The tenth season of the Eccles Business Buzz podcast continues with a conversation between host Frances Johnson and Jim Olson, President of the Utah Jazz, and key leader for the Utah Mammoth NHL Franchise, the Delta Center Arena, and more.
Jim and Frances talk about Jim’s 30+ years in the sports business, emphasizing how technology and Ryan Smith’s tech background have expanded the Utah Jazz’s parent entity, The Smith Entertainment Group’s global reach, deepened fan connection, and enabled data-driven customization of tickets, sponsorships, and in-arena experiences.
He explains how sales are the revenue engine that funds reinvestment in teams, facilities, community programs, and the current Delta Center renovation for hockey, including a new 450-stall parking garage. The conversation covers sports’ unifying and economic impact, lasting memories, career skills and education, the upcoming Business of Sports minor at the Eccles School, and excitement about future championships, upcoming Olympic Games, and district-style real estate developments in Utah.
Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University.fm.
Eccles Business Buzz is proud to be selected by FeedSpot as one of the Top 70 Business School podcasts on the web. Learn more at https://podcast.feedspot.com/us_business_school_podcasts.
Episode Quotes:
Why fans are the lifeblood of every sports business
[08:46] Frances Johnson: What is the role of sales specifically in today's sports industry?
[08:52] Jim Olson: Well, I'm definitely biased when I get asked that because I spent so much of my career focused on the revenue-generating aspects of our business. And I just believe you have to generate revenue. It's revenue-generating; that revenue just opens up the doors to so many different things. You know, it opens up the doors to improving our arena experience. It opens up the doors to improving our broadcast experience. It opens up the doors to improving our retail experience. And obviously, it's cyclical. As you open up those doors and improve all those experiences, the goal is to generate more revenue with it. But, look, we say that our fans are the lifeblood of the organization. We really mean that because they're making a large commitment, be it through buying tickets, watching games, streaming games, their businesses being partners in through sponsorship programs, and so forth. And our fans are the lifeblood because it drives the revenue, which allows us to do so many things.
Turning revenue into a better fan experience
[10:56] When we make money, we reinvest it back into the company. We're not publicly traded where we got to worry about stockholders. We're not worried about paying off other individuals or whatever it may be. When we make money, we reinvest it right back into the organization, where we have gone through a rebuilding phase with the team, and now people have seen we're making investments into improving both the basketball team and the hockey team, Jazz and the Mammoth, and we're reinvesting into our facilities. We're going to be done in September with a new parking garage that's connected to the arena. 450 new parking stalls to enhance the experience there. And so really we reinvest into our marketing efforts and our social media efforts, and we reinvest back into the community.
Jim reveals the most important skills for building a career in sports
[23:50] Working in sports is no different than working in every other job. It's competitive. You have to grind. You have to work hard. You have to be focused. You have to learn to work with people. Like, it's, kind of, what everybody knows. It's hard. It's competitive. There might be jobs out there that are 9:00 to 5:00, but I don't know. That's not sports, you know. We work nights, we work weekends, we work holidays, we work early mornings, we work late, whatever. But it's just so fun.
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