tlongII
12-10-2013, 05:59 PM
http://www.oregonlive.com/playbooks-profits/index.ssf/2013/12/trail_blazers_president_chris_2.html#incart_flyout _sports
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/width620/img/playbooks-profits/photo/13919385-mmmain.jpg
Trail Blazers president Chris McGowan leans over at a game to talk to team owner Paul Allen.
Chris McGowan doesn't look like a sprinter.
He is, in fact, a two-time marathoner and regular jogger. Makes sense. The demeanor of the 40-year-old Portland Trail Blazers president is more long-distance relaxed than burst-of-energy jittery.
But the changes McGowan has brought to the Blazers' business operations in his first 13 months on the job have been, in comparison to his predecessors, equivalent to a basketball fast break.
The front office has been heavily overhauled. The business office's numbers-crunching analytics staff has been beefed up, helping drive decision-making on ticket pricing, among other things. Multiple websites were eliminated and recast into one. The Blazers' smartphone app, launched last year but never fully operational, was scrapped in favor of another that actually works. And the organization hired a new food-services partner, which brought four local food vendors into the arena.
Above all, McGowan's brief tenure may be assessed for accomplishing a task that had eluded previous team presidents: selling the naming rights to Blazers' arena.
Outside observers say McGowan has been a quick study of the Trail Blazers and of Portland. One of his first educational steps was to set up a full lunch calendar with people who could tell him about where the franchise had been and how it had arrived at its place of influence in the city.
"He understands they need to be more than a basketball team playing in a town," said Steve Wynne, executive vice president for Moda Health and a former president of Adidas America in Portland. "There's a real sense of energy about the organization right now."
On Saturday night, before the Blazers played a game at the Moda Center, McGowan navigates the nightclub-esque scene of Sphere, nestled on the 200 level, trading greetings with Dr. William Johnson, president of Moda Health, the organization that agreed to a naming rights deal for the basketball arena.
As always, or so it seems, the 5-foot-11 McGowan is wearing a suit. But there's no tie tonight, perhaps because billionaire owner Paul Allen will not be attending the game and sitting between McGowan and general manager Neil Olshey. With the suit and close-cropped brown hair, McGowan's looks a little like Ed Helms, the sadsack comedian known for his work on The Daily Show, The Office and The Hangover trilogy.
McGowan leaves Sphere and walks down the 200-level hallway – more befitting a plush hotel than a concrete arena -- to enter a banquet room. There, behind the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, a private party is honoring Don Pearson, the regional president in Portland for Wells Fargo & Co., a major Blazers sponsor since 2005. Pearson, feted by about 50 co-workers and friends, is departing for another Wells Fargo leadership position.
Steve Scott, the Blazers bear-sized vice president of corporate partnerships sales and service, had been working the small crowd before McGowan's arrival. McGowan chatted with Pearson. They appeared to be old friends.
When champagne flutes arrive to toast Pearson, McGowan has sidestepped over to speak with Erin Hubert, chief executive of the area's Boys & Girls Clubs. They briefly chat about Traci Rose, former Blazers vice president of community relations, who is joining Boys & Girls Clubs as chief communications and development officer.
Soon after the toasts, he slips out the door and back down to Sphere. The entire navigation seemed smooth – not slick, just been-there, done-that smooth.
So much for first impressions. When he was introduced Oct. 29, 2012, as the Blazers' new president, McGowan appeared even younger than his years, uncomfortable with his first-ever news conference and eager to get back on a plane to Los Angeles.
By no means, though, is he from Los Angeles, from whence he had come.
Critics on messages boards have labeled McGowan a California-transplant hatchet man, serving the wishes of his Seattle-based Vulcan Inc. bosses.
McGowan moved seven times growing up, as his family followed his father's career as an Army officer. He was born in Kentucky, then on to Kansas, Germany, Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. He's also lived in Delaware and, yes, California, and now Oregon. He counts himself as fortunate for having been able to attend one high school, in Carlisle, Pa.
He earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Delaware in 1996, where he was captain of the 1-15 soccer team.
But California is where he formed his career, where he worked for a company that sent him to sporting venues around the world. And it's where in 1996 he met his wife, Susan Guisler McGowan, in a Manhattan, Calif., restaurant. The couple married in 2000 and has two sons, Ryan, 11, and Kyle, 9.
At the younger boy's game on a recent Saturday morning at Rose City Futsal, McGowan is virtually unrecognizable on the sideline, proving it is possible to find a knit cap, hoody and sweatpants in this world without a team or brand logo. He is, however, wearing Adidas running shoes.
His son's team scores five goals and Kyle got four of them. McGowan shows no reaction to any of four, explaining later that this is futsal – goals are common.
