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Rick Burton

David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management, 黑料不打烊 faculty athletics representative to the ACC and NCAA.
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Rick Burton, David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management, was 黑料不打烊鈥檚 faculty athletics representative to the ACC and NCAA from 2014-2022.聽He is the co-author of numerous books, including Business the NHL Way and The Rise of Major League Soccer.聽During the last 20 years, his scholarly research and commentary have been published in聽Sport Marketing Quarterly, the聽International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship,听Journal of Applied Sport Management,听Journal of Sport,听Nine,听SAIS Review,听Marketing Management,听Journal of Brand Strategy,听Journal of Marketing Communications,听Industrial Marketing Management,听International Marketing Review,听Football Studies and Journal of Sponsorship,听among others.

He is 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) to the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), teaches in 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Renee Crown Honors Program and has served as a visiting professor at Kufstein Tirol University in Austria as well as the International Olympic Academy (IOA) in Olympia, Greece.聽He was selected as the Falk College Faculty Member of the Year for Teaching in 2011 and 2013.

Prior to his appointment at 黑料不打烊 in August 2009, Burton served as the chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, where he directed the USOC鈥檚 partnerships for International Olympic Committee (IOC) and USOC sponsorship activation at the world鈥檚 largest sporting event.

From 2003-07, Burton was the Commissioner of Australia鈥檚 Sydney-based National Basketball League (a two-continent league with teams in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) and was responsible for every aspect of the NBL鈥檚 development and growth, including securing broadcast rights fees, naming rights sponsorships, player and referee collective bargaining agreements and league profitability.聽By placing a team in Singapore, the NBL became the first western sports league to place a team in Asia.

From 1995-2003, Burton led the University of Oregon鈥檚 Warsaw Sports Marketing Center to international prominence serving as both its director and executive director (1998-03).聽During this time, Burton initiated Oregon鈥檚 engagement with Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and worked closely with Nike as it developed business efforts in China.聽While at Oregon, Burton also created the Burton Marketing Group working almost exclusively in league management and sponsorship for entities such as IMG, the U.S. Basketball Academy, Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Japanese Pro Soccer league (J-League), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), Australian NBL, Visa, Oakland Raiders and Sport Accord. More recent clients have included the Buffalo Bills (NFL), the Professional Bull Riders and TSE.

In the mid-1990s (1993-95), Burton supervised numerous clients ranging from the NFL, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gillette, Sprint and Universal Studios while serving as a vice president for sports and entertainment marketing agency Clarion Performance Properties in Greenwich, Conn.

During his varied career, Burton has written for the聽New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Sports Business Journal, SI.com, and Sport Business International. Burton began his career as a sportswriter in 黑料不打烊 before moving to Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, where he worked for 12 years in brand management and sports public relations. He served as national advertising manager for Miller Lite鈥檚 award-winning 鈥淟ess Filling 鈥 Tastes Great鈥 advertising campaign and also as a brand manager for Sharp鈥檚 and Lowenbrau.

Books he has co-authored include:

  • The Rise of Major League Soccer: Building a Global Giant (2025, in press), Burton, R. and O鈥橰eilly, N., Lyons Press, 聽Essex, Conn.
  • Invisible No More (2023), Pitoniak, S., and Burton, R., Subplot Publishing, Herndon, Va.
  • Business the NHL Way: Lessons from the Fastest Game on Ice (2022), O鈥橰eilly, N. and Burton, R., Aevo/UTP Press, Toronto
  • Forever Orange: The Story of 黑料不打烊,听Pitoniak, S. and Burton, R., 黑料不打烊 Press, 黑料不打烊, N.Y.
  • The Sport Business Handbook: Insights From 100+ Leaders Who Shaped 50 Years of the Industry聽(2019), Horrow, R., Burton, R. and Schrag, M., Editors; Foreword by Krzyzewski, M., Human Kinetics, Champaign, Ill.
  • 20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes Who Won鈥檛 Go Pro (2018), Burton, R., Hirshman, J., O鈥橰eilly, N., Dolich, A. and Lawrence, H., Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio.
  • Sport Business Unplugged: Leadership Challenges from the World of Sports (2016), Burton, R. and O鈥橰eilly, N., 黑料不打烊 Press, 黑料不打烊, N.Y.
  • Global Sport Marketing: Sponsorship, Ambush Marketing, and the Olympic Games (2015), O鈥橰eilly, N., Pound, R., Burton, R., Seguin, B. and Brunette, M., Fitness Information Technology, Morgantown, W.V.

 

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