WFDF names Tim Rockwood as Managing Director, Broadcasting and Marketing

In Official Communication, Press Release * Official Communication by WFDF

The Board of Directors of the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) is pleased to announce that it has appointed Tim Rockwood as Managing Director, Broadcasting and Marketing.  Mr. Rockwood’s goals in this newly created position are to secure sponsorship revenues, broadcast coverage, and distribution of high-profile WFDF championship events, beginning with the WFDF World Ultimate Championships being held in London in June 2016.

“WFDF has been highly successful in developing and growing the sport globally, with an emphasis on the athletes and on participation, and we are now prepared to increase our spectator base through exposure on broadcast television to demonstrate that we are ready to be considered as an Olympic event as early as in 2024,” stated Robert “Nob” Rauch, WFDF President. “Further, while we have a strong partnership with several endemic sponsors to our sport, we are only in early stages to develop a global brand partner who can work with us to provide the additional resources needed to fully achieve our strategic objectives.  We are bringing in Tim Rockwood, with his significant experience in mainstream sports production and an understanding of our sport, to pursue new initiatives in each of these areas and expect that he will be able to draw upon his numerous contacts at the top levels of sports media and marketing to accelerate the expansion of WFDF’s profile and interests.”

Tim Rockwood has a long career in the production of sports programming and documentaries.  He was 1984 Olympic Researcher at ABC Sports (Sarajevo and Los Angeles), Associate Producer at ESPN, and Senior Researcher for the 1986 Goodwill Games at Turner Broadcasting. At Turner, he was promoted to Producer of NBA Basketball and “US Olympic Gold,” where he oversaw hundreds of broadcasts, including the live, 29-camera coverage of the 1989 US National Track and Field Championships, as well as national and international competitions in gymnastics, boxing, figure skating, swimming and diving, wrestling, and other Olympic sports. Rockwood was responsible for producing the first national network coverage of the US Ultimate Nationals, in 1985, and then again in 1987, for Turner Sports. His network television experience includes Executive Producer of Sports News Network, Vice President of ABC Affiliate Enterprises, Acting Director of Discovery Health Channel, and Senior Editorial Producer of Ted Turner Documentaries. For the past 10 years, Rockwood has produced independent feature documentaries, including Official 2011 Sundance selection The Last Mountain and 2014 AFI Docs premiere How I Got Over.  Rockwood was an early Ultimate player as a founding member of Middlebury College Pranksters in 1977 and co-founder of EARTH Ultimate in 1982 in New York City.

Rockwood commented that “I first played against Nob Rauch in 1977 in the first game ever for Middlebury Pranksters Ultimate and now I couldn’t be more excited to get back involved in the sport in order to raise the profile of flying disc sports and fully extend the spirit of the game worldwide.”