'The Business of Sports' a Wharton Club of South Florida Special Event

The Wharton Club of South Florida
cordially invites you to a special event entitled

The Business of Sports

with guest speakers

Jonathan Mariner
Executive Vice President, Finance,
Major League Baseball

Kenneth L. Shropshire
David W. Hauck Professor; Professor of Legal Studies
and Business Ethics, The Wharton School and
Director, Wharton Sports Business Initiative

and

Stu Siegel, Moderator
Partner/Managing Director of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment
and Chairman of the Florida Panthers Foundation


Sponsored by



and




February 25, 2009
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM: Networking Reception
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM: Program

Enjoy complimentary hors d'oeuvres and cash bar

at the
BankAtlantic Center
Sawgrass Room on the Suite Level
One Panther Parkway
Sunrise, FL 33323
Click here for directions


Cost for this event:
Wharton Club of S. FL Members (plus 2 guests): Free
Non-members and Guests: $25.00 (per person)

If you'd like to join or renew your membership to the club to take advantage of the special member rate, visit www.whartonsouthfla.com/memsub.html.

All guests must pre-register no later than Friday, February 20, 2009 via our website at www.whartonsouthfla.com. All ticket purchases are non-refundable. If you have any questions, please contact Gabriela Sanchez, Club Administrator at admin@whartonsouthfla.com or (786)206-4867.




Jonathan Mariner currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Major League Baseball in the Office of the Commissioner. In addition to his daily responsibilities for overseeing the Major League Baseball's central office budgeting, financial reporting, and risk management activities, Mr. Mariner's responsibilities also include administering MLB's $1.5 billion league-wide credit facility; providing updates at Owners' Meetings on the industry's financial health; overseeing all team-level financial reporting through the team CFO's; and providing financial reviews on potential ownership applications. Mr. Mariner also serves on several Commissioner-appointed League-wide committees, including the Finance and Compensation; Revenue Sharing; Long-range Planning; Franchise Relocation; and the new Debt Service Rule Committee, which governs the level of Club indebtedness.

Mr. Mariner previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Florida Marlins Baseball Club. In his capacity as Chief Financial Officer, he was responsible for directing all of the Club's day-to-day financial and administrative activities, including financial reporting, budgeting, payroll, and cash management, as well as the human resources, information technology, and risk management functions. Mr. Mariner was also President of Marlins Ballpark Development Corp., where he was responsible for overseeing the development, funding and of the Marlins' then-proposed $400 million baseball-only ballpark in south Florida.

Mr. Mariner graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. degree in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and received his MBA degree from the Harvard Business School.



Kenneth L. Shropshire, is the David W. Hauck Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Faculty Director of its newly launched Wharton Sports Business Initiative. He served as Chairman of the School's Legal Studies department from 2000-2005. Mr. Shropshire joined the Wharton faculty in 1986 and specializes in the subject areas of sports business, negotiations, diversity and general business law. He teaches the Negotiation and Dispute Resolution course both at Wharton's main campus in Philadelphia and at Wharton West in San Francisco. He is also president of the largest organization of attorneys in the sports business, the Sports Lawyers Association.

Shropshire has written extensively about the sports industry, including several award–winning books. His past consulting roles have included a wide variety of projects including work for the NCAA, National Football League, the United States Olympic Committee, negotiation training for IBM, Clorox, Fannie Mae and Major League Baseball and diversity training for entering Wharton School MBA students. The mayor of Philadelphia appointed Shropshire to chair Philadelphia's stadium site selection committee and he is currently involved in a project assessing whether Philadelphia should bid for the 2024 Olympic Games.

After receiving an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford University and law degree from Columbia University Law School he was in practice law in Los Angeles and later served as an executive with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee leading up to the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles.

He is the author or co-author of seven books, the most recent, The Business of Sports with Scott Rosner. His other books include, The Business of Sports Agents, In Black and White: Race and Sports in America and The Sports Franchise Game. He is now at work on a book called Being Sugar Ray: the Birth of the Modern Celebrity Athlete, to be published by Basic Books next year.


Stu Siegel is a partner of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment (SSE), the organization that owns the Florida Panthers and operates the BankAtlantic Center. He serves as both the Managing Director of SSE, as well as the Chairman of the Florida Panthers Foundation, the philanthropic arm of SSE. After graduating from Wharton in 1985, he has been involved in multiple entrepreneurial endeavors, building, acquiring, merging and selling several companies. Throughout his career, Siegel has been commended by his industry peers with multiple awards. The National Association of Realtors recently named Siegel as one of Real Estate's 40 Most Influential Thought Leaders. From 2005 to 2007, Siegel was selected to the Inman100 list of the 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders; in 2001, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young; in 2000, he was named Under 40 CEO of the Year by the Eastern Technology Council; in 1993, he was selected as the Under 30 U.S. Direct Marketer of the Year by the Direct Marketing Association. He is a member of Young Presidents' Organization, where he served as 2006-07 Chairman of the Palm Beach Chapter.




Citation Shares, a division of Cessna Aircraft Company, offers the best in fractional jet ownership and jet card membership. Servicing the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Bahamas & Bermuda, we offer individuals and businesses the opportunity to experience the luxury, comfort, flexibility, safety and privacy of private jet travel. For more info, visit www.citationshares.com.


Sunrise Sports & Entertainment is the premier company of its kind in South Florida, as owners of the Florida Panthers Hockey Club and operators of the BankAtlantic Center. Home to more than 200 events annually, the BankAtlantic Center is consistently a top 15 worldwide venue according to Pollstar and welcomes over two million guests each year.