Cubs Hire Wally Hayward As Chief Sales & Marketing Officer

Hayward Begins His New Role   With The Cubs This Week

New Cubs owners the Ricketts family has hired agency veteran WALLY HAYWARD as the team’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, according to Terry Lefton in this week’s SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Hayward will start this week and will be “part of the executive management team, responsible for marketing, sponsorship, ticket sales and media relations.” He also will be “involved with renovations in and around Wrigley Field, a possible spring training site move and a potential bid for the 2014 All-Star Game.” He will report to Cubs Chair CRANE KENNEY. Hayward’s hiring “fills a vacuum at the Cubs created in 2007” when former team President JOHN MCDONOUGH and former Senior VP/Marketing & Broadcasting JAY BLUNK joined the Blackhawks. Hayward most recently was an “adviser to the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee.” He also spent 13 years with Bcom3, Starcom MediaVest Group and Leo Burnett, “developing an internal sports and event marketing arm.” Hayward launched Relay Sports & Event Marketing in ’01 as the “dedicated sponsorship and event marketing agency of Publicis Groupe, eventually rising to chairman and CEO of the renamed Relay Worldwide.” He left that position in '08 “after an unsuccessful attempt to buy some or all of Relay from Publicis” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/23 issue).

BIG FREE-AGENT ACQUISITION: In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal notes the hiring of Hayward is the Cubs’ “first big move since the Ricketts family completed" last month’s acquisition of the team from Tribune Co. Hayward said, “Revenue growth is critical to the future of this club, and we’re going to be looking at all different elements to do that while still preserving Wrigley Field purity that everyone’s used to. We need to be more creative, more innovative, to generate more revenue so we can help on the player side (by being able to afford to) build a winner on the field and preserve Wrigley Field." Kenney noted, “Maybe the only good thing about [Chicago] not getting the Olympics was Wally was available” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 11/23).