I'll admit it: sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. I mean, knowing what I know now, and having an opportunity to begin all over again? It’s kind of enticing, right?

Damon Dukakis is experiencing this sensation in real time. As the VP of Integrated Partnerships for the Pac-12 powered by Playfly, Damon is, in effect, wiping that slate clean and starting again.

The story of the Pac-12 over the last few years is essentially that of the Phoenix. The one time Conference of Champions cratered in the era of re-alignment, as high profile members fled to what they perceived as richer pastures. Left with just 2 members, the Pac-12 was more or less left for dead. But from those ashes, a reinvigorated Pac-12 rose anew. Now with nine members, the conference restarts football competition this Fall.

Dukakis’ job is to sell a new vision for the Pac-12 to corporate partners, and no one is better prepared to the meet the moment than he is. Dukakis is both a college sports and partnerships lifer. He’s managed business development for schools and properties including Cal, UCLA and the Rose Bowl. He’s worked for every major MMR partner including IMG College, Learfield, JMI and now Playfly. And over the years he’s produced and managed literally hundreds of millions of dollars in partnerships.

In our conversation, Damon and I talk about what goes into building the Pac12 partnerships program and department from scratch. We go into what drew him to the opportunity, the reception to his initial outreaches regarding the reconstituted conference, and how he’s had to adjust his own skills and style to address this rapidly shifting and supremely chaotic college sports marketplace.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

YOUR HOST

Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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Good Sports

00:01

Dave Almy

Okay, Damon Dukakis, you have a ridiculous college sports and partnerships resume, right? Probably one of the most comprehensive. Right. Because look, you've represented schools like everything from SAC State to Portland State to Cal and ucla, the Rose Bowl. Your experience with MMR background is nuts. ISP a little bit. IMG College, Learfield, jmi. Now play fly. Right. So I'm sure you've had opportunities to go to the pros and things like that other places. So what keeps you coming back to college sports again and again?

00:39

Damon Dukakis

I just have always felt passionate about college sports. When I first got into this industry, I actually planned to coach and coached at the high school and then the junior college level.

00:50

Dave Almy

What sport?

00:51

Damon Dukakis

And football. Okay. And when I was coaching, I think that's when I first started to get exposed to. To major Division 1 football because I went to UC Santa Barbara. Great school, fun school, Go gauche. Not a rah school. Right, right. And at the time I was there, soccer hadn't established itself yet and basketball was. Was down.

01:11

Dave Almy

And in fairness, the school has its own surf break, so, like, there's distractions to the athletics thing, so I get it.

01:19

Damon Dukakis

But it was definitely not that. It was coming out of that. When I started coaching and went to a handful of college games and really just kind of picked up the buzz. I started to get to know a lot of college football coaches during that time as well that were coming through. Like Pat Fitzgerald is now the head coach at Michigan State, was the linebacker coach at University of Idaho, you know, just trying to find a few good men that wanted to come up to Moscow to play ball, you know, and.

01:41

Dave Almy

Just not an easy sell.

01:43

Damon Dukakis

Not an easy sell. So just, you know, getting connected with. With those guys going and seeing some. Some games, I just really quickly, you know, got excited about the. Just the atmosphere. It's a vibe college game, it's different. You know, the band, the cheer, the tailgating. I mean, it's. I grew up in the Northeast where college sports was not a thing. And you know, the New York Giants were kind of the team where I grew up and. But it's just a different vibe going to a college game. And I just. I very quickly just got kind of juiced up about that vibe, that atmosphere. And I've never really thought about leaving the college space. I've had conversations with folks at the pros. I know I have a lot of friends that have moved on to the pro level. I get it.

02:23

Damon Dukakis

I see the appeal, but it's just never been something that's really been high priority for me.

02:29

Dave Almy

I love college athletics, and until you've gone to a major college football game, like, you know, you and I have been around this industry for a long time, but it never ceases to amaze me when you walk into something you have a lot of familiarity with, like college football. It's exciting and things like that. And I was in Athens, Georgia, last year, and I took my daughter to see a Georgia Bulldogs game. And, you know, it's just. It's just different. It's just different. Like, the whole town is there and is doing it there. There's not one person who's not vested in what's going on. It's just different. There's no other way to describe it.

