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Brian Rolapp will join the DMA in conversation with DMA member Frank Gallagher to discuss the current state of the PGA TOUR and significant changes coming in the years ahead.  Few executives have played a larger role in shaping the modern sports landscape than Brian, whose career has been defined by consistent leadership and long-term value creation across several major sports and entertainment institutions. A member of Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40: Hall of Fame, Brian was named chief executive officer of the PGA TOUR in June 2025.

Brian joined the PGA TOUR after a 22-year career with the National Football League (NFL), where he most recently served as chief media and business officer. In that role, he was responsible for the league’s commercial businesses, including broadcasting and media rights, NFL Media, sponsorship, advertising sales and consumer products, with NFL contract revenues exceeding an astounding $125 billion during his tenure. He spearheaded some of the largest and most comprehensive arrangements with major corporations in NFL history and led 32 Equity, the entity that makes investments on behalf of the league and its 32 owners.

While at the NFL, Brian oversaw long-term agreements with media partners CBS, ESPN/ABC, NBC, FOX and Amazon for the distribution of NFL games over television and digital platforms. Additionally, he helped devise and implement the next phase of the premium product NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube after almost 25 years on a satellite service. Rolapp also oversaw other media and licensing negotiations, including contracts with Apple, DraftKings, Electronic Arts, Fanatics, Netflix, Nike, Snapchat, Sony, X and more.

The NFL’s owned and operated businesses, NFL Media and NFL Films, also flourished under Brian’s leadership. Brian drove NFL Network and NFL RedZone distribution deals with the country’s largest television providers and more recently launched NFL+, the NFL’s new direct-to- consumer digital product. He helped NFL Films expand its programming relationships with Netflix, HBO/Max, Amazon and others. He also oversaw the formation of a new joint venture, Skydance Sports, announced in 2022 between Skydance Media, the NFL and NFL Films to create a premier global multi-sports production studio.

As chief executive officer of PGA TOUR, Brian is applying his experience to a sport steeped in history, with an emphasis on creating the best version of the PGA TOUR that reflects the best of sports competition while retaining the elite competitive environment golf fans expect. The PGA TOUR is undergoing a thoughtful evolution under Brian’s direction, honoring the game’s traditions without being overly bound by them.

A key initiative during Brian’s early tenure is the formation of the Future Competition Committee, chaired by 82-time PGA TOUR winner Tiger Woods, which is conducting a comprehensive review of the TOUR’s competitive model with a focus on new business concepts such as parity, scarcity and simplicity. No decisions have been made or finalized, but the committee has reached a consensus on several key topics, including: the importance of predictable, promotable fields that create appointment viewing; opening the season with an iconic event; exploring more opportunities in major metropolitan markets; and heightening competitive consequence by enhancing the meritocratic structure.

In January 2026, Brian also announced the launch of the Returning Member Program, designed to provide an alternative path back to PGA TOUR competition for past members who have achieved the highest accomplishments in the game. The program — which recently welcomed nine-time PGA TOUR winner Brooks Koepka — mandates heavy and appropriate limitations to both tournament access and potential earnings, including a five-year forfeiture of potential equity in the PGA TOUR’s Equity Program.

Before joining the NFL in 2003, Brian served as director of business development for NBC Universal in New York, in which role he was instrumental in NBC’s cable and new media strategies, including NBC’s acquisition of Vivendi Universal Entertainment’s cable assets USA Network, Sci-Fi and Trio. Brian was a member of the media investment banking team at CIBC World Markets prior to joining NBC Universal.

Brian is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Harvard Business School. He and his wife Cindy have been married for nearly 30 years and have four children.

U.S. aircraft carriers are often called “The Tip of the Spear” because they enhance America’s ability to project military power anywhere across the globe.  The key to the carriers are their fighter planes.

Despite threats from hypersonic missiles and drones, a carrier task force can maneuver on the open ocean, move fast and carry massive firepower. The ability to project military power from aircraft carriers in whatever theater is necessary is critical to projecting U.S. global power. It also has a number of other advantgages, such as not having to rely on foreign nation approval, not requiring foreign host bases and permitting independent U.S. military strategy, all of which may be invaluable during a crisis. Carriers are essential for a U.S. global presence, deterrence and rapid response.

Fighter jets on U.S. aircraft carriers are specialized, state-of-the art planes flown by highly trained Naval aviators.  Navy pilots don’t have the luxury of landing on JFK’s 13,000-foot-long runway; the carrier deck is  only 300 feet.  Our speaker, Gunnar Edelstein, has exciting videos so DMA members can experience what it’s like to land on a carrier at 150 knots on a constantly moving centerline with the carrier sailing at 15 knots, navigating a nine degree landing angle-of-attack with possibly heaving decks and/or crosswinds due to rough seas, while undergoing a crushing G-force when landing and then stopping on a dime.

Gunnar graduated from the Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Wilbraham, Mass., and received a B.S. degree in biology and chemistry from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1972.  He then joined the U.S. Navy officer flight training program in Pensacola, Fla., and later served as a fighter/attack pilot for eight years.  Gunnar graduated first in his class while earning Distinguished Naval Graduate honors and went on to complete two WestPac carrier cruises aboard the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation, in addition to a tour as an instructor in the Navy’s Advanced Jet Training Command.

Gunnar was hired by American Airlines in 1979 and then laid off a year later.  He then worked as a sales engineer for Air Products & Chemicals, while also serving in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, flying the brand new A-10 Thunderbolt. He rejoined American Airlines in 1984 and had a 27-year flying career there, principally flying B-727s until he retired from flying in 2011.

Gunnar is currently in residential sales with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Darien.  He was president of the Darien Board of Realtors, served on the board of Noroton Yacht Club, was past Commander of the Darien Sail & Power Squadron and is a member of Silvermine Golf Club.  Gunnar and his wife Sarah have lived in Darien for 39 years and have a son, Jeff, who is a U.S. Army combat infantryman.