STEVEN RYAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Mike Zavodsky can credit his alarm clock for putting him on his path to success at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment.
In 2005, the New Jersey native scored an internship with the then-New Jersey Nets after his junior year at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. When he started, he was immediately challenged by Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark, who would routinely suggest to Zavodsky that they meet at the office at 4:30 a.m. to go over sponsorship decks.
“And I did it,” Zavodsky said. “He tested me. He thought I would tire out over the course of the internship.”
Zavodsky never missed a pre-dawn meeting, and Yormark offered him a full-time job when he graduated in 2006. He’s spent the decade since then climbing the executive ranks at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, where today he plays a key role in securing the company’s biggest deals. He helped usher in a new era for the Nets in 2012 when the team moved from New Jersey to Brooklyn while opening the Barclays Center with a host of new sponsors. He also takes a lead role in programming the arena, now home to the New York Islanders, as well, and he leads Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment’s third-party consulting and sales effort, which has brought naming-rights deals to the Izod Center (a former Nets home) and to Rutgers University’s High Point Solutions Stadium.
He’s negotiated 24 seven-figure annual partnerships and is taking a lead in the company’s redevelopment of Nassau Coliseum, as well, with an expected naming-rights deal and nine other partner deals to be announced shortly.
“It has been a fun run,” Zavodsky said.
— John Lombardo
Mike Zavodsky
Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment | EVP, Global Partnerships
Age: 32
Where born: Englewood, N.J.
Education: Quinnipiac University (B.S., marketing and psychology)
Advice I’d give to my younger self: The things that matter are the things that you know matter. If you have to think about whether it matters, it doesn’t.
2016 will be a good year if: I’m drinking from the Stanley Cup in June.
Person in the industry I’d like to meet: Michael Jordan. His impact not only on the game itself but also the business of sports changed the landscape.
I’d like to change jobs for a day with: A doctor/surgeon. The ability to impact/save someone’s life and what that must feel like is certainly fulfilling and must be such a rush.
Groups supported: I’m an active supporter of the institutions that helped mold who I am: namely, my high school (Don Bosco Prep) and college. I also enjoy and regularly speak with youth and young-adults groups.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve done: Taking over the steering of a plane while flying over the island of Fiji.
You'd be surprised to know: I’m a huge fan of *NSYNC and Taylor Swift and regularly listen to their music.
