PLANO, Texas – Learfield Sports announced today that sports marketing and sales veteran Kyle Denzel will serve as the collegiate marketer’s new vice president, West Region. With its recent acquisition of Nelligan Sports Marketing, Learfield now manages multimedia rights for more than 90 collegiate athletic programs across the U.S.
Denzel boasts more than 20 years of collegiate, professional and corporate sports marketing and sales experience and will office in Learfield Sports’ Plano headquarters, teaming with Senior Vice President Tim Cline. Most recently, Denzel served three years as general manager for CBS Collegiate Sports Properties’ Virginia Sports Properties, the multimedia rights holder for the University of Virginia Athletics. Prior to that, he was the eight-year owner and president of Sports Plus, LLC, a comprehensive sports marketing and sponsorship consultancy in Nashville, and of Belle Mar, LLC, a sports merchandising business he later sold in 2010.
Denzel’s previous experience also includes serving as director of NFL sales for the Titans Radio Network, which owned radio rights to the NFL’s Tennessee Titans; as regional vice president for Michigan Sports Marketing in Ann Arbor, and before that, as vice president and general manager for Virginia Sports Marketing in Charlottesville. On the corporate level, his sports marketing and sales expertise was with PageNet, as vice president working with ESPN, The Golf Channel and Major League Baseball; and Sprint Cellular/Centel Cellular serving in various sales and marketing manager positions from 1990-’94.
“Kyle has a proven track record, an impeccable reputation and a history of driving revenue throughout his entire career,” said Cline. “With Andrew Wheeler moving to Atlanta to lead our new office in the East, we set out looking for another great leader to manage our collegiate properties in the West. Kyle possesses all of the attributes we were looking for in this position and know he’ll be a great asset right away.”
In addition to its core collegiate rights business, the company titles the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup with co-founders NACDA and USA Today. Its multimedia rights encompass numerous content distribution platforms to deliver the passion of college athletics across radio, television and digital networks to fans globally. To learn more about Learfield’s 40-year history, comprehensive collegiate portfolio, and involvement with collegiate ticketing or concessions, visit www.learfieldsports.com.