Joseph Favorito

Joe Favorito has over 35 years of strategic communications/marketing, business development and public relations expertise in sports, entertainment, brand building, media training, television, athletic administration and business. The Brooklyn, New York native has managed the day-to-day activities in strategic communications for: Two of the world’s hallmark sports and entertainment brands (the New York Knickerbockers and Philadelphia 76ers), the world’s largest professional sport for women (the WTA Tour), the world’s largest sports National Governing Body (the United States Tennis Association) and the world’s largest annual sporting event (the US Open). He also oversaw the strategic planning, investor relations, communications, and digital business development of the International Fight League during its two-year run as a Mixed Martial Arts venture and a publicly traded company before the assets were sold to the UFC.

Since 2008, Joe has been an independent consultant on storytelling, crisis communications, social media, strategic planning, brand marketing, publicity and business development for clients that have included or now include: Telemundo Deportes, the New York Islanders, MGM, Warner Brothers, Monumental Sports and Entertainment, Bloomberg LP, Intel, NFL Media, Marquee Sports Network, Genius Sports, BBC America, Major League Baseball, Spike TV, Sony Entertainment, CSM Lead Dog Marketing, LaLiga, Nickelodeon, EPIX, Wizard Entertainment/Comic-con, TOPPS, the John McEnroe Academy, USA Hockey, USA Rugby 7’s, AVP, USA Wrestling, USA Baseball, the New York Jets, the National Lacrosse League, the NWSL, The Premier Hockey Federation, Athletes First Partners, The Drone Racing League, Strat-o-Matic, ShotTracker, For Soccer Ventures, Kitman Labs, SlamBall, Tracy McGrady’s ONES Basketball League and others.

He was named one of Forbes’ “100 Sports Business Must Follows On Twitter” for 2015, their “50 Must Follows” for 2016 and 2017 and The Huffington Post’s “Sports Media People To Follow” for 2017 and 2018, BroBible’s 2019 “Sports Business Must Follows,” SI.com’s 2020 “Top 100 Follows in Sports Business,” and the “Top 50 Must Follows” for both Sportico/Penske Media and Team Marketing Report for 2021 and 2022, as well as being the only sole proprietor selected as a finalist for the Cynopsis Sports PR Awards in 2015. In 2017 he was selected as one of Sports Business Journal’s “Power Players” in media and communications, the only independent consultant to make the list of 20. Joe also co-led the USA Wrestling Communications team that won four CLIO Sports Awards in 2014. He is the co-host of the Columbia University Sports Podcast (“The CUSP Show”), a weekly visit with the innovators and game changers in sports and entertainment with over 100,000 loyal listeners. Additionally, Joe was associate producer for the Tony nominated hit Broadway show “Lombardi,” and was part of the creative team for the production “Magic/Bird,” the Tony-nominated musical “A Christmas Story,” and the plays “Bronx Bombers” and “Dinner With The Boys.” He has also worked on marketing and publicity for a series of feature films, series and documentaries including: “Coach Carter,” “Act of Valor,” “Warrior,” “Never Back Down,” “Knuckleball,” “Glickman,” “Need For Speed,” “Schooled: The Price of College Sports,” “The Other Dream Team,” “Forgotten Four,” “Serena,” “Danica,” “The Road To The Winter Classic, 2015, 2016 and 2017,” “When The Game Stands Tall,” “CREED II,” “The Contender,” “THE GRIND with Rich Eisen,” “Good Morning Football,” “WILLIE” the life story of the first player of color in the NHL, “The Way Back” starring Ben Affleck, “Boss Level” with Frank Grillo and Mel Gibson, “DOG” with Channing Tatum, and “Space Jam 2,” “80 For Brady” “Big George Foreman,” and “The League” as well of a host of book projects ranging from NY Times bestsellers “Belichick,” and “Yankee Miracles” to “Football’s Greatest,” “Club Soccer 101” and
“Steelers Pride.”

He serves on the boards of the Sports Innovation Lab (co-chair), Weinstein Carnegie Group, the New York Sports Venture Community, the National Sports Marketing Network, the Drexel University Sports Business program, and Columbia University’s Sports Management program (where he is an instructor in Strategic Communications and Director of Industry Relations) as well as teaching a class in sports communications strategy at Fordham University. Joe also maintains a well-trafficked blog on the sports marketing and publicity field, “Sports Marketing and PR Roundup,” on the website joefavorito.com, as well as authoring the first-ever text on the sports publicity industry (“Sports Publicity” published in August 2007 by Reed Elsevier and updated in 2012 by Taylor Publishing with a third printing in March, 2020), which is used in over 60 sports management programs in the U.S. He has been a guest speaker on sports marketing,
social media and communications at a host of institutions, including the Fuqua School at
Duke University, Princeton University, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, the University of Florida Law School, New York University, the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, American University, the University of Delaware and many others. He is also a frequent spokesperson on the industry for publications ranging from Ad Age and The New York Times to Sirius XM Business Radio, NPR and CBS News.

A graduate of Fordham University, Joe, his wife Laura reside in River Vale and Long Beach Island, New Jersey and have two adult children. Christine is a 2018 Magna Cum Laude Graduate of George Washington University and Cum Laude Masters graduate of the University of Georgia, Andrew is a Cum Laude film and business Graduate of Drexel University, Class of 2021.