Rick Burton

Biography

Rick Burton is the David B. Falk Emeritus Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and author or co-author of numerous books, including Invisible No More, Into the Gorge, Forever Orange, 20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes, Business the NHL Way, and The Rise of Major League Soccer (Lyons Press). A regular columnist for Sports Business Journal and Sportico, Burton is the co-host of the NIL Clubhouse podcast (available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts).

Burton is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. For eight years (2014-2022), Burton served as Syracuse University’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and NCAA.

Prior to his appointment at Syracuse University in August 2009, Burton served as Chief Marketing Officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. From 2003-2007 Burton served as Commissioner of Australia’s National Basketball League, where he was responsible for every aspect of the NBL’s development and growth, including selling the league’s broadcast rights, naming rights, and sponsorships, and negotiating player and referee collective bargaining agreements.

From 1995-2003, Burton led the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center to international prominence as its director and executive director (1998-2003). During this time, he initiated Oregon’s engagement with Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and worked closely with Nike as it developed business efforts in China. While at Oregon, he created the Burton Marketing Group to work on league management and sponsorship projects. For more than 25 years, he has been engaged by entities such as IMG, Philippine Basketball Association, Japanese Pro Soccer League, National Football League, National Hockey League, Australian NBL, Visa, the Las Vegas Raiders, FedEx, Indianapolis Colts, Buffalo Bills, Professional Bull Riders, Sport Accord, and TSE.

His scholarly research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, Sport Marketing Quarterly, the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Journal of Applied Sport Management, Journal of Sport, Nine, SAIS Review, Marketing Management, Journal of Brand Strategy, Journal of Marketing Communications, Industrial Marketing Management, International Marketing Review, Football Studies, and the Journal of Sponsorship.

During his varied career, Burton has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Sports Business Journal, SI.com, Sport Business International, Sportico, and Stadia. He has provided national radio network commentary for the Sporting News Radio Network and is in frequent demand as a commentator on the sports industry for national and international media and podcasts. Burton began his career as a sportswriter for the Syracuse Post-Standard before moving to Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, where he worked for 12 years in sports public relations and brand management and served as national advertising manager for Miller Lite’s award-winning “Less Filling–Tastes Great” advertising campaign.