Game Changer

Who invented modern sports marketing? Before Patrick Nally, sport had no money. The IOC was nearly bankrupt. FIFA had one sponsor. Nobody even knew what sponsorship was. Through his agency West Nally, Nally conceived, negotiated, and sold the first exclusive sponsorship packages for the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, the World Athletics Championships, and other major global sporting properties. He brought Coca-Cola into world football. He negotiated commercial rights with Argentina's military junta. He pitched the first global marketing plan to Soviet Olympic officials and their KGB minders. Then, in 1982, the partnership that had built it all fell apart. The rights Nally had created were transferred to a new entity, ISL, which went on to generate billions. The man the industry calls the 'Godfather of sports marketing' was quietly erased from the record. Game Changer is his story, told for the first time, with primary documentation, after more than forty years. It is a memoir of ambition, innovation, trust, and betrayal, set against the birth of a $160 billion global industry.