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| “Baseball is not unlike any other business,” McCourt says, but “the fans, if you think of them as shareholders, don’t talk to you annually once. They talk to you every single day.” |
Los Angeles Dodgers vice chairman Jamie McCourt is the highest-ranking female executive in baseball. Married to Frank McCourt, who purchased the team in January 2004, she is responsible for all of the Dodgers’ business operations. The club made the playoffs last season for the first time in eight years and won its first postseason game in 16 years. Off the field, the team is experiencing other success. Through July 4, attendance was up 7.3 percent. The Dodgers rank No. 2 among all teams in ticket sales and have raised the number of sponsors from 60 to more than 100 (including Bank of America, General Motors, Disneyland and Blue Cross) and revenue by 40 percent.
McCourt spoke with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
Education: Bachelor of science, French, Georgetown; diploma, La Sorbonne at the University of Paris; J.D., University of Maryland School of Law; MBA, MIT
Last books read: “DisneyWar,” and I’m listening as I drive to “Blink.”
Favorite movie: “The Prince of Tides”
Favorite vacation spots: Australia and New Zealand
Basic business approach: While focusing on the business model, I think it’s really important to have good communication and be very honest in our approach with the people we work with. I think all of that fosters an organization that continues to learn and continues to grow.
Favorite quote: Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said, “It’s very difficult coming in [to the NBA] to try to gauge what’s different in this industry vs. what’s worked for you in other businesses. There will be far more scrutiny than you’ve ever had to experience in any other business.” Did you find this to be true?
McCourt: I think what’s different about it is that you experience people having a passion for what you’re doing every single day, 365 days a year. Somebody is always writing about it. People are so involved that they all want to weigh in and express an interest. And I think it’s a good thing.
Brian Mooney in The Boston Globe said “heavily leveraged” could be the McCourts’ nickname, because it has been so frequently written in stories about the purchase of the Dodgers. One criticism was that because the team was bought with borrowed money, the owners can’t be, or are not, personally invested in the team. How do you respond to that?
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| The recent refinancing assures the team’s future in Dodger Stadium, McCourt says. |
McCourt: I don’t give it a second thought. I just look to the future. Certainly the recent financing, which was a $250 million private placement on senior notes, indicates that the Dodgers are in a fantastic space and they’ll continue to play for 25 years in Dodger Stadium and that we made a long-term commitment to baseball there.
Would the Dodgers ever consider a naming-rights deal for Dodger Stadium?
McCourt: It’s unlikely, but you never know. I’ve too many times said “Never,” and I guess you should never say never. But there’s something very pure about Dodger Stadium, and we’re committed to playing here certainly over the next 25 years through the private placement that has just been done. It’s one of those old stadiums that just has this romance about it and tradition about it that you feel should stay untouched, and that’s what I hope will be.
The Angels renamed their franchise. What did you make of that?
McCourt: You know, that’s a very complicated question. I think it’s unusual. I think it’s not something I should comment too much on. I think that it’s difficult to understand why someone would be called something different from where they play, notwithstanding I understand how he’s trying to leverage a marketplace that he’s not really in — meaning the owner. But I’m not in charge of the Angels, and so we’re just watching and trying to understand why he’s doing what he’s doing. I will tell you this, though: There is only one baseball franchise in L.A., and that’s the Dodgers.
What, if anything, has prepared you for your current position?
McCourt: Where do you want me to start? I think practicing law for 15 years and then going back to business school and being in the business world for 10 years gives you a lot of broad-range experiences. Baseball is not unlike any other businesses. What is different is that the fans, if you think of them as shareholders, don’t talk to you annually once; they talk to you every single day of the year. You know exactly what they’re thinking, and you need to be responsive every day of the year. People watch what you do. That’s a little bit different in terms of the experiences that we had previously.
What’s the biggest misperception about the McCourt ownership of the team?
McCourt: I can’t speak to what people think misperceptions are. I think it’s a misperception that there’s not the wherewithal. I think fans really understand that we care, so I’m not sure that there’s a misperception. The fans are different from the media, so I’m not sure that you can really link the two together, and I think that’s clear from the attendance.
How do you attract more women to the game?
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| Frank McCourt bought the Dodgers in January 2004. |
McCourt: I think there are a few ways. We’ve launched the Women’s Initiative and Network, “Dodgers Win,” for short, which lets the women who are already coming to the games know how much we appreciate their presence. At Dodger Stadium 40 percent of our attendance is comprised of women. I think a lot of women are frightened that they’re supposed to know the statistics like their brothers or their husbands or their boyfriends or their fathers, and maybe are put off by that. There’s so much more to coming to a game than just being a statistician. What we’re trying to do is give people access in a variety of ways, whether it’s programmatically through clinics, or through networking breakfasts or to be exposed to the other women that we’ve got in the front office as well as baseball [operations].
Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio has analyzed and emulated some of the best practices of other MLB franchises. He said he hopes to add to the club’s bottom line and then raise the 2006 payroll. Have the McCourts made a similar conscious effort to look at what works for other clubs and perhaps borrow any of those best practices?
McCourt: I know you’re going to laugh when you hear this: As far as I’m concerned, we should be looking at all corporations, not just baseball franchises or other sports franchises. Our goal is to be the best corporation run in the country. So, if that means adopting best practices from any other kind of organization, that’s what we’re going to try to do.
Any examples of something you have already borrowed?
McCourt: No. I think we’re pretty unique. We’re really focused on being a learning organization and having people who are willing to learn from everyone.
So, there’s nothing specific that you’ve seen that works for other teams that you think is a good idea for the Dodgers?
McCourt: I don’t think that you can necessarily apply what works in one venue or marketplace to your situation. I mean, it really is amazing that things vary from big-market teams to small-market teams, from East Coast to West Coast, from a focus of where even your spring training facilities are. There are a lot of variables.
