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The worlds of sports and showbiz collide! Featuring in-depth chats with top athletes, entertainers, and industry insiders - all with a Las Vegas twist.
Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Music 0:22
Go Nothing can stop me. I'm all the way up, all the way up, I'm all
Alexis Levi 0:33
the way up, I'm all the way up. Nothing can stop me. I'm all the way up. And this is Alexis Levi and you know, I'm with sports and stars, and I'm so excited, you know, I've been in sports for such a long time, and I tell you, these people brought me out of retirement because I thought I was retiring, but they gave me a call, and I answered that call, and it's been fun and exciting ever since. So I decided to ask the founder to come and hang out with me for just a few minutes. Kind of let you Las Vegas know, kind of what is going on in Las Vegas, as well as everywhere else in sports, especially with sports philanthropy. So I have the founder and the beginner, the starter, the main man. Roy Kessel, Roy, thanks for joining me.
Roy Kessel 1:18
Thanks for having me on the show. Alexis, I am excited.
Alexis Levi 1:21
You know, it's, it's like I said, You brought me out of retirement. You called me and said, Hey, we have a duty for you, and I've been excited ever since. But you are moving and doing some amazing things. But I want the group, the audience, to know kind of what, how it started. I don't even know totally how it started. So how did you start sports, philanthropy, network?
Roy Kessel 1:41
Yeah, thank you. It's it's interesting because I had worked in in the sports business world for quite some time, as an attorney, as an agent, putting together charity and celebrity golf events and all kinds of different things, including teaching at Northwestern and their graduate Sports Management Program, and the unifying theme there was, as I got to interact with these athletes on a on a peer level, as opposed to sort of a fan level, where you're just asking for an autograph, you really heard their stories and heard their passion for giving back to their community and doing things that can help change and transform those communities. And what was missing was a mechanism to help the athletes, to guide them in that journey, to support their efforts, right, and really to train them along the way, so that they are prepared to give back. And when we started, that was the core vision. And what we've seen as sports philanthropy network has expanded is that this applies not only to the individual athletes, but it often applies to the sports larger sports organizations, teams, leagues, governing bodies, universities, and it applies to many of the community sports nonprofits, where people with a great passion for a particular sport have started their organization as a way to give back, but they've never been they've never been trained in how to run a nonprofit, right? Most of them have never run or owned a business, yes, and then now they're trying to run a nonprofit business, which is really, you got to have all the business skills, but you also have to understand the nonprofit landscape. So they don't have a board of directors, they don't know how to do fundraising. They're not aware of all of the legalities and compliance complexities that exist in doing that, right? Because people, if they donate money and they can't get a tax deduction, they're not going to be very happy.
Alexis Levi 3:46
That's correct. That's correct. And you know, the exciting thing for me is usually it's, I hate to say this women, but it's usually the women that are doing these types of things and taking care of people. And I love the fact that you took your expertise in all those areas and brought it together. And I know that you have a partner, and you guys are doing amazing things. But I also want to talk about, you know, just some of the things that you guys have initiated. I mean, you you guys came here and we did amazing event for the Super Bowl. Let's talk a little bit about that.
Roy Kessel 4:17
And who you joined me, Super Bowl. Yeah, Super Bowl week, as you recall, was crazy, wall to wall events in Vegas. Vegas is a great host city for major sporting events, so we're fortunate to be out there, and the NFL has been a great partner with us, and including us in radio row at the Super Bowl, as well as opportunities to cover NFL owners meetings and the drafts and things like that. But you know, the event you're talking about was one that we did for food insecurity, yes, with a group called tackle hunger and with Central Church to bring people together with the spirit of giving. Back and helping promote the awareness that many people don't understand how large that need is. In this country, we think everybody's got food. You go through supermarkets, you go drive around, there's restaurants every half a block. That's true, right? And there's still so many people in the united states that don't have enough food. There's so many kids that go to schools where the the only meals that they get will be the breakfast and lunch that they get at school, and then they don't have anything in the evening. Yes, they don't have anything to eat over the weekends. So it's a big it's a big need. It's something that we all have. Most of us that are part of this community have an opportunity to give back yes, in some fashion. And the challenge is always this, there's more needs, right than each of us individually.
Alexis Levi 5:59
Yes, unfortunately, to help, yes, right? I agree
Roy Kessel 6:02
with that. It's hard, because there's no right or wrong answer about what cause Alexis should support or what cause any of our listeners should support. We have an expression that we use to sign off for all of our interviews and podcasts and asking people to remember, to Live generously. And what that means is, is give, give what you're able to there might be times in your life where where that can be money. There might be other times where that's just some of your time and volunteer effort to support great causes.
