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In 1999, Chris Bevilacqua approached his current partners and co–founders, Brian Bedol and Steve Greenberg, with an idea for a network featuring all college sports all the time and, soon thereafter, the CSTV: College Sports Television concept was born. Prior to co–founding CSTV, Bevilacqua served as director, global negotiations and league affairs at Nike, Inc., negotiating sponsorship, television and licensing partnerships with professional league offices (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, WNBA, etc.), professional teams (Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, Boston Celtics, Detroit Red Wings, etc.), NCAA Division I schools (Florida, Penn State, Kentucky, St. John's, etc.), individual athletes (Deion Sanders, Ken Griffey Jr., Chamique Holdsclaw, etc.), international governing bodies (USSF, IIHF, USATF, etc.) and Nike-owned TV events (Brazil Soccer – ABC/ESPN, Hoop Summit & Prefontaine Classic – CBS Sports, etc.). The deals totaled over $1 billion in commitments and included the landmark deal to put the ubiquitous ‘swoosh’ insignia on all Dallas Cowboy uniforms. Prior to Nike, Bevilacqua served as drector, crporate sonsorships for The Baseball Network (TBN), a revolutionary and groundbreaking joint venture between Major League Baseball (MLB) and the NBC and ABC television networks. At TBN, he helped develop and successfully launch the network’s sales and marketing department and secured advertisers such as Anheuser Busch, General Motors, MCI, Nike, Reebok, Texaco and Gatorade. Before working at MLB, Bevilacqua was a manager of sports programming for NBC Sports where he worked on several high-profile program acquisitions including the NFL, MLB, NBA, Olympics and college sports. Before joining NBC Sports, he was an independent sports TV producer during which time he was honored with an Emmy Award for his work as an associate producer of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. A native
of Massapequa, NY, Bevilacqua holds a B.S. in marketing from The Pennsylvania
State University. Bevilacqua was an NCAA All–American wrestler and team
captain for the Nittany Lions and also captured a gold medal at the 1983
World Espoir Wrestling Championships. |