10
Thursday, August 2nd, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS
For many Americans, soccer
is an ultimately illusive idea, a
foreign phenomenon that the
whole world has seemingly
bought into and that has left
America unaltered.
Citizens across the country
watch
the
unmatched
excitement surrounding events
such as the World Cup or
Champions League Final year
after year with indifference.
They see mega-stars such as
Christian Ronaldo and Lionel
Messi — two of the most
popular
human
beings
on
planet Earth — and shrug off
their fame. Enjoying soccer
in America has been a niche
pastime that has never been
taken seriously.
But for some reason, that’s
all begun to change.
For the first time in modern
American
history,
soccer
has
gained
real,
tangible
momentum in terms of its
expansion
into
America’s
golden sports market. All of a
sudden, stadiums from Atlanta
to Seattle are selling out Major
League Soccer (MLS) games
and
the
casual
American
sports fan is giving soccer a
shot.
And helping lead the charge
of spreading the world’s most
popular sport into America
is
Michigan
alum
Daniel
Sillman.
Sillman,
only
29,
is
currently serving as the Chief
Executive Officer of Relevent
Sports — a division of the live
entertainment
investment
firm
RSE
Ventures
that
focuses on expanding soccer’s
influence into the US and
other untapped markets. Most
notably, Relevent Sports hosts
the International Champions
Cup (ICC) every summer. The
ICC serves as the flagship
program for Relevent, seeking
to entice American fans with
the spectacle of European
soccer and its stars.
“We’re
seizing
the
opportunity
in
the
marketplace,” Sillman said,
“We see soccer as the biggest
sport in the world and growing
like crazy in America and Asia,
and we feel that we’re best
positioned to take advantage
of the growth of the sport.”
While currently embracing
the
growth
of
the
sport,
Sillman’s
journey
did
not
begin in soccer. It didn’t even
truly begin in sports.
At
Michigan,
Sillman
studied finance at the Ross
School
of
Business
where
he honed his analytic mind
and eventually started his
own
business
—
Compass
Management Group. Compass
was a multi-family office for
athletes
and
entertainers
whose services ranged from
accounting
to
estate
and
insurance planning.
Sillman’s staked interest in
establishing Compass began
through
his
relationship
with
former
Wolverine
football player and current
Philadelphia Eagle Brandon
Graham. Sillman began the
business
to
help
Graham
out financially and use his
newfound finance knowledge
and increase his stock as an
executive.
Before he knew it, Sillman’s
company
had
taken
off
and was soon acquired by
multi-family
and
business
management firm FFO. As for
Sillman, the Michigan grad
served as an advisor for FFO
while
transitioning
to
his
new position of Director of
Business Development at RSE
Ventures.
Throughout
his
short,
yet storied career, Sillman
has
primarily
operated
in
financial management, but he
has found himself more and
more entrenched in the realm
of sports due to the clientele of
his businesses.
While sports and athlete
management have seemingly
been the thread tying Sillman’s
career together, another factor
has blatantly helped the young
executive achieve his success
—
the
Michigan
alumni
network. After all, Sillman’s
career did truly kick off due
in part to his relationship with
Graham.
Now, Sillman finds himself
working for another Michigan
man — legendary real estate
developer and namesake of the
business school Stephen Ross.
Ross owns RSE Ventures
and continues to make deep
investments
into
Sillman’s
family of companies and is one
of the early backers of soccer’s
expansion into the states.
“The relationships I built
at Ross School of Business
are those that have really
helped me my entire career,”
Sillman said. “Ultimately, now
I work for Steve Ross, so the
alumni of the university have
been relationships that I’ve
been able to build through
my experience at Ross and
ultimately led to my career
opportunities beyond selling
my own business, but going
to work at RSE Ventures, and
now as the CEO of Relevent,
working
with
so
many
Michigan alums has been a
huge piece of my life.”
Now, Sillman is looking to
use those connections and
spin a miracle in soccer and
other
live
entertainment
opportunities in the states.
Beyond
the
men’s
ICC,
which most recently brought
Manchester
United
and
Liverpool to Michigan Stadium
in front of a 100,000-plus
person crowd, Sillman and co.
have recently expanded into a
women’s ICC, an ICC Future’s
event at Disney’s Wide World
of Sports Complex in Orlando,
Fla. and an entertainment
property
called
House
of
Soccer meant to inspire youth
excitement around the sport.
While Sillman recognizes
that
these
programs
are
undoubtedly
a
long-term
investment
into
America’s
future sporting landscape, he
and his company are already
seeing promising returns. By
Sillman’s
reports,
Relevent
affiliated
sporting
events
garnered 140 million views
last year and are on pace to
reach as many as 160 million
this
year.
Over
a
million
people have attended their
events in the past and with
North America set to host the
World Cup in 2026, Sillman
firmly believes the sport is
here to stay.
“To say, ‘Will it work?’ you
gotta open your eyes because
you have MLS which has
been extremely successful,”
Sillman said. “If you go study
the media rights landscaping
in North America, the English
Premier League sold their
media rights for $180 million
to NBC which is double their
last right’s sale.”
With a budding MLS and
international stars coming to
play stateside, it’s clear that
America
has
the
sporting
infrastructure
needed
to
support
the
world’s
most
popular
sport.
Now
the
question is whether Americans
are ready to make the switch.
So how exactly do you make
the pitch to the general public
that soccer is worth the time?
Sillman says there exists a
simple answer — storytelling.
“We do a lot to work with
the clubs to tell the amazing
stories behind the history
of their formation and the
success that they’ve had,”
Sillman said. “We try to tell
the stories of the mythical-like
players and their stories and
where they come from and how
they’ve achieved success, and
it’s our job to provide amazing
entertainment
experiences
which is why we’ve developed
House of Soccer which is
very similar to NBA House
of Hoops or NFL Experience
at the Super Bowl, and we’ve
expanded our investment off
the pitch into entertainment
properties that have really
engaged
the
communities
that we’re bringing to games
so that people can participate
with soccer.”
In the end, soccer still has a
long way to go in dethroning
the power four of football,
basketball,
baseball
and
hockey in America, but Sillman
and Relevent seem to be taking
all the right steps. They’re
capitalizing off big spectacle
events such as the World Cup,
starting grass roots initiatives
with kids camps and programs
and
are
even
organizing
celebrity soccer games with
such superstars as Drake and
Draymond Green.
If
currents
trends
hold
and Sillman and Relevent,
the
silent
workhorses
of
American
soccer,
continue
their steadfast investment in
the sport, it’s hard to imagine
anything standing in their
way.
Sillman seeks to popularize soccer in US
JACOB KOPNICK
Summer Managing Sports Editor
ALEC COHEN / DAILY
The International Champions Cup is the flagship program of Michigan alum Daniel Sillman’s company Relevent Sports