https://www.dallasnews.com/business/sports-business/2017/07/20/stuff-legends-jerry-jones-helped-transform-game-day-suites-cheap-seats
In the closing months of 2008, work was well underway on a pair of sports palaces with a collective price tag of $3.6 billion that would soon play home to two of America’s most iconic sports franchises.
When they opened the following year, Cowboys Stadium, now AT&T stadium, and Yankees Stadium promised new levels of luxury and gameday experiences for fans.
In the closing months of 2008, work was well underway on a pair of sports palaces with a collective price tag of $3.6 billion that would soon play home to two of America’s most iconic sports franchises.
Over the course of his 29-year tenure as an NFL owner, Jerry Jones has gone from outsider to consummate powerbroker, whose actions have fundamentally reshaped the business of the sport, from television deals to sponsorships. These accomplishments will be on full display when Jones is inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame on Aug. 5.
With Legends continued growth, Jones’ legacy is still being written, with the potential to impact franchises, leagues and venues around the world for decades to come.
Its portfolio has grown from just two stadiums to a range of professional and collegiate venues in football, baseball and basketball. The privately-held company has added a host of services, from managing lucrative premium seating sales and sponsorship deals to helping provide research and analysis for proposed developments. Its value was recently estimated by Bloomberg to be north of $700 million.
Legends has even branched out into non-sports venues, like the One World Observatory, which it developed and operates atop One World Trade Center in New York.
The Jones family, along with the Steinbrenners, are described as “principal owners” of Legends, although the New York-based company does not disclose their exact stakes. When the venture was launched in October 2008, the Joneses and Steinbrenners were reported to each have a 34 percent share of the company, according to the New York Times. Goldman Sachs and Dallas-based private equity firm CIC Partners were also involved at the outset, although neither currently has a stake in Legends.
And while Jones isn’t involved in the company’s day-to-day management, his clout among NFL owners is paying off for Legends. Jones played a key role shepherding the recent relocation of teams to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where they’ll play in multi-billion dollar stadiums whose suite sales and sponsorship deals will be managed by Legends.
“Jerry Jones is a person who’s always thought ‘I can do better,’” said Will Sutton, a sports marketing professor at the University of South Florida. “He’s done it with stadium design. He’s done it with stadium amenities, stadium pricing and stadium marketing. Now he’s doing it with other people’s stadiums.”
A day at the stadium has come a long way from hot dogs and bleacher seats.
While there have always been food, drink and souvenirs for sale at stadiums, fans’ expectations have steadily risen to a point where craft beer and gourmet sandwiches are the norm.
With its early focus on concessions, Legends was a key driver in bringing higher end food and services throughout the stadium, from the luxury boxes to the cheap seats. But there was always a sense that a larger market was out there, said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, Legends’ first CEO.
“That’s a pretty good start for a business, to lock those [two stadiums] up and provide a significant improvement in the product and service offering,” said Rawlings, who divested his stake in Legends prior to running for office. “The other thing was the chance to expand. It wasn’t just going to be about food and beverage...I think [the Joneses and Steinbrenners] saw the bigger idea.”
As teams build increasingly elaborate stadiums, costs regularly reach into the billions of dollars, often footed in part by local taxpayers.
With stadiums taking on heightened importance as drivers of economic development and anchors for massive retail and entertainment complexes, maximizing the value of these assets -- whether through naming rights, premium seat sales or year-round programming -- has become paramount.
Financing for the $1.9 billion Las Vegas Raiders stadium is expected to include as much as $500 million from the sale of personal seat licenses, as well as a $650 million loan from Bank of America, reportedly secured with the help of Jerry Jones, a $200 million loan from the NFL and $750 million in tax dollars.
Legends and its competitors have positioned themselves as offering the expertise and services that help ensure stadium operations make a return on that investment.
“As these things get bigger and more complicated, are about more than just the stadium and more than just the games, there is a trend to bring these organizations in to manage, to bring their expertise from other venues,” said Pete Giorgio, sports consulting leader at Deloitte.
Legends’ first major step outside its Cowboys and Yankees operations came in 2010 with a deal to manage and sell suites and seat licenses worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the San Francisco 49ers planned $1.3 billion Levi’s Stadium.
Rawlings said leveraging relationships the Joneses and Steinbrenners had throughout the sports world was key to the company’s early growth, with revenues reportedly topping $100 million in the first year.
“I’m not sure the Yankees could have done it by themselves or that the Cowboys could have done it by themselves,” he said.
Legends has steadily expanded its client roster and service offerings since, inking deals with collegiate athletics -- like Baylor University and the University of Southern California; professional soccer clubs -- from FC Dallas to Manchester City FC; and several more NFL teams including the Los Angeles Rams and Atlanta Falcons. Last year, Legends acquired London-based International Stadi Group for an undisclosed sum to further its push into Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Jerry Jones has remained involved throughout, Legends current CEO Shervin Mirhashemi said, always willing to offer advice to company executives or connect the right parties to help make a deal.
“He’s a phone call away. He’s the best sales person I’ve met in my life,” Mirhashemi said. “We all learn so much from his actions with the Cowboys, he does many of those same things with Legends.”
In 2017 and beyond, Legends is better described as an entertainment company rather than one that’s focused strictly on sports.
The company’s range of services cover everything from a venue’s initial planning and design to managing ticket sales and sponsorships to day-of merchandising and concession operations.
Mirhashemi describes it as a “turnkey” platform that can be put in place at any space people gather for entertainment.
“We want to be an experience company,” he said. “You have a group of best in class people, experts in their respective fields, who work together across all the different business lines to maximize the opportunities that exist within the asset.”
As its ambitions expand, Legends finds itself in a competitive landscape that’s already home to entrenched players in the concessions space -- like Centerplate, which provides services at more than 300 global venues from stadiums down to aquariums -- and on the venue-management side, which is home to the likes of Comcast’s Spectacor and SMG.
Legends will have help as it builds out its presence across the globe, with equity backing from Live Nation, the $7 billion concert giant for whom Legends manages food and beverage sales at nearly 40 venues, including Dallas’s Starplex Pavilion. In May, the company announced a partnership with the equity fund New Mountain Capital that will support continued organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
Mirhashemi is confident Legends can continue to succeed by staying true to the original vision laid out at its founding -- partnering with iconic brands and delivering a truly premium level of service.
“When you do the kind of services we do as a company, it’s critically important to make sure you’re executing at the highest level for everyone,” Mirhashemi said. “It’s the DNA of what [Jerry] and George [Steinbrenner] found as common ground when they created Legends...Our job is to take that original vision and make sure that every day we’re trying to bring that culture to life.”
