevant as the RFK project moves forward. From Harvard Law to two U.S. Senate offices to an early stint at Robinhood, Kirtan brings a government-relations lens you rarely hear in sports business. The conversation covers aligning owners, fans, and three separate jurisdictions; the case for building a neighborhood rather than just a stadium; how data and AI are being deployed from construction phasing to fan experience; and the leadership ethos the franchise calls the Commander Standard. If you missed it the first time, this is the one to start with.  00:00 Best of — intro 00:31 An unlikely path: math, mock trial, law, and politics 03:02 What Capitol Hill experience brings — politics as "a sport of addition" 04:52 Finding intersection among diverse stakeholders 06:04 Translating between groups — the 11–2 DC Council vote 07:49 Why listening is the underrated skill in public affairs 11:46 Three jurisdictions and the federal-land overlay of the RFK site 14:42 Building a real estate team for a real estate project 17:12 Legislative timelines and the 2030 / 2031 World Cup deadlines 20:05 The $2.7B case: housing, environment, and a food desert 21:40 The Nationals ballpark as the blueprint everyone points to 24:23 Partnering with the city — and the mayor's role 26:57 Data & AI: Voice of Fans, the team's RFI, and a roofed stadium 30:51 Experiential design inside and outside the stadium 34:25 The transportation puzzle: Metro, tunnels, and a river 36:09 What drives him: service, joy, and a product you believe in 38:56 Leadership and the Commander Standard — the five C's 41:15 Close

When the final whistle blew at World Cup matches this summer, fans weren't ready to go home. Where the stadium gave them a place to gather, they stayed. Where it didn't, the party moved elsewhere, sometimes miles away. Adam sits down with Lauren Adams, Global Director of Lifestyle Research at Gensler and lead author of The Fandom Effect: Sports Urbanism 2026. It's a three-part study from the Gensler Research Institute, Oxford Economics, and ROAR, and the research tracked fans before, during, and after the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It combined a baseline survey of fans across the U.S. and Canada, real-time social listening tied to every host stadium, and a post-tournament survey of host-city residents. Together, those show how a global event shaped the way fans felt about their venues, their districts, and their cities. Lauren and Adam unpack the study's headline finding. Fans used words like "we" and "us" 70% more often when posting from the public spaces outside the stadium than from inside the bowl. When they used awe words like "goosebumps" and "electric," that collective language jumped 189%. They also cover "afterglow," the spontaneous celebrations after a match, and what it means when a stadium ringed with parking sends that energy somewhere else. 00:00 Intro: The afterglow that went to Times Square 01:55 Welcome, Lauren Adams 02:17 Inside The Fandom Effect: before, during, and after the World Cup 04:41 The loneliness crisis and the stadium as the new town square 06:45 The scale of the study 08:09 Voice of the Fan and AI-powered language analysis 10:00 "We" vs. "I": collective language outside the bowl 11:41 Designing for awe: lessons from Rockefeller Center 13:52 From crowd to community: access and programming 16:21 The "awe-free zone": entry, ingress, and safety 18:50 Inside the bowl: whistle-to-whistle documentarians 20:59 What is afterglow? 23:07 How ROAR measured afterglow 24:50 New York / New Jersey and the afterglow catcher's mitt 28:26 Families, locals, and superfans 32:45 A catcher's mitt for everything: zoned programming 33:30 Collective effervescence explained 35:09 What's next for Gensler and host cities 37:52 Lessons for everyday game days 40:22 Expanding the fan base beyond the core 41:34 Designing for the next 5–10 years 43:36 Wrap-up

