Marshall and ‘USA TODAY’ announce new partnership


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The USC Marshall School of Business’ Sports Business Institute and the USA TODAY Sports Media Group announced a new partnership to create an online platform for covering the business of sports on Tuesday.

The new website, “The Fields of Green,” will utilize curated blog posts, columns and multimedia to offer analysis on breaking news and trends in the sports industry. Combining the acumen of experts and key players in the industry, the site will provide insight on factors such as media trends and new technologies affecting the sports business.

“We are so pleased to be working with the USA TODAY Sports Media Group. Fields of Green brings something completely new to the table: timely, incisive analysis of issues in sports from a business perspective,” said David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute and a national authority on sports business and strategic marketing, in a press release. “It’s a niche that no one else is filling, and a tremendous opportunity to shed light on the developments driving the sports business industry today.”

Founded in 2005, the Sports Business Institute, housed within USC Marshall, was the first of its kind at a major academic institution and, according to its website, is “focused on understanding and furthering the sports business industry” through collaborative events, research and student-led consulting.  In 2010, the institute published the book Money Games: Profiting from the Convergence of Sports and Entertainment.

The goal of the partnership is to combine the global expertise of Marshall’s SBI with the global reach of USA TODAY. SBI will provide in-depth analysis and feature content for the website, and USA TODAY will provide the administrative and technological infrastructure to create the new online platform. Formed in 2011, the Sport’s Media Group sites are consistently among the top five most visited sports sites in North America, according to analytics firm ComScore.

“Fields of Green will leverage our position as the top source of sports news and information in the country to expose a broad audience to the USC Sports Business Institute’s cutting-edge insight and seasoned analysis,” Dave Morgan, president of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group, said in a press release. “The synergies between us make our two organizations a solid match.”