Podcast Alert: Alex Martins – Orlando Magic

Transcript

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Alex Martins: [00:00:00] This industry certainly has evolved over the course of those almost 40 years that I’ve been in it, going from really a mom and pop type operation to big corporate businesses. My only point is that if you’re gonna be successful in this business, you’ve gotta change with it, and that means that you have to be a lifelong learner and and change throughout your career.

Jeff Nelson: Hello, welcome to the Navigating Sports Business Podcast. I’m your host today, Jeff Nelson, the President of Navigate. We are a data-driven consulting firm guiding major strategies and decisions in sports and entertainment. We started this podcast to share the experiences and the stories of some of the amazing people we get to work with.

They’re not the star athletes on the field. But they are the most [00:01:00] influential people off of it. Hopefully you learn a little something about them and a little something from them. Over the course of our conversations

today, I’m happy to be joined by Alex Martins CEO of the Orlando Magic. I have known Alex for several years now because we’ve been fortunate enough to work with the Magic for several years on a variety of projects. Probably the most public and notable would be the naming rights Kia Center, which was very exciting.

But for those of you who follow social media, we also helped with social media strategy. And Alex, I love your social media now because I know it’s good if I don’t understand about half of it because I’m not cool or current enough and I feel like your accounts passed that threshold. But [00:02:00] all of that said awesome to have you here.

Excited to chat.

Alex Martins: Thanks for having me, Jeff. I’m excited to spend some time with you as well. Do you understand the tweets with me? Uh, certainly not everything, but I follow it and we’re really proud of our social media team. They do a great job. You know this, we put a lot of effort into building our content team over the course of the last several years, and also focusing on social media in particular, and we’re especially proud of the fact that we’ve climbed up the rankings in the NBA as it relates to our number of followers and our number of engagements across all social media platforms where we set out to improve upon that.

I think we were 26th or 27th in the league overall. And this past season’s rankings just came out. We were fourth, so the team’s done a phenomenal job and, and of course we appreciate Navigates help through that time period as well.

Jeff Nelson: No, it, it’s, it is incredible and growth is where I wanted to start our [00:03:00] conversation because you are in a unique position, I think, among team presidents or CEOs to be able to go all the way back.

To the beginning, to the start of the franchise night, the Orlando Magic are coming to the league and you at that time get hired as the director of PR. Is that right? That’s correct. Share a little bit about what it’s like to be launching or part of the launch of an NBA franchise. That

Alex Martins: was a really exciting time and I’ve been fortunate in my career too.

Really have experienced two of the processes that are the most exhilarating, most intensive, but also most exciting when you work in this industry for a team. And that is launching a team and building a building and to be part of that process and gain [00:04:00] approval of the NBA to bring an expansion franchise to Orlando as well as.

Get a community excited about NBA basketball and professional sports in general. It was an exciting time, and by the way, the business was very different back then. 35 years ago, we didn’t have big staffs and certainly the business of professional sports was a lot more infant in that time and certainly wasn’t the the big revenue generating business that it is today.

So we started with 30 people on that front office staff compared to the over 300 employees that we have at the Orlando Magic today. And, so it was a lot of everyone pitching in and doing everything.

Jeff Nelson: You’re in your late twenties by this point probably, but like you’re the same age as a lot of the players, right?

What was that dynamic like? Because you, you’re needing to ask things of them, you’re needing to shepherd them in certain ways. You’re certainly not their [00:05:00] boss per se, but like you work for the organization, that’s their boss, but you’re also the same age practically. What’s that interplay like between you and players when you are still in your twenties and, and in that kind of role,

Alex Martins: you have to balance it out, right?

Because you have to create a relationship with them, number one, so that they trust you, uh, and number two, that they know that you have their best intentions in mind, regardless of what you’re asking them to do. So it was an interesting dynamic being that same age and not necessarily being their friend, but creating a, a relationship that again, they trust you and then ultimately having to fill all the needs of the organization.

