LVCVA fires executive, alleging conflict of interest, appoints new chief sports officer

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority fired an executive in charge of sports deals over conflict-of-interest concerns related to the hiring of her ex-husband for a contracted position, the agency’s president said.

On Tuesday, the authority appointed Brian Yost to the new role of chief sports officer to replace Lisa Motley.

Yost’s appointment came just weeks after Motley’s firing, but LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill said the new executive sports position had been in the works for some time.

The authority fired Motley, who held the role of vice president of sports and special events, on June 5 after the hiring of sports marketing firm Position Sports for services tied to the 2027 College Football Playoff national championship game, Hill said.

The publicly funded LVCVA was first alerted to the issue by a public commenter at a previous LVCVA meeting, Hill said. That spurred an investigation into the request-for-proposal process that led to hiring Position Sports. The investigation lasted several weeks and included interviews of those involved in the process, reviewing documents and analyzing what was discovered, Hill said in a memo sent Monday to LVCVA board members.

Conflict-of-interest concerns

In October, Motley noted that Position Sports was the preferred contractor for media relations for the College Football Playoff title game and that she intended to hire the firm without a competitive process, according an internal memo viewed by the Review-Journal that Hill sent to board members Monday. Lisa Motley’s ex-husband, Jeff Motley, is the chief media officer of Position Sports.

The LVCVA has the authority to hire outside professional services via a noncompetitive process, but only if Hill approves the procurement. After a discussion with Yost, Hill decided to move forward with a competitive hiring process for College Football Playoff-related services, the memo said.

In November, the agency considered bringing on Jeff Motley as a contractor through the LVCVA’s communications and public relations department to assist with the College Football Playoff title game. The LVCVA ultimately decided against hiring him as an ambassador.

Lisa Motley then proposed that Jeff Motley be hired by Position Sports to serve in the public relations/media role for the College Football Playoff title game. Hill and Yost agreed that Jeff Motley being hired by Position Sports was an acceptable idea, Hill’s memo said.

‘Permission should not have been given’

On Feb. 6, a request for proposals for the College Football Playoff game media-related role was issued by the LVCVA. Despite recusing herself from the request-for-proposal process, Lisa Motley was granted permission to attend a Feb. 14 pre-proposal conference.

“That permission should not have been given, and she should not have had any involvement in the RFP process,” Hill said in the memo.

On Feb. 11, Lisa Motley provided confidential information related to the College Football Playoff production requirements to Jeff Motley, an act that compromised the integrity of the procurement process, undermining her recusal from the process, Hill said in the memo.

Neither Lisa Motley nor Jeff Motley could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Despite Lisa Motley not attending the RFP evaluation panel, two of her direct reports attended as evaluators with Brian Yost. Having her two staffers included in the evaluation process created “an appearance of a conflict of interest and should have been avoided,” Hill wrote.

On March 11, Position Sports was awarded the College Football Playoff contract by the LVCVA board of directors, but three days later the LVCVA learned that Jeff Motley was hired as chief media officer with Position Sports.

Yost’s new role

Yost had been serving as chief operating officer of the LVCVA before he was approved for the new sports role at Tuesday’s board of directors meeting.

He will lead the sports and events efforts of the LVCVA. The agency works to secure various events, including the Super Bowl, the College Football Playoff national championship game, the Men’s NCAA Final Four and WrestleMania.

“What’s happened really is that in the last five years or so we have gone from that maybe not being a full-time job to it’s at least a full-time job,” Hill said after Tuesday’s meeting. “We have to grow our sports department, and Brian is at the center of that and has a tremendous and kind of unique background. … He’s just a natural for it. We’re thrilled that he’s here, and we’re thrilled that he’s available to take that department to the next level.”

The chief sports officer position pays an annual salary of between $215,000 and $301,000, with an annual bonus of up to 20 percent, depending on performance.

New process started

Because of the conflict of interest, the LVCVA reissued the request for proposals for the College Football Playoff title game. LVCVA Chief Strategy Officer Ed Finger is leading the new evaluation process.

The authority also completed ethics training with the Ethics Commission, training that Hill noted was planned before the incident. Hill also will host two internal ethics sessions this month.

Hill wrote that the LVCVA’s core values include being transparent and operating with integrity, and that the process tied to Position Sports being awarded the College Football Playoff contract fell short of those values.

“We hope our actions in response reflect our unwavering commitment to ethical conduct and our responsibility to uphold the trust placed in us by our stakeholders and the community,” he wrote.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.