03:05

Damon Dukakis

It is. I mean, clearly, the SEC is a different level down there. Big Ten is also. I mean, and. And it's expanding.

03:13

Dave Almy

Yeah. Shout out Shelby Wright from Learfield for those tickets. Thanks very much, Shelby. Appreciate that. So now your newest role is with the PAC12. You've had a close relationship with PAC12 commissioner Teresa Gould for a long time. How did she pitch this opportunity to you? Because the PAC 12 has gone through, which we'll get into some interesting twists and turns over the last few years. So how did she pitch this?

03:43

Damon Dukakis

04:16

Damon Dukakis

But over the course of that time, you know, as once it was determined that the pactol was coming back and adding new members, when she and I would get together and just talk about it. Every time we had the conversations, I just started to get excited about it. Like, this is really cool. You know, the Pac 12 has over 100 years of history, and it's really a neat deal that it's coming back, because the west coast needs a good, strong. I shouldn't say the West Coast. The western United States needs a strong, you know, conference to get behind. And so she didn't really pitch me on anything. It was just. As we talked, I got Excited about the idea of coming to the PAC 12.

04:58

Damon Dukakis

And then completely independently of that, a friend of mine that works at Playfly reached out and said, hey, I think we are getting the rights to the PAC 12. Is that something you would be interested in? And I just started laughing. I said, well, you wouldn't know this, but you know, for the past whatever year or two, I've been sort of getting intrigued by the idea of working with the PAC 12.

05:17

Dave Almy

Yeah. You've been talking with Therese and sort of seeing what she was doing and.

05:20

Damon Dukakis

Absolutely kind of happened organically that way. So I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time and know the right people and Boy network. Hard not to get excited about the Pac 12 coming back.

05:34

Dave Almy

Yeah. So this is a unique opportunity, right. Relaunching the Pac 12. It's an established brand and like you said, it looked like it was more or less done just a couple of years ago. So lots of equity. Like the PAC12's name still has a lot of resonance, but probably some confusion. Confusion about status and what's happening. I mean, obviously we're close to it, so we see what's happening. We kind of read about it every day. But you know, people out in the marketing community might be like, wait, what? So can you talk a little bit about your own initial go to market steps? How does one take a property that has all that name recognition but it has fundamentally changed? What did you feel like you needed to do first?

06:17

Damon Dukakis

Yeah, and I think I'm still figuring that out in real time. You know, we joke and call the conference 110 year old startup. Right. Because we really are starting. Starting over again. Yeah. I mean there were a lot of things that during the course of that two year gap ceased to exist and obviously staff was reduced and now it's being built back up. But it does feel like we're in startup mode because we're rolling out a lot of new things. So, you know, I had my own perceptions of what the PAC 12 was and is. And the one thing I think universally has believed is there are a lot of people out there that love the Pac 12. Sure. And love its history. And it is the conference of champions.

07:00

Damon Dukakis

07:30

Dave Almy

Sure.

07:31

Damon Dukakis

But, you know, I think I probably took for granted that everybody knew that the Pac 12 was coming back and who was in the Pac 12 and when the Pac 12 was going to, you know, resume competition. But I quickly learned that was not the case. I had to do. And I'm still community. I have to do a good amount of educating. Because when you think about it, I started in January and January is still college basketball season. So all of our member schools were still competing in either the West Coast Conference or the Mountain west or the Sun Belt, and they had not really joined the PAC12 yet. So I'm presenting the PAC12.

08:00

Dave Almy

No, no.

08:01

Damon Dukakis

Trust me, they're coming that are not even in the PAC 12. Right. So when I would talk to people, you know, when I would say things like, yeah, Gonzaga is coming, to a lot of people that was news. They had no idea that Gonzaga was coming, you know, that all the Mountain west schools were coming. It was news to a lot of people. So there was absolutely a level of education that needed to take place. So check that box. But the other thing is figuring out what is the go to market strategy with the PAC 12. Because if you look at a map, we are the Pacific Northwest to Texas. We've got four schools in the Northwest with Washington State, Oregon State, Gonzaga and Boise State. Then you've got two schools in the Mountain region with Utah State and Colorado State.

