Learfield

LEARFIELD, formerly Learfield IMG College,[1] is a large collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, LEARFIELD employs more than 2,200 people in nearly 100 offices throughout the United States.[2] The company was created in 2018 through the combination of Endeavor's IMG College division and Learfield Communications of Missouri, managed by the Atairos Group.[3]

LEARFIELD
FormerlyLearfield Sports
Learfield IMG College
TypeJoint venture
IndustrySports Marketing, Television and Radio Production and Broadcasting
FoundedDecember 31, 2018
ServicesSports Marketing, Event Management
ParentAtairos Group
Endeavor Group Holdings
SubsidiariesCollegiate Licensing Company
Host Communications
Websitehttp://www.learfield.com/

IMG College was formed from the acquisition of Host Communications and The Collegiate Licensing Company in 2007. Additionally ISP Sports was acquired in 2010.

In 2012, a joint venture with Learfield created IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions, now representing 30 universities in outsourced ticketing. Additionally, IMG College Seating, the largest premium cushion stadium seat provider in college athletics, now represents more than 90 universities nationwide, managing more than 500,000 college football stadium seats annually.

The IMG College Audio Network consists of more than 2,100 radio stations airing primarily football and men's basketball games along with weekly call-in coaches' shows. The media network also includes over 100 television stations airing weekly half hour coaches' shows for most of the universities represented by the company. IMG Audio produces more than 35,000 hours of college sports programming annually for these affiliate stations.

Host Communications was founded in 1974 and created one of the first college sports multimedia contracts with its creation of a radio network for the University of Kentucky.[4] ISP Sports was founded in 1992 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina providing sports marketing and broadcast services for collegiate athletics across the United States. In addition to the Winston-Salem headquarters, the company operates more than 90 regional offices.

The organization also co-owns the Longhorn Network and Campus Insiders, the latter through which it holds a stake in 120 Sports.

Leadership
  • Cole Gahagan, CEO
  • Ben C. Sutton, Jr., chairman and president, IMG College
  • Jim Connelly, senior vice president, special projects
  • Mark Dyer, senior vice president, business ventures
  • Lou Doherty, senior vice president and general counsel
  • Joe Potter, senior vice president, operations
  • Roger VanDerSnick, chief sales and marketing officer
  • Andrew Judelson, senior vice president, national sales
  • Rick Barakat, vice president, sales strategy and operations
  • Andrew Giangola, vice president, strategic communications

Markets and schools

At the conference level, IMG represents The American, A10, Big 12, Conference USA, Horizon League, MAC, MEAC, OVC, SEC and WCC,[5] and also individually represents the NCAA, the Heisman Trophy and 26 Bowl games.[6] The company also maintains the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, an athletics-focused preparatory school.

IMG represents more than 90 universities in multi-media rights and more than 200 universities in trademark licensing, including, but not limited to:[7]

See also

References
  1. "Learfield IMG College Is Now Simply Learfield".
  2. "LEARFIELD AND IMG COLLEGE COMPLETE MERGER".
  3. "Our History".
  4. "IMG College". Archived from the original on 2011-10-07. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  5. "Our Partners::Conferences". IMG College. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  6. "The Collegiate licensing company renews agreements with 16 bowls, signs 4 additional, now represents 26 bowl games".
  7. "Our Properties: Colleges & Universities". IMG College. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
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