After the game, he introduces Ryan, who wants to be a chef. Father and son agree the best restaurant in Portland is Le Pigeon. McGowan, who counts the city's food culture among his favorite things about his new hometown, has a list of other favorites.
He says he didn't even consider leaving Los Angeles until spring 2012, shortly after he was named to The Sports Business Journal's "Forty Under 40" list. Headhunters had called before, of course. But he'd never been particularly interested.
Shortly after graduating from Delaware, he joined the Los Angeles Kings as a ticket seller. It had been one of two interviews he snagged from a job-placement agency specializing in sports business. The other one didn't work out: Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids declined to hire McGowan for ticket sales.
"I'm glad they did," says McGowan.
When he joined the Kings, the organization had 55 employees. By the time he left, it had thousands and was part of AEG, whose holdings included the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS.
In McGowan's 17 years with the organization, he had risen to chief operating officer of AEG Sports, overseeing the business operations of the Kings, Stanley Cup winners in 2012, as well as the Galaxy, winners of the MLS Cup in 2011 and 2012.
As the Kings celebrated their Stanley Cup victory, McGowan went slip sliding to join them on the Staples Center ice – one of the few suits allowed to do so. He'd even grown a playoff beard, part of the NHL tradition when pursuing what many consider to be the most venerated trophy in sports.
Amid the high fives, whoops and playoff beards, McGowan took a good look around, appreciating the moment.
McGowan says he knew he was experiencing his last game with the team. He'd achieved much with AEG and felt it was time to move on to something else.
When a headhunter contacted him last summer about the team president opening with the Portland Trail Blazers, however, he said he was interested in leaving for the first time.
He spent his first couple of months in Portland getting to know the place, often scheduling one-on-one meetings with managers, learning about their job responsibilities. By January, he was trimming long-time executives, adding staff and declaring that the team's arena would have a naming-rights sponsor by the time the 2013-14 NBA season opened.
One of his first acts was hiring a consultant, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Premier Partnerships. McGowan says that hire made the difference between past failed attempts.
People closest to the process, however, said McGowan played the lead role.
He led the first meeting with Moda Health officials in July, said Johnson and Wynne, the Moda executives. In about half a dozen subsequent meetings, McGowan and other Blazers executives, including Scott, shared the talking.
McGowan got the idea of approaching Moda after walking into their downtown building for another reason and noticed that the organization, formerly ODS Health, had adopted new branding.
In that first meeting, McGowan delivered a boilerplate pitch about naming rights benefits. The pitch was later refined to meet Moda's desire for not just signage but an advertising program that would position the Blazers and Moda as partners in promoting healthy living, participants said.
A former Blazers executive said the notion of obtaining a naming rights sponsor – commonplace in the sports world -- was first discussed in 2000 for the arena that opened in 1995. A strong push launched in 2008 fell short. On Aug. 13, eight months after launching the effort, McGowan and Johnson unveiled the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. The 10-year deal has been valued at $40 million.
Soon after his arrival last year, McGowan spotted other areas that needed change.
McGowan thought the team's ticket efforts needed more sales people for season tickets and suites as well as a revamped, analytics-driven method to selling single game tickets.
He hired Vince Ircandia, the former AEG director of business operations and analytics, to be the Blazers' vice president of business analytics handling the ticket-sales formula, while saying numbers would drive future decision making. The team has since launched a single-game ticket pricing formula in an attempt to compete with ticket brokers.
McGowan didn't like the team's multiple websites, either. He set the process in motion to scrap the previous online strategy and to wire the Moda Center for Wi-Fi. He hired Dewayne Hankins, former director for digital strategy at AEG Sports, to be the Blazers' vice president of marketing and digital and oversee the new efforts.
And McGowan fired people, people with years of experience who'd stuck with organization through ups and downs. He said that's been the most unpleasant experience of a job he otherwise has enjoyed. He said the layoffs unsettled staff that remained.
"It's been tough and rightfully so," McGowan said. "People who worked together for a long period of time are no longer working together and they have seen a lot of people leave. That's not an easy thing to go through.
"Everyone is on eggshells wondering if it is going to continue. Now, I want people to be comfortable and excited about coming to work. I just don't want them to be complacent."
Like any Blazers' fan in Portland, McGowan is enjoying the team's 18-4 start this year. But he declines any commentary about the team's play.
The sports industry is rife with tales of executives who overestimated their knowledge and stepped outside their expertise, McGowan says.
He vows he won't be one of them, noting that even though he played Division 1 soccer, even though he is a Portland Timbers season ticket holder, even though he has a preference in the who's-best debate between Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel "Leo" Messi (Ronaldo), he never discussed player personnel with LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena.
When he's sitting to the right of Allen under the basket at Blazers' home games, he's listening to the team owner and general manager Neil Olshey when they talk basketball. Allen's visits to the games are among the best times to discuss business developments, he said.
His first meeting with Allen clicked, McGowan said, when he ripped the team's then slogan, "New Team, New Dream."
You've owned the team for 20-something years, McGowan recalled saying, and "this is a new dream?"
No, McGowan answered for the future boss, it's been the dream all along. The slogan was shtick. The team this season has emphasized a different slogan that may sound familiar to long-time fans: "Rip City."
The behind-the-scenes Blazers management has had some stubbed toes. They clearly did not anticipate fan pushback on behalf of Taco Bell chalupas over a McDonald's breakfast sandwich. McGowan says Taco Bell decided on its own to drop the promotion and only McDonald's stepped in to fill the void – offering free food to ticketholders when the home team scores 100 points or more.
And while he talks about expanding the range of entertainment for the Moda Center beyond basketball, including an Arena Football League franchise, McGowan does not have an answer about what is the most appropriate role for the dormant Veterans Memorial Coliseum next door.
On a recent visit to the University of Oregon campus, McGowan strolled into the building that houses the Warsaw School of Sports Marketing where he would meet with two groups of students. McGowan was an occasional sports business speaker at the University of Southern California, too, where he remains an adviser.
The second of the student meetings is standing room-only, presumably with students who hope to some day find jobs in sports business. They could use some Schmooze 101, however, as Blazers attire was scant. One student wore an Oklahoma City Thunder shirt, another wore the jersey of the San Jose Sharks, an LA Kings rival. McGowan took verbal note of them both. He appeared to be joking.
McGowan may not have any say in on-floor operations of the Blazers but, during his classroom talk, he asked an assistant to keep him updated on the Blazers' performance that night against Milwaukee.
He fielded questions from students and placed special emphasis on one point.
"Learn to sell," McGowan said. "If you want a high probability of getting into an organization, the biggest opportunities are in sales."
About the time he wrapped up, the game in Wisconsin had ended. The Blazers won 91-82.
Later, he'll say the team can just as easily lose 13 games in a row – just as it did to end the 2012-13 season. And his job and that of his staff is to deliver sales and service just as well then as during a winning streak.
Steady pace, because it is marathon, not a sprint.
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/width620/img/playbooks-profits/photo/13919385-mmmain.jpg
Trail Blazers president Chris McGowan leans over at a game to talk to team owner Paul Allen.
Chris McGowan doesn't look like a sprinter.
He is, in fact, a two-time marathoner and regular jogger. Makes sense. The demeanor of the 40-year-old Portland Trail Blazers president is more long-distance relaxed than burst-of-energy jittery.
But the changes McGowan has brought to the Blazers' business operations in his first 13 months on the job have been, in comparison to his predecessors, equivalent to a basketball fast break.
The front office has been heavily overhauled. The business office's numbers-crunching analytics staff has been beefed up, helping drive decision-making on ticket pricing, among other things. Multiple websites were eliminated and recast into one. The Blazers' smartphone app, launched last year but never fully operational, was scrapped in favor of another that actually works. And the organization hired a new food-services partner, which brought four local food vendors into the arena.
Above all, McGowan's brief tenure may be assessed for accomplishing a task that had eluded previous team presidents: selling the naming rights to Blazers' arena.
Outside observers say McGowan has been a quick study of the Trail Blazers and of Portland. One of his first educational steps was to set up a full lunch calendar with people who could tell him about where the franchise had been and how it had arrived at its place of influence in the city.
"He understands they need to be more than a basketball team playing in a town," said Steve Wynne, executive vice president for Moda Health and a former president of Adidas America in Portland. "There's a real sense of energy about the organization right now."
On Saturday night, before the Blazers played a game at the Moda Center, McGowan navigates the nightclub-esque scene of Sphere, nestled on the 200 level, trading greetings with Dr. William Johnson, president of Moda Health, the organization that agreed to a naming rights deal for the basketball arena.
As always, or so it seems, the 5-foot-11 McGowan is wearing a suit. But there's no tie tonight, perhaps because billionaire owner Paul Allen will not be attending the game and sitting between McGowan and general manager Neil Olshey. With the suit and close-cropped brown hair, McGowan's looks a little like Ed Helms, the sadsack comedian known for his work on The Daily Show, The Office and The Hangover trilogy.