Interesting dynamic for sure. Particularly being the same age, but we had a great group of players all really have throughout our entire history, but that group of players was, was, they got along very well together. Uh, high character guys. They were great to work with.

Jeff Nelson: I wanna talk in a little bit about [00:06:00] your evolution from PR director to team CEO.

You mentioned another unique accomplishment in your time at The Magic, which is building a new arena. And obviously it couldn’t have, I don’t think, been more successful considering how incredible the Kia Center is, but how did you go from we need a new arena to it’s time to cut the ribbon? We’ve done it.

It was

Alex Martins: a long, very detailed process. First of all, the old Orlando arena was built very quickly in order to try and attract an expansion franchise. I wouldn’t even call it an arena, quite frankly. Certainly by today’s standards, it was more of a public assembly facility. It was, it was a building that, that really had only four sets of restrooms in each of the four corners.

And it was one of these buildings that had long lines at concession stands and long lines to, to get into the restrooms, et cetera. And it certainly didn’t have all the bells and whistles that our buildings have today. [00:07:00] As the business evolved over time, it certainly didn’t have the revenue generating capabilities that some of our other colleagues around the NBA and around professional sports had in order to remain competitive.

And so we certainly realized that it was necessary, and plus it was, it was out of date as it relates to all of the, the major systems in the buildings, but we really had to. Put together a, a campaign to help build a building and ultimately we combined the need for a new arena with the community’s desire to also build a, a brand new performing arts center, as well as upgrade and improve the football stadium in town.

But it was exhilarating. It was one of the most exhilarating periods of of my career. Jeff, the other thing that I take great pride in, one of the focuses beyond the physical building, we really focused on the fan [00:08:00] experience and we wanted to make the fan experience one of the best in sport. And when we opened up, I think we were going through a period of time in our industry where fan experience maybe wasn’t always top of mind in every one of our facilities.

And delivering a great customer experience maybe wasn’t the highest priority at that period of time. Of course, today. Everybody’s focused on it and everybody wants to improve upon and create that, that best fan experience, but we focus on it as part of our development plan. We brought on our partners at Walt Disney World who are amongst the best in customer service right in the world, and their team that trains all of their employees for all of their theme parks.

We brought them on board to train all of our employees. Every employee that worked in our building, and to this day, they come in and do a refresher course at the beginning of every season with all of those employees, ushers, ticket takers, food and beverage employees, [00:09:00] game presentation, et cetera. And we take pride in the fact that we’ve won several international awards for best customer experience at the Kia Center, including winning the customer experience award in the NBA, just last year.

So it’s been a focus since we opened the building. We continue to focus on it. And we’d like to think that the fan experience at the Kia Center is amongst the best in the industry.

Jeff Nelson: Going through that experience, there has to be so many learnings, but is there any advice you’d give people on the team side who are in a place right now, or might be soon, that you were 15 years ago?

First and

Alex Martins: foremost, benchmark the best facilities in the world, not just in the country. Some of the best sports facilities are outside of the United States. So take the time to benchmark. It would be one piece of advice. And, and secondly, bring on the best experts that you can bring on. Sports architecture has become just a, a visionary, forward thinking industry, and [00:10:00] there are great dreamers and developers amongst the greatest sports architectural firms, uh, in the world, and bringing them on board, utilizing their ideas.

And the last thing I would say is don’t think in the present. Think in the future, right? Mm-hmm. Because these buildings have to last 30, 40, 50 years once you build them. So flexibility in the design and construction of the buildings, it was one of our core principles when building the Kia Center, is how do we create this so that it’s got the flexibility to change as our industry changes.

And so creating flexibility. I think was one of our highest priorities, and I think in order for a building to really stand the test of time to maintain its flexibility to be able to grow with changes in the industry. You have to design and build a building that is incredibly flexible.

Jeff Nelson: You were the COO at the time the building was [00:11:00] opening became CEO a year or two after.

