This transcript has been transcribed by Riverside.fm, no edits (please excuse any errors)

Sean Callanan (00:01.324)
Very happy to welcome Cameron Coughlin. He is the Senior Vice President of Ticketing and Guest Experience at the Salt Lake Bees. Cameron, welcome to the podcast.

Cameron Coughlan (00:11.308)
Yeah, thanks, Sean. I appreciate you having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Sean Callanan (00:13.838)
Not a problem at all. were lucky enough to meet at CD Nashville. so thank you very much for taking the time to book this. I always start my podcast asking people how they started their sports business journey. What about yourself? How did you get into sports in the first place?

Cameron Coughlan (00:31.458)
Yeah, I mean like everybody growing up in sports and just loving the experience of sports. You know, I was lucky enough to continue to play sports after high school and play college baseball at Brigham Young University here in Utah. From California originally, so left California to come to Utah and played baseball and then I got drafted to play baseball professionally with the Texas Rangers. So I played six years with the Rangers in Oakland A's in the minor league system and.

got to play with a bunch of guys that made it to the majors. Unfortunately, I didn't have the secret sauce to make it to the bigs, but had some really great experiences and got to play at the highest levels, which was awesome. So sports has always been part of my life and part of something I'm passionate about. But it's actually interesting that.

Sean Callanan (01:22.862)
And so while you were playing, obviously, the grind to the majors and trying to make the big show is the goal. Were you also looking at what might be next, what might be happening after, or was it sort of while you're in that phase, it was a single focus?

Cameron Coughlan (01:41.666)
Yeah, it was a single focus for sure until it wasn't because of basically the game telling me in different ways that, this probably isn't going to work out like you thought it would. And so, you know, once I, once I got to, I turned 26 and it was my sixth year of playing and I'd gotten released from the Oakland A's and I was playing a year of independent baseball. I had made the decision that if, if my career is not

At this point in my life, if my career is not heading towards a major league career that I didn't want to maybe keep playing in the minors for fun or just for that hope that eventually maybe I get called up when I'm 31, 32. Because obviously that may not happen either. And so once it was basically obvious to me that that wasn't part of my future of playing in the major leagues, that's when I started thinking about, what else should I be doing?

And so it's really funny because initially working in sports was not something that I thought as a byproduct that I would go do. It's really funny. I mean, you maybe talked to bunch of players, but the players don't really think about, there's a massive marketing department and business operations and ticketing and sponsorships and all these different sides of the business. The players just show up, do their thing. They meet some people that wear their team gear, ask them for interviews, whatever.

and maybe everyone just walks up and buys tickets. Obviously, we know there's season tickets, but not really more or less than that. And so I don't really understand.

Sean Callanan (03:17.806)
because you're very much isolated by the high performance like coaching and everything high performance sort of let's keep the players over here. You're concentrating on stretching and making sure we're ready for the game. So yeah, the understanding of what's happening back of house or front of house, if you will, from a sports point of view, isn't that obvious for most athletes, is it?

Cameron Coughlan (03:21.176)
Sure.

Cameron Coughlan (03:25.486)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (03:39.362)
No, that's exactly right. And especially in baseball, because all of the minor league teams are affiliates and those the owners of those minor league teams are just have a partnership with the major league team. But there's not really any association beyond that. So it is really separated. The minor league team is focused on fans, tickets, sponsorships, the business side, and they really have nothing to do outside of travel.

with the actual players. They just provide the venue for the players and the players happen to play there. And so it is really separated in the minors to where you don't really get the access for the other side of the business. So as I was finishing my career, I thought, what's another thing that I'm really passionate about? And the only thing I could think of growing up in Southern California was Disney. And I was like, you know, I'd really enjoy maybe going and working for Disney.

Sean Callanan (04:32.184)
Yep.

Cameron Coughlan (04:37.238)
And so, and maybe just getting out of sports since I just been in sports my entire life. And honestly, I could use a break at that point. And so, I had some contacts at Disney, and just kind of worked on that my last season of pro ball. was kind of working in the Disney angle to maybe do some kind of internship or just get going over there. And, through my discussions with Disney, they offered me an opportunity to come in and, interview for their management training program.

And I interviewed for it, showed my passion for Disney and for the product and for learning. And they offered me an opportunity to go work at Disneyland and be part of the management training program. So as soon as I got offered that, yeah.

Sean Callanan (05:21.006)
I mean, that's an amazing experience because one, it's like getting a customer service MBA. Like that's what Disney is known for to what the guest experience is. And we talk a lot about it now in sport of what's the fan experience and the fan journey. But Disney, especially from a parks point of view and Disneyland, and a lot of people would have, like they've been doing that for years, like decades. And so that must have been a really, like you said, to get into that program, but then to also, I guess, look at the Disney playbook from a…

Cameron Coughlan (05:29.497)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (05:42.713)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (05:51.086)
customer service point of view, guest experience is probably a phrase that you've heard a lot of there that must have been terrific to, I guess, understand how Disney were going about it.

Cameron Coughlan (06:02.468)
100%. I mean, Disney as a brand, as an experience was always a passion of mine, just growing up going there and being part of it. And so I wanted to learn and be able to also be part of providing that experience myself. And so it was an incredible opportunity to go there and to learn that and to learn the Disney culture, emphasis on training and development is really second to none. And obviously providing the best guest experience that you can.

and having high standards and a lot of things really that from a sports standpoint translate over just from a standards and work ethic and kind of high expectations of yourself and for the for the group that you work for. And so from that standpoint, it was it was great. And I was able to be at Disney for for seven years. And it was an incredible experience. got to open Toy Story Mania attraction, World of Color, water show.

