Sport Business Strategy · Analytics · Business Cases

We build the case behind your next big sport business decision.

Bench Strength Advisory turns operating, financial, ticketing, and market data into decisions a board will approve: revenue models, feasibility studies, governance-grade analysis, and commercial strategy for the people running the business of sport.

Discuss Your Business Question Explore the Evidence

Independent advisory founded by Ivano Labricciosa, M.Eng, P.Eng, MBA · Master of Sport Management, Brock University.

The BSA Standard

Better evidence. Better decisions. Stronger sport organizations.

Case Studies

Proof of work, not a pitch.

Seven engagements across five sectors. Client identities are withheld under confidentiality terms agreed with each engagement; the analysis, methodology, and figures are unaltered. Open any case for the full structure: context, question, work, evidence, and the decision it enabled.

Professional Hockey League

A two-hour schedule shift worth up to three-quarters of a million dollars a year

$469K-$767KProjectedannual revenue uplift, zero added games

Context. The league’s Sunday afternoon start time had never been tested against data; it was inherited.

Strategic question. Would moving the Sunday window measurably lift attendance and revenue, and would the evidence survive a Board presentation?

Work completed. Four full seasons of game data, 2,610 games across 20 clubs, built into a ten-variable regression model controlling for opponent, weather, promotions, and market tier.

Finding. A projected $469K to $767K in annual revenue uplift with no added games.

Decision enabled. A scheduling recommendation leadership could take to the Board with the model behind it.

Professional Hockey League

The governance case for an eight-game season reduction, without losing revenue

$1.7MConfirmedannual cost savings, independent of demand assumptions

Context. League leadership wanted to know whether a shorter season could hold revenue steady while cutting cost.

Strategic question. Could the league defend a season reduction in a league-wide vote?

Work completed. A cost model built on actual club financial data, plus a 36-scenario revenue model stress-tested against a documented counter-case from a comparable league’s contraction.

Finding. $1.7M in confirmed annual cost savings that hold regardless of demand assumptions.

Decision enabled. A defensible governance recommendation ahead of a league-wide vote.

First-Year Professional Franchise

Turning 85-95% building utilization into recurring revenue

$740K → $1.41MModelledYear 1 to Year 3 revenue path, no added capacity

Context. A newly relocated franchise was quietly selling out a too-small venue, but revenue stayed dependent on single-game walk-up sales with no CRM discipline behind it.

Strategic question. How does a capacity-constrained franchise grow revenue without adding seats?

Work completed. A pipeline diagnostic identified the highest-loss funnel stage; a four-pillar commercial plan followed, built around segmented sales, CRM formalization, tiered sponsorship, and a fan-retention sequence.

Finding. A modelled revenue path from $740K to $1.41M between Year 1 and Year 3.

Decision enabled. A commercial operating plan the front office could execute against immediately.

University Athletics Department

A six-stream revenue model built to survive Board scrutiny

$3.07MBusiness casefive-year base-case revenue at 20% market penetration

Context. A proposed athlete performance centre needed a business case that could withstand university administration and Board of Trustees review.

Strategic question. Could the revenue model be defended line by line, with no inflated or double-counted numbers?

Work completed. A non-duplicative six-stream revenue model with every user assigned to a single cohort, cross-validated against two independent market-sizing methods.

Finding. $3.07M in five-year base-case revenue at a conservative 20% market penetration.

Decision enabled. A capital proposal ready for administration and Board review.

University Athletics Department

A capital case that pays back institutional equity in 5.3 years

5.3 yrsBusiness caseequity payback at 51.2% Year 1 operating margin

Context. A four-dome facility concept had grown too costly to clear capital approval.

Strategic question. Could a leaner design deliver a financial model the institution would fund?

Work completed. The concept was redesigned to a single-dome model, supported by a 16-stream cohort revenue build, comparable-project benchmarking, and independent capital cost validation.

Finding. A 5.3-year equity payback at a 51.2% Year 1 operating margin.

Decision enabled. A board-ready capital case at a fundable scale.

University Athletics Department

The financial case behind a national championship hosting bid

$239KModelledbase-case net surplus, positive under conservative assumptions

Context. A conference-winning program was well positioned to host a national championship but had no financial case or self-assessment against the governing body’s criteria.

Strategic question. Would hosting create value, and how competitive was the bid?

Work completed. A financial model built on the host organization’s own fee structure; the program was then scored against a formal six-dimension hosting rubric.

Finding. A modelled base-case net surplus of $239K, positive under conservative assumptions.

Decision enabled. A hosting bid submitted with a quantified financial and competitive position.

Venture-Stage Sport-Tech Start-up

From validated hardware to a three-year commercial roadmap

$175K → $739KModelledthree-year core revenue trajectory

Context. A founder had a validated hardware product and no commercial operation around it: no market sizing, pricing architecture, or institutional sales process.

Strategic question. What is the credible path from first paying customer to a scalable commercial operation?

Work completed. A staged go-to-market sequenced around proof-base building before scale; adjacent-market feasibility studies applied a structured competitive framework to set the expansion order.

Finding. A modelled three-year core revenue trajectory from $175K to $739K.

Decision enabled. A commercial roadmap the founder could raise and hire against.

