Stephen M. Schanwald ’77 Reflects on a Career Bridging Sports and Business

Stephen M. Schanwald ’77, former Executive Vice President of Business Operations with the Chicago Bulls and a trailblazer in sports marketing, brought his championship pedigree and industry expertise back to the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

On Thursday, Nov. 14 and Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, Schanwald returned to the UMD campus for a visit that saw him announce his $8 million gift to establish the Stephen M. Schanwald Sports Management Program, which is part of a larger $18 million commitment also supporting Maryland Athletics.

On the first day, Schanwald met with undergraduate students in BMGT 383: The Business of Sports for a Q&A session about his experiences in sports management and insights into the industry’s future. 

The following day, he joined UMD Athletic Director Damon Evans and Amanda Shank, JOUR ’05, executive vice president of business development and brand strategy at Unrivaled Sports, at the Smith Board of Advisors meeting’s “Business of Sports” panel.

Together, the experts discussed issues related to the intersection of sports and business, including marketing and the influence of name, image and likeness policies on the college sports landscape.

Here are four highlights from Schanwald’s appearances at both events:

Everyone is welcome in sports. Schanwald appreciates sports because of their inherent ability to unite people from all walks of life. He told students that the “Holy Grail” for sports business professionals was helping fans understand that they are also participants in a given game. With the Bulls, Schanwald accomplished this feat by implementing music throughout various portions of the game (including the team’s starting lineup music), fan contests during in-game breaks and scoreboard graphics.

“If I was at a game and I saw a fan sitting on their hands, unengaged and disinterested, then I failed,” said Schanwald. “Our goal was to make sure that every fan knew that they had a role to play.”

During his panel appearance, Schanwald added that not every attendee is necessarily a passionate fan. Many are there to accompany a loved one or friend. Therefore, he said sports business professionals must create experiences that cater to everyone. 

“We have to deliver as much entertainment value as we can because we recognize that some of the people who are coming to your games are passionate about the game, and some of them are not,” he said. “It’s about reaching the broadest possible market to make sure that everybody will want to come back.”

Do it for the love of the game. Having a job that doesn’t feel like a job is the “greatest gift you could ever give yourself,” Schanwald said. For him, that was a job in sports as it stoked his competitive spirit from playing recreational sports during his upbringing. His career allowed him to stay connected to something he was passionate about, and he encouraged students to do the same.

“Everybody that you see out there now working for a professional sports team or a collegiate sports organization that has a job that you aspire to has at one point or another been in your position, the exact position you're in today,” said Schanwald. “They made it happen, and you can too. Give it everything you have and dream big.”

Provide welcome distractions. In sports teams, coaches, trainers and players seek ways to minimize distractions. Sports marketers and business professionals are often at odds with that as they are “all about creating distractions,” said Schanwald. In basketball, fans get 48 minutes of game time, but they’re present for roughly an hour and 45 minutes. That requires marketers to get creative about building memorable experiences for fans to enjoy during that downtime, Schanwald told students.

“What are you giving people for their hard-earned entertainment dollars? Attending sporting events has become more and more expensive, and we’re pricing a lot of fans out of in-person experiences,” said Schanwald. “So what will you do over that hour and 45 minutes to keep people entertained?”

At the panel, Schanwald elaborated on that point, adding that sports business professionals must “fill every halftime and timeout, provide instant replays, experiences in the concourse and even offer entertainment after the game.”

Maryland is meeting the moment. As an undergraduate student working with UMD’s Russ Potts, the first sports marketing director in the history of collegiate athletics, Schanwald told the panel that it’s “wholly appropriate that the University of Maryland is getting more aggressive in developing a sports management program.” He mentioned Potts’ impact on shaping the responsibilities of the modern-day sports business professional, including increasing UMD Athletics’ brand profile, presence in the community and revenue. He described how Potts would do “everything and anything” to market the university, such as putting ads on scoreboards, building broadcast capabilities, hosting bowl officials and even creating bumper stickers. 

“I believe that sports marketing began right here at the University of Maryland,” said Schanwald. “If any university should have a sports management program, to me, it's the University of Maryland.”