Near-sellout crowd comes out for Lionel Messi’s MLS season finale

October 22, 2023October 22, 2023 Admin

The lights of Las Vegas shined bright on Friday night for SBJ’s annual Forty Under 40 gala, with over 400 people on hand at the Primrose Ballroom at Aria Resort & Casino to honor the execs who will be shaping the future of sports business.

SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour honored/roasted the recipients with his annual opening (with the help of some Vegas flair alongside Magic by Robb and then with NFL Network host Cynthia Frelund as emcee for the event). Among the hits from Madkour’s speech for the honorees:

“This gala is going to have pace; it’s going to be over before you know it. Sort of like the Dodgers’ playoff run. Sorry Royce Cohen, too soon?
“We’re not perfect. I mean, we honored Dan Snyder three times.”
“Really odd that Big Ten table keeps expanding. It went from 10, to 12, to 14, to 16 … Some say you were going to 18.”
“Before Charles Altchek became a key executive to MLS Commissioner Don Garber, he was a legit soccer star. Seriously! A two-time Ivy League player of the year for Harvard. People really wanted to see him play; hell, more people watched him play at Harvard than are watching MLS on Apple TV.”

Four honorees were inducted into the Forty Under 40 Hall of Fame (named to the list three times): Monumental Sports’ Zach Leonsis, The Raine Group’s Colin Neville, Riot Games’ Whalen Rozelle and MLB’s Morgan Sword.

The event was attended by a number past Forty Under 40 honorees, including Wasserman’s Casey Wasserman, LA28’s Kathy Carter, CAA Sports’ Mike Levine, the NFL’s Renie Anderson, A-B InBev’s Matt Davis, Verizon’s Nick Kelly, Fox Sports’ Michael Mulvihill, Learfield’s Cole Gahagan, Elevate’s Ben Gumpert, the Premier Lacrosse League’s Paul Rabil, Arctos Partners’ TJ Adeshola, Eventellect’s George Postolos and the Winners Alliance’s Ahmad Nassar, among others.

Also spotted supporting the honorees and catching up with industry colleagues were Monumental Sports’ Ted Leonsis, the Hawks’ Steve Koonin, Levy Restaurants’ Andy Lansing, MGM Resorts’ Lance Evans, the Blues’ Chris Zimmerman, Inner Circle Sports’ Steve Horowitz, Riot Games’ Leo Faria and BTN’s Francois McGillicuddy.

TurnkeyZRG before the event hosted a reception at Aria’s speakeasy, Easy’s Cocktail Lounge. Among those in attendance were Octagon’s Camille Buxeda (excited about a upcoming trip to France for the Notre Dame-South Carolina women’s college hoops game) and Winston & Strawn’s Robert Pannullo (both honored the prior night at NVU30). Among the 40U40 honorees in the crowd were the NFL’s David Highhill, the Winners Alliance’s Eric Winston, Riot Games’ Whalen Rozelle and Monumental Sports’ Zach Leonsis. Also spotted were TurnkeyZRG’s Len Perna, Rick Allesandri, Nisar Qureshi, Kelly Lewis, Riot Games’ David Higdon and Eventellect’s Will Brannon.

TurnkeyZRG, Anheuser-Busch, Verizon and MGM Rewards are the presenting sponsors of the event, while FEVO is a Bronze sponsor.