Little Mermaid attraction and Cars Land when I was there. I was on the opening teams for all of those and Just something that I've lifelong friends there and I learned so much about How to treat people how to lead people how to inspire what inspires me? And honestly Disney's so good I mean that's what they do is they create magic and when you're part of that It's something that rubs off in you for the rest of your life

Sean Callanan (07:27.596)
I mean, yeah, that's the amazing part that that culture piece of, know, we all heard that thing of every employee there is there to make someone stay. So if someone falls over, they're to pick them up or they're to do the surprise and delight. A lot of the things that we've been applying in sports, you know, are from Disney. The thing I wanted to ask, you know, you talked about opening all the different parts of the park. They like their own launches and

it sort of becomes a bit of a major event. you know, we do it in sports of, you know, season launches and those kinds of things is a little bit the same when something is being, you know, a new ride is being launched or a new part of the park is being launched both from getting everything right. But then the manic nature of that first day of why is this line not moving? You know, how can we improve it? What is it like when Disney is trying to launch something inside the park?

Cameron Coughlan (08:18.85)
Yeah, that's a great question. The amount of time preparation and care that goes into when they're putting in an attraction or restaurant or anything in one of the parks is really incredible. It's really years of planning, obviously building, but then it's six months to a year of almost 24 hours a day of testing, testing the ride operating system, testing it with guests, without guests, with

water dummies with everything that you can think of doing all of that before you open just to the general guests testing with employees training the employees on themed phrasing based on the theme of the ride. And now, you you're opening a Star Wars ride. And so you're saying, Hey, cadet, and you're doing these different things that help the guests feel like they're really on Endor or one of these Star Wars planets, right. And so it is it is so detailed and intricate.

Sean Callanan (09:10.274)
Yep.

Cameron Coughlan (09:17.438)
And the expectation to deliver on that is so high. It's such an incredible experience to be a part of, to learn it, but also then to teach it and to develop. But just like anything, you can prepare all day. For example, Toy Story Mania was just an incredible experience. We tested it, I think, for nine months, sending those vehicles around and around with employees and all that stuff. And then the day that we opened,

there's a fault or something that happens with the ride that didn't show up at all during testing and put the ride down for two hours because maintenance was, it's a new ride, they're trying to figure out why is this ride doing this that we never saw during testing and how do we fix it? It was super interesting, but you have a two and a half, three hour line and you're telling all the guests, hey, this may be down for a while. If you want to go enjoy some other things, you're more than welcome to, and you can call.

from anywhere in the park, have a customer call and check if it's open. And everyone's like, no, we're here for Toy Story. We're not getting out of line. We're like, okay, like that's totally fine. But just those kinds of experiences are crazy. You can prepare all you want, but there's things that happen that you can't prepare for that you always have to just be on your toes to react to. And that was one of my biggest learnings at Disney is that you have to be able to adapt. You have to be able to be on your toes to adapt to any situation that may happen that you've either prepared for or not.

And you have to make quick decisions that based on the four keys of Disney of safety courtesy show efficiency, you have to use that as your guiding principles for decisions that you make. And they have to be done quickly and efficiently and and obviously keeping the guest safety in mind, but not sacrificing one key for another. And so it was a great learning, great experiences and some some stuff I can I can tell people, you know, I was the first one to cancel the World of Color water show and make that call.

Which you don't really want to brag about, it doesn't actually get canceled very frequently. It's a very efficient and well operated show. sometimes there's some things that happen that again, you're out of the ordinary and you have to make a decision. the Disney experience prepared me for that really well.

Sean Callanan (11:30.35)
But there's also, like you said, the preparing of that. So how do you message that to the people in line, their disappointment, how do you redirect them somewhere else? And so they still have that great experience, even if, hopefully that is just a blip for the day. So you're at Disney and you learn a lot about the customer experience and launching pieces, and then you're pulled back to the world at…

pull back to the world of sport, working with Utah Jazz. Was that something that did you feel a year to go back to sport or was it an opportunity or a combination of both?

Cameron Coughlan (12:01.113)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (12:09.56)
Yeah, it was both. But I definitely felt, you know, every spring, I think it just embedded in my my DNA now that, you know, there's like a spring training clock, internal clock that I have that when it's getting close to spring training, like I just almost like have to start preparing mentally. And then my body my brain's like, hey, physically, you guys are getting ready, we got to go spring training. And so I started getting that itch to be back in sports. And just around that environment of kind of a competitive

environment, something that's something that I really enjoyed with Disney that is also in sports is there's something different every day, something new experience all the time. And so I really like that about Disney and and sports. So it was getting that itch on top of somebody that I work with at Disney in California was from Utah, and said to me, Hey, Cam, we're we're looking to expand our team at the jazz. You should really think about coming up here and work for the jazz. And I said, you know, I love my time in Utah from California.

Families down here, I don't know that I want to move back to Utah. But the more we talked about the opportunity, the more I couldn't pass it up. Going and working in service, just like I did at Disney with the Utah Jazz. I got the opportunity to go work for the Utah Jazz, and I went up there as a VIP service manager managing at the time just our suite. We had one club and one suite level at the time in 2015.

and went there to manage that operation as well as the food and beverage premium operation as well with the suite attendance. And so it's kind of interesting because the company at the time, Larry H Miller Company that owned the Jazz also owned its own catering company. So the VIP service team managed the suite attendance for catering. And so my last job at Disney was in food and beverage in Cars Land and in Pacific Wharf. So I had that food and beverage background.

which was one of the draws for the jazz to bring me in that there was a huge food and beverage component to that job in addition to just account management. So it was great. Got an opportunity to come back up here to Utah and bring my family up at the time two young kids and started going to NBA games for a living. Went from going to Disneyland every day for a living to NBA games for a living. And you couldn't ask for anything more than that from an experience standpoint.

Sean Callanan (14:35.182)
So a lot of the time when I'm talking to people and they, you know, getting into sports and coming from a different part of the corporate world, in your case, you know, Disney and resorts, like what were some of the, you know, transferable skills, but then also some of the things you went, well, this is how I've been doing in a Disney, you know, sports is doing a little bit differently. Was there a bit of a learning curve and a little, you trying to figure it out, how it was being done and how you'd been doing it and trying to find a happy medium.

