Rick Burton

Rick Burton, David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management, was Syracuse University’s faculty athletics representative to the ACC and NCAA from 2014-2022. He is the co-author of numerous books, including Business the NHL Way and The Rise of Major League Soccer. During the last 20 years, his scholarly research and commentary have been published in Sport Marketing Quarterly, the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Journal of Applied Sport Management, Journal of Sport, Nine, SAIS Review, Marketing Management, Journal of Brand Strategy, Journal of Marketing Communications, Industrial Marketing Management, International Marketing Review, Football Studies and Journal of Sponsorship, among others.

He is Syracuse University’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) to the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), teaches in Syracuse’s Renee Crown Honors Program and has served as a visiting professor at Kufstein Tirol University in Austria as well as the International Olympic Academy (IOA) in Olympia, Greece. He was selected as the Falk College Faculty Member of the Year for Teaching in 2011 and 2013.

Prior to his appointment at Syracuse in August 2009, Burton served as the chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, where he directed the USOC’s partnerships for International Olympic Committee (IOC) and USOC sponsorship activation at the world’s largest sporting event.

From 2003-07, Burton was the Commissioner of Australia’s Sydney-based National Basketball League (a two-continent league with teams in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) and was responsible for every aspect of the NBL’s development and growth, including securing broadcast rights fees, naming rights sponsorships, player and referee collective bargaining agreements and league profitability. By placing a team in Singapore, the NBL became the first western sports league to place a team in Asia.

From 1995-2003, Burton led the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center to international prominence serving as both its director and executive director (1998-03). During this time, Burton initiated Oregon’s engagement with Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and worked closely with Nike as it developed business efforts in China. While at Oregon, Burton also created the Burton Marketing Group working almost exclusively in league management and sponsorship for entities such as IMG, the U.S. Basketball Academy, Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Japanese Pro Soccer league (J-League), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), Australian NBL, Visa, Oakland Raiders and Sport Accord. More recent clients have included the Buffalo Bills (NFL), the Professional Bull Riders and TSE.

In the mid-1990s (1993-95), Burton supervised numerous clients ranging from the NFL, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gillette, Sprint and Universal Studios while serving as a vice president for sports and entertainment marketing agency Clarion Performance Properties in Greenwich, Conn.

During his varied career, Burton has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Sports Business Journal, SI.com, and Sport Business International. Burton began his career as a sportswriter in Syracuse before moving to Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, where he worked for 12 years in brand management and sports public relations. He served as national advertising manager for Miller Lite’s award-winning “Less Filling – Tastes Great” advertising campaign and also as a brand manager for Sharp’s and Lowenbrau.

Books he has co-authored include:

• The Rise of Major League Soccer: Building a Global Giant (2025, in press), Burton, R. and O’Reilly, N., Lyons Press,  Essex, Conn.
• Invisible No More (2023), Pitoniak, S., and Burton, R., Subplot Publishing, Herndon, Va.
• Business the NHL Way: Lessons from the Fastest Game on Ice (2022), O’Reilly, N. and Burton, R., Aevo/UTP Press, Toronto
• Forever Orange: The Story of Syracuse University, Pitoniak, S. and Burton, R., Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, N.Y.
• The Sport Business Handbook: Insights From 100+ Leaders Who Shaped 50 Years of the Industry (2019), Horrow, R., Burton, R. and Schrag, M., Editors; Foreword by Krzyzewski, M., Human Kinetics, Champaign, Ill.
• 20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes Who Won’t Go Pro (2018), Burton, R., Hirshman, J., O’Reilly, N., Dolich, A. and Lawrence, H., Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio.
• Sport Business Unplugged: Leadership Challenges from the World of Sports (2016), Burton, R. and O’Reilly, N., Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, N.Y.
• Global Sport Marketing: Sponsorship, Ambush Marketing, and the Olympic Games (2015), O’Reilly, N., Pound, R., Burton, R., Seguin, B. and Brunette, M., Fitness Information Technology, Morgantown, W.V.