08:43

Damon Dukakis

You've got two schools in California with San Diego State and Fresno State. And then you've got Texas State in San Marcos between Austin and San Antonio. It's a big geographic footprint. And prior to this, I had worked on college campuses for 25 years. I'm used to approaching Sacramento businesses about Sacramento, Louisiana businesses about ucla and some national companies that want to associate with a brand. Well, where does the Pac 12 fit into that? There is no local companies to call on unless you then go market by market. And then when you talk to national companies, we are a more national brand, a national footprint, but it's certainly a western region footprint. So you trying to figure out where our sweet spot is kind of an ongoing process in my mind. I thought that the previous PAC12 partners would.

09:34

Damon Dukakis

Would a lot of them would come back right away. Some have, but it's certainly not been across the board.

09:40

Dave Almy

Not universal.

09:41

Damon Dukakis

Yeah. And you know, I intuitively thought, you know, because we have four schools up in the Pacific Northwest. And a lot of the roots of the PAC 12 are in the Pacific Northwest.

09:51

Dave Almy

And they were the keeper of the flame while everything kind of dissolved 100%.

09:54

Damon Dukakis

I mean, Oregon State and Washington State kept the PAC 12, you know, alive during that time period. And so I think, and while we have found some good partners up in the Pacific Northwest, there are some companies that I thought would be no brainers that haven't. So, you know, it's, it's certainly not a, you know, there's no universal truth and it's not a one size fits all. It's just a matter of, you know, having conversations with people, educating them on what the new Pac 12 is all about, and just trying to very quickly determine if there's some value that we have to offer.

10:26

Dave Almy

Can you talk about the narrative that you've had to develop and continue to develop as you reach out to partners? Is it something that relies primarily on history and legacy or do you really lean in more to, hey, that's great, but here's where we're headed now. Is it an equal balance? How do you, how do you develop and make sure that's something that everybody's watching?

10:48

Damon Dukakis

I would say it's the latter of the two. We certainly make a nod to our legacy, our history, because it's robust and it's amazing, but at the same time it's not necessarily relevant to a present day company looking to partner with the present day actual. So I make the narrative very much about where we are and where we're going. And you know, the pad 12 sees itself as a disruptor, as a different type of a conference. You know, we like to categorize, right. It was the power of five and the group of five. Now people are saying the power four and the group of six. Well, PAC12 didn't exactly raise his hand and say, oh yeah, we think of ourselves as part of the group of six.

11:34

Dave Almy

Yeah, no problem there, right?

11:35

Damon Dukakis

No, the Pac 12 sees itself in sort of this middle tier where we aspire to be. With the power four. We're working to have the resources in order to compete with the Power 4. Right now, present day resources are probably a little bit below that. So it's easy for people to sort of group us in with the group of group. But the PAC12 just sees itself as a league that is attempting to move up and compete with the Power 4 or the Autonomy 4. And so that's the message. We're not, we're attempt, we're moving up. Yeah. We want to compete with the big boys and you know, unapologetic for it.

12:18

Dave Almy

What goes into making sure. Getting that opportunity to elevate into that, to reestablish the PAC 12 as a Power 5 conference. I mean, if that's the goal, where does the conference. What are the boxes that need to be ticked in order to do so in your mind?

12:37

Damon Dukakis

It's a great question. Probably a better question for Teresa.

12:40

Dave Almy

Teresa, if you're listening.

12:43

Damon Dukakis

But I would just say, you know, there's probably. It depends on who you ask.

12:46

Dave Almy

Sure.

12:47

Damon Dukakis

You know, of course, from a public perception standpoint, you need to compete.

12:51

Dave Almy

Yeah.

12:52

Damon Dukakis

You need to win.

12:53

Dave Almy

So it is, it's almost like a qualitative standpoint too. Right. It's just you have to seem worthy.

12:59

Damon Dukakis

Absolutely. You have to compete with the power four on the field, on the court. So when we have those non conference games, we have to be competitive. We have to send a team to the cfp, we need to send multiple teams to the NCAA basketball tournaments. So from the public perception standpoint, I think that's the answer to the question. But looking at it more internally focused, the PAC 12 wants to be a student athlete first league. In this era of rev, share of nil, of transfer portal, you have to be student athlete focused in order to make the PAC12 a destination for student athletes. Student athletes have to want to come to compete in the PAC12 and have to believe in our mission, what we're doing, what our schools are doing, the investment that they're making into their programs.

13:52

Damon Dukakis

And so we have to be student athlete focused first because at the end of the day, you know, all the stuff that I do on the external facing side of things and everyone else does, first and foremost, this is about the kids. And I use the word kids loosely because these are young adults, but they still are college students and working toward their education even though, you know, they're now, you know, being compensated for what they do. But that has to be the.

14:15

Dave Almy

Focus as clearly with partnerships, the number one goal is revenue. But as you talk to them and understanding that another goal is to make PAC12 and PAC12 schools the location that they want to go to. Do you work with partners to try and modify or create interesting components of the partnerships you're putting together that help drive towards that conclusion,.

14:43

Damon Dukakis

I'll answer it this way, Dave. Nil is a part of nearly every conversation that we have. It's just not, you know, it just wasn't. That wasn't the case years back. Right.

14:54

Dave Almy

But now like two years back. I mean, it's not even like we don't have to dust that much off in order to get there.

14:59

Damon Dukakis

Right. When, when we go to market and talk about what the PAC 12 has to offer, nil is part of that initial presentation. We want partners to see NIL as an important part of their partnership. And obviously at the conference level, you know, that speaks to all nine schools now, you know, we're still getting going here. Right. So we have to see it in action. But absolutely, we want partners to see the value in nil. And the great thing is nowadays, most companies are bringing it up before I have to because they understand the importance of influencer marketing. Obviously, you know, inside of sports, outside of sports. Influencer marketing is what TV commercials were 40 years ago. Right. So. Or newspaper ads. So people see them see influencer marketing as necessary. That's vital. So it becomes an organic part of the conversation.

15:57

Damon Dukakis

For the most part. Yeah.

15:59

Dave Almy

I'm interested in how you've had to adjust your own process for business development going for. Because as you talked about, like, look, I, you know, when you're working for Sacramento State, you go around to the regional businesses and you're selling Sacramento State because there's natural affinity just from a regionality standpoint. When you're selling the Rose bowl and ucla, you know, those are big honking brands that, you know, a national platform can get around and things like that. This is different from the standpoint of there's more education involved. Like you talked about, this is a broad regional platform that you're creating that you have to do a lot of education about. So I'm wondering, like, what you've had to do and adjust in your own practice that meets the moment.

16:51

Damon Dukakis

I think that's still evolving as time goes on. But I would say, you know, a handful of things. I'll tell you one thing that is consistent, a couple of things that are consistent. You know, it. This at the end of the day is a relationship based business. And so, you know, doing this for 25 years, thankfully I have some relationships where, you know, I can reach out to folks and share with them what I'm doing now ask if they might see value in this and that becomes a fairly quick, you know, conversation. So that matters. Yep. But that, but there's a limit to that, right? There's a ceiling to that. So you have to go beyond that. During my times, particularly at Cal in ucla, I was big on identifying alumni of calend ucla and reaching out or if not alumni, at least Sams.

17:43

Damon Dukakis

But you know, to not have to explain to them why there is value in the properties goes a long way.

17:50

Dave Almy

Well, particularly when you're talking about Cal and ucla, your alumni pool is not exactly folks who are working the front desk at a, at a 7 11. No offense to people that work in the front desk at 7:11. But you know, these are folks who are leading companies and absolutely have that natural affinity.

18:07

Damon Dukakis

Natural affinity. So I've continued that within the PAC 12. We've got nine schools and a lot of alumni between those nine schools. And one thing that maybe I didn't realize coming into this is how excited the new members are to be joining the PAC12. That's a great point. They see it as a move up, you know, in competition and visibility. And so when I reach out to folks that have a degree from one of our nine schools, particularly the seven newcomers, you know, of course Oregon State and Washington State are staying put, so to speak, but there's a level of excitement there around joining the PAC 12. And so I have absolutely continued to build upon that. But it is different. You know, you get excited about a conference in a slightly different way than you get excited about your school.

