Events and Attractions
Brosnan set to lead PrimeSport
Former MLB executive sees ‘growth business’
Seeking further credibility in the increasingly competitive VIP ticketing, travel and hospitality business, PrimeSport has hired Tim Brosnan, former MLB executive vice president of business, as its new executive chairman and acting CEO.
Brosnan will be based in New York and head a company that has 200 employees across five U.S. offices. PrimeSport has contracts making it the official ticket and hospitality provider for the Final Four and other NCAA championships, and has similar deals with 20 NFL teams and the Ryder Cup through a deal with the PGA of America.
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BROSNAN
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“This is a growth business where there’s a real opportunity to create a vertical offering of VIP experiences across sports, entertainment and music,” said Brosnan, noting Prime-Sport’s acquisition in 2016 of CID Entertainment, which counts major music festivals Coachella and Lollapalooza among its clients.
“It’s clear that millennials look for experiences over possessions, and with them being such a powerful consumer group, we should be able to tap into budgets that are now going to other forms of marketing.”
The move means that Brosnan and PrimeSport will compete head to head with former NHL COO John Collins, who has been CEO of On Location Experiences since November 2015.
On Location has the backing of the NFL, in the form of a 20 percent equity investment along with the exclusive rights to buy thousands of Super Bowl tickets and official hospitality packages. QuintEvents was the largest seller of those packages until the most recent Super Bowl.
Brosnan, 58, spent around 25 years at MLB, rising from vice president of international business affairs in 1991 to become the league’s top business-side exec before leaving in 2016 after a regime change, which saw Rob Manfred elevated to commissioner and Bob Bowman to president of business and media. Brosnan lost a bid to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner.
This is not the first time PrimeSport has pulled a leader with MLB roots. Former Tickets.com President John Walker served as PrimeSport president from June 2014 until joining the Memphis Grizzlies as executive vice president of business operations a year later.