In 2007, a young high school math teacher in Ohio asked a simple question: why does the end of a basketball game reward teams for breaking the rules? His answer was to turn off the clock and play to a target score. It took a decade of cold outreach, rejection, and reinvention before TBT gave it a shot in a small Division II gym in Philadelphia. Since then, the Elam Ending has been used at the NBA All-Star Game and in the NBA G League, the Canadian Elite Basketball League, Unrivaled, the Women's College All-Star Game, and grassroots leagues around the world. Adam Grossman sits down with Dr. Nick Elam to talk about the persistence it took to get a radical idea adopted, why simplifying the concept was the breakthrough, and the call from the NBA that came while Nick was sitting in an airport terminal. They also explore why rule changes matter far beyond the court, shaping fan experience, ticket sales, and sponsorship value. Finally, they make the case for a dedicated innovation segment in sports media. In this episode: How the flaws of late-game basketball (intentional fouls, stalling, and "blooper reel" shots) sparked the ideaPitching roughly 80 commissioners, executives, and media members, and why a thoughtful "no" still mattersWhy moving to a flat target number made the concept easier to sellWhy TBT was the ideal first home, and the comeback that won over the crowdThe NBA All-Star Game run, and why exhibitions are a different testNick's take on MLB's pitch clock, pickoff limits, and the ghost runner ruleRule changes as a "recalibration" that restores the style of play fans love00:00 Introduction 01:58 Welcome and What Is the Elam Ending? 03:35 A Math Teacher's Lightbulb Moment 06:58 Ten Years of Tomorrows 09:27 Learning to Sell a Radical Idea 13:41 Early Believers: Dan Bonner and the ABA 16:53 Inside TBT: The Perfect Landing Spot 20:00 That First Weekend in Philadelphia 23:46 The Call from the NBA 26:43 Why Rules Drive Revenue 27:59 Pitch Clocks, Ghost Runners, and Recalibration 30:29 The NBA All-Star Game Run 33:58 Building a Personal Brand 35:52 The Case for an Innovation Expert in Sports Media 38:44 Wrap-Up

When Pau Gasol went looking for someone to run his business in 2015, he wasn't looking for a sports insider. He wanted someone who could be Catalan in Barcelona, Spanish in Madrid, and American in the U.S., and who understood investing, startups, and leadership. He found that in Ferran Prieto, a Barcelona-born engineer whose career ran through the automotive industry, General Motors' corporate strategy and venture team, and Dan Gilbert's startup ecosystem. Nearly eleven years later, Ferran is CEO and Managing Director of Gasol 16 Ventures and Managing Partner at Everest Advisory Services. In this conversation with Caroline Valvardi, he explains why athletes in the U.S. are years ahead of their European counterparts in building businesses during their careers, and what cultural pressures keep many European stars quiet until retirement. He breaks down the three pillars of Gasol 16 Ventures: Pau's institutional role in sports, including the Olympic movement; the Gasol Foundation's work against childhood obesity; and a business arm spanning brand partnerships, advisory work, and investments across sports, health, and wellness. Ferran also shares where he sees the biggest opportunities in sports as an asset class. He's bullish on women's sports and on the WNBA, where he invested early. He explains why investors increasingly want to know whether a team controls the real estate around its venue. And he looks at MotoGP and select startup leagues. He discusses how data and AI help him compare deals, why confidentiality and human review still matter, and the advice he gives athletes: use your platform while you're competing, because the window closes faster than you think. In this episode: Ferran's path from automotive engineering to running Pau Gasol's businessThe differences between U.S. and European athletes as business leadersWhy honesty and "earning your role every day" sustain long-term athlete relationshipsInside Gasol 16 Ventures and Everest Advisory ServicesThe investment case for women's sports and the WNBASports-anchored real estate and why owning your venue matters more as valuations riseHow AI is changing deal evaluation, and where to stay cautiousLeadership lessons and career advice for active athletes 00:00 Welcome and Spain's World Cup win 02:00 Ferran's path 04:25 Founding Everest and helping athletes plan for life after sports 05:34 Athletes as business leaders 08:43 What makes athlete relationships last 11:47 Inside Gasol 16 Ventures 16:06 Everest Advisory Services 17:24 Where the investment opportunities are 19:58 Sports-anchored real estate 22:07 Finding markets where athletes have an unfair advantage 24:37 How data and AI shape deal evaluation 27:41 Using AI responsibly 31:48 The passion of sports and the athlete's superpower 37:36 The early WNBA bet and the league's rise 39:44 Leadership philosophy and advice for active athletes 43:39 Wrap-up

