It’s easy to approach sports as the proverbial armchair quarterback. The players, coaches, and winning games are the only things that matter, and everything else is largely irrelevant. Unfortunately, the sports biz is not nearly that simple.

At 6 p.m. tonight on the patio of Templeton Landing, the Advertising Club of Buffalo offers “Sports Marketing and Sports Entertainment: The Real Play Happens Off the Field” for its monthly Adlab, a panel session led by local professionals. Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar begin at 5:15. Tickets run for $5 for student members, $10 for regular members and $25 for non-members, and you can buy them online here. If you pay at the door, the ticket price jumps by $5.

The chat will revolve around the idea that sports teams, as businesses, are multifaceted, and the success of an organization is only partially determined by what happens on the field, court or ice. Depending on the scale of the organization, the challenges may be different—smaller teams may rely on sponsorships as their primary source of revenue, while in other cases, sponsors represent only a smaller financial piece in relation to ticket sales, television contracts, etc.

Speakers will be Cleveland Browns senior editor and former Buffalo News sports reporter Vic Carucci, Buffalo Sabres’ VP of Brand Strategy Brent Rossi and Principal of CENERGY Activating Brands John Cimperman. Carucci is the headlining name, but you’re likely wondering: “What will a long-time sports writer know about the advertising side of sports?” Covering the Bills throughout the ‘90s—during the Super Bowl years, no less—Carucci became intimately familiar with the local organization and how it operates.

You know what else helps with sports marketing? Clever team songs don’t hurt. (Now get this out of your head the rest of the day!)