Rick Burton


David B. Falk Professor of Sport Management

Departments & Academic Units


Contact Info

810 Nottingham Road
Syracuse, NY 13224
Phone: (315) 443-5844
Email: rhburton@syr.edu

Courses

  • Sport Communication
  • Managing the Sports Organization
  • International Sports Relations

Areas of Specialization

  • Sports Marketing, Sponsorship, the Olympic movement, Professional Leagues and their Management, History of Sports Business, Sports Broadcasting

Education

  • MBA, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 1991
  • Bachelor of Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 1980

Recent Publications

 

Biography

Rick Burton is the David B. Falk Distinguished Professor of Sport Management in Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. Prior to this appointment, Burton served as the chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics where he directed the USOC’s partnerships for IOC and USOC sponsorship activation at the world’s largest sporting event.

From 2003-07, Burton was the Commissioner of the 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’s development and growth including securing lucrative TV packages, naming rights sponsorships, player and referee collective bargaining agreements and league profitability. By placing a team in Singapore, the NBL became the first western sports league to place a team in Asia. To build further on this Asian highway, Burton engineered bringing one of China’s top players from its CBA to compete in the NBL’s annual All-Star Game in Sydney.

From 1995-2003, Burton led the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center to international prominence serving as both its director and executive director (1998-03). During this time, Burton initiated Oregon’s engagement with Fudan University in Shanghai, China and worked closely with NIKE as they developed NIKE-China. 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), Visa, Oakland Raiders and Sport Accord.

In the mid-90’s (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 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Sports Business Journal, SI.com, Sport Business International and hosted his own sports business television show in Portland, Oregon. He has provided national radio network commentary for the Sporting News Radio Network and is in frequent demand as a commentator on the sports industry (recently appearing on the CBS Evening News). A frequent conference host/moderator and inspirational/motivational speaker, Burton’s most recent consulting engagements have included Chip Ganassi Racing (NASCAR and Indy Racing), the Association of Luxury Suite Directors, the Professional Bull Riders, TSE (Switzerland), Skandia (Sweden), Baden Sports, V2 Technology and Point 3 Basketball.

Burton began his career as a sportswriter in Syracuse, New York 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’s award-winning “Less Filling – Tastes Great” advertising campaign and also as a brand manager (Sharp’s and Lowenbrau). Burton still plays competitive basketball recreationally and his first novel, a WWII/Cold War historical thriller called The Darkest Mission, was published in May 2011 by Long Reef Press (www.thedarkestmission.com).

CV

Links