Most sports real estate conversations start the same way: the venue anchors the district, and the district delivers the return. Mike Carney is building from the opposite direction. Mike is the head of On Deck Partners, the minor league baseball platform established inside Avenue Capital Group's sports fund, which came to market in December with its first two club acquisitions in Visalia and Montgomery and has since added Wilmington. He's explicit that On Deck is not a real estate developer. The thesis is that in a small or mid-sized market, the ballpark already functions as the community's central entertainment hub and anything built around it should be designed to reinforce that hub, not compete with it. Residential is the early area of interest, including player housing, a recurring ask from both municipalities and major league affiliates. Before On Deck, Mike spent ten years with the Washington Nationals, arriving in 2015 from a data engineering and consulting background and eventually leading business operations. He walks Adam through what actually changed on the data side across that decade: a club that started with ticketing data used only to run a ticketing business, a centralized platform MLB built in partnership with Google, and the customer data and marketing automation work that mostly landed post-pandemic. He also gets specific about what worked with fans targeted surprise-and-delight credits, a Kids Eat Free program he's now looking at for the minor league clubs and his read on the trade fans will make: they'll share data when they feel they're getting value back. The conversation covers the harder parts too. Managing the business through a rebuild with no control over the on-field product. Planning around winning streaks and quiet stretches rather than projected win totals. Zip-tying seats and re-manifesting the ballpark coming out of the shutdown, which Mike names as one of his fondest memories with his team. And on leadership, a position he returns to repeatedly: transparency up and down, and no surprises in either direction. On AI, Mike draws a sharp line. Because minor league front offices are already running lean, he argues this is a growth play rather than a headcount play — which means AI has to eventually touch fans, and that's exactly where he's slowing down. On Deck is leaning in on internal workflows and creative production, and holding back on anything that puts a non-human between the club and a customer in communities built on relationships. 00:00 Welcome and introductions 00:40 On Deck Partners, and ten years with the Nationals 01:59 NASA, consulting, and the move into sports data 03:57 What data looked like at the Nationals in 2015 06:21 How fans actually want to be marketed to 08:19 Winning on the field vs. working the business side 10:27 COVID: revenue to zero, and the return 12:32 Zip-tying seats and working the concessions register 12:57 Managing the business through a rebuild 15:29 Getting alignment up and down the organization 17:12 Leadership: the decisions get harder 18:58 A decade of change in data and technology 20:42 Leaving the Nationals for On Deck Partners 23:44 Avenue Capital, the sports fund, and the thesis 26:02 Why multi-club ownership changes the math 28:38 The real estate and mixed-use thesis 30:59 Real estate that feeds the ballpark, not the reverse 33:02 Programming mix, residential, and player housing 34:10 Institutional capital in minor league baseball 36:01 AI as a growth play, not a headcount play 38:55 Where On Deck is using AI today 40:31 What AI-powered growth looks like at the ballpark 42:06 Closing thoughts

Steve Lefton has spent twenty-nine years at what he jokingly calls "the largest firm you've never heard of." Kimley-Horn is eleven thousand people across a hundred and sixty offices — engineers, planners, landscape architects and environmental scientists who handle nearly everything on a project except the architecture. As Executive Chair, and previously as president and CEO during a stretch in which the firm doubled in size, Lefton has watched sports venues transform from standalone buildings into full districts that have to work three hundred and sixty-five days a year. He joins Caroline to trace that shift from the ground up. The conversation moves from his early redevelopment work in post-Hurricane Andrew Miami, to why the districts that succeed feel like organic neighborhoods rather than projects, to the scale problem hiding in plain sight: a New York City block runs about three acres, and these developments can span sixteen to a hundred blocks. That math, he argues, makes public partnership unavoidable. Along the way: what a Kimley-Horn employee is doing beside a police officer on game day with an earpiece in, how the firm moved 2.8 million fans during the World Cup, where Lefton draws the line on AI in a profession of licensed professionals, and why a Commanders project on the RFK site is personal. 00:00 Welcome 00:52 What sports mean to him: family, coaching, and a son playing college lacrosse 03:37 Cornell, landscape architecture, and the "spaces in between" 06:05 Leading Kimley-Horn: doubling the firm in seven years 07:37 Two projects that shaped him: the Miami River Corridor and Midtown Miami 10:36 "The largest firm you've never heard of" — and how the sports practice grew 14:11 Public-private partnerships and playing the honest broker 16:33 Beyond the deal: moving 2.8 million fans at the World Cup 19:54 AI as amplifier: agents on the team and moving up the value chain 22:52 Where he's cautious: faster isn't better, and what a licensed profession can't outsource 25:04 Game day traffic ops: the earpiece, the command center, "go green north" 29:20 What makes a district work: organic neighborhoods, art and science, silo delivery 34:17 Mobility, not transportation — and creating value 365 days a year 36:36 Local insight at national scale, and why the Battery is still the gold standard 37:37 Full circle: Formula One, the Commanders, and RFK with his dad 41:34 Leadership and humility: "you're not that important"