If my Googling was successful, yes. We talked earlier that you started as PR director. I get asked by college students often who have the dream job of being a team president. What’s the path? How do I get there? And obviously the answer is always there isn’t anyone. Path, but I think that makes it all the more interesting when I get a chance to talk to folks like you to explore the background of your career and, and if you’ll indulge me to go even further back than 1989, I would love the kind of Cliff notes version of where you’re from and whether sports was something that like early on I’m gonna be in sports or.

Did you just happen to end up in sports?

Alex Martins: So, I was a sports fan growing up. I played soccer through my middle school and high school years. Didn’t go to college with an eye towards [00:12:00] working in the sports industry. I wanted to be in business. I went to Villanova as an undergrad and went there because of their business school and mm-hmm.

Just wanted to get a great business education. So I go to Villanova and at the time was on a federal work study program. So I go to the work study office and I look at the billboard of all the jobs available on campus, and there’s one in the athletic department. I said to myself, oh, okay, this will be fun work in the athletic department, and I’ll pay for my college education and get my business degree and it’ll be great.

Long story short, I get assigned to the Sports Information office and ultimately to the basketball department, the men men’s basketball department, and we win the national championship in 1985 in my junior year. Going through that experience is what sparked my desire to work in the industry. I said, wow, this is incredible.

I didn’t realize that the sports business could be this much fun. I didn’t realize the breadth of the type of jobs that were available [00:13:00] in the industry overall, and that experience motivated me to try and find a way into the business. So through those years of having worked in, in the athletic department, a few of.

A couple of the individuals left Villanova at that time to join the 76ers and work in their front office. And so after they had gotten there, one of them who I worked with, Dave Kosky, was the PR director for the 76ers and asked me if I wanted to come and work on game nights. Wow. Okay. Now I can work for an NBA team work on game nights.

Did that ultimately ended up doing an internship and then long story short, that relationship of having worked for the 76ers, of course, Pat Williams was the GM at the time leaves Philadelphia to come to Orlando to, uh, attempt to get the expansion franchise. And when he does contacts his former colleagues at the 76ers and says, look, I have to build a team now.

Okay. I have to interview everybody from potential [00:14:00] CFO to head of business operations, PR director, gimme some names of some people who are out there in the industry to interview. Dave at the time gave Pat my name as a potential candidate for PR director and the rest is history, as they say, and was able to get through that interview process and became the PR director, uh, at the age of 25 of a new expansion franchise in Orlando.

Jeff Nelson: Some of the assumptions I hear back to those college students trying to plot out their career center around the belief that I have to be tied directly to revenue. So I either need to be in ticket sales and become the person driving ticket revenue, or I need to be in sponsorship and drive corporate partnership revenue.

I think most do not think that a path to the CEO or a team president type job can come from something like the communications or PR [00:15:00] side. What. Enabled you? Do you have any kind of secrets of your success or any learnings from your move up the ladder that you would share that are no matter where you’re coming from, kinda how to get ahead in sports?

In effect,

Alex Martins: what I like to tell the young people who have aspirations of being in professional sports or ultimately having a significant role in professional sports is first and foremost when you get the opportunities. Volunteer for any possible job within the company that you’re working for, but starts with internships.

And we all know that a lot of our former interns are now full-time employees and have significant roles. Be a sponge is what I tell a lot of young people and ask a lot of questions. But again, try and gain some hands-on experience where you can. And a lot of the time that is going to a colleague and volunteering to help [00:16:00] them with whatever it may be that a certain part of the organization is working on.

And I did that and over time, learning different parts of the business. Immediately during that PR time, I took on responsibilities and broadcasting then, and then ultimately in marketing. I’ve been with the Magic for, I did leave for a short period of time. I was there for 10 years, was the acting Vice President of marketing when I left, but also felt that I wanted to broaden my level of experience, not just within the NBA, but within sports overall.

