Director of Business Intelligence and Ticket Strategy for the Oklahoma City Thunder visits APU to provide advice and insight
On Wednesday, students from the communication studies department received the opportunity to speak with Karlis Kezbers, the Director of Business Intelligence and Ticket Strategy for the Oklahoma City Thunder. A long-time friend of Professor Robert Kent Walls, Kezbers visited Walls’ Sports Writing and Broadcasting class. After brief introductions, Kezbers joined the students in the ZU Radio room for a broadcast with live interviews.
Kezbers graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2004, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor teaching Sports Business. At the end of each year, Kezbers’ students present their sports business idea to a group of Thunder executives for their final project.
Kezbers has worked with the Thunder since 2008. He has had a number of prior positions with the Thunder in ticket retention, premium service, ticket operations and business analytics. Kezbers also spent four years with the Phoenix Suns as an employee of the sales and retention team.
Coming into class on Wednesday night, Kezbers was excited to get to know the students and find out about their interest in the sports business field. During the live interviews hosted on ZU Radio by student groups of the class, Kezbers shared his knowledge of sports business and all it entails. Students asked questions on everything from the current state of the Thunder franchise to best practices for landing internships and jobs.
Kezbers explained what business intelligence is and why it is so important for a sports franchise. Business intelligence is essentially looking at more detailed statistics regarding the business side of a sports team and using those statistics to make the business as efficient and profitable as possible.
“[We need to] stop using our gut feeling about everything that we’ve been doing, take a look at some of the statistics coming into our office, whether it be ticketing, food and beverage, or email clickthroughs, aggregate all of that stuff together, and distribute it to departments so they have another tool on their toolbelt to make better business decisions,” Kezbers said.
Sports have become a lot more than just a league filled with teams playing a game. Rather, they have developed into a corporation filled with franchises where winning in the business office is just as important as winning on the court.
According to Forbes, the average NBA franchise is worth an estimated $1.9 billion. There is a great deal at stake regarding business-related decisions for these teams. This is why entire departments employing scores of people are created by sports franchises so their business model can always be state-of-the-art.
Starting with the Thunder in September 2008, Kezbers was brought into the business side of the franchise when they relocated from Seattle (where they were known as the Supersonics). With a brand new market and look for the Seattle/Oklahoma City franchise, there were endless business opportunities in the new community. Following relocation, it was very important that the team made a name for itself through exciting basketball-related performances.
For Kezbers and the business offices, this new opportunity in Oklahoma City was a chance to use business intelligence to ensure that the newest sports product in Oklahoma was an immediate success. With a brand new look to the Thunder this season, it is almost as if the same rules apply from 2008.
“Before the [Thunder] got there, the only teams were the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University,” Kezbers said. “The fans were really used to—every two, three, four years— the team turning over and new players coming in.”
A colossal aspect of the business of a sports franchise is, of course, ticket sales. They can be a great measuring stick for teams to reference when studying the interest level of the public in the team. On the sales end of ticketing, teams need to ensure they are doing everything possible to sell tickets not only for profits but also for awareness of the team itself.
Someone who may have never thought about watching a live basketball game in their life could come across a Thunder ticket, attend the game, and be attached to the team for years to come. There is something very influential and powerful about having a ticket to the product in the live sense rather than just catching it on television.
“For so long, since about the 1940s, [University of] Oklahoma football had families with season tickets and you never gave them up because if you did, you knew you would never get them back. That is something we were hoping would translate to the Thunder and we believe it has,” Kezbers said. “We’ve got a lot of people that don’t want to give up their tickets. They want to pass them off to their kids one day.”
One interesting challenge that Kezbers and the Thunder will face this season is trying to sell a brand new product to the fans of the Oklahoma City area. Russell Westbrook, who was drafted by the franchise in 2008, was traded to the Houston Rockets earlier in the offseason. A fan favorite and the face of the franchise for over a decade, the Thunder will have to find a way to sell their product to their fans without one of the most notable features.
“From a ticket sales perspective, we’re actually doing okay,” Kezbers said. “We are really surprised by the lack of fans opting out of renewing their season tickets. We actually had quite a few people call in to get season tickets so they are obviously excited to get in on the ground level and support this new team.”
As the radio interviews began to wrap up, many students brought up the constant worry of internships and how to get jobs in the industry. Kezbers emphasized the significance of making connections with people around the industry.
“My biggest piece of advice that I can give to you guys and anyone in your shoes is to network,” Kezbers said. “Writing an email to someone, sending a direct message on Twitter or any kind of connection you can make from a digital perspective is also networking.”
Kezbers insights were invaluable. Hearing this information from someone who has climbed the ladder of the sports business world provided inspiration for students.