18:52

Damon Dukakis

But I will say, yeah, but in.

18:54

Dave Almy

This case, it's what it does for the school.

18:56

Damon Dukakis

It, it does, it trickles down. And what the conference is doing for the school is, in terms of the profile of the school is important. There is absolutely a level of pride among members of the new PAC12 and their alumni. Maybe it's a little bit of a challenger mentality. Like, hey, the Pac 12 was the group that was sort of left behind and now we're building it back up and we want to compete at a high level.

19:22

Dave Almy

Let's throw a rock through a glass window of the Power four kind of thing.

19:25

Damon Dukakis

Absolutely. The other thing I would say about the PAC 12 that maybe I didn't realize at first is, you know, we are in markets where these schools are a big deal to those markets. You know, with the exception of San Diego, which obviously has pro sports down there, you know, Boise State is a big deal in Boise. You know, Gonzaga and Washington State are a big deal in the, in this, you know, Eastern Washington and vma. Yep. Oregon State. I've been a couple of times up there like that part of the state. Obviously, you know, you've got the Ducks and the Beavers. And the Beavers are doing a phenomenal job to compete in that state. And you know, and I'm learning that the folks at Texas State are passionate about their brand and Fresno State, frankly, you know, in this, in,.

20:10

Dave Almy

In the Central Valley in California, they love Gold Bulldog. Don't get started, man. They love that team.

20:16

Damon Dukakis

Yep. And you know, not to leave them out, but you know, Colorado State up in Fort Collins and the Cache Valley where Utah State is located, like, these people are very passionate about their parents. Have you seen the Utah State basketball game? You know, they're, they care. And so, you know, it's interesting because in the old PAC 12 we had a lot of major markets, you know, the Bay Area, Louisiana, Seattle and Phoenix. And you know, now we've got a lot of markets where these teams are a big deal to their team.

20:46

Dave Almy

It's a very interesting concept too. Right. The concept of being in a major media market is obviously very appealing to a surface level understander of how sports marketing works. Right. Oh, we're in la. That's going to be great. But what you don't know is, man, there's 37 million things going on in LA at any given time and getting people to come out. I mean, we've all seen the Rose bowl during certain ucla games and you know, not hard to move up in your seat section. Right. To get down to closer to the field. That's not the case in these other places. This is a level of. Because what do we talk about in sports marketing all the time? Oh, it's the passion. It's the passion of the passion. Okay.

21:24

Dave Almy

Ucla, great people are kind of passionate about the script and everything like that, but they're not showcasing it by coming out to the games. In most cases in these other markets, it's passion with a capital P100%.

21:37

Damon Dukakis

And I don't know if I intuitively knew that coming in. I certainly did for certain brands like Boise State, obviously with their football program, the success they've had, I certainly knew that. But I'm learning very quickly that every one of these teams is a big deal in their market.

21:51

Dave Almy

Let's talk about the coordination, how that works with these new teams. They're enthusiastic about coming in. They see it as leveling up their own athletic programs and visibility and competitiveness and getting a chance to, you know, take everything to the next level. But coordinating partnerships between the conference level and member institutions can be challenging. It can be a needle thread on a good day. And you've got a bunch of member schools coming from three different conferences with probably three different ways of coordinating what the conference has and what their. What the school has. How's that process unfolding for you? What are those conversations like with the new members to be institutions?

22:30

Damon Dukakis

Yeah. So each school has their own MMR partner.

22:35

Dave Almy

Yeah.

22:35

Damon Dukakis

That represents their rights.

22:37

Dave Almy

Are all of them MMR related? There's nobody has anything internally.

22:41

Damon Dukakis

Fresno State has a single. It's technically outsourced, but it's the. The entity that does. It just does Fresno State. So they're. They're a little bit unique in that regard, but everybody else has a traditional MMR partner. And thankfully, coming into this, I think I knew every one of our.

22:58

Dave Almy

Good to say. That's where that MMR background comes to bear, doesn't it?

23:01

Damon Dukakis

Yeah, that. That's what being old does for you. You get no.

23:05

Dave Almy

Experienced and full of wisdom. Damon.