McGowan leaves Sphere and walks down the 200-level hallway – more befitting a plush hotel than a concrete arena -- to enter a banquet room. There, behind the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, a private party is honoring Don Pearson, the regional president in Portland for Wells Fargo & Co., a major Blazers sponsor since 2005. Pearson, feted by about 50 co-workers and friends, is departing for another Wells Fargo leadership position.
Steve Scott, the Blazers bear-sized vice president of corporate partnerships sales and service, had been working the small crowd before McGowan's arrival. McGowan chatted with Pearson. They appeared to be old friends.
When champagne flutes arrive to toast Pearson, McGowan has sidestepped over to speak with Erin Hubert, chief executive of the area's Boys & Girls Clubs. They briefly chat about Traci Rose, former Blazers vice president of community relations, who is joining Boys & Girls Clubs as chief communications and development officer.
Soon after the toasts, he slips out the door and back down to Sphere. The entire navigation seemed smooth – not slick, just been-there, done-that smooth.
So much for first impressions. When he was introduced Oct. 29, 2012, as the Blazers' new president, McGowan appeared even younger than his years, uncomfortable with his first-ever news conference and eager to get back on a plane to Los Angeles.
By no means, though, is he from Los Angeles, from whence he had come.
Critics on messages boards have labeled McGowan a California-transplant hatchet man, serving the wishes of his Seattle-based Vulcan Inc. bosses.
McGowan moved seven times growing up, as his family followed his father's career as an Army officer. He was born in Kentucky, then on to Kansas, Germany, Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. He's also lived in Delaware and, yes, California, and now Oregon. He counts himself as fortunate for having been able to attend one high school, in Carlisle, Pa.
He earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Delaware in 1996, where he was captain of the 1-15 soccer team.
But California is where he formed his career, where he worked for a company that sent him to sporting venues around the world. And it's where in 1996 he met his wife, Susan Guisler McGowan, in a Manhattan, Calif., restaurant. The couple married in 2000 and has two sons, Ryan, 11, and Kyle, 9.
At the younger boy's game on a recent Saturday morning at Rose City Futsal, McGowan is virtually unrecognizable on the sideline, proving it is possible to find a knit cap, hoody and sweatpants in this world without a team or brand logo. He is, however, wearing Adidas running shoes.
His son's team scores five goals and Kyle got four of them. McGowan shows no reaction to any of four, explaining later that this is futsal – goals are common.
After the game, he introduces Ryan, who wants to be a chef. Father and son agree the best restaurant in Portland is Le Pigeon. McGowan, who counts the city's food culture among his favorite things about his new hometown, has a list of other favorites.
He says he didn't even consider leaving Los Angeles until spring 2012, shortly after he was named to The Sports Business Journal's "Forty Under 40" list. Headhunters had called before, of course. But he'd never been particularly interested.
Shortly after graduating from Delaware, he joined the Los Angeles Kings as a ticket seller. It had been one of two interviews he snagged from a job-placement agency specializing in sports business. The other one didn't work out: Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids declined to hire McGowan for ticket sales.
"I'm glad they did," says McGowan.
When he joined the Kings, the organization had 55 employees. By the time he left, it had thousands and was part of AEG, whose holdings included the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS.
In McGowan's 17 years with the organization, he had risen to chief operating officer of AEG Sports, overseeing the business operations of the Kings, Stanley Cup winners in 2012, as well as the Galaxy, winners of the MLS Cup in 2011 and 2012.
As the Kings celebrated their Stanley Cup victory, McGowan went slip sliding to join them on the Staples Center ice – one of the few suits allowed to do so. He'd even grown a playoff beard, part of the NHL tradition when pursuing what many consider to be the most venerated trophy in sports.
Amid the high fives, whoops and playoff beards, McGowan took a good look around, appreciating the moment.
McGowan says he knew he was experiencing his last game with the team. He'd achieved much with AEG and felt it was time to move on to something else.
When a headhunter contacted him last summer about the team president opening with the Portland Trail Blazers, however, he said he was interested in leaving for the first time.
He spent his first couple of months in Portland getting to know the place, often scheduling one-on-one meetings with managers, learning about their job responsibilities. By January, he was trimming long-time executives, adding staff and declaring that the team's arena would have a naming-rights sponsor by the time the 2013-14 NBA season opened.
One of his first acts was hiring a consultant, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Premier Partnerships. McGowan says that hire made the difference between past failed attempts.
People closest to the process, however, said McGowan played the lead role.
He led the first meeting with Moda Health officials in July, said Johnson and Wynne, the Moda executives. In about half a dozen subsequent meetings, McGowan and other Blazers executives, including Scott, shared the talking.
McGowan got the idea of approaching Moda after walking into their downtown building for another reason and noticed that the organization, formerly ODS Health, had adopted new branding.
