Sports 'can bind a nation,' former Tampa Bay Lightning executive tells USF students

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Sports 'can bind a nation,' former Tampa Bay Lightning executive tells USF students

Jerome R. Stockfisch

Thursday, October 27, 2016 10:38am

Leiweke spoke at the University of South Florida Sun Dome as part of the school's Sport and Entertainment Management MBA lecture series. The talk was moderated by Abe Madkour, editor of SportsBusiness Journal. Also speaking was Don Garber, commissioner of Major League Soccer.

Leiweke had served as chief executive of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team and also was an executive with the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team and the Seattle Sounders soccer team. He was tapped by Lightning owner Jeff Vinik in June 2010 to run the day-to-day operations of the franchise and arena.

He also led Strategic Property Partners, a real estate partnership between Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment.