Matt oversees daily team and business operations within the Erie Bayhawks organization, the minor league affiliate of the NBA’s New York Knicks. Under his leadership, both the average game attendance and total fan base are on a steady rise. Matt shares with us what it’s like to run a sports franchise and how to make it on the business side of sports!
Transcript
>> Matt Bresee; I'm currently the team president of the Erie BayHawks basketball team, part of the NBA development league. It's the official minor league of the NBA. The league is owned and operated by the NBA itself. 16 teams in the league and currently right now we are affiliated with the New York Knicks. We are the official minor affiliate of the New York Knicks. With my position right now I oversee really the overall strategy of the business and a lot of that is the sales side of things; developing corporate partnerships, ticket packages, season ticket sales, etc. The things that you know keep the doors open and lights on so to speak. You know now in this day and age where you're so connected through smartphones and emails and things like that, it some ways it's a 24/7 type of job, especially when someone in my position is also trying to support everyone that works in our office, but also wants to be available for the basketball guys. From time to time have to answer to people at the league level. You never know when an email, a phone call, a text message is going to come through; nights, weekends, etc. One of the questions we're asked often is, "Do you work year round?" And yes we do. In fact the off season is sometimes just as busy or in some senses busier than in season because we're preparing for the season to come. We really just continue our focus in order to put a good product out there and it comes to things like having a mascot, a dance team, nightly giveaways, in-game entertainment; those sorts of things. Trying to find enough of that regardless of wins and losses; it's still a great time for fans.
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