Atlanta Spirit owners Michael Gearon Jr. and Bruce Levinson will be primarily responsible for running the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers following last week’s front office restructuring, which included the resignation of the group’s chief executive, Bernie Mullin, and chief financial officer, Bill Duffy.
Officially, the structure calls for a seven-member executive committee to report directly to Atlanta Spirit’s six owners. But, in reality, Gearon and Levinson will call the shots when it comes to running the day-to-day operations of both franchises and Philips Arena. Gearon has been representing the Hawks as the NBA governor and Levinson is the governor for the NHL’s Thrashers.
“I don’t believe in organizational charts,” Gearon said of the changes to eliminate the top layer of management. “We realized that, after owning the teams for four years, we don’t have a need to have a person between us and the business side of things. The general managers of the teams have been dealing directly with us, the marketing guy has been dealing directly with us, and the arena guy has been dealing directly, so we don’t need a CEO and a CFO.”
The management changes come as Atlanta Spirit tries to stop financial losses that have plagued the ownership group since it took over the two teams and Philips Arena in 2004, inheriting $47 million in annual losses. Since then, the losses have declined, last year to about $16 million.
“Revenues are up significantly for both teams and we don’t have any debt,” Gearon said. “[The new management structure] is more operationally efficient.”
Mullin will remain as a consultant with Atlanta Spirit through February. He joined the organization in 2004 after the group bought both teams and the arena from Time Warner for $250 million. Mullin was respected in league circles for his experience in driving team revenue. Before joining the Hawks in 2004, he headed the NBA’s team marketing division.
“I have mixed emotions about leaving the organization,” Mullin said. “I’m disappointed that I won’t be leading the management team we put in place, but I feel good about what we’ve done in four years.”
Gearon said there was no thought to putting off the restructuring until after NHL All-Star Game, played at Philips Arena the week the changes were made public.
“Some of it was timing because Bernie’s contract is up for renewal,” said Gearon, “and this made the most sense.”
Don Waddell: Thrashers general manager
