The changes Trail Blazers President Chris McGowan has brought to the team's business operations in his "first 13 months on the job have been, in comparison to his predecessors, equivalent to a basketball fast break," according to Allan Brettman of the Portland OREGONIAN. The front office has been "heavily overhauled" and the business office's "numbers-crunching analytics staff has been beefed up." Multiple websites were "eliminated and recast into one," while 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." One of the first steps to securing a naming rights deal with Moda Health "was hiring a consultant, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Premier Partnerships." McGowan said that the hire "made the difference between past failed attempts." However, sources said that McGowan "played the lead role." Meanwhile, McGowan "spotted other areas that needed change." He 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," and McGowan "fired people." He said that letting people go has "been the most unpleasant experience of a job he otherwise has enjoyed." He added that the "layoffs unsettled staff that remained." McGowan: "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" (Portland OREGONIAN, 12/11).
