50 Most Influential: No. 1 — Randy Freer and Eric Shanks

Published December 9, 2013

WILLIAM HAUSER / FOX SPORTS 1

WILLIAM HAUSER / FOX SPORTS 1

1

RANDY
FREER

President & COO

Fox Networks Group

ERIC
SHANKS

President & COO

Fox Sports

 CHANGE FROM 2012: +5

The Fox duo seems an unlikely pair to take the top spot. But under the direction of Freer and Shanks, Fox Sports dictated, shaped and in some cases inflated the sports media marketplace in recent years, gobbling up rights in a buildup to the August launches of Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. The nuts and bolts of the three-month-plus life of Fox Sports 1 don’t matter much to us. We’re looking more at a long-term, deeply funded programmer with multiple networks and platforms that will continue to be an aggressive bidder on sports rights — and will help maintain the inflated, lucrative media market that is driving the sports business today.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/12/09/Most-Influential/Intro.aspx

50 Most Influential People in Sports:

1. Randy Freer / Eric Shanks, Fox Sports

2. Roger Goodell, NFL
3. John Skipper, ESPN
4. David Stern / Adam Silver, NBA
5. Bud Selig, Major League Baseball
6. Dick Costolo, Twitter
7. Robert Kraft, The Kraft Group
8. David Levy, Turner Broadcasting System
9. Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group
10. Sean McManus, CBS Sports
11. Gary Bettman, NHL
12. Brian France, NASCAR
13. Phil Anschutz, AEG
14. Tim Finchem, PGA Tour
15. Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys
16. Mark Walter, Los Angeles Dodgers / Guggenheim Partners
17. Mark MacDougall, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld / Mike Dolan, IMG / George Pyne, IMG Sports & Entertainment
18. Mark Parker, Nike Inc. / Trevor Edwards, Nike Brand
19. Casey Wasserman, Wasserman Media Group
20. Sepp Blatter, FIFA
21. Tim Brosnan and Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball22. Don Garber, Major League Soccer
23. Mike Slive, Southeastern Conference
24. Jim Delany, Big Ten Conference
25. Melinda Witmer, Time Warner Cable
26. Kevin Plank, Under Armour
27. John Henry, Fenway Sports Group
28. Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo
29. Larry Probst / Scott Blackmun, U.S. Olympic Committee
30. Michael Levine / Howard Nuchow, CAA Sports
31. Tim Leiweke, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
32. Paul Chibe / Blaise D'Sylva, Anheuser-Busch
33. Mark Emmert, NCAA
34. Jeff Pash, NFL
35. Jerry Reinsdorf, Chicago White Sox / Bulls
36. Ed O’Bannon, O’Bannon v. NCAA
37. Thomas Bach, International Olympic Committee
38. Don Fehr, NHL Players’ Association
39. Herbert Hainer, Adidas
40. Bob Bowman, MLB Advanced Media
41. Chris Tsakalakis, StubHub
42. Andy England / Tom Long, MillerCoors
43. Sean Bratches, ESPN
44. Jed York, San Francisco 49ers
45. Rick Dudley, Octagon
46. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees / Fred Horowitz
47. DeMaurice Smith, NFL Players Association
48. Stephen Espinoza, Showtime
49. Asim Pasha, Sporting Innovations, Sporting KC
50. Vladimir Putin, Russian president