Project Play 2024

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MLS exec: Soccer system should work together to compete for best athletes, fans

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Like other professional leagues that are members of Project Play 2024, MLS has come to recognize both the need and the opportunity to introduce programs at the very opposite end of the talent pipeline that delivers their commercial product. Tom Farrey, executive director of the Sports & Society Program, sat down with MLS executive VP and chief engagement officer Sola Winley to ask why.

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Nike’s Caitlin Morris: “Be a Change Agent”

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Nike isn’t just the largest athletic apparel company in the world. It’s the largest sports brand in the world, dwarfing any company, team or league. When the Swoosh moves, so does planet sports. In a Project Play 2024 Member Spotlight interview, Tom Farrey sits down with Nike VP Caitlin Morris to reflect on what was – and what’s next.

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USOPC’s Rocky Harris: Let’s “rethink” sport in America

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The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee occupies a unique place in the national and global landscape. The U.S. is one of the few countries in world without a ministry of sports or some government body to guide and fund sport development. Here, the closest entity to that is the USOPC, a private, non-profit organization that since passage of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act has been asked to “establish national goals for amateur athletic activities” and “encourage physical fitness and public participation” in sports, plus represent the nation in Olympic matters.

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#DontRetireKidOneYearLater

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One year ago next week, 9-year-old Derek Heyswiver (an anagram for Kids Everywhere) retired from sports, announcing as much at a packed press conference that included journalists, his parents and coaches.

Kobe Bryant announced the news with a tweet, followed by an in-studio appearance on SportsCenter as ESPN launched the PSA campaign on all networks. Clayton Kershaw, Albert Pujols, Cody Bellinger, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Blake Griffin, Swin Cash, Cassius Winston and other stars chimed in on social media, most of them encouraging Heyswiver to unretire. In the first week alone, the campaign to address the problem of early attrition in youth sports generated 167 million impressions. Nearly every major national TV news network ran pieces on the campaign, as did many online outlets.