The Leaders and Aspire Academy recently announced the Class of 2017 for the third annual Leaders Under 40 Awards. Sam Porter, the Director of Legal and Business Affairs for DC United and Swansea City FC, was one of seven winners in the Legal & Governance category.
Sam is a former sports agent that made the switch to the front office back in 2015. Sam wears many hats as he has responsibilities for both DC United in Major League Soccer and Swansea City of the English Premier League. At DC United, he’s currently focused on completing the construction of the team’s new stadium, Audi Field which is set to open in summer 2018. Sam assisted in securing the construction financing and writing/reviewing various contracts around the stadium project.
DC United secured a 12 year, nearly $50 million naming-rights deal for the new stadium, Audi Field. The stadium will bring many new revenue streams for DC United as the club is currently a tenant at 56 year old RFK Stadium.
There’s an interesting dynamic in play as one of the Co-Owners of both DC United and Swansea, Jason Levien, is a former agent who has become a successful owner/executive in the sports industry.
Sam was also involved in the acquisition of Swansea City. Swansea is in the process of growing their commercial revenues, and Sam works closely with ownership, the board of directors, and COO Chris Pearlman, to that end.
There aren’t many job opportunities in the sports industry and there are even fewer that allow you to work for two teams at the same time so Sam is certainly in a unique role. There are several owners with stakes in multiple professional franchises so we could see more opportunities to work across franchises in the future.