George Barrios walked away from a signed offer to run Univision in July 2020, called his former WWE co-CEO Michelle Wilson the next morning, and told her he'd rather build something with her instead. In his second appearance on The ROAR Podcast, he walks Adam Grossman through everything that decision produced: taking Bowlero public via SPAC at the peak of the frothiest IPO market in decades, returning to WWE to architect the merger with UFC that created TKO, and closing this past April on Global Sports Group — a holding company built with CVC around minority stakes in LaLiga, Ligue 1, the WTA, FIVB, and three rugby properties. Leagues and federations only. No teams, by design. Along the way, George unpacks the lesson a former boss gave him at thirty-one — that running a business for the short term is easy, running it for the long term is easy, and doing both at once is the actual job — and the three questions he believes any management team should be able to answer clearly enough for a six-year-old. Then the conversation turns to AI, and the two of them stop agreeing. George argues that a company's alpha lives in its workflow and its data, and that handing that to a vendor under an AI-as-a-service model is a mistake he wouldn't make: build the harness around the model yourself, own the code. Adam pushes back hard from a data governance and partnership angle. Neither one gives ground. Which, as George notes at the close, is about right for a guy whose book is called Sometimes Wrong, But Never in Doubt. 00:00 Round Two 00:31 The Book: Sometimes Wrong, But Never in Doubt 01:29 From Operator to Investor 04:07 The July 2020 Phone Call 06:15 Back to WWE and the Road to TKO 08:58 Taking Bowlero Public 11:38 Why Bowlero — and Why Not the Flying Taxis 13:28 Three Hundred SPAC Sponsors 14:38 The Hardest Thing in Business 17:00 What the Public Markets Expose 20:51 Three Questions, Explained to a Six-Year-Old 23:09 A Detour Through Richard Feynman 24:50 How Global Sports Group Came Together 27:59 Why Sports Wins the Re-Architected Value Chain 30:24 Human Provenance and the Next Three Billion Fans 32:53 Leagues and Federations, Not Teams 35:18 "Nine Times Out of Ten, It's an Email List" 36:27 Not the First Inning — Batting Practice 37:43 Moving the Needle Without Control 40:23 The Chief Electricity Officer 43:29 Why He Wouldn't Sign Up for AI-as-a-Service 46:47 Build the Harness, Not the Model 47:48 Where Adam Disagrees 51:50 Willing to Be Wrong

Renee Washington's résumé reads like four careers stacked on top of each other — broadcaster, host, speaker, founder, and soon-to-be author. But the through line traces back to a two-year window at Lehigh in 2014, when she was coaching college soccer, finishing a master's in educational leadership, and deciding whether to return to professional soccer. The NWSL had just completed its first season. The money wasn't a living. A three-time All-American at La Salle and a Hall of Famer, she wasn't asking whether she was good enough to keep playing — she was asking whether she could afford to. In this conversation with Caroline Valvardi, Renee walks through what she found on the other side of that decision: the distinction between Renee the soccer player and Renee the person, and a career built deliberately so that no single job title could take the whole thing down with it. The conversation moves from that transition into what it actually costs to bet on yourself. Renee is candid about launching Renee Washington Media and Consulting with no spouse's salary as a backstop, running a team of roughly a dozen interns while the revenue side is still being built, and rolling out the business in phases rather than all at once. She and Caroline get into the role faith plays when timing is outside your control, how technology and AI let her sustain a genuinely multi-hyphenate operation across time zones, and what broadcasters actually see on the data side — real-time demographics, peak tune-in windows, even ball-tracking data out of this summer's World Cup. And then the counterweight: Renee likes the data but refuses to live and die by it. Impressions are measurable; reaching people who don't already look like your existing audience is the harder thing to chase, and it's the one she's actually chasing. 01:54 Welcome to The ROAR Podcast 02:09 The Summer That Didn't Stop 04:46 A Path That Was Never Linear 08:35 What Nobody Prepares You For: Life After the Game 12:49 Betting on Yourself 17:55 Faith, Control, and Trusting the Timing 23:50 Technology, AI, and Running a Team Across Time Zones 28:05 Social Listening, KPIs, and What Broadcasters Actually See 31:58 Reach Over Impressions: Why She Won't Live and Die by the Data 35:42 Best Advice Received 39:16 Closing Thoughts

Alex Heriard-Dubreuil didn't set out to work in sports. He trained as a civil engineer in Paris, joined Merrill Lynch in the late nineties to invest in real estate across Europe, and spent a decade in London watching an asset class transform from a passive, collect-the-rent business into an actively managed one. In 2008 he moved to the real estate arm of the Arnault family office — the family behind LVMH — where he spent the next seventeen years, thirteen of them based in Hong Kong, building luxury-anchored mixed-use districts across Asia, North America, and Europe. What that platform taught him is the throughline of his entire career: real estate stops being about cash flow the moment you start paying attention to who actually uses the building. In this conversation with host Adam Grossman, Alex explains what mixed-use development genuinely means — and why it is not simply stacking an office on a hotel on a retail box. He walks through the metrics that decide whether a project pencils, from development yield margin to cap rates to the inflation and construction-cost pressures that kill otherwise sound deals. He makes the case for sports and entertainment real estate as an emerging asset class in its own right, explains why downtown revitalization has become the central North American opportunity, and describes the work of aligning team owners, city governments, developers, and capital around a single long-term vision. And he closes with the standard he applies to every deal: a project should still be thriving in thirty years, and it should deliver two returns — one to investors, and one to the community it sits in. 00:00 Welcome and introductions 00:59 Paris, civil engineering, and a first job at Merrill Lynch 03:17 Seventeen years with LVMH: Hong Kong, luxury, and mixed-use 06:14 Why real estate: a tangible asset and a people business 08:10 When real estate was passive 10:41 What "mixed-use" actually means 12:39 The metrics: development yield, cap rates 15:20 Geopolitics, curiosity, and the case for a global career 18:48 Has cross-border investing gotten easier in twenty-seven years? 21:18 What you can only learn on the ground 23:20 Asia after 2008: building for the luxury consumer 26:55 Retail's evolution and the speed of change in China 31:11 Thematic investing: tailwinds, data centers, and differentiation 33:47 Why Seregh — sports, entertainment, and an emerging asset class 37:10 Aligning team owners, cities, and capital 41:01 Stakeholders who want in but need a guide 46:53 What makes a good investment: two returns, not one 49:04 Closing thoughts

This week on ROAR we're re-running one of our favorite conversations of the season — our sit-down with Jason Wright. If you missed it the first time, it's essential listening on where women's sports, real estate, and revenue actually intersect. Most people still frame women's sports as a movement. Jason Wright runs a fund built on the opposite premise — that it's one of the most under-researched and undervalued asset classes in sports. In this episode, hosts Caroline Valvardi and Adam Grossman trace Wright's path from seven years as an NFL running back, through a labor lockout that became his first lesson in sports business, to McKinsey, the President's chair of the Washington Commanders, and now Project Level, the women's sports fund he launched with Melody Hobson at Ariel Investments. The conversation lands squarely where ROAR lives: the intersection of sports, real estate, and revenue. Wright breaks down the thesis driving Project Level — the modernization of men's sports that women's leagues can now draft on, two decades of family spending on girls' youth sports, and the "net-new fan" who never bought a men's ticket. From there the group digs into the economics of purpose-built women's stadiums, using naming rights to lower the cost of capital, and mixed-use districts that can out-earn the team next door. There's also a Northwestern reunion baked in: three Wildcats, two of them from the class of 2004, with Adam stepping into a dual host-and-guest role. 01:16 From NFL running back to franchise president 04:56 What Northwestern athletics taught them 09:36 NIL, the transfer portal & the leadership question 1 6:06 Why women's sports: the Ariel model & Melody Hobson 20:41 The thesis: three tailwinds & the "net-new fan" 26:52 Data, AI & closing the capability gap 34:28 Inside the LP base & diversifying the asset class 40:23 Purpose-built women's stadiums: the value case 45:11 Mixed-use districts & when real estate out-earns the team 48:44 The public-funding case for women's venues 49:59 What's next: leagues, youth sports & sleeper bets

