By Jacob Feldman
Sports Business Reporter
You don’t need to work for a digital media company to know that the internet fundamentally changed in 2023. Elon Musk’s destruction of Twitter in the name of X, followed by the growth of several text-based social media competitors, altered the way news is spread and discussed online. Exponentially expanding amounts of bot-generated text will only disrupt things further in 2024.
“Following” will take on new meaning this year, as consumers will be forced to juggle multiple platforms to keep up with the dispatches and perspectives of their preferred sports business experts. Here are some of my favorite sports business voices, with an emphasis on independent ones and those you might not already be tailing (please no hard feelings if I absentmindedly forgot about you or your parasocial besties).
Good Game: Focused on a specific part of the sports business, Melissa Jacobs’ youth sports-focused newsletter is a must for those working in the industry or raising young athletes.
House of Strauss: One of two entries with a paywall in this category has earned my subscription with a series of thought-provoking (if sometimes contrarian) essays on a wide variety of topics related to sports business—and sports business culture.
Power Plays: A valuable mix of exclusive reporting and news commentary on the growth—and hurdles facing—women’s sports, from Lindsay Gibbs.
Profluence Sports: Andrew Petcash covers everything from pickleball to India’s sports business trajectory.
Sports Pundit: A twice-weekly, continents-spanning, often forward-looking monitoring of what’s new in sports.
Joe Pompliano: Digestible, weekly breakdowns of some of sports businesses’ biggest topics.
Pablo Torre Finds Out: Often light-hearted conversations on sportswashing, digital media and a lot, lot more still prove to be consistently educational.
Search Party: A new independent journalism project offers a compelling mix of geopolitical and global sports explainers.
The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast: This feed figures to be changing substantially following John Ourand’s move to Puck. But both hosts are worth listening to, wherever you find them, and hey, at least the archive is still up?
The Price of Football: Finance lecturer Kieran Maguire and comedian Kevin Day cover the business intricacies of European soccer, from player appearance fees to amortization caps.
The Work in Sports Podcast: Brian Clapp just hit 300 episodes on his show devoted to helping those looking to break into the sports industry.
Alan Shipnuck: The PGA-LIV love/hate relationship was one of the biggest sports stories of 2023; golf’s future will remain top of mind in 2024, making the Fire Pit Collective executive editor a must-read.
Alex Azzi: There is a ton going on in women’s sports, with multiple new leagues launching and others reaching new levels of popularity. Azzi is among the best at staying on top of it all, and offering insightful commentary along the way.
The Collectibles Guru and Paul Lesko: I’m generally wary of self-proclaimed gurus, but both of these experts are worth following if you’re trying to keep track of product launches—and patent lawsuits—in the evolving sports card category.
Jess Smith: Stewart-Haas Racing’s VP of brand and digital strategy consistently highlights the best social content being put out by sports brands.
Jon Wilner: The conference formerly known as the Pac-12 figures to continue being an epicenter for the earthquake shaking up college sports; Wilner has been covering it as well as anyone for years.
Julia Alexander: Alexander brings an expertise of the evolving world of streaming service businesses to her musings on the role sports will play for entertainment companies of the future.
Field of Schemes: Stadiums and arenas—can’t play with ‘em, can’t play without ‘em, amirite?
Paul Lukas: The creator of Uni Watch just announced that he’s hanging up his jersey watchdog stirrups this spring. I can’t wait to see what his obsessive eyes turn to next.
Professor Simon Chadwick: This Paris-based professor keeps an eye on the biggest sports stories from around the world, with a new book coming this year on the geopolitical economy of global football.
Sports TV Ratings: Robert Seidman delivers exactly what his account claims to offer, and it’s always interesting.
Swiss Ramble: Another international entry for those interested in the intricacies of owning a soccer team.
Tyler Webb: Expect this category to be larger next year, but for now Webb has shown how to produce popular sports business content as he closes in on 150,000 followers.
And of course, make sure to follow Sportico (if you’re reading this, you’re probably already getting our newsletters!) on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts, and X.
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