So was recruited and ultimately made the decision to go to work in the NFL to see a totally different perspective, right. I went to work for the Cleveland Browns, and that was a great experience for me in the building blocks to leading up to becoming CEO. Because having been at the magic for 10 years, and for the most part, most of the people [00:17:00] in the organization having been the same over that decade, we were doing things the same way that we had been doing them with some change, with some advancement, but for the most part, doing things that we have been doing when we first started the franchise in 89.

Going to work for the brands and in particular working for Carmen Policy, who was always an individual that I looked up to in, in the industry. Of course, having won five Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, someone that I always, the back of my mind wanted to go learn from. And that experience really helped me because I saw a different way of doing things, you know, different franchises way of doing things, but also a different league’s approach to doing things.

That really helped me to set me up to be prepared to take on that CEO role down the road. So again, you have to be a lifelong learner. You can’t go into this business or any business for that matter, and think that after a year or two, you know it all and you can do it all [00:18:00] business evolves. This industry certainly has evolved over the course of those almost 40 years that I’ve been in it.

Um, going from really a mom and pop type. Operation in those early years to big corporate businesses now that are interacting with other big corporate businesses around the world and growing revenues at a rate that I, I certainly didn’t think in those early years we would be at. But as Adam Silver likes to allude to you, you put the value of,

NBA and its 30 franchises together and we are a Fortune 50 company, double digit billions in revenue that we generate collectively. So this has become a big business and my only point is that it’s changed a lot. And if you’re gonna be successful in this business, you’ve gotta change with it. And that means that you have to be a lifelong learner and you have to certainly be adaptable and, and change throughout your career.

Culture is a [00:19:00] really important facet of how we operate our business, and creating a work environment that people feel valued or invigorated or feel challenged and enjoy was really important to us. It starts with ownership and as we know, the DeVos family didn’t originally own the team, but two years into his existence, purchased the team in 1991.

It really all starts with the DeVos family, and it started with Mr. DeVos and Mrs. DeVos, who are no longer with us, but Mr. DeVos was the type of leader invested in people. He wrote several books, but one of the books that he wrote was entitled Compassionate Capitalism, and as the title suggests, you can be a capitalist, but at the same time, be compassionate to people through your actions and the way that you treat them, et cetera.

That’s the type of person that he was, and that’s the culture that he created. And we’ve tried to maintain over the course of these [00:20:00] 35 years in existence. But we really value our people. We really invest in them. We’re proud of the fact that last year and. Their first version of naming the Best Places to Work in professional Sports.

The Sports Business Journal selected the Magic as the only professional sports team that was the best place to work.

Jeff Nelson: When you have basketball reporting up to you as well, how much extra pressure does that put on the day-to-day? You mentioned earlier winning cures, all that Chuck Daly said, and I’ve definitely worked with people on the business side of teams.

Who understand that the band of what’s possible moves up or down based on how the team is doing on the court. But in for a lot of people, if the team’s not doing well, they can just point to that side of the house and say they got their house in order. We’d be in better shape. But for you, it all rolls up.

Are you winning and dying with the wins and losses?

Alex Martins: You always live and die with [00:21:00] wins and losses. At the end of the day, it’s what our business is about. We’re here to win a championship. Our mission statement is to be world champions, on and off the court, delivering legendary moments every step of the way.

And to us that means, yeah, we wanna win a championship, but we wanna be the best at everything that we can be in our industry throughout the rest of the organization. So we, yeah, you always ride the, the rollercoaster of wins and losses and over 30 years. We’ve talked a little bit about it, but you’ve focused on the highlights.

You focused on the Shaq and Penny era and the Dwight Howard era, but there were, were also dips in between those eras and there was a dip from Dwight Howard era to what hopefully now is an upward trend in the right direction or another successful era. So the one thing that I’ve always conveyed to our staff, and the one thing that we’ve never accepted as an organization is.