23:11

Damon Dukakis

Great group of people collectively across those schools. So, thankfully, I knew them already. In our world, we're primarily focused on what I would call conference assets. Right. So it's our championships, you know, the football championship game, the basketball tournaments, the baseball softball tournaments, and all the other Olympic sports as well. And then media around that, whether that be social media, you know, TV coverage, hopefully some audio coverage down the road, all the things that sort of are controlled by the conference separate from the individual schools. But. And I. I sort of did anticipate this coming in. There's a. There's a number of partners that if they're going to do something with the conference, they're also going to want to do something with the nine schools collectively as well. Yeah.

23:57

Damon Dukakis

And so having that, you know, that relationship where I can reach out to those folks and just sort of, you know, paint a picture of what we're trying to do collectively as a conference and figuring out how we can work together. You know, there's absolutely a level of cooperation, and this is athletic president, athletic director, MMR partner on down. Like everybody. There's a spirit of cooperation. Right.

24:17

Dave Almy

That happens all the time in college sports.

24:19

Damon Dukakis

Yeah. It really is refreshing, you know, to hear how can we work together on this? Because we're all in the same boat. We're all, you know, aiming. Aiming up. So in my world, I'm generally able to speak to things that are sort of within our control. But in a few occasions, and I think in more occasions moving forward, there's going to need to be coordination across the schools, through the MMR partners, through the athletic departments, and sometimes even through the entire campus.

24:46

Dave Almy

So sailing all the way.

24:50

Damon Dukakis

What could possibly go wrong?

24:52

Dave Almy

Well, I mean, look at it. It's. It's. It's new. There's enthusiasm. You have to capture that and use that as much as you possibly can out of the gate and hopefully that momentum stays with. There's obviously going to be twists and turns along the way, but the fact that you have at least a tailwind right now is particularly useful. And, you know, I'm assuming it's one of the reasons why you just signed. Old Trapper Beef jerky was announced as one of the first founding partners. So a, delicious. B, you know, they've been an active sports marketer for the last few years. So I'm wondering if you can just fill us in.

25:23

Damon Dukakis

Not planned, but here we go.

25:26

Dave Almy

For those just listening, Damon just ate four pieces of beef jerky at the same time. We're gonna have to give him a minute to digest, but okay, now he's buried. So talk about the process of bringing them on board. You know, does that create some momentum as well for the larger sales office? Is a kind of a proof of concept type of thing.

25:45

Damon Dukakis

So Old Trapper was really in many ways the perfect company to be our first founding partner. They're Pacific Northwest based, which, like we talked about earlier, is where our roots are. They were a partner of the previous iteration of the PAC12. And so, you know, getting them back, getting them to take that first step, you know, which is a little bit of a leap of faith, you know, as we're still kind of proving ourselves out as a conference is a big deal. But they are a great company, great product. It's easy to get behind them. They do a lot in sports in general. So, you know, it's. It's a vote of confidence, you know, that they are getting behind the PAC 12. So 100% a good step because once that gets out there, it just sort of gives legitimacy to what we're doing.

26:33

Damon Dukakis

And we're working on a lot of other partnerships right now, but it's always good to get that first one out there for people to talk about. And the month of August, we're going to see a lot more that come to fruition. And so it was the first of what we hope to be many.

26:48

Dave Almy

Yeah, I'm sure. And if you want to announce any other ones that are coming out anytime soon, just go ahead and you can drop them right here. I'm sure there's good timing.

26:56

Damon Dukakis

I've always learned to wait until the ink is dry and.

26:58

Dave Almy

Oh yeah, no kidding, right? And it's blotted and it's photocopied and it's sealed in an Envelope.

27:05

Damon Dukakis

But one thing I'll just mention real quick, I should have mentioned this earlier, is when we created this department, we gave it the name integrated partnerships. What's an integrated partnership? Right. It's not meant to just be code for sponsorship. Right. If you say it's an integrated partnership, but you just treat it like the same old sponsorship it's always been. We're not really doing what we aim to do, which is to make these partners feel like they are part of the conference and have relationships with people within the conference to help them accomplish what they want to do. So it's a very different approach in that I am dealing with folks within our conference that aren't necessarily in the world of partnerships or sponsorship or revenue generation, but they play an integral role to helping that partnership be successful.

