Photo: BRACE HEMMELGARN / MINNESOTA TWINS
T
he Minnesota Twins operate well out of baseball’s coastal limelights and entered 2015 with four straight losing seasons. But the club remains one of the sport’s most widely respected franchises thanks in part to a highly regarded ballpark experience at Target Field, a successful staging of the 2014 MLB All-Star Game, and an organizational philosophy to be early adopters in many league efforts — such as MLB Advanced Media’s push toward mobile ticketing and iBeacon technology.
Laura Day
Minnesota Twins |
Executive Vice President,
Business Development
Laura Day, the club’s executive vice president of business development and a lifelong Minnesotan, is an organization stalwart, having first joined the Twins during their championship season of 1991 and now well into a second stint after brief runs with the neighboring Minnesota Wild and former Victory Sports. She oversees a broad portfolio that includes ticketing, marketing, sales, corporate partnerships and stadium operations, working closely with Twins President Dave St. Peter.
As the club now is returning to contention with a young core of new talent and hometown hero and manager Paul Molitor, Day has led a strong push to embrace analytics to help guide the club’s business operations.
“Our goal is not to be on top of what’s happening in the industry, but in front of it,” Day said. “We’re now making much more informed, more strategic business decisions, which is critical, because the industry is transforming very quickly.”
— Eric Fisher
- Notable professional achievement: Having the opportunity to participate in the design, development and launch of two fabulous facilities in my home market: Target Field and Xcel Energy Center.
- Biggest professional disappointment: We launched a regional sports network with the Twins but were not successful in securing the distribution network we required. We closed down the company but ultimately ended up with a terrific relationship with (what is now) Fox Sports North.
- Best advice received: Find a work environment where you are surrounded with people who share similar values, passion and commitment; always remain open to learn new things.
- Causes supported: I serve on the board of directors for the Greater Twin Cities United Way, am an executive committee member and board member of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, and am a current member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable. I previously served as a board member for Cornerstone, was a member of the Minnesota State University Sports Management Program Advisory Board, and was an active member of the executive leadership team for the Heart Walk benefiting the American Heart Association.
- Woman in sports business I’d most like to meet: Mo’ne Davis. Her accomplishments and maturity are inspiring to us all by reducing the gender biases surrounding the roles of girls and boys playing sports.
- Most memorable sporting events attended: There are two: the 1991 World Series (the Twins beat the Braves) and the 2014 MLB All-Star Game at Target Field.
- If my colleagues were asked to describe me, they would say I: Am fair, open-minded, collaborative, and that I encourage people to not just think outside the box, but rather think like there is no box.
