
Show Notes
You’ll have to do some work to find Lakefield, Minnesota on a map. It’s a tiny speck of a farming community in the state’s southwest corner – a place that has more in common with the Dakotas than with Minneapolis. That’s where Teresa Resch grew up – a high school athlete who figured she’d wind up close to home, working in agriculture until a very different opportunity beckoned. It’s not like there was an obvious path from playing small college volleyball into professional sports management. And even if there was, it’s not like there were a lot of role models - women working in front offices who could point the way. But Resch kept making an impression – first with Disney, then with the nba, and then with Masai Ujiri. She’s a full-blown Torontonian now in the process of taking her next big professional step as the president of the city’s new WNBA franchise, the Tempo, which begins play in 2026.
Stephen sat down with Teresa in the Toronto Raptors dressing room at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario.
00:00 - Intro 1:45 - Stephen welcome's Teresa to the podcast 2:38 - Teresa's career path 5:35 - Role models 6:30 - Challenges in sports business as a woman 11:20 - What did she learn from Masai Ujiri 11:50 - Growth of women's team sports 16:40 - What is it like building a franchise
This series is supported by GroupM Motion Entertainment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Up Close with Stephen Brunt
Victor Montagliani likes to talk about growing up tough in East Vancouver. A neighbourhood where street smarts got you farther than book smarts. It’s amazing how those skills and that attitude have come in handy in a world that couldn’t be farther removed from East Van - the lofty heights of international soccer. As the President of CONCACAF – the federation that oversees the sport in north america and the caribbean, an organization that was rife with corruption before he took over, and a Vice President of the FIFA Council – that’s who runs the global game, including the World Cup, Montagliani is the most important Canadian sports official since Dick Pound sat in the inner circle of the International Olympic Committee.
On paper, Jim Rutherford's hockey journey started 60 years ago as a goaltender for the Aurora Tigers of the SJHL. Since then, Rutherford has carved out amazing career for himself winning the Jim Gregory Award as General Manager of the year in 2016, being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and winning Stanley Cups with the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He's an American coaching the Canadian men's national soccer team and he's found the formula to winning. Jesse Marsch had a successful career on the pitch playing in Major League Soccer (MLS) after its formation following the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Soon after retiring, Marsch began a new chapter in his career off the pitch coaching international as well as domestically in MLS, Austrian Bundesliga, and the Premier League. After his departure from Leeds United, Marsch was a free agent not actively looking for work. But after a few calls with Kevin Blue (General Secretary and CEO) and Canada Soccer, he was appointed as head coach of the Canada men's national team in May 2024.
He is an 11-time wrestling world champion who resides in Asheville, North Carolina. Adam Copeland, formerly known as Edge, made his professional wrestling debut in 1992 in Toronto, Ontario. Over his 30 year career, Copeland has won a variety of championships, had multiple surgeries, retired due to a neck injury, became an actor (and author), came out of retirement, left the WWE to join a rival company in AEW, and so much more.
He might be one of the most powerful people in Canadian media. Keith Pelley started from humble beginnings and has climbed the media ladder achieving some of the greatest accomplishments in sports media. Keith now holds the title as the President & CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), one of the biggest sports ownership groups in North America.