THE BIG INTERVIEW: Marshall Glickman, CEO, G2 Strategic

Born and raised in Portland, OR, USA, I joined the NBA Portland Trail Blazers in 1983, launching Blazer Cable, the first-ever pay-per-view service, where we offered a package of home games as a “season ticket” or a la carte.

In 1986, I was recruited by the NBA, where I became Broadcasting Coordinator, managing the day-to-day relationship with CBS, Turner and local/regional club broadcasters. I then moved to NBA Properties as Director of Media Sales. In 1988, I returned to the Blazers as VP, Business Development, focusing on growth initiatives. After the club was purchased by Paul Allen, I was promoted to Senior VP, overseeing all business ops, and was appointed to oversee the development of a new arena. In the later role, I was the lead negotiator in forming a public-private partnership with the City of Portland, as well as securing a $155m non-recourse debt financing via a consortium of institutional investors, led by Pru Power Funding and TIAA-CREF. The financing required that we pre-sell the vast majority of suites, club seats, sponsorship, courage rights and other contractually-obligated income — we had to achieve a COI to debt service ratio of 1.75 : 1.00 before construction funding was provided. We were the first arena deal in the States to achieve an investment-grade rating from S&P, in addition to Fitch, and we were cited by Institutional Investor as “Deal of the Year.” In 1993, I was appointed as President of the Blazers, Oregon Arena Corporation and several affiliated companies involved in concert promotion, food & beverage, real estate, etc.

In 1995, I left the Blazers and launched an effort to renovate Portland’s Civic Stadium, an outdoor multi-purpose stadium that was originally build in the mid-1920’s. As founder, Chairman and CEO of Portland Family Entertainment, we raised $8m of private equity, $38m of non-recourse debt (led by TIAA-CREF) and $40m of public financing to do a major renovation of the Stadium; with those funds we did a major renovation of the stadium, turning the venue into a fabulous retro venue that hosted college football (Portland St.) and two clubs we acquired — USL soccer (expansion Portland Timbers)) and Triple-A baseball (Pacific Coast League Albuquerque moved to Portland and renamed Portland Beavers); we sold naming rights to Portland General Electric for what was then the 2nd-largest naming deal in Minor League Baseball history.

In 2002, I was retained as an independently-contracted business advisor to EuroLeague Basketball, moving with my family to Barcelona, Spain. In 2004, we launched G2 Strategic, relocated to Boston, retained EuroLeague as a client (we are entering the 19th consecutive year), and built a portfolio of clients that included the ATP, French Tennis Federation and several other European tennis tournaments. In 2007, we relocated to Bend, Oregon, and in 2016 moved back to Portland. G2 Strategic entered into an agreement with Ligue 1 (French Professional Football League) in 2014 and Spain’s LaLiga in 2016 (we are now in the 4th consecutive year).

I have been married for 26 years to Lisa Glickman, a private chef (who regularly appears on a local morning show), and we have a 20-year old son, Laz Glickman, who is a sophomore at the University of Oregon, double-majoring in business and music. Laz was a 3-sport athlete in high school and is an accomplished jazz pianist. G2 Strategic was also the Executive Producer of two different jazz series staged in Bend, OR, over a-year period.

We provide business counsel, focusing on commercial assets, monetisation, growth, new markets, guest experience, sales strategy, ticket sales, premium/hospitality, digital transformation, venue design, finance, organisational structure/culture and all matters relating to revenue generation. We do not offer sports advice!

With both LaLiga and EuroLeague, we provide counsel directly to the Leagues, as well as work directly with individual clubs. We travel to Spain and several EuroLeague countries multiple times each year.

For EuroLeague, I am on the CBO Board, and have helped launch a series of initiatives, including Business Operations & Club Services (BOCS); we also facilitate and lead the annual EuroLeague Business Summit.

For LaLiga, I chair the Customer Experience Committee (made up of 18 clubs), where we are leading a series of new initiatives, including Customer Experience Standards, transitioning to digital ticketing, ticket re-sale, video screen content, and seating in proximity to the pitch. We also work directly with several LaLiga clubs and regularly lead Workshops for all clubs on topics such as business planning, sales strategy and guest experience.

Given the current pandemic, we will focus on plans for re-launch. We are working with both Leagues and individual clubs on three phases: