Dallas Gutauckis
Jeff Ianello, SeatGeek executive vice president of partnerships, considers himself a beneficiary of a highly fertile sports industry executive tree tracing back to Rick Welts, former Phoenix Suns president and chief executive, who now runs the Golden State Warriors.
Ianello previously worked in ticket sales at the Suns with not only Welts, Legends North American President Mike Tomon, Pittsburgh Pirates Executive Vice President Drew Cloud, and Memphis Grizzlies Executive Vice President John Walker, but also fellow 2017 Forty Under 40 class members Jeremy Walls of the Miami Dolphins and Bill Fagan of The Aspire Group.
“It was such an amazing factory of talent,” Ianello said. “In the case of me, Jeremy and Bill particularly, we were all at an early stage, coming up into the business together. But we got such an education in the fundamentals of the business.”
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Ianello has gone on to make his own impact in a leadership position. After a stint at the NBA’s team marketing and business operations group, Ianello has played a big role in the development and introduction of SeatGeek’s new open ticketing technology. Now aligned with Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City and Portland Timbers, the mobile-first ticketing platform contemplates the availability of tickets across a wide spectrum of e-commerce venues, and shifts away from more restricted ticketing systems that historically have been common.
Ianello also helped expand the company’s partnership with MLS to expand the curriculum at the league’s national sales center in Minnesota, and struck a deal with Sporting KC sister company FanThreeSixty to integrate ticketing data from SeatGeek Open into FanThreeSixty’s set of business tools.
“We were confident we had a strategy that would resonate with people, particularly those who wanted more space, more options,” Ianello said. “We believe this is a game-changing moment for the industry.”
— Eric Fisher
jeff ianello
seatgeek | executive vice president, partnerships
Age: 36
Where born: Port Chester, N.Y.
Education: University of Massachusetts, Amherst (B.S., sport management)
Family: Wife, Laura; children, Natalie (3), Joanna (1)
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at age 20? Trust in the short-term sacrifices you make. Give more than you take. Forgive more easily.
Profession other than your own you’d most like to attempt: Learning to code and working in product development.
Causes supported: Wounded Warrior Project,
UMass Sport Management, Christian Family Care.
Guilty pleasure: Binge-watching TV series on Netflix, Amazon, etc.
Person in the industry you’d most like to meet: Kevin Plank.
I am one of the best I know at … : Bringing big-time energy and a constant motor to everything I do.
The sports industry needs to do a better job of … : Embracing a more modern and remote work culture. My move to SeatGeek has been eye-opening in this way.
You’d be surprised to know that I … : Married a golf pro and can still barely break 90 … maybe 100.
