Episode 50

Kurt Roth: Founder, 505 Sports Venture Foundation

On this show, we’ve talked a lot about the crazy state of college sports brought on by legalized name image likeness payments to athletes. We’ve interviewed athletes who are reaping the benefits, administrators who are pulling their hair out trying to stay on top of changes, lawyers specializing in related legislation, and entrepreneurs trying to get in on the gold rush.

The one place we haven’t really explored much is the concept of collectives. And that changes with this episode.

Kurt Roth is a native New Yorker who fell in love with the UNM Lobos when he arrived on campus as a Freshmen in 1972. And it’s a love that continues to this day. After a successful law career, Roth returned to the Land of Enchantment and launched the 505 Sports Venture Foundation. The 505 is a collective, a non profit organization that seeks donations from businesses and individuals, and then uses those proceeds to make payments to athletes for the NIL rights.

Now for some people, collectives are a convenient boogeyman for college sports, a twisting of the intent of NIL rights. That’s an opinion that Roth passionately refutes with what can only be called a New Yorker’s elan. You’ll hear words like “idiotic”, “hypocritical”, and “anti-American” used to describe collective opponents.

It’s a fast paced conversation that touches upon how he arrived in New Mexico, the impact that the 505 and other collectives are having, and where the concept is heading next. The Albuquerque resident will also tell you which Breaking Bad character he most identifies with, something that’s clearly worth finding out.

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The Sports Business Conversations podcast is a production of ADC Partners, a sports marketing agency that specializes in creating, managing, and evaluating effective partnerships between brands and sports. All rights reserved.

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Dave Almy brings over 30 years of sports marketing and sports business experience to his role as host of the "1-on-1: Sports Business Conversations" podcast. Dave is the co-Founder of ADC Partners.

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Sports Business Conversations
In depth interviews with sports business leaders