As president and CEO of Anaheim Arena Management, Tim Ryan oversees all entertainment in the 19,000-seat Arrowhead Pond, which has staged more than 2,000 events and entertained nearly 21 million fans. The arena is home to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, whose owners, Henry and Susan Samueli, appointed Ryan executive vice president and chief operating officer when they bought the team in June. Ryan spoke about his dual roles and his excitement over the new NHL season with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
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| Ryan on his dual role: “Having the team and the arena management under one umbrella allows for certainly more creative thinking and a lot quicker decision-making.” |
Education: Bachelor of arts, finance, Cal State Long Beach, 1979
Favorite piece of music: I listen to everything from Led Zeppelin to jazz, but if I had to be on a desert island, the music would be anything by Steely Dan.
Favorite movie: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
Favorite author: Stuart Woods
Last book read: “Leadership” by John Wooden
Favorite vacation spot: Princeville in Kauai
Favorite quote: “Never confuse effort with results.”
Athlete you most enjoy watching: Tiger Woods
Greatest competitor: Jack Nicklaus
Favorite sporting event: I’m supposed to say the National Hockey League, but I thoroughly enjoy — I live for — the Masters.
Management philosophy: I try to surround myself with very capable people, and my management philosophy, if I had to sum it up, would be collegial. I expect robust conversation, and I think that once we get enough input, my style is to make a decision as quickly as possible. My preference would be to make 90 out of 100 correct decisions per day than nine out of 10.
You are president/CEO of Anaheim Arena Management and executive vice president and COO of the Mighty Ducks. How do you balance the two jobs?
Ryan: My new role [with the Mighty Ducks] is a natural extension of my role as CEO of AAM. It’s very clear that having the team and the arena management under one umbrella allows for certainly more creative thinking and a lot quicker decision-making.
The Arrowhead Pond at different times is host to sports and non-sports events. What are some ways to bring mainstream entertainment to sports?
Ryan: As technology changes in arenas, whether it’s LED scoreboards or LED rings on the upper and lower concourse, or the new technology in our video rooms and the plasma screens throughout the concourse, we are talking about total integration across promotion between all events in the facility. You may be walking the concourse at an NHL game and be seeing upcoming events such as the Eagles or Paul McCartney, and vice versa. Right now, in the offseason, we’re spending $2.4 million on upgrading that technology. Brian Burke, our new general manager, summed it up pretty well: We are in the entertainment business. And we never want it to become anything less than a professional presentation.
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| The Ducks didn’t play, but the Arrowhead Pond had a full concert schedule, Ryan says. |
successful were you in filling in dates on the facility’s calendar after the NHL lockout? Did the arena have many dark nights?
Ryan: I haven’t done an exact calculation. Today, we’re in our third day of television filming in the facility, so just the fact that we’re in the greater L.A. market allows us to do some things that others can’t. We created some of our own tours — Tony Hawk’s skateboarding. We had a heck of a concert year by finishing as one of the top venues in the country, with 41 shows. You continue to do everything you can to fill those dates in, but it would be wrong for anyone to say that that’s an easy task. None of us have freeze-dried events. We don’t just add water and put them on.
The NHL has said that it will initiate a creative and nontraditional marketing campaign to resell the game. How do you win back the fans and sponsors after the lockout?
Ryan: There simply isn’t a silver bullet. Every part of our business at every level is grassroots-oriented. We have spent the last five months preparing for this day. It is about creating new divisions — a comprehensive fan development division, a community relations department that interacts very closely with the public relations side of what we do — and it’s going to be our job to win back our fans through a lot of hard work.
Every team has that mission. Do you have any specific new marketing or ticketing or sponsorship ideas you’re gearing up for?
Ryan: When we took over ownership of the Mighty Ducks, we didn’t have the benefit of knowing what other NHL teams were going to be doing with their pricing. We made a conscious decision to roll back all of our season tickets 5 percent and freeze that 5 percent for two full years, so that it’s not transparent that we were going to roll back prices in year one and then raise them a significant amount in year two. On top of that, every season-ticket holder will eat for free and park for free the first entire [three-game] home stand. It’s our way of saying “Welcome back!”
Will it be a tougher sell? There will be fewer games on television.
Ryan: We have a 40-game agreement with Fox that is in place. We are talking to them about a possible further commitment, and we are in discussions with our local over-the-air carriers. From the league standpoint, so far we are 100 percent supportive of everything that they’ve done.
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| Top pick as a competitor: the Golden Bear. |
L.A. Times reported in June that following the Samuelis’ purchase of the Mighty Ducks the team would explore changes, including the team’s nickname. Where are you with that exploration?
Ryan: I think Henry and Susan Samueli were very clear. This is something that will and should be left up to the fans. It’s something that takes a minimum of one year to implement.
Forbes reported last year that the Ducks, despite the most successful season in franchise history in 2002-03, when they played in the Stanley Cup Finals, had an $11 million operating loss the following season and ranked 24th (out of 30 teams) in the magazine’s NHL franchise valuations. How do you change that?
Ryan: I think it’s fair to say that hockey [here] doesn’t have the roots of other traditional cities, but every city brings something a little different to the table. We have a beautiful facility. We have one of the most lucrative markets in the United States. We fill this arena night after night with non-hockey events. It’s going to be our job to get folks back. We’re not looking at this as a short-term investment by any stretch of the imagination. We want to rebuild the fan base that has been here before, and I believe that we’re going to make a huge dent in that this year and surprise a few people in years two and three.
Is there another executive you particularly admire?
Ryan: We’ve put on the John Wooden Classic every year and I’ve had the opportunity to talk to John Wooden and see how he operates. And more than that, I’ve talked to people who had a chance to play for him and have seen how he has affected their lives. I don’t know of anyone else that I’ve come in contact with that has had the ability to really shape a human being’s life quite like John Wooden.
