Chairman, Horrow Sports Ventures
Contributing Editor and Host, “Sportfolio”, Bloomberg Television <br><br>
RICK HORROW is the leading expert in the business of sports. As CEO of Horrow Sports Ventures, he has been the architect of 103 deals worth more than $13 billion in sports, performing arts, and other urban infrastructure projects. A popular speaker, writer and commentator on the business, law and politics of sports, he is nicknamed “The Sports Professor” because he has served as Visiting Expert on sports law at The Harvard Law School, where he also received a law degree alongside Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, his roommate. He was also a Founding Director of the National Sports Lawyers Association.
Horrow is also Sports Business Analyst for CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek.com, FOX Sports, Sirius Radio/NASCAR, BBC, and SportBusiness International. He is also Contributing Editor for Bloomberg Television, and in partnership with Businessweek.com to develop and publish the annual “Power 100 Special Report: America’s Most Powerful Athletes.”
Horrow is author of When The Game Is On The Line: From the Man Who Brought the Heat to Miami and the Browns Back to Cleveland, an Inside Look at the High-Stakes World of Sports Deal-Making (Perseus 2003/Da Capo Books, 2006), an autobiographical examination of the people, politics and power plays behind mega sports deals. The book will be rereleased this Fall. He is also co-author of Beyond the Box Score: An Insider’s Guide to the $750 Billion Business of Sports, written with Karla Swatek. As Executive Editor of the “Sports Professor Book Series” with Morgan James Publishing, he is responsible for developing and co-publishing sports business books such as Return of the Gold, featuring Jerry Colangelo, and others.
Horrow’s experience covering the world’s premier sporting events includes firsthand reporting from Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa Bay; BCS National Championship Games in Glendale and Miami; 2008 Daytona 500; 2008 Ryder Cup; 2006 World Cup; Wimbledon, the French Open, the Masters, and multiple Olympic Games.
Horrow pioneered the public/private partnership and infrastructure branding concepts that, to date, has enticed more than $4 billion in corporate funding to cities and development projects. Besides developing the stadia and arenas that serve as centerpieces for their communities, Horrow’s ability to put together many urban initiatives into one package for voter approval has resulted in the building of new performing arts and convention centers, schools, libraries, transit projects, and tourist destinations.
He has been a key player in stadium, arena, and speedway deals in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Boston, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Houston, Green Bay, San Diego, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh.
His clients have included the NFL, Major League Baseball, PGA Tour, NASCAR, Great White Shark Enterprises (Greg Norman), Ladies Professional Golf Association, Major League Soccer, General Sports Venue/AstroTurf, Cisco Systems, CA, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Golden Bear International (Jack Nicklaus), Portland Trail Blazers, Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, and the State of West Virginia.
Internationally, Horrow’s work through 2008 includes keynote speeches for the Premios Awards (Latin America), Sports and Technology (London), Televisa (Mexico City), Sports Marketing Association (Denver), the World High Performance Forum (Chicago), the World Negotiation Forum (Mexico City), Asia Sports Summit (Bangkok), UEFA Football Forum Nacional (Lisbon), and Insight Sports Management (Toronto).
He has presented sports/facility development options for the governments of Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and on behalf of the United States Department of Commerce Business Development Center, World Tourism Organization, International Hotel Association, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency/World Bank. He has also worked for the province of Bahia (Brazil), the city of Victoria (Canada), and local entities in the Dominican Republic.
In 2000, Horrow Sports Ventures became part of the Omnicom Group, a leading global marketing and corporate communications company with more than 5,000 clients in 100 countries.
Horrow resides in Jupiter, Florida, with his wife Terri and daughter Caroline; daughter Katie is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina.
