Meet Cuyler Holmquist: The data strategist changing how sport understands its audiences

Cuyler Holmquist has built a career at the intersection of sport and data. As GSW’s Vice President of Executive Search, Strategic Consulting and Analytics, he brings a proprietary approach to audience intelligence that is changing the way clubs, leagues and governing bodies understand – and act on – the scale of their supporter bases.

Over more than 21 years, Cuyler has developed a methodology that allows him to quantify, map and compare fan interest in almost any sport, across almost any country. The approach can examine audience distribution at a specific point in time, or track how it has changed over two decades.

I’ve always been fascinated by research and data, and always felt there were inconsistencies in the sports industry around very basic questions — like how many fans a particular club actually has. With our approach, we can examine where fans are located, how that has changed over time, and what has driven those changes.

That intelligence has become a foundation for much of GSW’s commercial work – informing sponsorship strategy, ticketing opportunity, media rights discussions and international development plans.

Cuyler said:

Armed with that information, we can have meaningful conversations with clients about sponsorship, ticketing and media rights based on sound data, rather than the flawed or inaccurate assumptions that have circulated in the market for many years.

Cuyler also leads GSW’s executive search practice, applying the same structured, evidence-led approach to placing senior talent in sporting organizations around the world.

GSW CEO Sam Rush said:

Cuyler’s expertise in measuring and understanding fan bases brings an added and welcome dimension to the extensive and wide-ranging services we can offer sporting organizations.