Cameron Coughlan (15:00.516)
Yeah, think one thing that I've learned is that nobody comes close to Disney from a training and preparation standpoint. I mean, they'd be doing it for 70 years now. They just celebrated their 70 year anniversary at Disneyland. So they have a ton of experience of the best ways to communicate a message to a lot of cast members and employees, best way to communicate with guests.

the way you say things, phrasing terminology, similar to like a Chick-fil-A, where they're known for saying, pleasure. Disney has a lot of the things that are built in that way culturally as well, that I think from maybe from sports organization, from one to another, that may differ and vary. And so I think going over to the jazz, there were some things I definitely brought over from like a training perspective that we were able to apply that I think really helped. But then there's some sports specific things that

that I was really happy about. The one thing with Disney is tough is you have a hundred thousand different clients every day. So building relationships with clients isn't something you can really do outside of helping them in that moment and sending them on their way and you don't see them most likely ever again. And so that was great and going to sports and saying, hey, I can take these things I learned at Disney from a service standpoint and apply it to the same people all the time.

and hopefully provide them a service level that they haven't maybe had before and raise the service level for the Utah Jazz from a premium standpoint. so that was a lot of fun and something I was able to translate over, but then something I also had to learn that was a little bit different than my time at Disney.

Sean Callanan (16:40.95)
And so at the Jazz, you sort of came in on that VIP services angle, you know, with your experience at Disney, but then you migrated a few different roles in premium seating and membership sales. that like you seeing an opportunity, you looking to broaden your skillset? Like what was sort of the reasoning behind some of those changes in roles?

Cameron Coughlan (17:03.276)
Yeah, I've always been open to new opportunities. One thing I used to always say is I'm not a sales guy. I used to think of sales as used car salespeople and pushy and, that kind of stuff. And that just wasn't my personality. And so I really shied away from sales until my boss at the time, two bosses, Chris Bailey and Chris Barney with the jazz who are still, still over there.

approached me and said, Hey, Cam, we think that you would really do well in sales. I was like, no, guys, like, you know, I'm not a sales guy. And they said, No, Cam, you would just be doing what you're doing in service and providing that great service building those relationships and connections. And then just doing that for sales out in the community and people will want to buy stuff from you. And I said, they said, so you're not cold calling, you're not doing that kind of stuff. You're just using the relationships and the things that you do really well. And being able to do that to bring business in and I said,

Well, okay, if you guys think that I'd be good at it, you know, I'm willing to give it a shot and try it. And especially if I have your support. So I transitioned from premium service over to premium sales role. When we redid the arena in 2017, another construction project that I was part of. And so got that opportunity. And as soon as I, as soon as I got my feet wet doing that, I did not look back in sales and I've been in sales ever since. And that's, you know, almost eight years now. And so spent.

spent two years doing premium sales for ticketing and then got an opportunity to be promoted to director of ticketing right before COVID in 2019 and spent two and a half years as the director of ticketing through COVID. And then in 2000 and let's see, end of 2020 going in 21, we kind of reshuffled our entire sponsorship team over at the Jazz. At the time they had sponsorships for new business and

existing business in one department. And new business was kind of doing both servicing and selling. And so the jazz decided to split those two things up and create a new business team and then a fulfillment team. Similar to tech and we had just been purchased at the time by Ryan Smith, who's the founder of Qualtrics, which is a local tech company. And so kind of, you know, utilizing that model to develop our sponsorship program.

Cameron Coughlan (19:23.566)
So I went into new business, the sponsorships, never having sold sponsorships. And we set records for new business for the Jazz. For the three years I was in that role, I was director of sponsorship, director of business development, and then promoted to vice president of business development before I left the Jazz two years ago.

Sean Callanan (19:42.104)
mean, it's funny, you know, your perception of sales, you know, being that used car salesman, that pushy, when really like the customer service angle and you being thankful that you're, you know, trying to doing more customer service with less people. So you're getting to know them. You're just in the relationship business and people buy from people who they, you know, they like and that, know, that's obviously why you've had success in sales.

Cameron Coughlan (20:00.483)
Mm-hmm.

Cameron Coughlan (20:05.892)
Yeah, you're 100 % right. And it's one of the things I always say the best salespeople are service people. And it's just trying to get people in service to get that confidence or help see that, see that skill that they have, and see how it can be applied to different things. And obviously, some people are a little bit more willing to take that risk than others to go to sales. But sales is so much fun. And it really allows me to lean into the things that I enjoy, which is relationships.

And that's what I thrive on. then so taking that and those experiences there and obviously learning as much as I can and then trying to share those from a leadership perspective with as many people as I can just about the importance of relationships and selling because that's really what it comes down to you. Even in ticketing, you're going to have transactional sales. But your biggest sales are going to be the ones where you have relationships that that take some time to close. It's not like a two day

sale cycle with maybe a month or two months for a large premium sale. And then obviously, as you know, from a sponsorship standpoint, it's anywhere from six months to a year sometimes on a sale cycle for a large six figure or seven figure deal.

Sean Callanan (21:18.254)
Absolutely. you've, you know, obviously a long time at the jazz. And now you're at you're back in the world of baseball sort of full circle from our conversation, you're at the Salt Lake Bees as so takes through, I guess, they get the move to move to there and, and the move back to baseball and back to your origins.

Cameron Coughlan (21:40.312)
Yeah, so it's really funny how it all works out. So my former boss at the jazz, Ty Wardle, his is part of the family of the Larry H Miller Company. And he left the jazz once the jazz were sold a couple years after the jazz were sold to Ryan Smith. He left and came back to work for Larry H Miller Company. And then about a year after that, he was in my Airbnb like, Cam, I need some help on this baseball stuff. He actually was hired as the general manager of the bees.

And he's like, Hey, come over and let's get back in baseball and, let's do sponsorships and tickets and build this new thing. And on top of that, we're building a brand new ballpark. And then on top of that, our ownership group is trying to bring major league baseball to Salt Lake. I was like, man, you know, I've been with the jazz almost 10 years. I love everything about the jazz and my time there. But I think this is something I don't think I can pass up. So,

I made the jump two seasons ago in January of 24 and started out as assistant general manager, kind of helping on the baseball side and just kind of overall with the general manager with Ty. And then this year transitioned with the new ballpark and really helping with our ticketing, new business and renewals with the new ballpark. And then our guest experience, which is parking, you know, experience inside the ballpark with our staffing.

with our third party guest service staff that we hire out, kind of bring all those things together. So really utilizing my sales and ticketing experience with the Jazz and premium selling, and then using my Disney experience and bringing that to the table with a new ballpark and how we want to set a new expectation for what our guests can experience at a Bees game and really from a venue in Utah.