When Thayer Lavielle set out to build a research practice around women as fans, athletes, and executives, the problem wasn't interpreting the data. It was that the data didn't exist. She describes searching for insight on women as insurance buyers and turning up a single study from 2003. Six years after launching The Collective in the wake of the U.S. women's national team's World Cup win, that gap has been filled with dozens of proprietary reports, a think tank spanning thirty academic researchers, and — by the organization's own accounting — close to a billion dollars in unlocked investment in women's sport, a figure Thayer suspects is conservative. In this conversation with host Caroline Valvardi, Thayer traces a career that ran through Paris, a New York newsroom, a French beauty conglomerate, and a NASCAR partnership before it ever touched sports strategy. She unpacks what a 15,000-respondent study across twelve countries revealed about the invisible logistical load women carry when booking live entertainment, why women athletes generate roughly twice the engagement of their male counterparts despite smaller followings, and how a decade of proprietary data is changing what AI can actually do for an agency. She also makes the case that the research itself is the flywheel: more data creates more conversation, more conversation attracts more capital, and more capital funds the next round of proof. 00:00 — Welcome and guest introduction00:18 — WNBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago01:20 — All-Star as a convening moment for all of women's sports02:15 — The research gap in women's sports science06:36 — Into PR, then L'Oréal — and the boss who named her gift07:50 — Lancôme: under-qualified, oversized, and figuring it out08:50 — Brands, talent, and the origins of The Collective10:24 — French and religion,12:23 — Launching The Collective in 201913:20 — Women drive the economy — so why is there no data?14:10 — One insurance study from 200315:09 — Building the think tank: ten universities to thirty professors15:50 — Reports as a credibility spine17:07 — Has demand for the research actually increased?18:40 — The flywheel20:18 — Nearly a billion dollars unlocked21:45 — AI as thought partner23:30 — A decade of proprietary data meets query24:00 — Double-checking and gut-checking everything24:45 — The live music study25:15 — Cultural nuance from Hong Kong to Singapore to Toledo26:20 — 83% of women do the booking26:45 — Two and a half hours a day of unseen labor28:45 — From cable TV to social29:14 — Connection, comparison, and what we haven't cracked30:34 — Athletes as creators, NIL, and playing to different strengths32:05 — The RBC study32:50 — How the pandemic became a proving ground33:30 — The virtual draft from Kathy Engelbert's living room34:33 — Five new leagues in one year35:41 — Reflecting on a career

We're revisiting one of the conversations from The ROAR Podcast that has held up best in the months since it aired — Caroline Valvardi's interview with Everett Sands, Founder and CEO of Lendistry. Lendistry is a mission-driven capital deployer that partners with Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Visa, Walmart, and government agencies (including LA County during the wildfire recovery) to move capital into small businesses and underserved communities. And over the last several years, they've built one of the most deliberate women's sports partnership portfolios in the country: the LA Sparks, Gotham FC, the Chicago Sky, and the Atlanta Dream. In this Best Of episode, Everett walks through why he compares the WNBA today to Formula 1 before Drive to Survive, how Lendistry uses transaction data — down to what hour a small business owner is uploading loan documents — to decide where to show up, and what it looks like to design mixed-use sports and entertainment districts so independent operators can actually compete inside them rather than exist beside them. The conversation also gets into the $85 trillion baby boomer wealth transfer, the growing share of new businesses started by women, the short window athletes have to convert peak earnings into long-term wealth, and Everett's own leadership philosophy — built around a North Star, technology as an equalizer, and a competitive streak he traces back to sports. 00:00 — Intro01:30 — Everett's Career Journey04:00 — What Lendistry Does06:30 — Origins of the Women's Sports Strategy09:00 — The WNBA as Pre-Drive to Survive Formula 111:00 — Investment vs. Philanthropy:13:00 — Building the Partnership Portfolio16:00 — Sports & Entertainment Districts19:00 — The Data Layer22:00 — The $85 Trillion Wealth Transfer25:00 — Athletes as Entrepreneurs28:00 — Business Spotlights31:00 — Leadership Philosophy34:00 — Close