In that first meeting, McGowan delivered a boilerplate pitch about naming rights benefits. The pitch was later refined to meet Moda's desire for not just signage but an advertising program that would position the Blazers and Moda as partners in promoting healthy living, participants said.
A former Blazers executive said the notion of obtaining a naming rights sponsor – commonplace in the sports world -- was first discussed in 2000 for the arena that opened in 1995. A strong push launched in 2008 fell short. On Aug. 13, eight months after launching the effort, McGowan and Johnson unveiled the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. The 10-year deal has been valued at $40 million.
Soon after his arrival last year, McGowan spotted other areas that needed change.
McGowan thought the team's ticket efforts needed more sales people for season tickets and suites as well as a revamped, analytics-driven method to selling single game tickets.
He hired Vince Ircandia, the former AEG director of business operations and analytics, to be the Blazers' vice president of business analytics handling the ticket-sales formula, while saying numbers would drive future decision making. The team has since launched a single-game ticket pricing formula in an attempt to compete with ticket brokers.
McGowan didn't like the team's multiple websites, either. He set the process in motion to scrap the previous online strategy and to wire the Moda Center for Wi-Fi. He hired Dewayne Hankins, former director for digital strategy at AEG Sports, to be the Blazers' vice president of marketing and digital and oversee the new efforts.
And McGowan fired people, people with years of experience who'd stuck with organization through ups and downs. He said that's been the most unpleasant experience of a job he otherwise has enjoyed. He said the layoffs unsettled staff that remained.
"It's been tough and rightfully so," McGowan said. "People who worked together for a long period of time are no longer working together and they have seen a lot of people leave. That's not an easy thing to go through.
"Everyone is on eggshells wondering if it is going to continue. Now, I want people to be comfortable and excited about coming to work. I just don't want them to be complacent."
Like any Blazers' fan in Portland, McGowan is enjoying the team's 18-4 start this year. But he declines any commentary about the team's play.
The sports industry is rife with tales of executives who overestimated their knowledge and stepped outside their expertise, McGowan says.
He vows he won't be one of them, noting that even though he played Division 1 soccer, even though he is a Portland Timbers season ticket holder, even though he has a preference in the who's-best debate between Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel "Leo" Messi (Ronaldo), he never discussed player personnel with LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena.
When he's sitting to the right of Allen under the basket at Blazers' home games, he's listening to the team owner and general manager Neil Olshey when they talk basketball. Allen's visits to the games are among the best times to discuss business developments, he said.
His first meeting with Allen clicked, McGowan said, when he ripped the team's then slogan, "New Team, New Dream."
You've owned the team for 20-something years, McGowan recalled saying, and "this is a new dream?"
No, McGowan answered for the future boss, it's been the dream all along. The slogan was shtick. The team this season has emphasized a different slogan that may sound familiar to long-time fans: "Rip City."
The behind-the-scenes Blazers management has had some stubbed toes. They clearly did not anticipate fan pushback on behalf of Taco Bell chalupas over a McDonald's breakfast sandwich. McGowan says Taco Bell decided on its own to drop the promotion and only McDonald's stepped in to fill the void – offering free food to ticketholders when the home team scores 100 points or more.
And while he talks about expanding the range of entertainment for the Moda Center beyond basketball, including an Arena Football League franchise, McGowan does not have an answer about what is the most appropriate role for the dormant Veterans Memorial Coliseum next door.
On a recent visit to the University of Oregon campus, McGowan strolled into the building that houses the Warsaw School of Sports Marketing where he would meet with two groups of students. McGowan was an occasional sports business speaker at the University of Southern California, too, where he remains an adviser.
The second of the student meetings is standing room-only, presumably with students who hope to some day find jobs in sports business. They could use some Schmooze 101, however, as Blazers attire was scant. One student wore an Oklahoma City Thunder shirt, another wore the jersey of the San Jose Sharks, an LA Kings rival. McGowan took verbal note of them both. He appeared to be joking.
McGowan may not have any say in on-floor operations of the Blazers but, during his classroom talk, he asked an assistant to keep him updated on the Blazers' performance that night against Milwaukee.
He fielded questions from students and placed special emphasis on one point.
"Learn to sell," McGowan said. "If you want a high probability of getting into an organization, the biggest opportunities are in sales."
About the time he wrapped up, the game in Wisconsin had ended. The Blazers won 91-82.
Later, he'll say the team can just as easily lose 13 games in a row – just as it did to end the 2012-13 season. And his job and that of his staff is to deliver sales and service just as well then as during a winning streak.
Steady pace, because it is marathon, not a sprint.