Sean Callanan (23:32.056)
So that's pretty, I mean, that's an exciting opportunity, especially, you know, one, the new ballpark, then the carrot of, you can you bring an MLB franchise to Utah on the ballpark? And you spoke about the ballpark at sea. What have been some of the lessons in that project?

Cameron Coughlan (23:53.026)
Yeah, it's a man building a ballpark with a with a deadline is is obviously very tough. And things always pop up that you just don't expect that for some reason may push things back or delay things and credit to our entire real estate team and the construction team that we we always say with the ballpark was ready for guests on April 8, it just wasn't done on April 8. And so

You know, there was still some screws that had to be tightened and some things like that when we had our first guests in there on the first home game for April 8th. One of the really challenging things, as I mentioned with Disney, where they test for months and months and months, then they have soft openings and they do employees only and a bunch of different things where they're running people through the attraction or through the restaurant. We did not have that opportunity just because of some unforeseen delays and some things that happened that we had planned that we had to end up not doing.

Sean Callanan (24:44.706)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (24:51.064)
So the first time we had guests in that ballpark was on April 8th, opening day. And so we got through it and it worked and everyone had a great time. It's not something I would suggest doing. And especially as we look to bring a major league team here and build another ballpark for them, hopefully in the future that, that we are a little bit more conscious of that and our timelines for those things before we are up against things in providing a major league experience. So.

Definitely some learnings there. A lot of things that were similar to opening Disney, also opening the Delta Center at the time, Viven Arena and those refurbishments there and then here. But it was a ton of fun and we're still learning. We're almost three quarters of the way through the season. And I swear every game that we come out with something new and a new thing that we can adjust or something that we can tighten up a little bit and dial in just to make that experience that much better for our guests.

Sean Callanan (25:49.866)
Absolutely. mean, yeah, launching of a new stadium or a new venue or a new stand always has its little quirks. I mean, I know we help with a stadium here. It launched at a big cricket test match and one of the rows was completely mislabeled. So they skipped a letter. And so there's all these people turning up with tickets with the row and it's like, oh, hang on, that row doesn't exist. And we had to pick up that whole row and move them to another part of the stadium. But it's like, those are the kind of things there was like, you know, the fans are complaining online and then

you've moved them and had the best experience and those kind of things. But also the fact that you sort of… The stadium as is on day one and what it is two seasons later, you can improve it. It might not be extra screws or extra seats. It is how you have your customer service staff. It's what your game day presentation is. It's like how you instruct people on the big screens. You can really have a real effect of what the stadium is like just with some of those levers that you can pull.

Cameron Coughlan (26:47.332)
100 % and everything that you said is right. You know, a couple of the things that we wanted to bring from an experience standpoint is now that we have the new ballpark has significantly more premium seating than our old ballpark. So we have two club spaces. We have field suites. We have suites on the concourse. We have loge boxes. We have a variety of experiences. So we brought on club hosts that we put through a training similar that

to ones that I used to do at Disney, we put through a whole training on expectations for how we would deliver the best guest experience that we can in this area that's hopefully on par, gives them a little feel for that Disney side of it, where we're trying to create solutions and create magic where we can. I know Disney's coined that, so we can't really say that, but do things similar to that to where we're creating an experience where people wanna keep coming back.

and the baseball is really just the icing on the cake. And so, for example, we created an experience ambassador roles where our club hosts go around and they walk around the ballpark with buttons and stickers and little things for kids where they'll stop and hand kids buttons and stickers and create these experiences that hopefully makes the kid or the fan feel special. And so I definitely took that from my Disney experience where they had

know, happy birthday buttons and anniversary buttons and first visit buttons. And we did something similar, like first bees game button and a happy birthday button and things like that, that just take that experience a little bit further for the guests to make them feel like they're, they're a VIP, like make sure everyone feels like they're a VIP, whether they're sitting in premium seats or not. And so we wanted everyone walking throughout the ballpark to feel like it's different than our old ballpark experience and to elevate it. And that's what we've tried to do.

We're still working on it, but it's definitely an improved experience and one that I think we're going to keep building on.

Sean Callanan (28:51.116)
And is it really also aspirationally knowing that you've got these goals to be major, you know, to meet the majors that you want the experience to be that too, because a fan turns up, you know, very potentially very different than 20 years ago where maybe it's just diehard fans going and watching a minor league game. You're trying to cater for all different audiences, but have them, I guess, get the best experience and something that might be, they might experience in the major league, but they can get it locally.

Cameron Coughlan (29:19.78)
100%. I mean, we want, we always say that we want to create majors in the minors and create a major experience in the minors. That's kind of our internal motto that we've created. And so it's something that we work really hard at. And really, I mean, again, we're, trying to get a major league team here. We have a great relationship with major league baseball and we feel like we're one of the front runners based on everything that we've done and that we can control. So when major league baseball does come out to our venue to visit, or we have events or things like that associated with major league baseball.

We want them to see that it's top notch across the board, not just how we design the ballpark, just not the product on the field, but every little thing around the ballpark from how the guest experiences to how the finishes are is at a major league level or even if we transition into a major league experience that it's already on par or maybe near the top of the leaderboard there from an experience standpoint.

And so that's the thing is that we can't control what happens on the field as a minor league team, as we talked about, because we're not the angels, but we can control the experience that happens in the ballpark. And so we want to make it an experience that's so strong that it keeps people wanting to come back for more because they just enjoy that experience so much. And there happens to be a fun baseball game happening in the middle of the ballpark while they're, you know, we have a putt-putt golf course beyond left field. We have a

little kids train that goes back and forth that they can ride on. In addition to the great food and some of the premium offerings we have. So we do have something for everyone that hopefully makes that experience something that people want to keep revisiting.

