This biographical article is written like a résumé .(August 2022) |
John Collins is an American professional sports executive, who has served as operating partner of the NY Islanders since Jun 2023. He is also chief executive officer of On Location Experiences, an experiential hospitality business and the official hospitality partner of the National Football League (NFL). Collins is a member of the board of directors of Super Group Holding Company (parent of sports betting company, Betway and online casino company Spin.) Collins was a founder of Sports Entertainment Acquisition Company, a SPAC which merged with Super Group in a way to take it public. Collins previously served as chief operating officer of the National Hockey League (NHL), [1] which was named "Sports League of the Year" by the SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily in 2014 and 2011. [2] Before joining the NHL, he was a senior executive with the NFL and the president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Browns.
Collins invested in the NY Islanders [3] and became operating partner in June 2023. Collins is responsible for overseeing the team's business operations.
Super Group Holding Company/SEAC
Collins was chief executive officer of Special Purpose Acquisition Company "Sports Entertainment [4] Acquisition Company". Through SEAC the SPAC took Super Group Limited public in January 2022. Collins currrenty sits on the board of directors.
Collins joined On Location Experiences (OLE) in December 2015. [5] According to a recent press release, “On Location is a partner to over 150 rights holders including the NFL, NCAA, the PGA of America and the United States Tennis Association.” [6] Through its music divisions, CID Entertainment and Future Beat, On Location “also partners with numerous artists and music festivals, including Imagine Dragons, Metallica, Luke Bryan’s Crash My Playa and Electric Daisy Carnival.” [7]
Since 2015, Collins has overseen the company's expansion from a $35M, four-person, single event entity (formerly NFL On Location) to one now with over $600M in annual revenues across 150 rights holder partnerships and 500 employees across 8 offices. [8] Collins has led OLE's rapid growth through acquisitions and deep strategic partnership ventures that have positioned On Location Experiences as a leading experiential hospitality business serving fans in sports, music and entertainment.
As part of the company's growth strategy and to differentiate OLE in the marketplace, Collins led the acquisitions of Anthony Travel, Kreate Inc., a leading full-service live creative concept, production and entertainment firm. OLE also entered into a joint venture with Ricky Kirshner of Kirshner Events, one of the entertainment industry's preeminent event producers. [9] Most notably, in December 2017 On Location acquired PrimeSport, its strongest competitor and a leader in providing direct access to some of the biggest events in sports and entertainment. [10] This deal created significant scale for On Location Experiences by expanding its platform of services and creating a combined company with rights to 150 teams, leagues and events. [11] Through the deal with PrimeSport, On Location also acquired CID Entertainment, a hospitality leader in the live music and festival industry. [12] In October 2018, On Location expanded its offerings in the music industry through the acquisition of Future Beat, a leading provider of VUIP concert experiences for the live music industry. [13]
In 2019, Collins led the launch of On Location's first-ever Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest, a three-night concert series featuring some of the biggest names in music including Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Post Malone, Aerosmith, Migos and more and brought in over 41,000 guests to State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia over the three nights. [14]
The first major event under Collins’ leadership at OLE was Super Bowl LI, held in Houston on Feb. 5, 2017. The wide array of hospitality events — which included concerts, pregame and postgame parties, and other high-end opportunities for fans to experience the NFL's biggest event of the year — was positively received by critics.
As the NHL's chief operating officer beginning in August 2008, Collins was the architect of a brand and business strategy that helped transform the NHL and drove unprecedented levels of popularity and financial growth over the past decade. His strategic vision for the NHL brand focused on three pillars: build national scale for a sport, business and fan base that has been historically more tribal than other leagues; foster innovation and deploy the latest technology to create the best content for fans across new and multiple platforms; and expand the League's reach in North America and new international markets through innovative and strategic partnerships.
Collins was responsible for strategic leadership for all of the league's global business, media, marketing, sales, broadcast and digital media operations while working closely with the 30 clubs to support their ticketing, media and business operations. Joining the NHL in 2006, Collins became senior executive vice president, business and media, in May 2007. During Collins' tenure, the league grew from a $2B to a $4B industry, with national businesses averaging 18% annual revenue growth and 28% annual operating profit growth.
At the forefront of the league's growth, Collins' accomplishments include the negotiation of a $2.2B media rights deal in 2011 with NBC, a $5.2B landmark rights agreement in 2013 with Rogers - the largest media deal in League and Canadian history - and a groundbreaking $1B digital media rights partnership in 2015 with Major League Baseball Advanced Media.
