Lifetime Achievement Award: Arthur M. Blank

Editor’s Note: In recognition of his profound impact on three sports and one major American city, Arthur M. Blank will receive SBJ's Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 at the Sports Business Awards on May 22 in New York.

Arthur M. Blank was sitting in a hotel suite at The Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta one evening in December 2001, and the co-founder of The Home Depot found himself on the verge of undertaking perhaps the biggest renovation project of his life: turning around an NFL team.

Across from him sat Taylor Smith, Atlanta Falcons president and the son of Rankin Smith Sr., who had founded the franchise in 1965. Blank had approached Rankin Smith about buying the team in the 1980s, but he didn’t want to sell. Even after Rankin Smith died in 1997, Smith’s family refused to part with the team. But the elder Smith had identified Blank, a Falcons season-ticket holder, as an ideal successor should that ever change, and by 2001, the Falcons had officially been put up for sale.

Blank told Taylor that he had no interest in a bidding war and that they should hire investment bankers and agree on a deal. They remained far apart on price until Blank invited Taylor to dinner and proposed they come to terms on a number halfway between what both sides wanted: $545 million. They memorialized the agreement with a handwritten contract on a cloth napkin.

The deal was announced two days later, and by February, Blank’s purchase of the Falcons was unanimously approved by NFL owners. Blank, though, had a hard time believing the scale of the work that lay ahead of him. While talking with then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue shortly before the vote, Blank learned that the Falcons had never enjoyed back-to-back winning seasons. His first thought? “That can’t be accurate.”

Tagliabue had more daunting news for Blank. Atlanta, according to the commissioner, ranked dead last among all 31 teams in local revenue. It was also last in asset valuation. It ranked 30th in the league in attendance and drew fewer than 54,000 fans per game, meaning its games rarely aired on local television because of league rules that blacked out games that didn’t sell out. In fact, Dick Sullivan, whom Blank would soon make the team’s CMO, said the local perception of the franchise at the time was that the Falcons were only the third-most popular NFL team in Atlanta behind the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. 

“This seems so messed up and I’m such a believer in Atlanta,” Blank recalls thinking. “I came there in ’78, started Home Depot in ’79, produced Home Depot there over 23 years. I said, ‘Atlanta, we can do better than this.’ Let’s just do this, fix it, get it right for the community. If we do all the right things, for the right reasons, the economics are going to work out fine.”

It didn’t take long for Blank’s confidence to be borne out. In his first season as owner, 2002, the Falcons made the playoffs for the first time in four years while attendance at the Georgia Dome soared to nearly 69,000 fans per game, 11th in the league.

That proved to be a harbinger of better times ahead. After only making the playoffs six times in their first 36 years of existence before Blank bought the team, the Falcons did so eight times in his first 16 seasons in charge. On the business front, the team has become one of the league’s darlings. It ranks in the top quarter in revenue, according to internal league reports, and is the 15th-most valuable franchise in the NFL, according to Forbes, at $4.7 billion.

A man who would have gone down in history as one of the great American entrepreneurs before he ever joined the NFL, Blank has since expertly leveraged the Falcons to grow a second empire across sports. He now plays a key role in the highest levels of American soccer, as the owner of Atlanta United and benefactor of the U.S. Soccer Federation’s new national training facility outside Atlanta; golf, as an investor in the PGA Tour through Strategic Sports Group’s recent $3 billion infusion and owner of the Atlanta Drive GC franchise in the startup golf property TGL; event hosting as owner of Mercedes-Benz Stadium; and retail as the majority owner of PGA Tour Superstore.

Now 81, Blank is transferring much of his earnings to philanthropic causes, crafting a legacy that will define the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and sports across the country for decades to come.

His success comes from a rare ability to see through the complexities of spreadsheets and operations right to the customer’s desires — and to provide exactly what they want. “He’s a really good listener,” said Sullivan, the longtime CMO of The Home Depot who Blank recruited to join his team with the Falcons in 2002 and today runs the PGA Tour Superstore. “And one of our core values is to listen and respond.”

Indeed, those core values — Put People First, Listen and Respond, Include Everyone, Innovate Continuously, Lead by Example and Give Back to Others — are more than just corporate speak. They come from the earliest business philosophies of a man who learned long ago that the best way to get results is to hear what your customers are saying.

“Listening to who you’re serving and not debating it, not arguing with them, not trying to be smarter than them,” says Blank. “Accept their brilliance and accept their wisdom and just try to understand it and respond to it. It’s not complicated. It’s an easy thing to do, but most people in business don’t do it because they hear what the customer wants … and they say, ‘Well, they said that, but that’s really not what they mean.’”

His approach has earned him the respect and praise of the NFL’s biggest power brokers.

“Arthur’s belief that success is a journey, not a destination, has guided his incredible career,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “As he is so fond of saying, ‘There is no finish line.’”

“Integrity, integrity, integrity,” said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. “I have seen him at his very best during stressful times. A great franchise owner and NFL partner. An even better man.”

