Conversations with smart people: Jason Siegel

Welcome to the latest in a series of conversations with smart people who I think provide great perspective on issues in sports. 

Jason Siegel has more than 30 years of accomplishments in sports tourism, major and minor league professional sports, as well as intercollegiate athletics. He is currently in his 10th year as President & Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission.

Orlando will host the Jaguars in 2027 while renovations are underway at their home field in Jacksonville and will also host an Olympic Q Series event, one of four cities globally, ahead of the LA28 Games. Prior to joining the sports commission, Siegel spent five years as Managing Partner and CEO of the Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL) and previously worked with the New Jersey Devils and several other hockey teams. He and I also, while not at the same time, both lived and worked in Binghamton, New York, where he worked for the local AHL team and was in the athletic department at Binghamton University. 

Hosting the World

Orlando was selected by the International Olympic Committee as the host for the final, four-day stop of the expanded 2028 Olympic Q-Series (formerly the Olympic Qualifier Series), taking place June 8-11, 2028. The competitions will take place at the Camping World Stadium, which is anchoring the event as a massive urban sports festival. 

“The conversation began in Paris during the (2024) Summer Olympics. The buildup and preparation, one thing leads to another. We were partners with USA Track & Field, which invited us to Paris. That led to the very chance meeting with the IOC, which started the conversation around a Q-Series. The Olympic marathon was a result of the relationship that started to build with Sarah Hirshland all the way back to 2018 when we met with her in Colorado Springs. The macro was probably, let’s call it eight years in the making. And then the micro, focused on the Q-Series itself, was a two-year process.