An audience with the G.O.A.T.: STWS presents An Evening With Tom Brady
In the pantheon of professional sports icons, it doesn’t get much bigger than Tom Brady.
The legendary New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback’s 23-year tenure in the NFL garnered seven Super Bowl rings and five Super Bowl MVP nods – both unmatched tallies for an individual player.
Brady had already almost unanimously surpassed the likes of Joe Montana as the best ever in American football’s most important position years before he retired.
Hanging up the cleats at the end of the 2022 season, Brady’s legacy as one of the most dominant and influential athletes of all time to transcend their chosen sport – alongside unique luminaries such as Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Roger Federer, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Pelé and Tiger Woods – is undeniable.
The 46-year-old’s near-mythical status underlines the extraordinary opportunity made available by Sports Tech World Series’ upcoming event in Brisbane, An Evening With Tom Brady, to be staged at the Royal International Convention Centre on Sunday, January 28.
“With STWS developing a market presence in Queensland, very much aligned to sports business growth as we move down the nine-year runway to [the Olympic and Paralympic Games in] 2032, being able to deliver such an iconic experience was just too good to ignore.
“On top of that, if we look at the innovation in sport that’s happening now with the NRL’s season opener in Las Vegas and the increase in visitors from here to the Super Bowl, there’s a strong connection. With so many players from rugby league, AFL and the cricket community in Australia, appreciation for American sport is at a high level.
“Bringing one of the greatest sports icons of all time to this country and allow an exceptional experience to be available to our guests and partners is something STWS is very grateful for.”
AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF SPORTS TECH
Sports Tech World Series, a valued partner of Ministry of Sport, have been operating from offices in Melbourne and Austin, Texas, since 2015, predominantly delivering sports technology conferences.
STWS’s broad audience typically features people involved in sports from the standpoint of performance and sports science, to the broadcasting sphere and digital marketing, and everywhere in between.
“Our events draw a lot of decision-makers and key people from the industry who are either looking to advance or learn from others,” Walton says.
“Around the events we also deliver work in the advisory space, the knowledge space, produce industry reports for gaming and the STWS sports tech podcast has been running for more than 100 episodes.
“We’re constantly striving to bring to the market in Australia a strong awareness of what’s innovative, what’s working, what’s changing, what themes are starting to trend – not just here but overseas.”
Prior to the disruptions caused by the global pandemic, STWS staged events in Mumbai, Dallas, London and Tokyo.
Their flagship is the Australian Sports Innovation Week, the last two of which have been held in Brisbane. The 2023 edition’s keynote speakers included: Football Australia, who revealed insights about their experience during the Matildas’ watershed World Cup campaign; Cultural Pulse, who used AI tech for fan engagement at the World Cup for a non-English-speaking audience; innovations in broadcast by LIV Golf; and AFL, Amazon, Swimming Australia and Ciaron Maher Racing.
BRADY’S PATH TO GREATNESS
California-born Brady attended University of Michigan from 1995-99 and was a Wolverines starter during his final two years. Hardly a highly-rated prospect, Brady famously had an underwhelming NFL Scouting Combine and was consequently passed over until the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft – finally taken by New England Patriots with the 199th overall pick.
But he took over as the Patriots’ QB shot-caller in 2001 and steered the franchise to its maiden Super Bowl triumph that season with an MVP-winning performance.
Further Super Bowl victories – with Brady the fulcrum – followed in 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016 and 2018, while the Patriots also lost Super Bowls in the 2007, 2011 and 2017 seasons.
After bringing down the curtain on two decades with the Patriots in early-2020, he signed with Tampa Bay Buccaneers and promptly led them to a stunning Super Bowl win over defending champions Kansas City Chiefs, after which he collected his fifth Super Bowl MVP award.
Brady’s incomparable career came to an end via the Bucs’ wild card loss in the 2022 playoffs. Aside from his hallowed Super Bowl achievements, he left the NFL arena with a plethora of records, including most games won by a player (251), most career passing yards (89,214) and touchdown passes (649), most playoff games started (48) and won (35), and oldest player to win the regular season MVP (40 years) and oldest quarterback to start a Super Bowl (43 years).
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The astonishing raw figures of Brady’s NFL tenure only partly illustrate his wide-ranging influence, however. In the eyes of most, he surpassed the likes of Jerry Rice, Jim Brown and Montana to become the league’s greatest-ever exponent, while he stands as a bastion of excellence and longevity, and is one of the rare athletes to genuinely permeate popular culture.
Away from the field, the father-of-two is a business and entrepreneurial juggernaut, boasting his own sports nutrition and supplements brand, TB12 (he also published a book called The TB12 Method), a sportswear brand, Brady, and two production companies, Religion of Sports and 199 Productions. The latter produced the 2023 sports comedy film, 80 for Brady.
Walton says An Evening With Tom Brady will be a fascinating journey through the full gamut of his storied career, commercial pursuits and personal life.
“The three elements that will be covered at An Evening With Tom Brady are, firstly, the athlete and sportsperson and what he’s being able to achieve over his career.