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One month before the league approved his purchase of the Falcons, Blank was traveling with the team back from St. Louis, where Atlanta had suffered a 31-13 beatdown from the St. Louis Rams to wrap up a 7-9 season. Blank asked what they needed from him. More than anything else, they said, we need fans. They were sick of playing in a half-full Georgia Dome.

Before the next season, Blank and Sullivan put season tickets on sale for $100. They took out an advertisement in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with a picture of Blank that read, “It cost me $545 million to see the Falcons’ season. It’s only going to cost you $100.”

The Georgia Dome sold out in hours, which meant no more TV blackouts. In a matter of weeks, the Falcons had taken a giant step forward in securing their fan base. The cheap seats were, to Blank, just a tried-and-true discount tactic he’d used for decades in the retail world. Many of the league’s other owners, however, saw it as an explicit admission that other tickets might be overpriced and set a bad precedent for revenue growth.

“There were definitely some people who thought it was a problem,” said Rich McKay, then the general manager of the Tampa Bay Bucs who would soon be hired by Blank for the same job in Atlanta. “People thought he was devaluing ‘us,’ the other franchises. But I think he knew exactly what he was doing.”

Around the same time, Blank and Sullivan heard from fans that stadium parking was a big problem. They personally walked through every parking lot around the Georgia Dome and struck deals with their owners for game-day access. The results were obvious: A franchise that had finished in the league’s bottom half in attendance for nine straight years before Blank bought the team has done so only three times since.

On the field, the franchise remained stable even after the implosion of star quarterback Michael Vick’s career (he spent 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to his involvement in a dogfighting ring). Atlanta drafted quarterback Matt Ryan in 2008 and embarked on its best stretch in franchise history, with six double-digit win seasons in 10 years.

The franchise was prospering, but true to his “No finish line” mantra Blank — ever the builder — knew exactly what his next project would be: a new stadium, owned and operated by the Falcons.

“A great lesson I learned from him is, if you know Arthur, he is a relentless person in that patience is not a virtue of his,” McKay said.

The birth of Mercedes-Benz Stadium illustrated an essential principal of Blank’s approach to business: controlling the customer experience is non-negotiable. As a younger man, Blank would sit in the parking lots of Home Depot stores, waiting for somebody to come out empty-handed, and gently ask why they hadn’t purchased anything. Blank would take that feedback to store managers and demand change. That kind of fine-touch control required his own stadium.

The Georgia Dome was a perfectly serviceable venue, and barely two decades old, but the Falcons were just a tenant in the state-owned building.

“The operating structure that we had with the state was horrific,” Blank said. “The only thing we could do there was go there and play games. Everything we wanted to do to cater to the fans in any way, they understood it, but they weren’t really supportive.”

Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in August 2017 at a cost of $2 billion, but it was some much smaller numbers that spoke to Blank’s true vision. At the stadium’s opening, hot dogs cost just $2, pretzel bites $5 and a burger $8. Despite slashing prices, average spending per fan during that season increased by 16% compared to the team’s final year at the Georgia Dome. In an NFL Voice of the Fan survey, the Falcons were given the No. 1 rating across all food and beverage categories.

“You don’t want anything between you and your guests, fans, customers,” Blank said.

The stadium has since become a destination for the biggest events in sports. Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosted the College Football Playoff Championship Game (in 2018, and coming again next January), the Super Bowl (2019) and will host one of the men’s World Cup semifinals in 2026. It was also scheduled to host the 2020 NCAA men’s Final Four before the pandemic canceled the tournament.

“It really was a game changer in our efforts to get sporting events to Atlanta,” said Dan Corso, president of the Atlanta Sports Council. “That stadium is second to none. And when you look the run we’ve had [with major events], a lot of it is due to the quality of the stadium, the reputation of the stadium and its people, and that all goes back to Arthur.”

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In 2009, Blank was looking to fund his eponymous foundation. The Great Recession had driven Home Depot shares near an all-time low, so for liquidity Blank instead sold off less than 10% of the Falcons (that year the franchise was estimated to be valued at $872 million). Selling minority shares is always challenging because they cost a lot of money and bring back little influence, and this situation was made even more challenging when Blank told his would-be investors there would be no dividends for at least a decade because they had to build the stadium.

Nevertheless, investors were drawn to Blank anyway because of his personal character. Doug Hertz, the former CEO of United Distributors who serves on numerous Atlanta area community and nonprofit boards, had known Blank for years and saw how he acted in the community and how he treated his employees.

“[Blank] has very high standards, and he has very high values,” Hertz said. “I had a great deal of confidence that he was going to be fair, and try to win, and treat people the right way, and he was going to turn this into a financially successful enterprise. There was a little bit of blind trust in a friend that was going to treat you appropriately, how he’d want to be treated if he was in that position.”

Along with vastly improved resources, Blank brought higher expectations to the Falcons front office. His employees at the Falcons have learned what those at Home Depot knew for decades: The focus is always on the customer.

