Greg Bibb ’96 always knew he wanted to be involved in sports. His love of athletics would take him from calling basketball games for Marist’s TV station all the way to serving as President, CEO, and Managing Partner of the WNBA’s Dallas Wings.
“I had that sports aim and I felt that a communications degree with a concentration in radio, television, and film was the track to get there,” said Bibb, who, as an undergraduate, was the sports director for Marist’s TV station and covered sports for Marist’s newspaper, The Circle.
Knowing the Marist internship program had contacts with the major sports networks, Bibb hoped he would earn a coveted internship if he worked hard enough. “I had that opportunity my junior year and had a chance to work on Monday Night Football and College Football Saturday,” he said. “It taught me so much about keeping up with a fast pace, working hard, and gave me that much more of a feel for the sports world.” He would one day be connected to an ABC Sports broadcast in a way he could never have imagined.
“After Marist, I was able to take my sports background into a public relations opportunity with a soccer team and that actually forged a whole other path to grow in the industry,” he said.
Eventually getting a chance to switch to the operational side, his roles have included executive VP of business operations of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and chief operating officer of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. The latter he began in 2007 and then was in both roles starting in 2010. “I had the opportunity to try many things and learn from smart people,” he said.
After later founding a sports-focused investment fund in 2013, he left basketball for a couple of years. A partner in the business, Bill Cameron, had an idea: come back and help him with his own WNBA team.
“Getting back to being involved with the WNBA was a thrill,” Bibb said. “Bill was looking to move the Tulsa Shock to Dallas, the team today known as the Dallas Wings, and he asked if I would join the ownership group and lead the business.”
“With the Wings, I’m in charge of all aspects of the organization. For example, growing our broadcast offerings… At one time, the team had a half dozen games on TV.” Referring to the 2022 season, he went on, “This past` year we played 36 games—and all 36 were broadcast. The telecast reaches all of Texas and Oklahoma, three-quarters of Arkansas, and half of Louisiana. That’s 11 million households that can see a Wings broadcast.”
But one for ABC Sports, a playoff game against the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 21, was particularly momentous.
“If you would have told me five years ago that we would be playing a playoff game on ABC before almost 800,000 viewers, I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said.
But it’s more than the numbers for Bibb; it’s the hope. “I got involved with the WNBA to begin with partly because my wife, Tara, and I welcomed a baby girl,” he said. “This year is the 50th anniversary of Title IX and it’s important to create more opportunities for girls and women. My daughter has grown up around the WNBA and sees she can do anything she wants if she is willing to work for it. And it’s been just as important for our son … More opportunities need to exist for female athletes to be able to make a living professionally, and the success of the WNBA has a chance to help in that area.”
Bibb, ever the competitor, doesn’t just have basketball nets on his mind, but lacrosse ones, too. He is also President, CEO, and Managing Partner of the professional lacrosse team Panther City Lacrosse Club, in Fort Worth, Texas. The team concluded its first season in the National Lacrosse League with high hopes in what he says is the fastest-growing city in the country, not to mention the 13th largest.
“It combines the game of hockey that I played growing up and the game of basketball I’ve spent so much of my career in,” he said. “The participation rate in the sport keeps growing, there are cross-promotional opportunities with the Wings, and there’s the excitement of 20 to 30 goals a game on average. It’s another role for me that’s a great deal of fun…And, hey, isn’t fun what sports are all about?”