Chicago Blackhawks owner and chairman Rocky Wirtz said, "We’re going to add another billion dollars in gross revenue in the very near future. The CBA is long-term [10 years, with opt-outs for the league and players after eight], and now the focus is on growth. I’m extremely happy about the future of the NHL." [15]
During his tenure, Collins has led many new programming and technology initiatives, including the Winter Classic and Stadium Series outdoor games, which have played to sold-out football and baseball stadiums across the country, popular collaborations with HBO around all-access "24/7" series, the launch of the popular GameCenter LIVE streaming game subscription product and the introduction and launch of the NHL Network to 50 million U.S. homes. In conjunction with the NHL Players Association, Collins led the development of and negotiations for the "World Cup of Hockey" to be played in Toronto in September 2016 with participation from 15 international federations. In September 2015, the NHL and Adidas, Fanatics and Outer Stuff announced a new $1B consumer products model designed to better and more directly serve NHL fans. [16]
Prior to joining the NHL, Collins spent 15 years with the National Football League. As senior vice president of marketing and sales for the NFL, Collins led all marketing, programming, sponsorship, and advertising sales functions and was a key member of the team that launched the NFL Network. He negotiated billions of dollars of marketing and advertising deals, including a landmark, 10-year, $1.2 billion league-wide deal with PepsiCo. [17]
Collins was president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Browns from 2004 to 2006. Starting in 2002 with the inauguration of the "NFL Kickoff" celebration at Times Square, he steered the NFL's focus toward big events, ultimately increasing NFL sponsorships by $1.9 billion, and doubled annual corporate sponsorship revenues to more than $200 million in 14 months. He also presided over the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show featuring U2. These successes led to Advertising Age naming him one of America's top 50 marketers in 2003.
Collins began his career in professional sports with NFL Films, where he helped introduce programming such as HBO's Hard Knocks and Inside the NFL . Collins later teamed up with HBO Sports and its 24/7 reality franchise to develop "24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic," [18] which won a Sports Emmy Award for "Outstanding Edited Sports Special" in May 2011. The program is now repeated annually for every Winter Classic.
In February 2011, Collins negotiated a sponsorship deal for Coors to become the official beer of the NHL -- MillerCoors in the United States and MolsonCoors in Canada. Worth $375 million over seven years, The New York Times called it the biggest corporate sponsorship in N.H.L. history, noting, "For the N.H.L., the new beer sponsorship demonstrates its progress in recent years, especially in reaching young, affluent, technologically savvy fans who love their ice-cold suds." [19]
In November 2013, Collins led the NHL negotiations to partner with Rogers Communications for exclusive rights to broadcast all national hockey telecasts in Canada. Estimated to more than double its Canadian television revenue, the 12-year deal is worth $5.2 billion. [20]
The largest media rights arrangement in NHL history – and the largest ever sports-media deal ever in Canada – it kicked off in the 2014–15 season and run through the 2025–26 season. [21]
In 2007, Collins spearheaded the development of the NHL Winter Classic, played outdoors on New Year's Day, with NBC Sports executive Jon Miller, who told The Boston Globe that the key to making the game successful was "Collins’s vision, energy, and passion." [22] The Classic's success earned Collins Marketer of the Year by Advertising Age Magazine. [23] Sports Illustrated columnist Dan Shaughnessy said of the new Winter Classic, "now hockey owns New Year's Day the way baseball owns the Fourth of July and football owns Thanksgiving." [24] Sports Business Journal named the NHL Winter Classic the 2008 "Event of the Year." [25] Revenues for the 2010 Classic, played between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers, were expected to generate $8 million in ticket sales at Fenway Park and $3 million in ad sales for NBC. [26]
The Sports Network (TSN) is a Canadian English language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by CTV Specialty Television, owned jointly by Bell Media (70%) and ESPN Inc. (30%), itself a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. TSN was established by the Labatt Brewing Company in 1984 as part of the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels. In 2013, TSN was the largest specialty channel in Canada in terms of gross revenue, with a total of CA$400.4 million in revenue.
Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then was required to divest its stake in the network following its 2001 acquisition of competing network TSN. Rogers then became the sole owner of Sportsnet in 2004 after it bought the remaining minority stake that was held by Fox.
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its dedicated national sports cable channels. Formerly operating as "a service of NBC News", it broadcasts a diverse array of sports events, including the Premier League, the IndyCar Series, NASCAR, the National Football League (NFL), the NBA, Notre Dame football, Big Ten football and basketball, the Olympic Games, professional golf, the Tour de France, Thoroughbred racing, and the WNBA among others. Other programming from outside producers – such as coverage of the Ironman Triathlon – is also presented on the network through NBC Sports. With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, its own cable sports networks were aligned with NBC Sports into a part of the division known as the NBC Sports Group.
Fox Sports, stylized in all caps, is the sports programming division of the Fox Corporation that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Fox Sports 2 (FS2), and the Fox Sports Radio network.
