Arthur Blank remains a compelling public speaker, even into his ninth decade.

The Atlanta sports doyen was one of a clutch of US sports owners on stage and wandering the halls at the Business of Soccer event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium last week.

David Cushnan was also there, and on his return to the Leaders studio in London, he teams up again with James Emmett to talk about what makes the billionaire class of individuals who own US sports franchises different from their counterparts around the world. Storytelling and status are baked into the proposition.

The pair also discuss plans being made from the myriad brands looking to capitalize on what will no doubt be the most commercial World Cup in history this summer.

With the World Cup just a few weeks away, tournament and team sponsors are rolling out activation plans across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

A trio of senior brand executives sat down with David Cushnan, on the sidelines of Sports Business Journal and Leaders’ Business of Soccer event in Atlanta last week, to run through their activation plans, hopes and targets for the upcoming tournament, and consider what happens afterwards.

Allison Kolber is VP Integrated Marketing at The Home Depot, which is an official tournament supporter amongst several soccer sponsorships, and is engaging David Beckham to help promote its World Cup sweepstakes.

Lauren Flanigan, Head of Global Brands, Refreshment Categories at Mondelēz International, looking after brands like Halls and Trident, discusses how she's planning to engage Gen Z consumers during the World Cup.

And Kim Tunick, Head of Brand Experiences and Partnerships at Walmart - a more recent entrant to soccer sponsorship, with deals signed last year to partner Major League Soccer and LaLiga - explains how the retail giant will celebrate the tournament in its stores throughout the country.

On the eve of the IPL's 19th season comes confirmation that its defending champion franchise - in both the men's and women's competitions - has been sold by Diageo to a conglomerate led by Blackstone and its serial team-buying chairman David Blitzer.

David Cushnan and James Emmett dig into the details of the sale, and reflect on the latest iteration of the IPL as it heads into the penultimate year of its latest media rights cycle. Change is afoot.

Elsewhere in the episode, the art and science of engineering atmosphere at sports events, prompted by this week's podcast interview with music pioneer DJ Skee; and LIV Golf finds a formula that works as record crowds form an evocative backdrop at the latest tournament in South Africa.

DJ Skee - also known as Scott Keeney - has carved out one of the most unconventional careers in modern entertainment. From discovering future stars like Kendrick Lamar to becoming the first DJ to perform live at NFL and NASCAR events, he has spent two decades operating at the crossroads of music, media and sport.

Today, he leads The Realist, a fast‑growing memorabilia company partnering with major leagues, teams and entertainment brands to build authenticated, story‑driven collectible lines.

What began with mixtapes and trend‑spotting in the early 2000s has evolved into a new form of storytelling - preserving iconic sporting moments in physical form, whether it’s match‑worn jerseys or even snow from an NFL playoff game.

In this conversation with James Emmett, Skee discusses how he identifies emerging talent, how DJs became part of the stadium experience, what defines great in‑venue music, and why the memorabilia market is primed for global growth. He also explains how The Realist helps rights holders protect authenticity, engage fans and unlock new revenue through items that capture the emotion behind sport.

With the Fifa men’s World Cup looming ever closer on the horizon, James Emmett and David Cushnan consider the tensions between US host cities and Fifa’s central organising committee over who pays for what and the overall value exchange around staging games - and the particular challenges Fifa is facing by staging this year’s tournament in three democracies.

They reflect on James’ conversation with Bay Area Host Committee CEO

Zaileen Janmohamed, and her thoughtful perspective on evolving the model and ultimately giving host cities more flexibility.

Elsewhere, they discuss the NBA’s plans to hold an initial vote next week on whether expansion teams should be created in Las Vegas and Seattle, and the thinking and vision behind the league’s bold growth plan.

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Leaders Week London has a new venue for 2026 - Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. To find out more: leadersinsport.com/leadersweek

Zaileen Janmohamed was only a few weeks in the job when she found herself in a windowless room, standing in front of 32 of the most powerful people in America.

With just ten minutes on the clock, it was her first to task as CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee to pitch for the hosting rights for the 2026 Super Bowl.

She decided to throw the templated stump speech in the trash and go with something bold.

In this episode of Leaders Worth Knowing, Janmohamed unpacks the high pressure, high impact presentation she gave to the NFL Owners meeting that resulted in Levi's Stadium winning the right to host the most recent Super Bowl

Janmohamed became CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee in 2023. It's essentially the sports commission for the Bay Area, and bids for and then operates major, top-tier sports events. Janmohamed runs a team responsible for raising revenues for those events, telling coherent stories about the impact they'll have across the region, then making sure that comes true, while ensuring a legacy too.

She looks ahead to the upcoming Fifa World Cup, which will play six games in the Bay Area; and attempts to unpick and explain a lattice-work stakeholder environment that is creating tension in various host regions just a few weeks out from the biggest World Cup in history.

Janmohamed is a member of the Leaders Under 40 class of 2017, and she also reflects on a career that has seen her play leadership roles at rights holder, brand, and agency organisations; the sport industry full house!

The sharpest operators in sport met the smartest minds from other sectors at Leaders Meet: Innovation in London this week, and James Emmett and David Cushnan are on the ground at 180 Studios bending the Chatham House Rule as far as possible to share a little about what they saw and heard.

They reflect on a few of the standout presentations and panels, including a leadership masterclass from PizzaExpress CEO Paula MacKenzie; the story of The Guardian's reader monetisation model; and how Unilever's AI-powered content studio might be a new model for sport.

And James also caught up with Viagogo's VP of Open Distribution Shaun Stewart, hot off the stage at the event for a potted history of ticket sales and why, even with the help of transformative technology, sport is still taking cues from the airline industry of the 1950s and 60s.

As the Dana White-fronted Zuffa Boxing, backed by TKO and Saudi's Sela, makes its move to dethrone promotional giants Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions, James Emmett and David Cushnan consider the latest disruption in the fight game and Turki Alalshikh's role as chief string-puller.

They also reflect on their conversation with Uefa Marketing Director Guy-Laurent Epstein and European Football Clubs CEO Charlie Marshall, to unpack the new commercial programme being developed by the UC3 entity, a joint venture between Uefa and EFC - and the flexibility that is being built into the media rights and sponsorship sales packages being taken to market by agency partners Relevent and Two Circles.

And there's reaction to the Premier League confirmation it will launch a direct-to-consumer service in Singapore.