Sean Callanan (31:01.452)
Yeah, I think that piece is important. We've seen a lot of new stadiums sort of almost segment their stadium for all the different demographics, like their family zones over there and that that side of leeches and, you know, there's a bar suite for, you know, the the younger crowd that pretty much had a bar and there's a baseball game in the background. And so it has a bit for everyone to come back as that sort of been part of the design, but also part of the function is to make it appealing for different segments. So can be in a

Cameron Coughlan (31:19.672)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (31:29.73)
effectively different part of the club, depending on what part of the ballpark you're in.

Cameron Coughlan (31:35.67)
Yeah, 100 % because, you know, it's really interesting. think going from our old ballpark where we had just suites and no other premium to creating some more premium experiences. As you know, that's what people are calling for and wanting more and more. And people are wanting an elevated experience, whether it's hosting business or they want to bring their family out or something in between. They want that as an option. But then sometimes they also want

a $10 ticket and then go sit on our outfield berm and the grass and watch the game. And so again, we want to make sure we have something for everyone from a price perspective, but also from an experience perspective. And so if you want a catered meal and you want TVs in an air conditioned club, we have that with an incredible view of the field and of the mountains because you're one level up. And if you want to be on the the berm or you want to be in the outfield,

Right near the bullpens, we have that as well. And it's an accessible, you know, $10 to $15 ticket. And so it is really important, especially with baseball, because it's the sport that has the highest split of demographic. It's almost 50-50 men and women. And it's the sport that people bring a family member with more than any other sport. And so we really want to make sure we create an environment that feeds into that and leans into that as much as we can.

Sean Callanan (33:02.958)
Absolutely, absolutely. So I obviously saw you at seat and much like myself sort of cherry picking and going to different sessions and different tracks. What was your goal going there? what was causing you to jump into a session? Was there something specific you're looking for?

Cameron Coughlan (33:21.316)
For me, when I go to conferences, especially like Seat, know, and Josh Barney, it's funny, I work with Josh at the Jazz. So I've known Josh for a long time and to see what he's done with Seat and kind of bringing it back to where it is coming out of COVID is just, it's amazing. And it was a pleasure to be part of that experience. But when I go to those things, I just like to learn as much as I can and connect and meet people.

and to see, hey, how can I help somebody? And maybe they can help me. But how can we build some lasting relationships that we're leveraging each other for for best practices information? Maybe if I'm traveling in an area now that I know someone there, I can visit them or have an experience maybe at their venue and vice versa. But it's always really interesting for me to go and just listen and learn how somebody is doing what I'm doing in a different area or different venue.

going to see if that's Hey, is that a different way? Is that challenge how I'm doing it? Is it making it better? Do do I want to share something that I'm doing? Because maybe that's a best practice that could help everyone here. And so that's my biggest goal when I go to those things is just really building relationships and is trying to bring back any best practice and learning that I can. And seeing then how I can apply it here. And I typically when I go to conferences like seat, I always come back inspired with like a list of things of

Hey, in the next meeting, my next team meeting, we're going to talk about this. We're going to talk about what if we tried this? so, you know, one of the ideas that we came away with, I think from one of our ticketing roundtables was doing like a free ticket giveaway. And then obviously being able to capture data as people submit to win some free tickets. We just ran that last week and I think we had 450 submissions and we only ran it for 24 hours before the day of the game.

And so again, something that we didn't really think of or do before, but learning it from someone at seat and be like, that's a great idea. I wrote it down and we ran it and it was great. And so it's something we'll lean into more. And then when you do that, that opens up like, Hey, what if we did it like this and then added this to it? And all of a sudden it just, you know, as a springboard for other things that you can do.

Sean Callanan (35:30.477)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (35:36.47)
Yeah, I mean, I love using the phrase, steer with pride and seat is ripe with that. And some of them can be these small little tactical twists of, yeah, we haven't done it that way. And it's like, we put out one post and we get 500 new data captures. Like that's really valuable. But then there's those other pieces like learning, you know, how NFL stadiums are being built and what they're rolling out and all the techs, you know, that's being rolled out. And then that might be something that you put on your future.

to-do list or future project lists with your own stadium.

Cameron Coughlan (36:08.92)
Yeah, and obviously going to other venues as well as part of these conferences and see being in Nashville there and going to Bridgestone Arena and going to the Nashville Soccer Club Stadium. The name of it is slipping my mind. It was just a little different. Geodes Park. Beautiful venue, but as as you do and everyone that goes does, you're just walking around and you're just studying every nook and cranny and being like, hey, well, that's interesting. They have

Sean Callanan (36:23.626)
Yeah, Geodes Park.

Cameron Coughlan (36:38.488)
This open here a lot more than we do. So I bet the flow of people is a lot better. And you're just always thinking of those kinds of things. They're like, hey, we have something similar to this. What if we put a guest service person here and they could provide a better experience? I mean, so your mind's always churning, the gears are always churning when you go and visit these other venues.

Sean Callanan (36:57.602)
Yeah, I did that as well. Like I always do that, you know, studying where the big, the big screen is and those kinds of things. But they, because in, in football, in soccer, they have that active support area where everyone's jumping up and down and it was all standing, standing room. But what I did notice is they had QR codes on the, on the standing bars. They say, do you not know the chance? Scan the QR code. Now you know the chance. So it's like,

that's so obvious. it makes it welcoming and inclusive if someone wants to come and they don't know the chance they can just scan it on their phone. They know the chance and they're getting involved. And it's like some of it's tech and some of it's just like, why didn't I think of that?

Cameron Coughlan (37:33.9)
Yeah, I mean, it's really interesting. It's to your point. It's some of those things you're like, man, that's so obvious. I can't believe I didn't think of that. But sometimes it's just, you know, being in the right environment. And sometimes those things don't pop up. But when you go visit some other venues, you get some really sometimes simple and easy ideas that you can apply right away. And sometimes they're a little bit more difficult. But either way, you come away inspired of ways you can always be improving. And I think that's probably one of the slippery slopes in our

in our industry is that, you know, you can just get used to doing things the way you've always done them, because it's working. And so you have to always be trying to be cutting edge, innovative, willing to push the envelope and challenge the status quo as much as you can. And that's kind of like the athlete in me, as well as the Disney in me, because that's what Disney just does that's in their DNA. And sometimes it is challenging coming over to where maybe there's a group

a leadership group or something that's maybe a little bit more used to, you know, not taking as many chances, maybe being a little more conservative in how they operate. And so, you know, it's learning how to, it's learning how to balance those things and find opportunities to be able to push an idea to see if it can be applied to help make your business better.

