Dr. Funk’s research focuses on investigating sport consumer experiences in order to help organizations understand customer acquisition, retention and expenditure. This research provides insight into various cognitive, physical and organizational factors that shape preferences and behavior in order to develop an effective mixture of marketing and management strategies. Over the past 15 years, he has worked with various industry partners and utilized a diverse range of data collection and analytic techniques to provide commissioned reports and presentations to help understand the value and effectiveness of their events, programs, and practices.

His research on sport and cultural events has provided insight to help event organizations and host cities quantify economic and community benefits as well as assess operational practices and event design features. His research in the area of college athletics helped assess the fairness of sanctions imposed on member institutions at the Division I level and is currently examining Division II and III. Dr. Funk’s work in Australia has allowed professional sport leagues and governmental sport agencies to better understand how to launch new teams and identify and develop high performance talent. His ongoing work in the area of youth sport development has helped organizations assess the efficacy of their after school programs. Currently, he is working with Japanese universities and government agencies to develop a new governance model and process for introducing intercollegiate sport in Japan’s higher education system.

Industry Experience: Campus Recreation, Sport and Cultural Event Production

Previous Projects and/or Clients:

• Australian Football League
• National Collegiate Athletic Association
• Choose Chicago, Concilio Hispanic Festival
• National Football League, Lifetime Fitness
• Australian Institute of Sport
• Student Run Philly Style
• Philadelphia Marathon
• Temple Athletics
• Temple Institutional Advancement
• Think Company
• Under Armour

Dr. Jordan is the Associate Dean at Temple University in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management and the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative. Additionally, Dr. Jordan served as the Director of the Sport Industry Research Center (SIRC) at Temple University from 2012-2017. SIRC was created in 2008 and is a collaborative research network providing innovative marketing and management strategies to enhance the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of sporting events and organizations. As part of SIRC, Dr. Jordan has lead research projects with numerous industry partners such as: Life Time Athletic Events, Philadelphia Marathon & Half Marathon; NFL Draft, America’s Cup World Series; Temple Athletics; Tough Mudder; Students Run Philly Style; Black Girls Run!; and Welcome America.

Dr. Jordan’s research examines the individual and community level benefits of mass participant sport events as well as programs that promote physical activity. His research has been published in leading leisure and sport management journals such as Leisure Sciences, Journal of Leisure Research, Journal of Sport Management and Sport Management Review.

He received his PhD in Sport Management from The Ohio State University in 2001. In addition, Dr. Jordan has a Master’s in Exercise and Sport Science from the University of Utah (1995) and a Bachelor’s in Physical Education from La Sierra University (1993).

Industry Experience: College Athletic Administrator, Research Consultant
Previous Projects and/or Clients: NCAA, NFL, PHLSport, Choose Chicago, Philadelphia Marathon, Miami Marathon

Dr. Kunkel’s research is positioned on the intersection of strategic management and marketing. He analyzes consumer data to help organizations build their brand, engage consumers, activate sponsorships and foster consumer loyalty. He is specialized in two areas.
He analyzes brand relationships within different brand architectures to provide insights into the positioning of brands in a competitive environment. Within this stream, he has examined the relationship between sport teams and leagues, demonstrating the influence of the league brand on team-following; the relationship between athletes and sponsors, demonstrating the influence of athlete philanthropy on consumer perceptions of the sponsor; and the relationship between events and their host communities, demonstrating the influence of an aligned event brand on brand image of a city.

He analyzes consumer engagement and gamification via mobile apps to provide insights into user behavior, app development and monetization. Within this stream, he worked with a sport-media startup on improving their application through user experience and user behavior analysis to increase engagement and optimize monetization.

Overall, the application of his research provides relevant stakeholders with solutions to improve the consumer experience, foster stakeholder engagement, and increase revenues.

Industry Experience:

• CEO of a sport-media startup
• Consultant for sport leagues, events, and athletes

Previous Projects and/or Clients:

• Bath on Ice – an event in England with 22’000 participants over the course of 6-weeks during the festive season. The project has been ongoing since 2013 and includes evaluating service experience, examining spill-over effects to renew the license, creating sponsorship proposals, and providing strategic growth recommendations. The event organizer has since expanded to three additional markets with the same concept.
• Michael Lahoud – a professional soccer player. The project included evaluating his brand image, repositioning his brand image, developing social media branding training, and creating sponsorship proposals.
• Appventures – a gamified mobile sport fan application. The project included testing user experience and user interface, analyzing user behavior, and providing recommendations to increase user engagement and monetization.

Dr. Gareth J. Jones joined SIRC in 2016 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and is now an Assistant Professor of Sport and Recreation Management in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. Dr. Jones’ research focuses on how sport and recreation influences the cognitive, social, and physical development of youth and communities. In addition to analyzing the individual outcomes associated with participation in sport and recreation programs, Dr. Jones also focuses on the management and delivery of these services across different communities. He is particularly interested in how inter-organizational partnerships and collaborative networks are utilized to enhance and expand sport and recreation services. This includes building the capacity of sport and recreation organizations and ensuring services are available and accessible for diverse communities. Dr. Jones also has a keen interest in sport-for-development (SFD), broadly defined as the use of sport to address prevailing social, economic, and/or health-related issues. In addition to assessing individual programs within this space, Dr. Jones has also evaluated the efficacy of both large- and small-scale events in promoting SFD goals.

Dr. Jones draws on a diverse repertoire of methodological tools to conduct his research. He has experience leading qualitative studies involving interviews, focus groups, and participant observations, as well as quantitatively-focused studies using both primary and secondary data. In addition to variable-based quantitative methods, Dr. Jones also utilizes social network analysis to focus on relational traits at both the organizational and individual level. While at North Carolina State University, Dr. Jones also earned a certificate in geographic information systems (GIS), and consults on a variety of projects involving community master planning, component-based inventories, and geospatial analysis.

Previous Projects and/or Clients:

• Student’s Run Philly Style
• Chicago Run
• Philadelphia Youth Sport Collaborative
• GreenPlay LLC

Dr. Taylor’s work broadly centers on improving diversity and inclusion within the sport industry, specifically as it relates to gender discrimination and homophobia; sexual harassment and sexual assault education; and harassment of female faculty members. The work on gender in sport examines the experiences of women working within sport organizations (e.g., graduate assistants, early career professionals, athletic directors, and conference commissioner) and management implications for issues of gender discrimination and harassment. Similarly, the line on homophobia in sport evaluates the underrepresentation of LGBTQ+ individuals in sport organizations and experiences of closeted coaches. This work is informed by her experience as a Division III volleyball players and track athlete as well as her time spent as a Division I graduate assistant volleyball coach.

Dr. Taylor’s research on sexual harassment and sexual assault education has uncovered issues related to prevalence and legitimacy of these topics within sport management curricula. She worked with the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation to increase awareness of these shortcomings and attempt to better train sport management educators. Finally, the line on harassment of female faculty has assessed the experiences of women working within sport management academe with harassment from students, colleagues, and superiors. Data from over 200 female sport management faculty members has been collected and analyzed. This work aims to help future, and current, female faculty on how to successfully navigate these experiences. This work is informed by her experience as both a graduate teach associate and full time faculty member.

Industry Experience: Division I volleyball coach

Dr. George C. Diemer joined STHM within the Department of Sport and Recreation Management in Fall 2017.

Prior to his arrival, Diemer taught at Chestnut Hill College since 2011, where he
led courses on finance, sports finance, and economics. He also held a full-time, non-tenure-track appointment in the Economics department at Temple University’s College of Liberal Arts, in addition to adjunct faculty appointments at Arcadia University, La Salle University, Rutgers University, and The College of New Jersey.

Diemer’s research interests include sport economics, specializing in the gambling markets as they relate to financial institutions. Other interests include constructing and testing non-parametric probability density functions as a means of corruption investigations.
Diemer earned his PhD in Economics and Master of Arts in Economics from Temple University. He also studied at La Salle University, where he attained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

John Allgood currently serves as Academic Director of the Executive Master of Science in Sport Business and Assistant Professor at Temple University.