Sports in the United States are an important part of the nation's culture. Historically, the national sport has been baseball. However, in more recent decades, American football has been the most popular sport in terms of broadcast viewership audience. Basketball has grown into the mainstream American sports scene since the 1980s, with ice hockey and soccer doing the same around the turn of the 21st century.
Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada traditionally include four leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL). Other prominent leagues include Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Canadian Football League (CFL).
The 2008 NHL Winter Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played in the National Hockey League (NHL) on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson Stadium near Buffalo, New York. It was the league's inaugural Winter Classic game, and was contested between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres; the Penguins won, 2–1, in a shootout on a goal by captain Sidney Crosby. The event was the NHL's second outdoor regular season game, and the first outdoor regular season professional ice hockey game to be played in the United States. Due to the snowy conditions, the game was at the time colloquially referred to as the "Ice Bowl" by residents of the area and Sabres' fans. The event was sponsored by AMP Energy, and was televised in the United States on NBC and in Canada on CBC and RDS.
The NHL Winter Classic is an annual outdoor ice hockey game played during the National Hockey League's (NHL) regular season on or around New Year's Day. It is generally held in a football or baseball stadium in the United States in an area with a resident NHL team, though for most of the game's existence, they are usually played in a baseball stadium to avoid scheduling and logistical conflicts with football stadiums during the National Football League regular season. The Winter Classic is distinct from the league's two other series of outdoor games, the NHL Heritage Classic and the NHL Stadium Series. The first Winter Classic was held in 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins. Fifteen Winter Classics have been held as of January 2024. The most recent game was played during the 2023–24 NHL season at T-Mobile Park, with the Seattle Kraken defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 3−0.
In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.
The National Hockey League has never fared as well on American television in comparison to the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, or the National Football League, although that has begun to change, with NBC's broadcasts of the final games of the 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 Stanley Cup Finals scoring some of the best ratings ever enjoyed by the sport on American television.
The 2011 Heritage Classic was a regular season outdoor National Hockey League (NHL) game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames. The game was played at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on February 20, 2011. The Flames defeated the Canadiens by a score of 4–0 before a crowd of 41,022 spectators. It was just the second time in six NHL outdoor games that the home team won.
Jim Steeg is an American sports executive. He is considered throughout the National Football League (NFL) as the individual most responsible for growing the Super Bowl into the most popular one-day sporting event in the world.
Infront Sports & Media is a sports marketing company based in Zug, Switzerland. The company handles the media and marketing rights for international sports events and federations and also provides sports services - such as advertising, sponsorship and hospitality. It represents all seven Olympic winter sport federations, several summer sport organizations and manages media rights for the FIS World Cup Events. Infront was created in late 2002 through the integration of CWL, Prisma and KirchSportAG.
Jeffrey Ajluni is the senior vice president, corporate partnerships, for the Major League Soccer club D.C. United in Washington, D.C., having joined the team in September 2021. Ajluni leads all partnership development and partner activation and services for the team. Prior to joining DC United he was senior vice president of strategic partnerships and business development for the US Travel Association in Washington, D.C. Ajluni oversaw all new business growth for the association, with a focus on developing partnerships and alliances that strategically benefit the U.S. travel industry.
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News", it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others. Assets currently include among others Golf Channel and NBC Sports Regional Networks.
Fanatics, Inc. is a global digital sports platform that consists of several businesses, including licensed sports merchandise, trading cards and collectibles, sports betting and iGaming, special events, and live commerce.
DraftKings Inc. is an American gambling company. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, it offers sportsbook and daily fantasy sports (DFS) services.
Since 2000, the CBC has aired an annual special Hockey Day in Canada broadcast to celebrate the game in Canada. The broadcast includes hockey-related features all afternoon, leading up to a tripleheader of NHL action featuring the seven Canadian teams. One exception was the 2008 edition that featured four games including two American teams along with the six Canadian teams; this was due to the NHL's schedule format at the time, as there was no inter-conference games between Canadian teams. Lead commentators, Don Cherry and Ron MacLean broadcast from a remote area. The broadcast includes live broadcast segments from smaller communities right across the country and features panel discussions on issues facing "Canada's game" at both the minor and pro levels. The day is usually in mid-February, but was broadcast in early January in 2002 and 2006 due to the 2002 Winter Olympics and 2006 Winter Olympics, respectively; the 2007 event was also held in January, though no sporting events key to Canada were scheduled.
Brett Yormark is the fifth and current commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, a position he has held since August 1, 2022. Yormark has a diverse professional background in sports and entertainment, having held top positions at Katz Sports, NASCAR, Palace Sports & Entertainment, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, and NBA. He was formerly the chief executive officer of Roc Nation. Prior to that, he served as chief executive officer of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, where he oversaw the business operations of the Brooklyn Nets organization, the Barclays Center, the New York Islanders, New York Liberty, Nassau Coliseum, and the Nets' minor team Long Island Nets.