Alexis Levi 6:33
Yes, and you know, we do a lot of things here with sports philanthropy network. We're always involved in some organizational event or sports event. I mean, whether big or small, we don't care. It's just a matter of giving. And the exciting thing is, you guys have kind of, you know, a little bit of turned it around, because you have a big event this month. And so I want to talk a little bit about that. For those of you that like to get involved with sports, you give us a call at, you know, at Alexis Levi sports. And then also you can look online for sports philanthropy network.org and make sure that if you want to come out to Chicago, you can come out enjoy the festivities. They're doing a big project there. So I want to talk a little bit about that. Roy, give me some some information on the world that you're
Roy Kessel 7:21
Yeah, so sports, sports philanthropy. World Conference is our annual our large annual event. We launched it in 2019, which was perfectly timed before covid, yes, but we got it off the ground, and we now are fortunate to partner with KPMG, who is hosting our conference again this year in Chicago, we're going to have an amazing array of speakers, and we really bring together athletes, people that work at sports leagues and organizations, universities, community nonprofits. And we're also adding in a lot of content around social entrepreneurship around venture philanthropy and how to work fundraising, not in just the traditional mechanisms that people think of, but how to approach and work with family offices, with donor advised funds, With other big corporate foundations or family foundations that have resources that are looking to deploy them for particular causes. And so we're fortunate Lee Steinberg, sports agent, yes, launched his own Jerry Maguire Foundation, right? Yeah, he's just launched his own concussion Foundation. And so we're fortunate that Lee is going to be one of our keynote speakers. We have Kevin Martinez, who is the VP of Corporate Citizenship for ESPN, and Kevin is really passionate about the work that ESPN does to impact communities, and they obviously have a large voice in the sports world. Their new initiative for take back sports is geared and aimed towards getting kids to be more involved, more active, and taking sports back so that we have kids that are quote, unquote, playing sports. So it's play. It's not like a job for a little kid that, yes, at eight, 910, years old, to be a pro already, to be a pro, right? That they're going and practicing six days a week, and they're practicing hour after hour, and they're specializing in an individual sport. So all, all of the data shows that the more different sports a kid plays, the more things that the kids do and things like that, it helps them right, both in terms of their abilities, in terms of their skill set, and things like that.
Alexis Levi 9:56
Well, you know, as you know, I had a pro athlete son, and, you know. Know, it's not for everybody. You know, the mentality, the gruel, the grind. You know, I was a pro, pro ice skater, and a lot of people don't know that. I used to get up at four in the morning skate, go to school, get my homework done, go back to skate. You know, it's a commitment. But I think when we look at the way obesity has taken over with some of the young because they're playing video games and things like that. They just need to get off the couch, off the chair, off the gaming chair, and get out and do some exercising, you know. And so I like that. ESPN is committed to making that happen. I know we partnered with a couple of groups, with next American sports pro to do the same, to make sure that they're, you know, walking 100 miles and doing different things through the year, and they get prizes and all that kind of good stuff. And I think anybody that's doing everything, none of us can touch everybody, you know, but if we all take a commitment to touch somebody or groups of somebodies, I think the world will be much better place, don't you?
Roy Kessel 10:58
Yeah, and I think that as you're describing, right? Sports has so much power to bring people together, to break down barriers, to provide connections. There's a lot of different strategies we can use to harness that power of sports for good and bring people together to do important work, and people will often listen if it's done in a sports context, in a way that they won't right, people aren't going to come to a lecture about financial literacy. Yes, right, but if we have athletes like we did at the Super Bowl in Phoenix talking to high school, yes, and 500 kids sat there for two hours, and not one of them was playing on their phone. Oh, yeah, yeah. They were engaged. They were listening. They asked great questions, and they had an opportunity to be served pizza by these 10 athletes that came and shared their stories. And they were very different stories of challenges in financial space and financial literacy. But it's it's so impactful. Those stories carry so much weight when they come from the athlete, it does compared to, if Roy or Alexis,
Alexis Levi 12:08
well, you know, and to, you know, a lot of times when you're a little bit older, everybody thinks, Well, they've already been there, done that, you know, they've made the mistakes, and now they're successful. But, you know, there's a lot of ups and downs. I was talking, I actually did an interview myself this morning, and we were talking about the finances and athletes and, you know, some of the better decisions to make early and how to build that legacy. And that seems to be a narrative that's happening a lot. I see it on Instagram, I see it on Tiktok, I see it on Facebook, and so I believe that, but no one's unbeknownst to us. And maybe it's getting better the closer we're getting to, you know, a couple of years down the road, I remember when I was owning the team here in Las Vegas, and I was actually an agent first, and so when I was talking to an athlete about his finances and saying, you know, you don't want them to give you too big of a advance, because you do have to pay some of that back. It's almost like the it's almost like the music industry, you know, and they don't understand that. They just want to see the money, get the money. Show me the money, and I get it. I get it because that's what the world tells us is important, but also making good decisions, having, you know, sports philanthropy be out there, opening those doors and giving those narratives and and also giving the athletes, because a lot of them, you know, once they're done playing, they don't know where to fit themselves in, and that's one of the things that I love the most regarding sports philanthropy, is when they are no longer, you know, in front of the lights, as far as on a field or a court or whatever their sport was. Now, they can give back with their knowledge and their cachet and their celebrity. And like you said, the kids listen, and that's who we need to listen, because they're the next generation.