Facing a decision like one of these?

Discuss Your Business Question

Case studies are presented at the client-category level under confidentiality terms agreed with each engagement. “Confirmed” figures are validated against actual financial data; “projected” and “modelled” figures are analytical estimates delivered as part of each engagement and are not guarantees of future results.

Who We Serve

Built for the operating realities of sport.

From professional franchises to community clubs, wherever sport is run as an operation, BSA speaks the language of the people running it. Select your organization type to see the question we’d ask first, and where the value usually is.

Select an organization type to see the question we’d ask, and the opportunity behind it.

Real Games. Real Numbers.

Strategy built on the field, not just in the boardroom.

Practice Areas

Four ways to strengthen your business bench.

Every practice area is built the same way: a real client problem, defined work, a concrete deliverable, and the decision it supports.

Operations & Revenue Assessment

The problem
Revenue is leaking somewhere, whether in the sales funnel, the event calendar, or the operating model, and nobody can point to exactly where.
What we do
Diagnostic review of structure, process, resourcing, revenue mix, and cost drivers, mapped against how the organization actually operates week to week.
What you get
A written assessment with a prioritized list of inefficiencies, revenue-mix gaps, and practical fixes, each sized by effort and impact.
The decision it supports
Where to focus the next quarter’s operating attention, and what to stop doing.

How We Work

Analysis that ends in a decision, not a binder.

Every engagement moves through the same five stages. The sequence exists for one reason: no recommendation reaches a client until it has been pressure-tested against how boards, ownership groups, and investment committees actually decide.

  1. DiagnoseDefine the real business question and the decision it serves. Most engagements change shape here.
  2. ModelBuild the analysis on your own operating and financial data, not industry averages.
  3. Pressure-testStress the model against counter-cases, conservative assumptions, and the hardest question in the room.
  4. RecommendDeliver a clear recommendation with the evidence, sensitivities, and limitations stated plainly.
  5. ActivateTranslate the recommendation into an implementation path the organization can execute next quarter.

One Language, Every Level

From pro leagues to community programs, the operating questions are the same.

Where We’ve Done the Work

Sports we know from the inside.

Select a sport to see the biggest business challenge facing it right now.

Directional Self-Assessment

Run the 60-second Bench Strength Scorecard.

Four questions, built around the same vectors we assess in every engagement. This is a directional self-assessment, not a validated diagnostic instrument, but your weakest vector is usually the fastest place to create value.

5 / 10

If asked right now, could your leadership name your top three revenue drivers and how each is trending?

1 · Revenue is a black box10 · Tracked and reported monthly

Worth sitting with: which of your top three revenue drivers would you be least confident defending to your board, and why?

5 / 10

How confident are you that the data your team reports is accurate, current, and actually drives decisions?

1 · We don’t really track it10 · Dashboards drive every meeting

Worth sitting with: what was the last decision your data actually changed, and when was it?

5 / 10

How much of your team’s week goes to manual work that a better process or system could eliminate?

1 · Most of it10 · Almost none; we run lean

Worth sitting with: if your most manual weekly task disappeared tomorrow, what would that person do with the recovered hours?

5 / 10

If a new revenue opportunity appeared tomorrow, could you move on it without adding headcount or derailing the current plan?

1 · Not a chance10 · Yes; we have the bench strength

Worth sitting with: what was the last opportunity you passed on, and what did it lack: money, people, or a plan?

50/100

Developing Bench Strength

There is a useful foundation in place, but BSA would likely find several practical opportunities to strengthen performance.

Your score is the average of the four dimensions above, each rated 1-10. It is directional only; a scoped engagement starts with your real data.

Discuss Your Weakest Vector

Founder

Ivano Labricciosa

M.Eng · P.Eng · MBA · Master of Sport Management, Brock University

Ivano founded Bench Strength Advisory to bring the discipline of engineering, corporate finance, and infrastructure operations to the business of sport. His consulting work spans professional league governance analytics, franchise commercial strategy, capital feasibility for university athletics, championship hosting bids, and go-to-market planning for sport technology ventures.

The common thread across every engagement: analysis built on real operating data, pressure-tested against how boards and investment committees actually decide, and delivered as a recommendation the client can act on next quarter.

“Every recommendation should answer one question: what does this mean for our operations next quarter?”
Ivano Labricciosa, Founder and Principal Consultant of Bench Strength Advisory

Research foundation

Bench Strength Advisory is informed by one of the world’s leading sport management research environments. Brock University’s Department of Sport Management ranked first in Canada and seventh globally for sport management research contributions in the 2026 assessment conducted by the University of North Texas’ Sports Innovation Space.

This research foundation complements BSA’s practical consulting experience, supporting an evidence-based approach to sport business strategy, analytics, operations, and organizational decision-making.

Source: Dam, T. (2026, June 16). Brock holds top Canadian spot in global sport management research. The Brock News, Brock University.

Bench Strength Advisory is an independent consulting practice. It is not owned, operated, or endorsed by Brock University.

Start the Conversation

Tell us the decision you’re facing.

The first step is a 30-minute exploratory conversation, no cost and no obligation. Bring the business question; we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s a fit for how we work.