Former NBA Marketer and Best-selling Author Jon Spoelstra Named Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management Executive-In-Residence for Fall 2017

“We’re thrilled to be able to give our students, faculty, and alumni the opportunity to learn from and engage with one of the most innovative and influential sport marketers of our time,” stated Dr. Janet Fink, Chair of the McCormack Department of Sport Management. “Jon Spoelstra’s literature and experience has had an undeniable impact on our curriculum, and it will be especially meaningful for our students to hear and learn from him.”

Jon Spoelstra will be on campus Oct. 23rd-25th for a host of classroom presentations and roundtable meetings with McCormack students and faculty. In addition, Spoelstra, as part of the McCormack Innovators Lecture Series, will deliver a lecture titled Marketing Outrageously in Sports and Having Fun Every Step of the Way on Oct. 23rd at 6:30p.m. in Mahar Auditorium. This lecture is open to the public.

An accomplished author, Spoelstra has written numerous books, including Ice to the Eskimos, Marketing Outrageously, and Marketing Outrageously Redux, a sequel to Marketing Outrageously which became a Wall Street Journal best-seller. His latest work is Group Sales Superstar Online Course, co-authored with Steve DeLay.

As the Senior VP/General Manager for the Portland Trail Blazers Spoelstra helped to engineer one of the most successful front offices in sports history. After his tenure with the Trail Blazers, Spoelstra served as president and COO of the Nets for three years and dramatically increased ticket and sponsorship sales with the number of sellouts at Meadowlands Arena skyrocketing from 0 to 29, and local sponsorship sales increased from $400,000 to $7,000,000. Spoelstra then served as president and managing director of Mandalay Baseball Properties, LLC for eleven years, which owned one the most profitable minor league baseball teams ever, the Dayton Dragons.

Today, Jon Spoelstra works in his role as co-founder of SRO Partners, LLC, a sports marketing consulting firm that works with NBA, NHL, MLB teams and their minor leagues affiliates.

“Since the 1970’s Jon Spoelstra has been shaping the sport marketing industry through his outside-the-box thinking,” said Steve McKelvey, Associate Department Chair for External Relations and Associate Professor of Sport Management. “He’s engaging, he’s funny, and his success speaks for itself - his experience and insights are invaluable for ambitious students looking to get into any segment of the sport industry.”

Spoelstra joins an impressive group of past McCormack Executives-in-Residence including former NIKE Marketing Executive Sonny Vaccaro, Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, Former WTA Chair Stacey Allaster, former ESPN Chairman George Bodenheimer, former SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, NHL executive Brian Burke, IMG/TWI executive Barry Frank, Octagon Managing Director of Olympic and Action Sports Peter Carlisle, Mark McCormack’s partner in founding IMG Jay Lafave, and most recently sports sociologist and civil-rights activist Harry Edwards.

The Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at the Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst is among only a handful of sport management programs based in a professional business school. Widely respected for the breadth and quality of its curriculum and research, the department has been hailed as a leader in its field. UMass Amherst also houses the collection of papers from McCormack and the company that he founded, IMG.

Contacts:

Steve McKelvey, 413/545-5066, mckelvey@isenberg.umass.edu

Molly McGuigan, 413/545-0727, mmcguigan@isenberg.umass.edu