Sean Callanan (38:50.83)
And so many of those things are culture. They're embedded in culture. And if you're lucky enough to have 70 years of culture like Disney does, it's like everyone just does get into lockstep because you've got the training and everyone knows it. How do you go about, like you've been at the bees now for two years, and it's obviously, again, somewhere you aspire to be, to be innovative and look for improvement. How do you…

but culture is not, know, let's flick a switch and we'll put the new culture sticker on and we're good to go. How do you go about like embedding that and just making, you know, growing that year on year.

Cameron Coughlan (39:21.474)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (39:27.268)
Yeah, that's a great question. I think from a leadership perspective, it's giving people the green light to go and do that themselves and bring ideas, you know, telling them, hey, go bring ideas to the table. Every team meeting, we want to hear any ideas that you have and see if it's something we can do. And creating the culture by asking for it, I think is really important. And so one of the things like, for example, from a Disney perspective,

They say, it costs us nothing. And when they say that they're referencing, if somebody drops a soda or if somebody says that they lost something, you replace it. You do it without question because there's actually statistics that show when people know what happens when something goes wrong, they actually have a higher rate of return that if nothing went wrong at all and just went well, they actually have a higher rate of return that

that now they know what happens when something goes wrong and they respect that. And they almost buy in and become part of your, know, they become an advocate for you because they know what happens when it messes up and they feel like you're going above and beyond to help them. So just taking those kinds of mindsets of again, constantly trying to push the envelope of, Hey, that stuff doesn't, you know, initially it costs us five cents to replace this. But in the long run,

If we lose that business because that person isn't coming back and they're not spending $40 per person on a ticket and food and beverage and merch, if we lost that because we're not replacing a drop soda, then we're actually stepping over dollars to pick up dimes because we're worried about the cost of the soda. So it's just getting people to understand that the philosophy, for example, that Disney has that it costs us nothing is based on the fact that it is an actual data set that says

hey, they're gonna keep coming back year after year with their families and stay in the Disney hotels and go and buy merch and food and do all these things and then bring their families, bring their extended families and friends and their kids are gonna bring their kids and so on and so forth and they're gonna do that for generations or we can just not replace their meal, right? And it can completely come to a stop and basically stop that whole funnel of people that they impact because of that one thing.

Cameron Coughlan (41:50.54)
And so it's trying to help people understand the bigger picture there of that. It's not about the cost of the meal. It's about how does that impact people down the road? And so having those conversations, teaching that, talking through those things with your team, I think helps people get on board with understanding the importance of a philosophy like that. But then also saying, hey, you have the green light and here's all the resources you need to go take care of a client. You don't need to call me.

from wherever for approval to do that, I'm giving you the green light to go do it, to go take care of the guest. And there's also data that shows that the more people they have to talk to you before an issue is solved, the return rate goes down with every single person they have to talk to you is we all talk on, know, try to call a company and you're talking to AI, then you're talking to another machine, then you're talking to a person who then says you have to talk to different department, you're on the phone for an hour and you're just frustrated because you need, you know,

a miscellaneous charge cleared off your account and it takes an hour and a half. And so, so trying to get people to understand that it's really my job as a leader to empower my team so that they can go be the frontline leaders for our guests. And I just need to give them the tools and resources to be successful versus the other way around where they'll have to ask me for approval and they have to wait on me to say yeah or nay for yeah, you can replace this or like don't replace that soda that kids probably lying like, no, no, no.

Yeah, the kid may be lying, all that stuff doesn't matter. Take care of the guests and it's gonna help them in the long run more often than not. And it's gonna help us in the long run as well.

Sean Callanan (43:30.094)
You obviously can identify and know, you know, when you sort of see them and see people work, people who are service rock stars like that, that then you're one of, you know, you're one of them that, this is, this is how, this is how I'm, I'm built this, how I'm wired. Part of it is that's what they want to do, but also they, know, the feedback of you're doing a great job. Thank you for doing that. That loop, that sort of closed it off is super, is super important to reinforce. Yep. You're doing the right thing. How do you, how do you get that?

customer service feedback loop, but really making sure that your stars, your rock stars are getting rewarded or are getting recognized.

Cameron Coughlan (44:06.168)
Yeah, I think part of it is being present, being out in the venue and just watching, watching from kind of a distance and you kind of do just some some unofficial audits as you're walking around and you're seeing your your team interact with guests. Right? Yeah.

Sean Callanan (44:20.386)
You're not doing undercover boss, but you're actually just walking the precinct, walking the concourse, and you're seeing cool things happen.

Cameron Coughlan (44:28.246)
Yeah, you're seeing cool things happen. You're not trying to hide necessarily. But you're out there and you're seeing it because you've encouraged it. And again, you've given your team, the hourly workers the resources to basically do the same thing that I can do. It's not again, an approval thing. It's like, hey, you can do whatever you need to do to take care of that guest in that moment. So just go and do it. And that was something I learned at Disney, that whether it's the president of Disney or the frontline cast member.

they pretty much can do the exact same thing to help that guest. And they don't have to wait for 50 approvals. And that guest is like, I just spent 10 grand for four days at Disneyland. And so but I'm never coming back because I can't get a simple thing replaced or fixed or whatever the case is. So so that that that's one way is just being present. But but also, again, setting those expectations with them through training, I think is really important.

And so, you know, and then just creating that environment for them again to succeed out in the ballpark, hiring the right people to make sure that they have a passion for those kinds of things. And honestly, it's then understanding how does that impact sales? Because now I also lead the sales team. It's understanding from a sales standpoint. And this is why it was like I find it so valuable that started in service is that I always hated trying to fix something that was

over promised and under delivered, right? And saying, actually that we don't do X, Y and Z, but the sales guy said that they can have it right just to get the sale. And so I always tell our sales team, just sell exactly what the experience is no more, no less, and let our service team provide the additional value on the back end. But as soon as you say, we can do this and X, and Z, but then that's something we really can't do. Then from the get go, the guest is soured on

what they thought they were buying versus what they're really getting versus like, hey, even if you set the bar a little bit lower and just say this is what they're going to get, but then we come back on the backside and provide that additional value and that magic quote unquote, and that experience relationships and all those things, inviting them to client events and bringing them gifts in their seats and just those little touch points that really have impact. That's where you can get those lifelong fans that want to keep coming back and they're like, hey,

Cameron Coughlan (46:53.572)
Those club seats may be more expensive than the seats in the past, but the experience that I have is so worth it because of the relationship I have with the organization, because of how they care for me and treat me. I'm getting way more value for my money than just having seats to a game.

