Bill Miller

Bill Miller serves as Executive Vice President-Professional Sports for The Leib Group, LLC where he has worked on projects related to all five major professional sports leagues and every full-season classification of Minor League Baseball along with various types of municipal sports facilities during his five-year stint with the Mequon, Wisconsin-based sports consulting firm. 

One of Bill’s main areas of practice is sports and entertainment facility naming rights as he has represented both facilities and sponsors in naming rights negotiations.  Miller is also the author of Facility Naming Rights, which combined with his previous work, makes him the only person in the industry to write two books dedicated to this revenue source. In April 2004, Bill launched Naming Rights Online, the Internet’s first site devoted to facility naming rights issues. 

His other areas of practice include conducting feasibility and market studies, facility lease negotiations and financial analysis for both teams and municipalities along with professional sports franchise sale and acquisition analysis. Recent clients include the Beloit Snappers, Waukegan Park District, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons and Southern Illinois Baseball Group. 

In addition to his facility consulting work, he is the co-author (with Paul Anderson) of Major League Leases, a book devoted solely to the issues surrounding the negotiation of major league stadium and arena lease agreements. His other writings have been featured in Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, Stadia Magazine and Panstadia International Quarterly Report along with other law-related publications and journals. 

Prior to joining TLG, Bill served as Managing Editor-Legal and Business Division at Chicago-based Team Marketing Report, Inc. where he was responsible for the Inside the Ownership of Professional Sports Teams and Naming Rights Deals product lines.  

In addition to his publications and consulting work, Bill has appeared as a guest speaker at several leading sports facility conferences including the Council for Urban Economic Development’s “If You Build It, Will They Come?,” the Association of Luxury Suite Directors Annual Conference and the Facility Revenue Forum. 

Miller has also been quoted in over 40 publications discussing sports ownership and facility development issues including Barron’s, The Chicago Tribune, ESPN.com, Los Angeles Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal and The Wall Street Journal. He has also appeared on CNN and other broadcast outlets to discuss sports team ownership and facility development issues. 

Bill is a graduate of Marquette University Law School where, in 1996, he was awarded the Joseph E. O’Neill Prize for student writing. In 2002, he was named the first-ever recipient of the “Sports Law Alumnus of the Year” award from the National Sports Law Institute of Marquette University Law School in honor of his career accomplishments and continued service to the sports law program. 

Miller completed his undergraduate work at Ripon College from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Politics and Government along with minors in Law and Society and History. In 2002, he was named the recipient of Ripon College’s “Outstanding Young Alumni” award. The award is given to an individual who “has achieved distinction in his/her profession, served his/her community and demonstrated a strong, on-going commitment to Ripon College.” 

Bill currently serves as the Chairperson for the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Sports and Entertainment Law Section and sits on the Marquette Sports Law Alumni Association Executive Committee.  He is also a member of The Sport and Recreation Law Association (SRLA) and The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

Bill can be reached at bmiller@namingrightsonline.com.