Next League’s mission-focused approach infuses current, future SBJ Tech Weeks
David Nugent’s founding vision for Next League focused on guiding sports organizations through technology decisions and deployments. With that consultation and activation also came a mission-focused undercurrent in its partnerships.
In the last year alone, Next League’s work has included a gift to the TMRW Sports Fund at Palm Beach State College, which provides scholarship and academic programming support as well as the creation of the Next League USOPF Endowment Fund, a $500,000 commit toward funding some of the living and training expenses for U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
“I have older kids now,” Nugent told SBJ. “You start thinking about the world in a different way, like what’s life going to be like for them? ... Because of that, you start thinking about business in a different way.”
Nugent has watched a growing diversity develop around sports tech events throughout his career but still recognizes how inaccessible that ecosystem can be. And that is the basis for two initiatives around this SBJ Tech Week (and beyond) aimed to boost the presence and recognition of women in the sports tech space.
During the Sports Business Awards: Tech ceremony, Next League COO Becki Civello announced that the company will sponsor a new award starting next year, called the Next In Sports Tech: Rising Female Tech Leader award. The award will honor a rising female star in sports tech, ranging from league/team employees to tech companies operating in sports.
The announcement generated much buzz at the event, with both the applause garnered and conversation sparked afterward.
Next League has also committed a $10,000 donation to the Women’s Sports Foundation, specifically targeted in supporting their efforts to support women in STEM. WSF CEO Danette Leighton said in a statement to SBJ that the contribution from Next League will “help us continue to build a future where all girls and women can play, compete and lead -- in sports and beyond -- without barriers.”
Nugent said he looks forward to Next League’s award coming online next year and the future chances to help diversify the STEM and sports industry spaces through the platform that SBJ Tech Week provides.
“This is a perfect opportunity for us to tell that story that we tell, and because it’s so broadly in sports because we’re not selling a product,” Nugent said at SBJ Tech Week. “It’s really just how can we strategically -- and even from an execution standpoint, support sports organizations. It’s a really great platform for us.”
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