The Hornets returned to the playoffs last season, and while the team’s play on the court has "clearly gotten better, it’s the franchise’s business track record that makes the Hornets arguably the league’s biggest comeback story in recent years," according to Katherine Peralta of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. The team said that it has "improved on nearly every marketing metric" since '10. When Michael Jordan bought the team in '10, it was "selling about 5,000 season tickets." Hornets Exec VP and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Pete Guelli said that at that time, management "set a goal to get to 10,000 tickets, which is considered the league's 'gold standard.'" Guelli "came onboard eight seasons ago." He said that the goal then was to "turn the Hornets franchise into a 'premier database marketing organization.'" That meant the "creation of a business intelligence department, a five-person office responsible for consumer analytics and data collecting, among other functions." NBA Exec VP/Team Marketing & Business Operations Amy Brooks said, "We continually pull best practices from Charlotte in terms of their approach to sales and marketing and involvement with the community." Hornets President & COO Fred Whitfield said that the "re-branding effort" before the '14-15 season cost between $4-5M. Whitfield: “It’s probably the best investment we ever made.” Guelli said that the team has "about 90 sponsors," more than 80% of which are regional companies. The majority "end up renewing their sponsorship" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/29).
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article111157872.html#storylink=cpy
