So today at work, Steve Starks stopped by and gave a discussion on how the Jazz as a organization is run, and some lessons he's learned in his career. I thought I'd share some thoughts with all you fellow Jazz fans. I'm on mobile, so forgive the horrible formatting though.
1) He views the Jazz as a organization that is slowly becoming a content organization. He spoke about the impact of Cord Cutting, and that the current contract with Root is up in 4 years and would most likely look to change the distributions rights. Specifically, Root Sports owns all of the digital content for local broadcasts, which is surprising to me at least. He did mention that starting this season however, if you are a subscriber to Comcast and have Root Sports as a part of the package, streaming will be available. Which I found really promising.
2) In regards to Gordon, Starks felt the team did everything right, and has more confidence in free agency going forward. He didn't give any names, but he did allude to potential Free Agents that were interested, but due to timing it didn't work. One thing he further expanded on was that they are seeing an increased interest in Utah as an organization by free agents.
3) The Jazz are valuable for corporate partners. Zions Bank has tracked the top most recognized brands in Utah for decades, and the Utah Jazz are always in the top two. One season after earning the naming rights to the Arena, Vivint jumped from unranked to number three. Data like this is extremely useful for corporate sponsors and shows that the Jazz can create a return on investment.
4) Big Data is only going to increase in the organization. From on the court stats, to determining how people interact in the arena, data is useful. He mentioned that the new app is going to be released shortly, and people will be able to show their tickets, order food, check highlights, and interact in ways that haven't been released yet.
5) Social Media will continue to increase importance. One thing that stood out to me was that on things like Snapchat and Instagram and Facebook the team wants to time their releases around timeouts so that when people look away from the game and at their phones, the Jazz are there.
6) He is extremely high on both Dennis Lindsey and Quinn Snyder. He feels that they help bring a character and culture to the team that is hard to come by. One story he talked about was how during games when opposing players inbound the ball by the Jazz bench, Quinn will try to recruit players to the Jazz, and players love to talk with him.
7) Rewarding success. This one was sorta a throwaway comment, but he mentioned how is a player makes the All Star team, they will charter a plane and fly the player and their family out to the game at the team expense and recognize that success. He didn't give names, but he said that not all teams do that, which truly surprised me. (side note, if this is true, Hayward really missed the family touch of the Jazz)
8) Super teams are an issue, he doesn't know what to do.
I can't remember much else, but if I do I'll be sure to post it.
All in all, I was really impressed with Starks today, and he needs to be included in the general brain-trust going forward and a key part of the continued success of Jazz.
