Learfield Reorganization Plan Includes the Elimination of 67 Positions

Credit: Learfield

 The Fudge Retort has learned that Learfield cut dozens of positions across all divisions of the company as part of a reorganization plan that was detailed earlier this week by Sports Business Journal. 

As reported by SBJ’s Michael Smith, Learfield has reorganized its business units to streamline operations. The plan was detailed to SBJ by Learfield CEO Cole Gahagan, who also noted that—with this tightening up of operations—several executives have been moved into new positions. 

Kim Damron will now oversee the Paciolan, Sidearm divisions, along with digital marketing infrastructure as the new president of digital and technology; Solly Fulp will spearhead the company’s ongoing NIL business as EVP; Cory Moss has been named the new president of licensing, marketing & brand management; Learfield EVP Mike Hamilton will stay on top of the university partnership group; and Ben Mathan has been hired as chief strategy officer in charge of Learfield data and analytics initiatives. 

Leaving the company are Rob Schneider, Jennifer Davis, and Rob Carolla—though it is unclear if those exits were part of staff cuts or if they simply decided to move on to other things. We reached out to all three former employees on Thursday but did not receive a reply at the time of writing. 

As part of this reorganization, Learfield also had to make several reductions across all of its divisions. A spokesperson for the company said that this amounts to about 67 employees, or 3% of its total global workforce being laid off (the company currently employs around  2,300 people around the world). The spokesperson also told us that these reductions are part of the continued integration of Learfield business units that began “pre-COVID.” 

Learfield did not give a specific number on how many employees were let go from its esports operations, which includes work related to collegiate esports league LevelNext.  Learfield describes LevelNext Champions Series as “the first ever collegiate esports competition to feature official school marks and promotional assets, while enabling all full-time students the opportunity to represent their college in esports.” Sheridan Shay, who worked as a digital content coordinator related to esports at Learfield, announced that she had been laid off. 

Working with Electronic Arts, Learfield unveiled a continuation of that relationship in August when it announced the 2022 LevelNext Madden National Championship. 

TFR reached out to EA for comment on how these reductions might affect this partnership, but the company did not respond as of this writing.