Troy Kirby is the owner and creator of The Tao of Sports podcast. He is also a new member of the ALSD Board of Directors. The summary discusses Kirby's background in college athletics ticketing and sports business, his admiration for Rory Babich of the Florida Panthers for doing the "right thing" even when criticized, and his work overseeing a new ALSD general ticketing group to bring together different voices and ideas from various sports industries.

1. Industry and Association News: ALSD member highlight
A Conversation with Troy Kirby
Owner and Creator
The Tao of Sports Podcast
New ALSD Board of Directors Member
By Jared Frank, Editorial Director, ALSD
This college athletics ticketing director and regular
contributor to SEAT Magazine has been de-scribed
as the Bill James of ticket sales. One of the
smartest guys in sports you may have never heard
of before and the newest ALSD Board of Direc-tors
member discusses not being afraid of progress
in the face of ridicule, being a thought leader, and
overseeing a new general ticketing group within
the ALSD.
SEAT: There are still some folks who don’t
know who you are. What do you want the
ALSD membership to know about you?
Troy: Well, I’ve been in college athletics for
about ten years. I also spent two years at a mi-nor
league soccer team. I love sports business.
I love college athletics. I love the idea of being
able to figure out new ways to sell customers
what they want as well as achieve the goals of
the business.
Whether it is writing for SEAT or other
publications, I enjoy pushing the conversa-tion
forward. Sometimes we get mired down
in the idea that no one wants to hear what we
have to say, everyone already knows what we
have to say, or if we do say something, it’s go-ing
to be ridiculed. It bothers me that we keep
to ourselves and are reclusive when it comes
to sharing ideas.
People have always beaten down things
when they weren’t the mass idea. If there’s
something I’m going to be criticized for, it’s
going to be trying something new.
SEAT: Who is a current sports executive that
you admire and why?
Troy: One person that I admire right now in
our business is [CEO and President] Rory
Babich at the Florida Panthers. That man has
my respect. The reason why is instead of doing
wrong things continuously, the Panthers did
the right thing even if it costs them. They no
longer are giving away free tickets like mad,
and now they have 7,000 people showing up
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in their building.
Everyone, including the media, is ridiculing
them because there are empty seats. But they
are doing the right thing according to busi-ness
practices. I applaud it. They’re no longer
doing a disservice to their season ticket hold-ers
and those stakeholders who are heavily
invested in the team. Even though it’s a hard
thing, it’s the right thing.
SEAT: Tell us more about the new ticketing
group that you’re working on for the ALSD.
Troy: There are teams that do not separate
regular ticketing from premium seating. This
group primarily exists in minor leagues, many
colleges, and burgeoning groups such as soc-cer
and rugby. We have been asked by people
in these groups to provide content for both
sectors to help justify the time and expense
to attend the ALSD Conference. I have been
brought in to oversee the content develop-ment
for this new general ticketing area.
The new group is a way to talk about issues
on the forefront. It also addresses the issue of
how do you keep training and how do you
keep developing? New training aspects come
all the time. To me, this is an opportunity to
bring together a lot of different voices, to have
many cooks in the kitchen.
Especially in San Francisco, we have the
unique opportunity with a lot of MLS teams
on the West Coast; we have a lot of minor
league baseball teams; and of course we have
a lot of professional teams, and not only in
California, but in the Pacific Northwest and
the Rocky Mountain regions.
My point is that we have an opportunity
to bring in a lot of executives and seek out,
whether it is in colleges or the pros, the nu-ances
to developing revenue streams. It’s
not going to work one-size-fits-all, which is
where best practices typically fail. It’s going to
bring in multiple ideas.
SEAT: What problems within the industry
are you hoping to overcome with the new
ticketing group?
Troy: We are in a sense built on a culture
of fear. We’re fearful that others are going
to know what we’re doing; we’re fearful that
we’re going to exchange ideas that work for
them but not for us; or we’re fearful that we
might get marginalized within the industry.
Instead, by coming together, whether you’re
selling hockey, baseball, football, golf, doesn’t
matter, it all comes down to the same thing:
what is it that sells to the customer and how
do we make sure that the customer is getting
exactly what they want, as well as the fact that
“The problem that we
have right now is some
people do things, and other
people wait to see if they’re
successful. Shouldn’t we all
be attempting to do new and
different things all the time?”

2. Industry and Association News: ALSD member highlight
we have to respect price points and we have to
respect new technology.
The problem that we have right now is
some people do things, and other people wait
to see if they’re successful. Shouldn’t we all be
attempting to do new and different things all
the time? If you look at industries that do the
same old things, within 10 to 20 years, they
start to fail. So we have to figure out ways and
come together as a group to discuss those ways
of how to develop a better system of driving
revenue and getting new customers over time.
SEAT: On the college level, what positions
within athletic departments should be mem-bers
of this group?
Troy: The attendees should even be those
working for a third-party in outbound sales.
The Associate AD level would also benefit.
SEAT: What are a few up-to-date strategies
that are working right now?
Troy: The term analytics gets misused. What
it needs to be is connected. It relates to mak-ing
sure that every single data point is con-nected
so I know exactly how much you’re
willing to spend at all times so that I can tailor
the best package for you.
It’s not unlike what the casino industry
does. One of the things the casino industry
knows is exactly how much I’m worth when I
walk into a building. They assess that through
player cards. Everything is through that play-er
card. If you go to the buffet, you get extra
points if you use your player card. All these
types of data points create a customer profile
of who you are, what you’re willing to spend,
and your spending history. If we’re at the fore-front
of that type of workflow, it’s going to be
one of the most successful things we’ve done.
A few years ago, early adopters were ridi-culed
for dynamic ticket pricing; now every-one
is doing it. I think in a few years, you’re
going to see everyone jumping on board ana-lytics.
SEAT: Analytics has become a buzzword.
Some people throw the word around without
fully understanding it. How can we as an in-dustry
ensure that the right people are filling
analytics roles?
Troy: There are caveats to that. One is you
cannot simply go outside the industry because
some of those people have never sold the
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product. You can’t sell a product if you don’t
have knowledge of how that product is sold.
You need to have a sales acumen before you
can go further.
I look at this as a sports ecosystem, the rev-enue
ecosystem, where everything feeds off of
each other. The problem is that too often we
have pockets of resistance because they never
grew up experiencing them. But it doesn’t
mean that those segmentations can’t be edu-cated
or don’t want to become educated. I
think there are a lot of people that want to
do the right thing and want to be a part of
analytics.
SEAT: Away from selling tickets, what keeps
you well-rounded?
Troy: You have to have interests outside of
what you normally do. It’s great to be con-sumed
by sports business, or whatever you
do, but if you just do that one thing 24-7, you
burn out from it. I like to ride my bike. I’m a
movie connoisseur. I love going to indepen-dent
movies and reading books.
SEAT: You went on quite the sports business
journey this past summer. Tell us where you
went and a few of the takeaways.
Troy: I called it Kirbypalooza. It was certainly
interesting. It’s amazing how many people
you can connect with if you meet with them
face-to-face. People like to talk about social
media and phone calls, but when you meet
people face-to-face, it’s a whole different ball-game
because of the adventures that you have.
In Australia, there were so many things
that were bizarre and off-the-cuff. But I met
so many genuine people. Then two days later I
flew to Kansas City and met this crazy group
of people at the ALSD Conference. I found
it completely wild how well I was treated and
the parties of the year that happen.
Then I went straight from [Kansas City]
to Las Vegas to hang out with ticket brokers,
who get absolutely no respect in this indus-try
from the primary market even though the
majority of the time, they drive a heck of a
lot of money for the primary market. Through
all of these adventures, along with NACDA
(National Association of Collegiate Directors
of Athletics), it’s amazing how many relation-ships
you build. It was something that I’ll al-ways
take with me.
SEAT: For those who aren’t familiar, fill us in
on the details of your podcast (www.sportstao.
com).
Troy: I’ve done over 400 episodes. I celebrated
the two-year anniversary on October 22nd.
It’s up to 17,000-20,000 listeners per month
with all the different channels. I’ll keep doing
it as long as it’s pushing the conversation for-ward,
people find delight in it, and no one has
told me it’s absolutely ridiculous. I am liked
enough right now that the trolls don’t focus
on me.
If it brings up the conversation, that’s what
matters. The conversation should matter more
than who gets credit for it. People who worry
about credit usually deserve none.
SEAT: How often does the podcast air?
Troy: Three times a week. I always post it at
midnight on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fri-days.
SEAT: What’s the ultimate goal that you’re
trying to accomplish with all this – the travels,
the podcast, etc.?
Troy: My goal is to say that I was able to push
the industry forward. I never limit myself to a
specific job or think that I need to be an AD
or a team president or any of that nonsense.
I’d rather be the best person, best employee,
and best thought leader that I can be wherever
I am.
Want to network with Troy?
Here’s His Business Card:
Troy Kirby
Owner and Creator
The Tao of Sports Podcast
Twitter: @sportstao
troy@sportstao.com
“It’s amazing how many
people you can connect
with if you meet with them
face-to-face. People like
to talk about social media
and phone calls, but when
you meet people face-to-face,
it’s a whole different
ballgame.”