At home with Leaders: Chris Gargano

How the Jets put their NFL Draft content plan together | The enforced pause as a launchpad for radical ideas | The two-track thinking across European football.

Episode 84 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast is brought to you by Onside Law. As a gesture of help, the specialist law firm is offering a number of free sports law clinics for those grappling with issues arising from Covid-19. Request a free session here.

This episode of At home with Leaders features a conversation with Chris Gargano (begins at 32:42), the VP and Executive Producer at the New York Jets. He takes us inside the content operation at the NFL franchise and reviews the recent NFL Draft, which attracted a staggering 55 million viewers over the course of its virtual broadcasts on 23rd, 24th, and 25th April. Gargano and his team produced three live shows of their own, and attempted to transpose a series of Jets draft parties into a virtual environment.

Before that conversation, James Emmett and David Cushnan are joined by Onside Law Partner Jamie Singer to discuss the radical ideas gathering some momentum while live sport is on hiatus, and to analyse the varying approaches being taken to completing or discontinuing football seasons across Europe.

On the conversational agenda:

- The proposals for change in golf, tennis, rugby and football;

- Why it’s inevitable that some European leagues will finish, and some won’t;

- How the Jets took three draft parties online;

- What went into the planning process, content and commercial objectives, and tech platform decision;

- The learning to take forward and implement post-draft.