We’re not gonna accept losing as an [00:22:00] excuse to not be able to drive a good business proposition. And that’s where part of the great fan experience comes into our thinking. We always have said, win or lose. We want everybody to come to the Kia Center and leave feeling like they were incredibly entertained.

And had the greatest evening of entertainment that they possibly could have, even though maybe the team lost. Okay. And that also plays itself into the strategies that we’ve utilized, particularly in those down periods. So if season the tickets maybe slump off a little bit because the team is not as competitive, let’s really focus on group ticket sales so that we can get all the, the clubs and the schools and.

The different groups within the region come enjoy one or two nights a year to help drive our business. And that approach, fortunately, has now [00:23:00] led to the fact that we’ve been the number one team in the NBA in group ticket sales for nine consecutive seasons. Okay? So during those nine consecutive seasons, there have been good and bad, right?

My point is that you can still drive a great business if you focus on the experience. If you focus on the personalities that you have on your team, and if you focus on, again, just delivering a great experience every single night, and we have been able to stem the tide during those down years. But again, nothing beats winning.

As we like to say. The beer is colder, the hot dogs are hotter, and all of us look like marketing geniuses when the team is winning. We’ve tried to maintain that balanced approach over the years understanding that. There are ups and downs to this business and you go through periods of rebuild and you, you enjoy riding the wave and maybe not having to press and push as much during those winning years [00:24:00] while at the same time you have to work a little harder when those years are a little more lean.

In terms of the wind,

Jeff Nelson: the beer is colder right now because the team’s doing well, playoffs last year, building’s amazing. You have a mixed use in process. Around the arena. It’s a really exciting time. I would have to think at the magic and in large part, again, based on the people, the culture you’ve talked about.

So it’s a pretty incredible story. Not just yours, but the, the story I think of the magic back to that 30 person, 1989 front office. I, I really appreciate you spending some time sharing that. I’m cognizant of your time here. Can I ask you a few rapid fire questions before I let you go? Sure. Absolutely. Who is your favorite NBA player during your career who did not play for the magic?

Alex Martins: Wow, that’s a, that’s a hard one because we’ve had so many [00:25:00] great, during that period of time playing our league. Yeah, I, I would point to two if I could. Sure. I’ve always had a great deal of respect, both on and off the court for Michael Jordan. In my opinion, with all due respect to everybody that’s played the game and currently playing the game, in my opinion, Michael is the greatest of all time competitively.

We took great pride in the fact that we were able to knock them outta the playoffs on the way to the 95 NBA finals, but he made sure he came back and knocked us out in, in, in the following years too. But great greatest competitor of all time, but also created an incredible brand that lives on today and.

The fact that he ultimately became an NBA owner, et cetera. I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Michael and then the player that, maybe the very first NBA player that I started my career with when I was an intern at the Philadelphia 76ers. I came in at the exact same time as, as Charles Barkley, and one of the roles that in, in, [00:26:00] in a broad sense that I was given as an intern was basically keep Charles outta trouble.

Obviously I didn’t do a very good job of that, but. Charles and I have struck up, you know, a, a great relationship since that time. We’re great friends and he obviously had a great career and continues to have a great broadcasting career. So hard to pick one or two. I would say those two.

Jeff Nelson: How often do you go to Disney World and what’s your favorite attraction?

These are the hard hitting questions.

Alex Martins: Yeah, I probably go. Let’s call it a half dozen times a year. I’m an old school guy. I always enjoy doing the, It’s A Small World and the Pirates of the Caribbean Classics. The classics, that’s right. But I also, I love all of their water flume rides. I, I

Jeff Nelson: love going on those.

If someone has one meal in the Orlando area, what are you recommending?

Alex Martins: Hard one. We’ve become a great booty town and we have some great new Michelin star restaurants, uh, in town. Again, I’m, I’m gonna break [00:27:00] your rule. I’m gonna give you two. One is one that has been in town for decades and we’ve been frequenters of as a family for a long time.