For the first time, co-hosts Adam and Caroline record together — and they do it on location in Chicago at the WNBA All-Star Media & Innovation Summit, sitting courtside on Home Court, the new basketball facility at the Obama Presidential Center. It's a fitting backdrop: a purpose-built venue on a huge piece of developed land, capturing exactly where this show lives — the intersection of sports, real estate, and revenue. That word, purpose-built, becomes the thread through the whole conversation, because the story of women's sports right now isn't only about growth; it's about designing for it from the ground up. Adam and Caroline dig into why "pink it and shrink it" is the wrong playbook, and what it actually takes to build products, performance centers, and content made for women's sports rather than borrowed from the men's game. They get into the data behind the business case, why AI is still underinvested on the business side, what fans really want from athlete-creators (hint: not always the biggest names), and how you actually budget across talent, production, and research. Caroline brings the fan-and-communications lens, Adam brings the data-and-revenue one, and the line they keep returning to ties it together: this was never charity — it's good business, and the data can finally prove it. 00:00 — Cold open: what this episode is really about01:37 — Why this is the first combined episode, live on Home Court02:41 — Obama Center's long road from vision to venue03:49 — Why the WNBA Summit: the topics worth showing up for04:44 — Caroline's take: four All-Stars in05:17 — The data case and the science gap06:04 — "Pink it and shrink it": why purpose-built beats scaled-down07:08 — Playing, fandom, and a male-dominated industry07:53 — Empowerment as business case08:24 — Women in leadership and the coaching09:31 — BOA Construction and the women who built Home Court10:15 — Purpose-built performance centers 13:00 — AI and data: the business case,16:00 — Athletes as creators19:00 — Produced vs. organic 23:00 — Beyond the Summit: All-Star week26:00 — Chicago in the summer

Seth Rubinroit talked his way into NBA Summer League media credentials before he was old enough to drive — becoming, by his own account, one of the first credentialed reporters under 18 to cover the event. That early hustle, and the lesson underneath it, has defined a career that runs from a scrappy USC basketball website to a leadership role in audio and digital strategy at NBCUniversal. In this episode, Adam Grossman traces that arc with Seth: the Magic Johnson interview that taught him to earn someone's time, the "everything is sales" instinct that carried him from college sponsorships to pitching NBC executives, and the London 2012 logging internship that got a peacock in his title for good. The back half gets into the business. Seth breaks down how he sold audio to NBC leadership on reach rather than revenue, why the arrival of video rewrote the entire economic model of podcasting, and how the smartest shows super-serve a specific audience instead of chasing high-profile talent. He and Adam dig into the data behind launching a 30-plus-show slate, whether there's a real audience for sports business content, how AI tools like Riverside and WSC are quietly reshaping production, and what teaching at USC ahead of LA28 has taught him about how the next generation actually consumes content. 00:00 — Welcome00:47 — Credentialed at 12: the NBA Summer League origin story05:08 — The Magic Johnson interview and the lesson that stuck08:56 — Beating the gatekeepers: distribution before social media10:18 — USC, a business degree, and the #1 USC basketball site15:50 — "Everything is sales": the skill that carried his career18:32 — The London 2012 logging internship 20:35 — Universal Sports Network to the NBC Olympic team22:39 — Pitching audio: selling reach over revenue24:59 — When video changed the revenue math29:46 — Building a 30-show slate: audience over talent35:16 — AI in production: Riverside, WSC, and freeing up the humans41:07 — Teaching at USC, LA28 GUEST BIO  Seth Rubinroit leads audio and digital strategy at NBCUniversal, where he oversees more than thirty shows. He began his career as a teenage sports journalist, reporting alongside his brother Sam and becoming one of the first credentialed media members under 18 to cover the NBA Summer League, with bylines in outlets like Sports Illustrated for Kids and Time for Kids. A graduate of USC's Marshall School of Business, he founded what became the most-read USC basketball website while in college. He began his professional career at Universal Sports Network before joining NBC, where he worked the London, Rio, and Pyeongchang Olympics and went on to build the company's podcast slate. He has served on the board of the Podcast Academy, helped launch the CNBC Sport Podcast, and teaches a course on multiplatform Olympic and Paralympic storytelling at USC. He is also a judge for the Sports Business Journal Awards.