Andrew D. Appleby, Vice Chairman
Andrew D. Appleby, Vice Chairman of General Sports Venue, also is Chairman of General Sports and Entertainment, LLC. Andy has more than 17 years of sports management experience. Since founding General Sports in 1998, Andy led the effort to develop all of its operational divisions, as well as to create the General Sports Foundation and generalsports.com. Andy led the efforts to create and launch General Sports Venue in 2003.
Andy also successfully completed the acquisition of the Fort Wayne Wizards Minor League Baseball team in May 1999, he created the Sports Executive Leadership Conference in 2001, and he launched two new General Sports ventures in 2006 – General Sports Alliances, a subsidiary that focuses on naming rights and sponsorship sales and consulting, and US Energia, an affiliated entity that focuses on providing technical services for DC battery power, uninterruptible power supply and automotive engineering services. Andy leads General Sports with a wealth of administrative skills; with intelligent, innovative, experience-grounded decision-making; and, with an unmatched ability to lead a team toward common goals. Under Andy's leadership, General Sports has had a meteoric rise into the upper echelon of the sports and entertainment industry. Andy was selected as the 2002 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year for Eastern Michigan.
Prior to founding General Sports, Andy helped lead the ascent of the Palace Sports and Entertainment organization to the top of the sports and entertainment world. Andy held a variety of positions with Palace Sports and Entertainment from 1986 through 1998, culminating with Senior Vice President. During his tenure, the Palace of Auburn Hills was named national "Arena of the Year" eight times in ten years.
As Senior Vice President of Palace Sports and Entertainment, Andy oversaw an executive sales staff responsible for promoting and operating Palace entities, including the Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Vipers Hockey Club, Detroit Shock of the WNBA,Pine Knob Music Theatre, and Meadow Brook Music Festival. Andy was a key player in internal executive decisions regarding capital ventures, and he served as an integral team member in decisions to acquire Palace Sports’ venues and teams. He also led the task force that transformed Pine Knob Music Theatre into the nation’s top outdoor music theatre.
Andy’s drive for top-level achievement has long been evident in his pursuits and successes. He was an All American high school wrestler, and he won three State Wrestling Championships. He went on to become the New England Wrestling Champion in 1981. He also was an All-State Cross Country Runner, and home course record holder.
Andy has a Masters Degree in Sports Management and a Bachelor of Science in English and Health Fitness from Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. He serves on the Board of Directors for CATCH (Sparky Anderson’s Children’s Charity), Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute, Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, Digital Detroit, the University Cancer Foundation, Detroit Sports Commission, the Boy Scouts for Southeastern Michigan, and the Rochester Schools Foundation.