27:50

Damon Dukakis

So that is the goal, is to make these partners more than just sponsors, to truly be part of the conference. And that takes time. There's generally going to be a less is more approach, but I think in the long run, it's laying the foundation to really build a sustainable partnership program.

28:11

Dave Almy

I think it's interesting too, right, because so many of these partners, like, say they hope and want to use their sports marketing investments as a way to really engage not just fans, but the campuses as a whole. And the campuses are pretty significant opportunities to create engagement with students, alumni, faculty, staff, and all the things that go along with that. And it's just that the best sort of entry point is usually the league and the conference and athletics. So being able to bridge that gap can really pay some dividends all across the board.

28:42

Damon Dukakis

And everybody's looking for ROI and measurable roi. So the integrated partnership certainly helps us in that direction.

28:50

Dave Almy

So I think, as you pointed out previously, that there's just been a little bit of change in college sports over the last few years. As someone who's been doing this for a while, like we said, wisdom and experience, can you distill it from a sense of the difference from when you started to where you are now? Is it manifestly different or the same rules really still apply? Like you said, it's, you know, this is about partnerships, is about relationships. Yeah, but this isn't just selling a sign and a couple radio spots anymore either. These are, like you said, these are integrated partnerships, and that carries with it a sense of expectation and responsibility. So what does that mean for you? What does it mean for people who are doing this?

29:39

Damon Dukakis

The 25 years I've been doing this on college campuses is an eternity. And to think what it was versus what it is. You almost have to take a step back to think about it, because just in the world of media in general, things have changed the way that we consume media. IPhones were not a thing when I got into this.

30:01

Dave Almy

You just blew the hair back on a couple of listeners.

30:04

Damon Dukakis

But what you offer as part of a partnership has changed significantly. You know, it used to be run some radio spots, hang a sign, give me some tickets, and put an ad in the program and see you next year. Yeah, but, you know, folks are much more sophisticated with their media buys nowadays. You know, so much is measurable and trackable. And while there's an inherent part of sports marketing that is always going to be about for brand building, which is not always the easiest thing to quantify, there's enough things that we do and that we offer that are measurable and quantifiable. And I think to an extent that has to, you know, meet a lot of criteria that partners are looking for. Obviously, the student athlete involvement is very different. You know, we.

30:54

Damon Dukakis

We couldn't even have a student athlete's image in a sponsor ad in the game program when I got into this. And now, you know, you might have.

31:02

Dave Almy

It, conversations about, is he blurry enough that he can be like, not recognized for who he is? I mean, just you remember.

31:10

Damon Dukakis

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, it's.

31:11

Dave Almy

I'm experienced as well.

31:15

Damon Dukakis

So, yeah, I mean, just the world of media has changed and organically, you know, that's trickled down to us here at the college level. And. But, but as I mentioned in the previous question, you know, folks are definitely looking for measurable ROI in a different way than they were when I first came into this. You know, in some ways, I feel like when I first started doing this, a lot of companies looked at a sponsorship as a glorified donation, and that's just not the case very much these days. Nowadays, it's truly a business part of the marketing mix. Yeah. And they need to see a return on that investment. So that's our job. And, you know, you need to go into this with eyes wide open as to what the partner is looking to get out of it.

31:55

Damon Dukakis

Every salesperson hears this in sales training, but you have to have goals of the partnership that you can then come back to at the end of the year and say, how did we track toward those goals? But you have to know what the goals are and have a meeting of the minds on that.

32:07

Dave Almy

32:32

Damon Dukakis

Do you mean specifically in my area? In your area, in your area.

32:36

Dave Almy

But you know, if you want to pontificate on other pieces non related to.

32:38

Damon Dukakis

You, I almost feel like, you know, I'm just a piece of a pie, right? My, my area is just a piece of piece. So in order to look at success, you know, we need to provide our member schools with the financial resources they need to be successful, to compete in the world of nil and rev share, to have the best student athletes, to have the best coaches, to have the best facilities. We need to be providers of resources through doing to our schools. But that's. Yeah, I'm just, like I said, I'm just a small piece of that. You know, it comes with our media contracts, with our NCAA distributions. We collectively just need to keep raising the bar and providing the resources that our schools need to compete. That's the most simple way of looking at it.