Sean Callanan (47:10.878)
Absolutely. it, you know, effectively becomes that secret secret sauce to reduce, reduce churn to do upsells, all of these things, because the fan is actually valuing the experience more, and it becomes part of their identity. It's like, I have to be at a at a base game. And it's the money consideration or the know, the ROI is it got value, like starts going out the window, because it's like, I can't have this experience with my family with my, you know, daughter or son, you know, down to just a park, I have to be at a base game. And so, like,

your service folk are the sales best friend.

Cameron Coughlan (47:47.394)
Yeah, yeah, and that's what, know, as you know, people maybe that haven't been in service, that are in sales, kind of take that stuff for granted and don't understand necessarily the importance of that. And so again, having service and sales really connected to each other is important from a culture standpoint, know, team meetings, being together, talking about how one impacts the other, I think is really important. That's something that we try to do.

But also going back to your question of like, do we keep that going? How do we encourage that? It's when we see those things, it's calling them out and recognizing the people in the moment, recognizing whether it's sales, hitting goals, know, hitting a million dollars in sales, whatever it might be. It's recognizing those milestones along the way. And it's not something that has to be a big, you don't have to have a massive party for that, but like taking a team member to lunch and just saying, thank you.

taking somebody to lunch because you said, hey, I just wanted, we wanted to take you to lunch and thank you for making an experience great for guests that we saw you do at the ballpark last Wednesday. Something small like that for a team member that equates to us going out of our way to just take them to lunch, that really reinforces them to keep doing it because it's not just a thank you, which goes a long way in a handshake, but it's like we're doing something to celebrate them.

And for something small, you know, it's something maybe easy and easy to do, but it shows that how much we value that. So that really helps to create a culture of, let's keep doing that because obviously, you know, our leadership is taking us out to lunch and rewarding us for doing these little things that aren't that big of a deal on the surface. But if we do those over and over and over, it's helping to support the experience and culture we want to create.

Sean Callanan (49:39.224)
Well, I really do appreciate you taking the time. obviously hit some big milestones in opening a ballpark and you've still got some lofty ones. What excites you about the bees going forward?

Cameron Coughlan (49:51.172)
There's just so much opportunity still. As you can see over my shoulder here, we have the great mountainscape. Here are the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake in the background. But as you can't really see in this picture is just beyond the scoreboard is one of our megaplex movie theaters that our company owns that we built as part of this design here. And so we've created an entertainment district. had our first restaurant.

right out by that megaplex open up. have a plaza for concerts and events that in the summer is concerts and events in the winter turns into ice skating. And so and then we have some more restaurants coming online in the next couple of months. So it's really a destination to be able to come out to this experience that we're really excited is really the first thing of its kind in Utah. And we took a lot of inspiration from the battery in Atlanta where the Braves play.

as kind of an inspiration for something like something similar. And so we're really excited about it still being built. There's a long way to go. But there's still so much opportunity to provide incredible experiences for people in our market and to continue to make it better and better as we go. And we know we still have some room to grow and some learnings. And, you know, when you're you have three new parking lots that you haven't managed before, you're constantly learning what's the best way to make it more efficient.

and get cars in and out and every day it's like playing Tetris with cars, which is a lot of fun. But then you also hear the concerns when a guest feels like they waited too long to park. And so there's a lot of opportunity for us that we're working on, which is exciting for us, but also shows us we have some ways to go to to get it to where we really want

Sean Callanan (51:37.27)
Absolutely, I mean that precinct play is you know where the future is and you know someone who might be going to ice skating during the winter finds out that might be their first touch point or with the the bees and then they you know they come back in the summer that kind of thing so yeah lots of opportunities in in that space I want to get to the sports gate closing five Do you remember the first sports event you ever attended?

Cameron Coughlan (51:55.267)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (51:59.268)
Yeah, the first sport that I can remember attending was actually the Olympics in 1984 in LA. And my mom was on the Olympic Committee, the LA Sports Council, I believe at the time. So she was part of that. I just vaguely, I mean, I was three, going on four years old when it happened. But I just, remember vaguely just going to some of the different events, going to the opening ceremonies.

Sean Callanan (52:06.855)
wow.

Cameron Coughlan (52:27.552)
and just the grandness of it all. That's my first sports memory.

Sean Callanan (52:33.774)
Wow, I mean, yeah, that's some iconic moments there for sure. The food at sports events has changed over time. Do you have a favourite food memory or a go-to food at a sports event?

Cameron Coughlan (52:46.19)
You know, I'm a big hot dog guy. I like hot dogs when I go to venues. It's almost kind of like a, it's a fun challenge to try, see how hot dogs differ from place to place and quality. and I don't do, you know, I'm not like the big like put 50 toppings and this one has some obscure topping. I just like a basic hot dog and throw some ketchup on it. And some people think that that's blasphemy if you don't put mustard on it. But I, I just like.

ketchup on it, but I just like to see the quality. Like, what's the quality of the dog itself and the bun and all those things. Like, I'm pretty simple as far as that stuff goes, but I do like to quality test hot dogs at different venues. That's kind of fun for me.

Sean Callanan (53:27.79)
But again, part of the customer experience like that will be something that someone always, whether they always go to a ballpark at this inning, that's when they get their hot dog. like, the more you know of that kind of stuff, it does become part of the experience. If it's off, then it'll be off. So yeah, it's definitely part of the ritual for people going to a baseball game.