“He always — not in a disrespectful way — says, ‘Look, it doesn’t matter what you guys think. It doesn’t matter what I think. What are the fans trying to tell us? What is the season ticket holder trying to tell us? What are the corporate sponsors trying to tell us?’” said Falcons President Greg Beadles, one of the few employees who predates Blank’s arrival. “He’s always wanting to survey and interview people and talk to them about what they want.”

Blank’s key to connecting with consumers is twofold: A constant thirst for more customer feedback, more data and insights. And, the hardest part: the willingness to accept that somebody else knows better than you, not necessarily an easy perspective for an octogenarian billionaire.

They are traits that come in handy among his fellow NFL owners. Blank has served on a dozen committees among the owners, including finance and the special committee on ownership policy that is deciding the terms under which private equity will be allowed to invest in the NFL. He was also on the committees for diversity, equity and inclusion; workplace diversity; and social justice, all of which helped him command the respect of his fellow billionaires.

“He’s one of the voices, when we have a tough issue, and he stands up to the microphone to speak, everyone in the room listens,” said Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt. “Because they know the perspective is coming from not only his experience, but a great deal of wisdom. He’s been able to find middle ground to pull owners together to overcome whatever issues there were in the room.”

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The last game at the Georgia Dome proved to be a memorable occasion. In January 2017, the Falcons jumped out to a 24-0 lead on the Green Bay Packers and cruised to a 44-21 win to secure just their second Super Bowl berth in franchise history. As he was handed the NFC Championship Trophy, a joyous Blank implored the fans in the building to “Rise up! One more game to go!”

At Super Bowl LI in Houston, Atlanta appeared well on its way to the first NFL championship in franchise history when it flew out to an even bigger lead, 28-3. A couple of hours later, the New England Patriots had completed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history with an overtime win. Blank’s shock and heartbreak were visible on live television, more so because of his long-standing practice of joining his team on the sideline in the fourth quarter of every game.

Blank spent the hours after the game trying to set an example on how to handle the loss. In his book, “Good Company,” published in 2020, he wrote, “Back in Atlanta, there was only one thing left to do: Get back to work. Everyone was still reeling from the loss, but there was nothing to be gained from sitting in the corner, sucking our thumbs and feeling sorry for ourselves.”

It wouldn’t take Blank long to experience the thrill of a championship. In November 2018, Atlanta United won the MLS Cup in just its second season of existence. Along the way, the club destroyed every single-game and single-season attendance record in the league. The team’s quick success owed in no small measure to Blank and the same philosophies he had brought to the NFL: Listen to what the fans want, hire the best people you can, and spare no expense in making the team viable.

“Arthur’s focus and commitment is to simply just doing the right thing,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber. “It’s a reminder that doing the right thing often takes courage and a commitment to your values. It takes a real belief that doing the right thing is the only thing to do.”

Even if the Falcons add a Lombardi Trophy to go with the Anschutz Trophy that United gave him, Blank’s greatest legacy in Atlanta goes far beyond the field; as former mayor Andrew Young puts it, “His hands are on everything in Atlanta and he doesn’t leave fingerprints.”

As a signatory to the Giving Pledge, an initiative founded by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates in which extremely wealthy people have promised to give away a majority of their money, philanthropy is central to Blank’s life. His wealth has gone into redeveloping the city’s west side, a historic but struggling neighborhood adjacent to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In 2022, his foundation donated $4 million to the Atlanta Humane Society, which supported the expansion of a new Westside Atlanta campus named the Arthur M. Blank Family Animal Center. And the gold standard of his giving to date has been the $200 million gift the foundation made to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which is now building the new Arthur M. Blank Hospital. All told, he has donated more than $1 billion.

“Atlanta is forever changed for the better because of Arthur,” said Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta CEO Donna Hyland. “Generations of children and families will be healed and live full lives because of his generosity.”

That new hospital caught the eye of Marvin Ellison, formerly a senior executive at The Home Depot and now the CEO of its biggest competitor, Lowe’s. While getting his physical at nearby Emory, Ellison saw his mentor’s name on the building and felt compelled to call him. “I said, ‘You’re the only person I know whose legacy is going to be so multidimensional that it’s going to be hard to describe succinctly. You are the greatest example of legacy.’”

Blank’s legacy includes his family of six children and six grandchildren. Even when making crucial business decisions, he has time for them. While interviewing Steven Cannon, who had been CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA for the same role with Blank’s for-profit businesses, he interrupted the conversation to say hello to his son, Josh, telling him, “I love you.”

“Honestly, he had me at that one,” Cannon said.

Blank’s children are fond of telling him that he has no more to do; that his legacy is built. But Blank won’t stop, nor will he pass up a chance to help others make a difference. When Ellison and his wife wanted to set up their own foundation, he asked for some time with Blank, who did more than just sit with him — he had the leaders of his foundation available for Ellison, too, in order to set him on the right path.

“That is a classic Arthur Blank story, where one request turns into this incredible act of generosity,” said Ellison. “He’s a wonderful human being.”