33:29

Damon Dukakis

You know, we're at this point we have to be scrappy, we have to do more with less. But hopefully we move in the direction of doing more with the same. Because it's no great mystery. The media contracts of the Power 4 conferences are massive and they provide financial resources that allow those schools to be very competitive from a financial standpoint. And that's what we're striving to be.

33:55

Dave Almy

I'm with Damon Dukakis. He is the vice president of integrated partnerships for the PAC12 conference powered by Playfly. Damon, appreciate the time. I know you're about just a month away from kick, so I know there's a lot of activity going on. But before I let you go, I gotta chuck you into the lightning round. Got a few questions for you here, Damon. I just want that. That nervous laugh is exactly what you should have done. Just first thing that comes to your mind. Okay, Don't. This isn't anything you need to spend some time cogitating on. Just. Just let it rip. Okay, you ready?

34:25

Damon Dukakis

Ready.

34:26

Dave Almy

Okay. Damon Dukakis into the lighting route as discussed. Old Trappers is the first founding partner of the reconstituted pack 12. And here are some of their flavors. Old fashioned peppered teriyaki and hot and spicy, which is your favorite pepper. Oh, okay. Well, right to it then. You've served on little league baseball boards. Was a moment when you suspected that youth Parents might be getting a little too involved.

34:50

Damon Dukakis

35:11

Dave Almy

And that was 25 years ago. So can only imagine it's changed just a little bit. Now. Over your shoulder, you have the trophy that you won for your fantasy football league. But before, when we started recording, you said that you're sort of famous for actually coming in last. What was the best punishment for coming in last in your fantasy football league?

35:31

Damon Dukakis

Damon Ducasse. Thankfully, in spite of efforts to implement them, we do not institute punishments. Or at least they have. Not as long as I've been involved.

35:43

Dave Almy

Oh, you lucky devil.

35:45

Damon Dukakis

It's the pride of knowing that you finished at the bottom. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

35:51

Dave Almy

Okay. Dukakis is a great last name and obviously has its origins primarily in Greece. And it's loosely translated. I looked this up. It's loosely translated as meaning Little Duke. Thoughts on me just referring to you as Little Duke in the future?

36:06

Damon Dukakis

You know, I've been called Duke throughout my life. It happens organically with this last name. You know, everybody with the last name Smith becomes Smitty. Everybody with Duke Hawk Sullivan is Sully. Yep, 100%. Particularly if you're in the Boston area.

36:19

Dave Almy

Boston area.

36:21

Damon Dukakis

I'm not sure how much I love the little part of it.

36:23

Dave Almy

I think it's gotta stick, though. I mean, come on. Come on, Little Duke. It rolls, dude. It just rolls right out the tongue.

36:32

Damon Dukakis

If we can just edit it down to Duke, I think I could get behind that.

36:35

Dave Almy

We'll have a further debate on that in a minute. You got your master's degree from St. Mary's through the kinesiology department. So can we talk about this? Click. I have in my shoulder and anything that I should be doing about it. What do you think I should do?

36:46

Damon Dukakis

I should go deep into my memory for that one. Great school, great program, really. You know, a broad based program. A lot of people that are getting into coaching go through that program and it really gives you a look of all sides. Kinesiology, psychology, administration. So it's a nice broad program to really kind of open your eyes to all of the different roles that are played within sports.

37:14

Dave Almy

So shout out to the gals. Last one. A mentor or friend you'd like to give a shout out to.

37:20

Damon Dukakis

I probably have to choose Solly just because, you know, he's been a mentor of mine for so long and, you know, a friend that we share in common. You know, he was the person who hired me at SAC State. He gave me my first shot in college athletics. And we joke about this to this day, but my resume certainly didn't warrant it at that point in time. I had worked at the high school level and at the junior college level, and I'm going up against people that had, like, Ohio State on their resume. But he took a chance on me, remains a good friend and mentor to this day. And, you know, he would have to be the one.

37:58

Dave Almy

I think that worked out pretty well for all parties involved. Damon Dukakis, thanks for the time.

38:03

Damon Dukakis

Pleasure. Thanks, Dave.