I can remember taking my girls in high chairs when we first started going there, and now they’re in college. But the Ravenous Pig is, is one that I would definitely recommend to everyone. And then we love sushi. We’re big sushi and omakasi type. We love going. And so there’s a, a Michelin starred sushi restaurant, uh, in Orlando called Cadence, and we love going there.

Jeff Nelson: All right. This is a selfish question because I plan my travel around food, so Ravenous Pig Cadence and got it. Is there a hobby or interest of yours that people might not expect or maybe even people at the magic might not know about?

Alex Martins: Some of them know about it now because it’s a hobby that I’ve embraced over the last decade, but I love to fly fish.

I’m not an outdoorsman. I’m not a camper. I’m not a deep sea fisherman. [00:28:00] But we first started going to Colorado about 13 years ago in the summertime, and I started seeing these people fly fishing and it looked interesting when, long story short, took some casting lessons and really got into it. I think it’s the most relaxing thing that I ever do.

For me, there’s nothing more exhilarating than sticking the hook in that trout and, and reeling it into the net. So I love it. I love fly fishing. Last one. Do you have a

Jeff Nelson: book or show recommendation for us? I’m, I’m gonna go

Alex Martins: old school and traditional on this one too. For the most part, and it’s probably a couple.

I, I read a lot of business books. I’m not a fictional reader for the most part. I go back to a couple of the old mainstays that I always recommend to young people that I think today. Still relevant in, in help in building a business career and the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Good to Great.

Those are two of sort of my mainstays and a more recent one that, uh, I think is, [00:29:00] is very helpful, uh, is Atomic Habits and I, I like recommending that one, not just to young people, to those that have been in the, in the business for a while.

Jeff Nelson: Yeah. Great book and, and easy read. You are the chairman of the board for UCF.

Can I get a football record prediction for their big 12 season here?

Alex Martins: I honestly think that UCF’s gonna be the surprise of the big 12 this year. Gus Malzahn has done an incredible job in the transfer portal, has picked up a couple of very key positions in running back wide receiver and quarterback, and has really shored up both the offensive in defensive lines.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and probably go eight or nine wins. I think they’re gonna be the surprise of, of the Big 12 this year. I really do.

Jeff Nelson: Alex, thanks for giving me so much time. Uh, and of course, thanks to you and the magic for being such great partners to navigate Over the years, I feel like the kinship runs deep.

I’m a former intern at Navigate, who has [00:30:00] now been here 15 years. We are also a. One of the inaugural SBJ Best Places to Work. We know and love so many of your folks. I feel like it’s, it’s been obvious I think from the start, but then even grown stronger that the culture, the people, the mission, everything at the Magic, which starts with leadership, meaning it starts not just with the bosses, but with you, is so much of what we appreciate and love about working in sports.

Just wanna say thank you, not just for joining me here, but thank you for all that. And I hope maybe we are talking again in a year after maybe a nine win UCF season, but even more so after a deep Orlando Magic layoff run. That would be permission. I didn’t ask you for a prediction there, but No, thank you for joining us.

Alex Martins: Thank, thank you for having me. It’s been a. Pleasure working with you and with navigating, getting to know you over the years and better. And I would say [00:31:00] Navigate has been a great benefit to the Orlando Magic has helped us grow our business and your great partners and great friends, and we greatly appreciate all of you navigate, and I appreciate the opportunity to spend some time with you today

Jeff Nelson: for those listening.

The next time you’re in Orlando, you heard it nine years in a row. Best group ticket sales. Best fan experience, you have to go. It’s so much fun. Go see a Magic game. Also, keep listening to Navigating Sports Business. If you have any questions or comments for us, please reach out JEFF@NVGT.com Or just find me on LinkedIn or the Navigate page.

Thanks again to Alex for joining us, providing insight into his world, and please stay [00:32:00] well.