Roy Kessel 13:43
Yeah, and I think that you hit it right on the head, which is the ability to give back is not dependent on being a current athlete. It's not dependent on being a star athlete. Some of the people we see doing the best work in the communities are people that, from the outside, a fan would say, sort of the proverbial just a guy, right? Yes, person who was in, just a guy on the bench, right? NFL or the NBA or, you know, and played, but not a star, not a name that most of the country would recognize as as being a professional athlete, right? But you don't need to be Tom Brady or LeBron or Peyton Manning to make an impact. When you go and work with kids and schools, when you go and work and give your heart and soul in the community, your status as an athlete is a great multiplier of the effect that that has and so I agree. We really try and educate the athletes, because many of them think, like, well, what can I do? Like, I'm not big enough to make a difference. And the analogy that I use for people is when they say they're not big enough to make a difference. This applies to all of us, and everybody listening to the show. Is I asked three questions, right? Have you ever tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in your bedroom? Yeah, a little mosquito, right? Yes. You know, if you ever got a piece of sand in your eye, yeah? Have you ever had a pebble in your shoe? Yes, these are all things that objectively are tiny, tiny things that you would think wouldn't be significant, but we all know what kind of harm and damage that can do, and so you have a great ability every one of us to help and give back. And if people are looking for ideas and strategies to do that, we're here, right? You you're there in Vegas? Yes, we're here in Vegas nationally, yes, and we're happy to help and support those efforts. Yes.
Alexis Levi 15:49
And you're in Chicago, and I know I didn't mention this yet, but there is offices and people in groups in a lot of states. And so even if you're in Vegas right now, and you're hearing Yes, when we're talking, the good thing is, is that you can look up the main website. Give them the website, please.
Roy Kessel 16:08
Yeah, sports philanthropy network.org, and as Alexis said, we we've got chapters started in many cities around the country. We're open to starting them in more with the right leadership. And so we know that each community is different, has different needs, has different cultures, yes, and so we want to make sure that the work that we do resonates in the local community,
Alexis Levi 16:31
yes, yes. And we can do that. I mean, we've done some amazing things here. We're excited about all the sports here in Las Vegas. You know, when I first came here, it was the Las Vegas stars, it was the rebels and the 50 ones, and that was it. Now we have all this great sports the A's are coming. We got the Raiders. We've got the aces, we've got the knights, and we've got the lights, and, you know, we've got, we've kind of grown into a sports and entertainment company. As our mayor and some of the dignitaries say we used to be the entertainment capital of the world, but now they say we're the sports and entertainment capital of the world. And of course, me being 100% sports, I love that, and so I thank you so much for coming and giving us some information today. It's exciting to be able to spread the word this show goes, you know, nationwide, even though we're here in Las Vegas, and so we're excited about that, and I will make sure to be a good representative here, and make sure we give as much information out. And if people want to volunteer for events, we've got, you know, job fairs and all kinds of things coming up, showcases for nonprofits and things of that nature. So make sure that you're hanging out with sports philanthropy Network. Today, I had my
Roy Kessel 17:43
guest everybody to participate in in the conference in Chicago sports philanthropy world. You can find all the info just click through right from the front page of the site.
Alexis Levi 17:53
All right. Well, that sounds good. Well, I am so excited. I will make sure to keep passing the word. And I just thank you so much. Today, I do have to give a shout out to my girl, Kayla, the other half of sports philanthropy network, and make sure that she's amazing. She put me on the field. She did all kind of amazing things when they came out here for the Super Bowl, and we couldn't do it without her. And I thank you so much, Roy, and I will keep everybody abreast of what's going on. And thank you so much for joining me today.
Roy Kessel 18:23
Thanks for having us. We appreciate being included, and look forward to helping as many people as possible.
Alexis Levi 18:28
All right. Well, thank you so much, and I'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai