Atlanta Hawks owner, Tony Ressler has big plans for Hawks’ present and future

[Guest]

Quote

Tony Ressler has plans — some large in scope — for the Hawks, Philips Arena and downtown Atlanta.

The Hawks’ principal owner has been busy in his first nine months in charge of the NBA franchise. While Ressler hadn’t spoken publicly since his group completed a purchase of the Hawks in June until the unveiling of a new practice facility last week, he has established a set of five priorities for the franchise. They are the driving force for the direction that he, his partners and team management said they are committed to following for the present and future. Ressler wants the Hawks to keep winning, improve facilities, build community, improve the fan experience and contribute to downtown vibrancy.

“These are five priorities that will not go away,” Ressler said.

Ressler, CEO Steven Koonin and president and coach Mike Budenholzer spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an exclusive interview Friday about their vision for the franchise. The group revealed the guiding priorities, preliminary details of a major renovation to Philips Arena and, for the first time, acknowledged their desire for mixed-used development around the arena.

Concerning renovations to Philips Arena, Ressler and other have had several meetings with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who has said the city could afford to finance $100 million to $150 million of what could be a $200 million to $300 million overhaul of the arena. The team is looking to, among a number of upgrades, replace the bank of suites that dominate one side of the arena, install a variety of different-size suites, improve the connectivity so fans can navigate around the arena on one level and create better floor seating by changing the layout which originally had oval ends to accommodate hockey.

The major construction would begin in the summer of 2017 for completion in 2018, without any interruption of the Hawks’ season, for the 50th anniversary of the team’s move to Atlanta.

Koonin said conceptual planning is underway for fan amenities that will be expected in 2020.

“What I mean by that is that there are great clubs, there’s great food, there are places to dine, there are things to do in the arena,” Koonin said. “When this building was designed, a night out was a hot dog and a beer. Today, the consumer just demands more, and we have to be able to fulfill that demand.”

Koonin said Philips Arena is one of 10 facilities built in the late 1990s and the only one yet to be renovated. That time has come, he said.

Ressler acknowledged that the Hawks plan to be a catalyst in the continued development of downtown Atlanta. The AJC previously reported on ownership’s desire to transform the area near Philips Arena, similar to the conversion around the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Ressler said a timeline for such plans is six months to a year.

“I can’t give you the vision today, but to say we have spent real time looking at this general area in an effort to create a vision that you would hear, see and say ‘Wow, I get it,’” Ressler said. “That’s precisely what we are trying to do. To say that we are there today would be untrue. But to say we are looking to understand, really, the entire region with some complicated parts to it — who owns what, what can and can’t be done and what other really well-intentioned and quality people are out there trying to do other things that we hope happen that we could compliment and support them.”

Ressler detailed the five organizational priorities:

1. Keep winning

The team is coming off a 60-win season and a trip to the Eastern Conference finals.

“We knew when we bought the Hawks, we knew we had great players, and we knew we had a great coach, and we knew we had great senior management,” he said. “We knew we had dedicated employees. Not just to keep winning, but really to build that winning culture. It’s the most important thing you can do in a sports franchise to create loyalty is to keep winning.”

2. Improve facilities

The team announced plans for a $50-plus million practice facility in partnership with Emory last week.

“The NBA is a really competitive place,” Ressler said. “To ask your players, your coaches, your conditioning staff to compete with lesser facilities, you are just making an incredibly hard job more difficult. … We don’t want to look up to anybody.”

3. Build community partnerships

Among community projects, the Hawks have installed several neighborhood basketball courts in the past year.

“We knew we were buying a community asset,” Ressler said of buying an NBA franchise. “This is a private/public partnership in the true sense of the word. … Building that community partnership, I would argue, for great franchises is not important, it’s critical.”

4. Improve fan experience

The fan experience will play a major role in the arena renovations. Fan experience is also the grounding principle by which all of the franchise’s priorities appear to come together.

“We have to collaborate with the city to make the arena more fan friendly, a better experience for all of your fans,” he said.

5. Contribute to downtown vibrancy

There are approximately 200 event dates at Philips Arena, not limited to basketball games, but including concerts, shows and meetings, which attract people to downtown. Ressler said the Hawks would like to add to the momentum already underway with the new Falcons stadium and development around Centennial Olympic Park.

“It’s an extraordinary city,” Ressler said. “Maybe better, deeper, wider from a business perspective than we might have hoped for with the number of companies, the amount of success, the diversity. … This is far too extraordinary a city to have a downtown that isn’t much more vibrant. Our hope, our objective and certainly the vision that we hope to bring is how do we be a meaningful participant in moving that forward. Really transforming what this downtown area could and should be.”

http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/basketball/owner-ressler-has-big-plans-for-hawks-present-and-/nq3FS/?icmp=myajc_internallink_megamenu_link

[Hawkmoor]

6.   BUY AND FLIP..................

Edited April 9, 2016 by Hawkmoor

[NBASupes]

55 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

6.   BUY AND FLIP..................

I think Ressler and Hill in for the long term

[BigDog90]

I like the way he thinks.  I wonder what's his timeline for the Hawks to win a championship.

[JTB]

1 hour ago, Hawkmoor said:

6.   BUY AND FLIP..................

I can't believe there are some out there that still believe this is going to happen!

why put all these investments into the franchise building new facilities, renovating the arena, etc just to flip it knowing that it more than likely won't sell for as much as he paid for it?

Hawks value rised only because of the historic franchise season they were having last year.  This season the teams value has dropped back down. 