Before joining Temple, Allgood served as Senior Executive Vice President at Prodigal, LLC, a sport and entertainment company. His responsibilities included developing new sport and entertainment events and creating partnerships with existing sport and entertainment organizations. During his tenure, Prodigal operated an American Hockey League franchise, owned and operated a United Soccer League franchise, and partnered with C.D. Guadalajara to produce the most successful soccer event in Oklahoma history. Allgood also produced outdoor concert festivals, Professional Bull Riding events and a National Championship rodeo.

Allgood spent 15 years with the Oklahoma City RedHawks, a Triple-A baseball team. He served in a variety of capacities, beginning as Public Relations Director in 1995 with the RedHawks organization. He continued his ascent through the organization, eventually serving as Executive Director through the franchise’s most successful seasons.

Allgood guided the RedHawks to their highest single-season attendance marks in the history of Oklahoma baseball, honoring him with Pacific Coast League Executive of the Year as the team’s Executive Director. He was instrumental in operating the annual Bedlam Baseball Series, the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship, NCAA Baseball Regionals and multiple MLB exhibition games.

Allgood was the driving force in creating year-round events at the Bricktown Ballpark, such as snow tubing during the holiday season and a variety of concerts, ranging from Dave Matthews Band to local Christian artists. Allgood served on the prestigious Triple-A Baseball marketing committee during his tenure with the RedHawks. He also hosted the first Triple-A baseball national championship.

Allgood received a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and served as an adjunct professor in the Price School of Business. He served as the founding chairman of the advisory board for the management division of the Price School of Business from 2009-2010. Allgood is the past chairman of the advisory board.

Allgood was also the faculty representative for the University of Oklahoma Sport Management Club. He served as the chairman of Limbs for Life, leading the charitable effort for thousands of amputees worldwide. He is a former president of the Bricktown Association. He was named a JC Penney Distinguished Visitors Series honoree, a recognition awarded to Oklahoma-connected executives in business, government or academia who are proven leaders in helping to form society’s conventional wisdom.

Dr. Amy Giddings currently serves as an Associate Professor of Sport and Recreation Management and the Academic Director of the Master’s in Sport Business.  Her industry and work experiences range from community recreation to international sport and include positions with the Olympic Games, collegiate recreation and intercollegiate athletics, and non-profit sport organizations.

She has received numerous grants for program development and research including one from the NCAA to support initiatives related to increasing minority and female participation in the field of coaching.  Encouraging women to consider a career in coaching has always been a passion and it led Dr. Giddings to create The Women’s Coaching Network, which includes both the Women in Coaching blog and the Real Women of Coaching video series.  She also works with community organizations assisting with coach development in under-resourced communities.  The founder of the Philadelphia Coaches Conference, Dr. Giddings brings together coaches at the youth, scholastic, collegiate and professional levels to share their knowledge with one another in a two-day event.  The establishment of this collaborative event was a catalyst for her work with the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Athletics – where she created and provided education and professional development programming to all school district coaches over a two-year period.

A two-time U.S. National Champion and more than ten top three finishes in the U.S. Rowing Championships, Giddings’ rowing resume is extensive. She finished in the top 10 at the World Indoor Rowing Championships in 2000, won the 2001 I-lan International Invitational in Taiwan in the women’s lightweight quad, and was part of the women’s senior quad that captured gold at the prestigious Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in 2002. She also has three gold medals from the famed Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, MA in the lightweight women’s four event.

Building on her rowing experience, Dr. Giddings has coached the sport for over 20 years at the scholastic, collegiate, and elite levels. She and her husband, Paul Coomes, were instrumental in creating the rowing program at Conestoga High School, a suburban Philadelphia-area school, where Giddings served as novice coach from 2001 until 2010 and her husband was head coach of the team for 17 years.  Giddings led her crews to countless city, state, and national medals. In her time with Conestoga, her boats successfully won 11 Philadelphia City Championships.