William A. Sutton, EdD, is s professor and associate department head on the faculty of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida. He teaches sport marketing and sales and promotional management in sport and serves as the internship coordinator for the program.Sutton is also the founder and principal of Bill Sutton & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in strategic marketing and revenue enhancement. Sutton’s consultation work has spanned the industry, working with professional leagues, teams, organizations, brands, universities, agencies, and facilities. His consulting clients include the NBA, WNBA, NHL, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, MSG Sports, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cleveland Cavaliers.He is the co-creator and architect of the innovative and groundbreaking Sports Sales Combine. CNBC.com hailed the Sports Sales Combine, a careers concept inspired by the NFL Draft Combine, as potentially “the next great idea in sports marketing.”
Sutton employs a hybrid approach, influenced heavily by his wide-ranging work experiences; including tenures at sports marketing agencies, professional leagues, and nationally acclaimed sport management programs. Prior to assuming his current positions, Sutton served as Vice President, Team Marketing and Business Operations for the National Basketball Association. In this capacity, Sutton assisted NBA teams with marketing related functions such as sales, promotional activities, market research, advertising, customer service, strategic planning, and staffing. In addition to working at the NBA, Sutton’s professional experiences also included service as a special events coordinator for the City of Pittsburgh, a YMCA director, vice president of information services for an international sport marketing firm, and commissioner of the Mid-Ohio Conference. He has held academic appointments at Robert Morris University, Ohio State University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Sutton is a co-author of Sport Marketing (3rd ed., 2007) and Sport Promotion and Sales Management (2nd ed., 2008), published by Human Kinetics. He has also authored more than 200 articles (refereed and non-refereed), and has made more than 250 national and international presentations. Sutton, a past president of the North American Society for Sport Management, is a founding member and past president of the Sport Marketing Association. He also previously served as the co-editor of the Sport Marketing Quarterly.

Sutton is a featured author for Street and Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, where his Sutton Impact column is a monthly feature. Sutton also is a contributor for the basketball strategy and business magazines Basketball Gigante and FIBA Assist, published in Italy. Sutton is frequently called upon by members of the media for his insight and commentary on the sports business industry including; USA Today, The New York Times, CNBC.com, The Washington Times, Fox Business, The Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Advertising Age, and Brandweek.

A native of Pittsburgh, Sutton was inducted into the College of Education Hall of Fame at Oklahoma State University, his alma mater, in 2003. He is also an inaugural member of the Robert Morris University Sport Management Hall of Fame (2006). Sutton serves on the Board of Directors for the Folds of Honor Foundation and also on the Central Florida Sports Commission. He and his wife Sharon reside in Orlando, Florida.