Cameron Coughlan (53:44.813)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (53:49.368)
I think maybe when I think about it, where that came from is the Dodger dog is an iconic food item. And I grew up going to Dodger games. So maybe that's my affection for hot dogs is just you always get a Dodger dog and it was a unique item and it's a foot long hot dog. And Farmer John has always been the brand that made them. so I think that's maybe where that connection maybe loosely to hot dogs is for me.

But yeah, that's a food item that's well known. You go to Dodger Stadium, get a Dodger. You go to Disneyland, you get a churro. It's, you know, those kinds of things.

Sean Callanan (54:25.74)
Yep. Absolutely. What's the what's the first app you open in the morning?

Cameron Coughlan (54:31.172)
I'm a big X guy, formerly Twitter. I just like to know what happened in like the seven hours since I was sleeping in the world, you know? And so there's so much, like I just like X because of the variety of content. I can get everything from politics to sports to comedy to whatever. And the variety of things that I follow, I can get all of that kind of in one, you know.

you know, one session on X. that's typically the first thing that I opened and probably not the best thing, but that is what I opened.

Sean Callanan (55:06.686)
Yep, it is what it is. You can't you can't change it Is there someone that you follow might be someone on on X or it might be an author or a colleague that you you follow that the listener should follow and why

Cameron Coughlan (55:18.82)
You know, it's funny, I'm not a big sports podcast or follower. I follow a lot of sports accounts, not so much for their opinions, but just so I can gather news and information if there's a trade or something like that. But I actually, I follow one of my favorite podcasts is called The Rewatchables. Having been born in 1981 in Southern California, growing up in Malibu, California, movies were a big

you know, movies and music were a big influence on me growing up. And so the rewatchables is a Bill Simmons podcast and part of his network, where they just basically have an hour and a half to two hours of going over a rewatchable movie that's been out over, you know, in history. And it could be anything from like Rocky four to, you know, Dumb and Dumber to like the matrix or whatever. And they'll they just hit some really cool categories.

and it's really entertaining and fun and funny and it moves well, but it's nostalgic as well. So I just, really like that. If you like movies, I would highly recommend, recommend their watchables and every Monday they come out with new movie.

Sean Callanan (56:27.744)
It. Yeah, I mean, it is fascinating. We've got to a point where, you know, the podcast is so popular and the pod father, Bill Simmons, is, know, is the driver is one of the drivers of that. fact that now, you know, who would have if someone said in the 80s, you're going to be listening to people talk about a movie for longer than the movie runs and be and be quite happy about it. But that's you know, that's where that's where we're at. And yeah, rewatchables is a good one to, you know, especially when one of your faves comes up and you go.

Cameron Coughlan (56:46.744)
Yes.

Sean Callanan (56:56.748)
Yeah, I'm gonna listen to that one. We'll be because it's one of one of your fives. So it is it is a good listen. And then lastly, and you may have spoiled it. That's fine. What social media platform is your MVP? And you can answer it personally. But then you can also put your bees hat on and what's the platform that's working best for the bees?

Cameron Coughlan (57:15.236)
yeah, that's a, that's a great question. I would say, the platform that works best for us on a business side is definitely Instagram. and so that's where we advertise a lot more of our experiences on Instagram and a lot more of the game, play is advertised on X. I would say internally, I'm trying to challenge that a little bit and say, Hey,

because I consume a lot of my information on X more than Instagram. Is there a way that we can cross that over a little bit into X and do a little bit more on the business side instead of just, hey, know, we, the bees just hit a home run. So I think it's a fine line and it's a balance. And so you don't want to be too heavy on one or the other, but I do think there's some opportunities for some crossover that I think we can explore. Instagram is definitely probably the most successful for the, for the bees.

just from like a fan engagement standpoint, I would say.

Sean Callanan (58:14.914)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a great one for, like you said, to be profiling the experience as much as what's happening inside the baseball diamond. But like all the fun that's being had, is the platform of FOMO. Like you find out that you, you know, what's happening at the game, then you find out your friend is in that suite. You're like, I should have been there. And so it does definitely drive that. I want to be there and help sales and helps, you know, build what that experience is.

Cameron Coughlan (58:33.358)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (58:40.996)
And then it creates all kinds of contention with friends. I'm like, why didn't you invite me? I saw all the other friends there. And so if we can provide that as well, we're happy to do it. But yeah, no, you're 100 % right. It's great way to really showcase experiences. It does a really good job, especially with lot of the content creators and how they edit things and put things together. It's done really well.

Sean Callanan (58:45.975)
Yeah.

Sean Callanan (59:06.158)
Absolutely. mean, you know, did you really go to Disneyland or did you really go to Salt Lake Bees if you didn't post on the gram? You obviously didn't. So like it's it's something that must happen. I always ask I always ask listeners to reach out and say thank you for the podcast and for your time. What's what's the platform or what's the what's the best way for people to reach out and connect with you?

Cameron Coughlan (59:15.0)
Yeah.

Cameron Coughlan (59:29.412)
The best way is probably through LinkedIn. You can message me on LinkedIn, Cameron Coughlin, C-O-U-G-H-L-A-N. if you want to send me an email, that's probably another way. I guess I'm a little old school that way. I use social media a lot for information, but I don't post a lot myself. So I'm not super active if somebody messages me messaging back outside of LinkedIn for professional reasons. But if anyone wants to reach out,

whether it's a question or thank you or anything like that I can help with or provide information, cameron.coglin at slbs.com.

Sean Callanan (01:00:02.264)
So I will put your links to your LinkedIn in the show notes for this episode, but I also will challenge you and I challenge everybody, share more of your wins. Like LinkedIn is the best place for it and it could just be a great picture of the ballpark. could be, it's also a great way to shout out employees and new launches. And it is like for some people it's not natural, they're a consumer of social, but it's so valuable because there's a whole bunch of people, one, cheering you on either internally or externally.

The more people being active and sort of sharing their sports business success, not enough people do it. I mean, I've got a mate of mine that says the best form of promotion is self-promotion. So if you can do a bit more of that, we'd love to see it on LinkedIn. Cameron, I really do appreciate you coming on the podcast.

Cameron Coughlan (01:00:46.776)
Yeah, thank you so much, Sean. Really appreciate it and it's great connecting with you as always.