If the team wins the more valuable they are simple as that but on a bigger note if the team ever pulls in a star player the more valuable and more money the franchise makes for years to come...so knowing the possibility of landing a star and continuing to win...one could say it is smarter if Ressler held on to the team rather than "buying and flipping it" if making more money is his plan (in long run of owning the team)

[Sothron]

I don't know why you would want to waste 150 million plus to renovate Philips when you can just build a new arena that can host both NBA and NHL.

[Vol4ever]

I will wait and see what happens in the future in regards to player personnel and needed roster adjustments.  

[BigDog90]

On 4/10/2016 at 1:41 AM, Sothron said:

I don't know why you would want to waste 150 million plus to renovate Philips when you can just build a new arena that can host both NBA and NHL.

Would the NHL want to relocate to ATL after failing twice?

[frosgrim]

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 6:42 PM, JTB said:

I can't believe there are some out there that still believe this is going to happen!

why put all these investments into the franchise building new facilities, renovating the arena, etc just to flip it knowing that it more than likely won't sell for as much as he paid for it?

Hawks value rised only because of the historic franchise season they were having last year.  This season the teams value has dropped back down. 

If the team wins the more valuable they are simple as that but on a bigger note if the team ever pulls in a star player the more valuable and more money the franchise makes for years to come...so knowing the possibility of landing a star and continuing to win...one could say it is smarter if Ressler held on to the team rather than "buying and flipping it" if making more money is his plan (in long run of owning the team)

I agree. Ressler doesn't go out and put some of his own capital into a state of the art practice facility if he isn't in this for the long run. Second, the renovations to Philips are several years away from completion. I just don't see this as a simple real estate flip deal 

[Duff_Man]

Obvious troll is obvious.

All he did was read about the Sixers owners wanting to be the London NFL owners (selling the Sixers in the process) and is parroting it here to be the troll of all trolls. As he does on other boards as well. 

[Sothron]

6 hours ago, BigDog90 said:

Would the NHL want to relocate to ATL after failing twice?

The sport did not fail, bad owners failed. The Flames owner refused to sell to Ted Turner back in the 70's and the Thrashers had two dozen local groups trying to buy them to keep them in Atlanta.

[Dejay]

4 hours ago, Sothron said:

The sport did not fail, bad owners failed. The Flames owner refused to sell to Ted Turner back in the 70's and the Thrashers had two dozen local groups trying to buy them to keep them in Atlanta.

Agreed. Cousins wanted a 'Godfather' offer and got it from Scalbania's group in Calgary. And as for the ownership group who shall not be named, well, they did everything but load the moving trucks in order to get them out of town. That's why the relocation fee was so high; the NHL did that as a punishment for purposely overlooking perspective ownership groups locally to get the team shipped out. 

With that being said, I seriously doubt that the NHL will ever do business in this town again after watching two teams start here, only to move to Canada. While they have won a grand total of TWO PLAYOFF GAMES in their combined time here, the likelihood of a third team coming here is as long as St. Louis's chances of getting another NFL team....

[macdaddy]

23 minutes ago, Dejay said:

Agreed. Cousins wanted a 'Godfather' offer and got it from Scalbania's group in Calgary. And as for the ownership group who shall not be named, well, they did everything but load the moving trucks in order to get them out of town. That's why the relocation fee was so high; the NHL did that as a punishment for purposely overlooking perspective ownership groups locally to get the team shipped out. 

With that being said, I seriously doubt that the NHL will ever do business in this town again after watching two teams start here, only to move to Canada. While they have won a grand total of TWO PLAYOFF GAMES in their combined time here, the likelihood of a third team coming here is as long as St. Louis's chances of getting another NFL team....

I don't know.   All any league, and especially the NHL, cares about is making money.   If they see that possibility in Atlanta I think they'll come back.   Especially if a team is failing elsewhere.    Atlanta is a huge city and still growing at a rapid rate with tons of young people with high incomes.   They'd be crazy to pass just because of previous owners incompetency.

[Dejay]

1 hour ago, macdaddy said:

I don't know.   All any league, and especially the NHL, cares about is making money.   If they see that possibility in Atlanta I think they'll come back.   Especially if a team is failing elsewhere.    Atlanta is a huge city and still growing at a rapid rate with tons of young people with high incomes.   They'd be crazy to pass just because of previous owners incompetency.

Agreed. But this is Gary Bettman we're talking about here...

[BigDog90]

10 hours ago, Sothron said:

The sport did not fail, bad owners failed. The Flames owner refused to sell to Ted Turner back in the 70's and the Thrashers had two dozen local groups trying to buy them to keep them in Atlanta.

Ah, I learned something new. 

[Sothron]

9 hours ago, macdaddy said:

I don't know.   All any league, and especially the NHL, cares about is making money.   If they see that possibility in Atlanta I think they'll come back.   Especially if a team is failing elsewhere.    Atlanta is a huge city and still growing at a rapid rate with tons of young people with high incomes.   They'd be crazy to pass just because of previous owners incompetency.

Atlanta has the fastest growing youth hockey population in the country as well. Hockey is doing fine in the state of Georgia. All the NHL needs in Atlanta is an ownership group that would actually give a damn about the on ice product.

[Wurider05]

I agree with the buy and flip idea. I wish I could buy a house get free money to renovate it then flip it while keeping all the money for myself.  He is slowly building up the value with the hawks. Kind of funny the other night he was sitting in a regular seat in the arena and not in the luxury suite. No one knew who he was and he didn't have an entourage with him. He was actually by himself.