By George Kopf (@GeorgeKopf19)
Hiking up a mountain takes time. Sometimes it becomes hard to take another step. One foot in front of another, progress is made. As Peak Sports MGMT continues to climb up the mountain, they reach accomplishments they never thought were possible. Revolutionizing the college sport landscape, Peak is changing the way sport marketing is done.
Today, Peak Sports MGMT has reached a milestone, celebrating ten years of creating college athletic partnerships all across the country. In a world where the iPhone, social media, and YouTube were still in their infancy back in 2012, CEO and President of Peak Sports Ryan Holloway realized a need to excel within college sport marketing. "We didn't reinvent the wheel when it came to the business," Holloway said. "We just created a different looking wheel."
In the early-2000s, Holloway moved around and worked at multiple Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schools. At those institutions, he recognized that he could create a business that would satisfy a need. The only problem was Holloway did not know how to do just that. A conversation with his brother-in-law on vacation would be the match that lit a fire for Holloway.
"My brother-in-law said you've got the knowledge and the want-to, just go and do it and take the next step." Holloway remarked.
With his wife Cara as his business partner, the two of them reached out to one of Ryan's contacts at the University of Central Arkansas. After a rough business proposal and one large package later, Peak Sports MGMT had their first partner, finalized on November 28, 2012.
"We were a true 'mom-and-pop' operation, where we really couldn't hire anybody," Holloway said. "We were essentially working for free for the first few years."
In year three, as Peak hired their first full-time employee, Peak began to grow, adding Abilene Christian University as its second school. One school became two, two became four, and four turned into the 24 total properties that Peak has as of today.
"I never thought in my wildest dreams we would get to where we are now," said Holloway. "I thought we would have a couple of schools, say three or four, not twenty plus."
The company has been fortunate to have many good people work and stay connected with Peak, Holloway remarked. Those connections by word of mouth helped Peak create partnerships with schools in the same conferences as current Peak properties.
"People just kept calling us day after day and our growth has been 100% organic to this point," Holloway said.
Although organic growth is good, Holloway wants to shift to strategic growth, that is the idea of going out and approaching schools, rather than the other way around. The focus on this shift was what Peak is calling the "50 in 5 Campaign."
"Our immediate goal is getting to 50 properties by the end of 2025," Holloway said.
Navigating which schools to expand to is tricky. However, the company intends on doing so with the mindset Peak was founded on.
"We want places where we can make an impact, places that there is a good story to tell," said Holloway. "Branching out to high-impact Division II programs or Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools would be great, but the FCS level continues to be our bread and butter," said Holloway.
Aside from their collegiate properties, Peak also has an event management arm. This side of the company has seen Peak add two college baseball tournaments taking charge of everything from team selection to event management to ticket sales.
"The classics were an idea when we started in 2012," Holloway said. "It was one of the first initial goals when starting Peak."
The classics have turned into two of the most prestigious in-season tournaments, with high-profile teams and good, quality baseball. These attributes have helped the tournaments gain the slogan "#BestOutsideofOmaha", a nod to being the best outside of the Men's College World Series in Omaha, NE, the culminating postseason tournament, run by the NCAA.
The coming years at Peak Sports MGMT are sure to be just as significant as the first ten. An ever-changing college sports landscape means the company may have to shift as well. Just like hiking up a mountain, Ryan and Cara and the Peak Sports team will keep climbing and reach the summit of another incredible milestone, one step at a time.