“There will be a component around business and entrepreneurship, and then the personal side as a father and being able to balance this across his career.
“There will also be an element of interaction and a Q&A with the audience – and what an incredible opportunity to ask someone of this stature questions live in the flesh.”
A SPORTING CITY
As well as consolidating Sports Tech World Series’ relationship with the city on the back of delivering the highly successful Australian Sports Innovation Week conferences, An Evening With Tom Brady emphasises Brisbane’s burgeoning reputation as a sporting hub to rival traditional focal points Melbourne and Sydney.
South-east Queensland’s nucleus status will only grow as the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games draw nearer – and Walton believes the region’s sporting fraternity is set to reap the benefits in the short- and long-term.
“With the Olympics and Paralympics ahead – and the recent experience with the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast – Queensland is set up brilliantly to deliver something extraordinary for this country.
“There’s never been a runway to an event like the Olympics of this length, so to have this much planning time is incredible.
“And flag football, a derivative of [American football], and cricket are now Olympic sports [for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles]. The thinking around how Australia can be best positioned for those sports starts now.
“Queensland is [ideally equipped and located], by facility standards, by climate, our swimming program is world-class and the majority of that is based in Queensland – we think this is a real chance in continuing to uplift [Brisbane] and recognising that while the likes of Melbourne has great events with the Australian Open, the Melbourne Cup, there’s more than that now.”
Brady’s visit to these shores comes just a fortnight before Super Bowl LVIII at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, the same venue that will host the NRL’s groundbreaking premiership double-header, with Manly Sea Eagles taking on South Sydney Rabbitohs and Brisbane Broncos facing Sydney Roosters on March 2.
Earlier this week, the Broncos announced a partnership with Brady that will see the heavyweight club’s players promote the visit and meet the NFL megastar, as well as teaming up for a content opportunity. The Broncos will embark on a week-long training camp at the LA Rams’ training facility prior to the historic Vegas clash.
🐐 soon… ⏳
Details 👇
— Brisbane Broncos (@brisbanebroncos) January 11, 2024
“The Broncos are one of the most professional organisations in this country and to collaborate with them – yes, we’re delivering an event and an experience, that’s a business relationship – yet from a professional perspective, for our team to be able to work closely with the Broncos is a professional and skills development opportunity that is just impossible to ignore,” Walton enthuses.
“If we can learn from the Broncos and share knowledge and experiences to bring into their space, it’s a win-win. One of the conversations we’ve had is around their preparation for Las Vegas.
“Our strength point is in cricket, we have a lot of connections [that were] in the US for Major League Cricket for the first time last year, so we’re able to connect people and assist with their planning of how to make [the Las Vegas trip] the most successful experience for all involved.”
An Evening With Tom Brady also coincides with the cricket Test between Australia and West Indies at The Gabba (January 25-30), providing the chance for locals, and visitors from interstate and further afield to couple two marquee events on the same weekend.
“As a historical metric, 67 percent of people who attend our events come from interstate,” Melbourne-based Walton says.
“From our ticket and table sales so far for An Evening With Tom Brady, we have people coming from Perth, from New Zealand, from Adelaide. That’s something we’ve always wanted to encourage: if it’s a great destination and good experience, people will make the effort to come. Queensland provides all this and more.
“We want to thank those people for their support, but on top of the main reason for coming – that headline event – it’s an opportunity to come to Brisbane for three, four or five days and set up some of their work for the year ahead.
“Queensland should be proud that people want to come and experience more as to what’s going on up here.”
EYE ON THE FUTURE
Sports Tech World Series are no strangers to presenting events starring revered athletes, though the global pandemic has stunted that momentum in recent times.
Walton is confident An Evening With Tom Brady will prove the icebreaker to delivering a STWS-backed stream of sport’s heavy hitters to Australian audiences.
“We’ve had very high profile people in the past – Anil Kumble, former Indian Test cricketer in 132 matches and coach, was a key note speaker in Mumbia 2018 at one of our events, and if I was speaking with my friends in Bangalore from their perspective, they’d say he’s a much bigger star,” he muses.
“We wanted to continue with that path, unfortunately we all went through a disruption for a couple of years [with COVID] and it suppressed things to a degree. Hopefully this will be the right key in the door to unlock this becoming a regular thing.
“It will help us have those conversations with potential athletes, talent and teams, bringing them to Australia.
“At the end of the AFL season, every coach heads overseas to listen to [football coach] Ange [Postecoglou], [American football coach Jim] Harbaugh – that’s great. But if we’ve got the opportunity to bring some talent over here and have the knowledge share reciprocated, I think that’s a great thing for the industry as a collective overall.”
Tickets are still on sale for An Evening With Tom Brady at the Royal International Convention Centre at Brisbane Showground, getting underway at 6pm on Sunday, January 28.
A range of options – from platinum tickets with front-row seating (including the opportunity to get a photo with Tom Brady), to gold ticket premium seating, silver ticket preferred seating and bronze tickets – are available, but spots are being snapped up rapidly.
Meanwhile, for VIP Table sales, please contact STWS HERE.
