Pacers Sports & Entertainment CEO Mel Raines sat down with Forbes Senior Writer, Jabari Young, to discuss growing the Pacers organization, sports streaming right, and the similarities between working in sports and politics.
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SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02 Here at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis
00:07 at the 24th Annual Tech Summit as well.
00:09 And I'm here with the Pacers--
00:11 new Pacers CEO, Mel Reigns.
00:13 Thank you so much for joining me.
00:14 And congratulations.
00:17 Named CEO in January, I believe, that's when it became official.
00:20 After a long tenure as CEO of Pacers Sports and Entertainment.
00:26 Do you feel it?
00:27 Is it sunk in yet that you're CEO?
00:29 You know, it's starting to.
00:30 I think this weekend it's finally starting to.
00:32 We've been so busy getting ready for this All-Star weekend,
00:34 hosting 100,000 people from all over the world,
00:37 that it had not quite hit me.
00:39 But I think being here at the Tech Summit
00:41 and seeing a lot of my counterparts from other teams
00:44 and getting congratulations, it's
00:46 certainly starting to sink in.
00:47 What is it like to be CEO of a company?
00:50 You were CEO for a long time.
00:51 And I know chief revenue officers,
00:53 they're the real CEOs, right?
00:54 They're the real ones.
00:56 But what is it like now that you are CEO?
00:58 You know, you start to think a little bit bigger picture,
01:01 right?
01:02 The COO is keeping the trains running on the tracks all day
01:04 and managing the company on a minute-to-minute basis.
01:07 And a CEO needs to think a little bit more broadly
01:10 and from a different leadership perspective.
01:12 And so the Tech Summit is a great opportunity
01:15 to start thinking about those things,
01:17 whether it's the RSN versus linear TV situation
01:22 that we're all dealing with, all the teams and all the leagues.
01:24 Those sorts of things are a little bit more
01:26 what I need to be focused on.
01:28 And so I'm going to start doing that as soon as I get to Monday.
01:32 Well, what was it like planning?
01:33 I know you were on the committee to plan the All-Star event,
01:35 right?
01:36 And I never knew what it's like for a city, a team,
01:39 to really go through the process of putting on the All-Star
01:41 event.
01:42 When you land at the airport, you
01:43 see all the beautiful designs.
01:45 And you're like, OK, this is nice.
01:46 But what is that process like?
01:48 For us, it's been a seven-year journey.
01:49 So we bid in 2017 to host the 2021 All-Star game, which
01:54 got pushed due to COVID, obviously.
01:55 So I've never worked on an event this long.
01:57 I've worked on a lot of events.
01:59 But it's for our city.
02:01 We take great pride in hosting these
02:02 and doing them better than anybody else.
02:04 We don't have oceans and mountains and things
02:07 to look at.
02:07 So we know we need to deliver to our event partners
02:10 and to the guests coming every time
02:12 and exceed their expectations.
02:13 And so whether that's the basketball court at the airport
02:16 that you probably saw when you landed
02:18 to what you're going to see when you walk around downtown.
02:20 We've got DJ booths elevated and public arts
02:25 that's lighted projections all over town
02:28 and those kinds of things just to make this the best
02:30 weekend that the best basketball fans in the world
02:33 could experience.
02:33 Yeah, and I love Indiana.
02:35 I tell people all the time, when the NFL combine comes here,
02:37 I'm always usually here.
02:38 I don't know if I have to come this year
02:39 because it's the All-Star.
02:41 But it's such a walkable city.
02:42 The steaks are good.
02:43 I mean, the food-- and I lived in Texas.
02:45 So I know good steaks.
02:46 And I'm like, man, but Indiana has some very good steaks.
02:49 So it's a very enjoyable city.
02:50 And I tell-- it's so easy to get to Philadelphia.
02:53 It's a two-hour flight.
02:54 It's direct, you know what I mean?
02:55 And so it's like not inconvenience at all.
02:57 But here we are.
02:58 I don't ever want to let this month escape us.
03:00 We have the All-Star game.
03:02 But we're also in February, Black History Month.
03:04 Does anyone stand out outside of the notable names
03:07 or a key figure that maybe inspired you
03:10 on Black History Month?
03:11 Well, I think our city has an interesting history with this
03:14 because Robert Kennedy was here the night
03:16 that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot
03:18 and had a very famous speech that
03:20 prevented any violence from happening here in Indianapolis
03:23 that evening, which happened in a lot of other cities
03:25 across the country.
03:26 And so we have a monument that our team actually
03:29 paid for, the Kennedy King Park.
03:31 It's a national park now.
03:33 And I always try to go there this month
03:35 and sort of think about what that means.
03:37 But certainly, we have a lot of important figures,
03:39 I think, in our state, whether those are basketball
03:41 players or others.
03:42 But that moment in time is really important to our city.
03:45 Absolutely.
03:46 Here we are now again at the Tech Summit.
03:48 What's the biggest thing that you've learned?
03:51 And I know as CEO now, your mind is racing.
03:53 You've got to listen to people.
03:54 It's like you're starting new jobs.
03:56 There's a lot you have to do.
03:57 But what is the biggest thing you've learned thus far
03:59 that you can see yourself incorporating to the pace?
04:02 I think AI, right?
04:03 I mean, that's where they started,
04:05 MBAi is sort of what they were branding it.
04:08 And I think that's how that affects the live experience,
04:12 the at-home experience, when we're interacting with our fans
04:15 when we don't have a game day and those kinds of things.
04:18 I think we're all trying to get our arms around that.
04:20 It's important that they started with that.
04:22 And it's something that's going to change the world rapidly.
04:25 Yeah.
04:26 And when you come and think about sports and generative AI,
04:30 you guys have IP as well.
04:32 Does anything keep you up at night?
04:34 Everything keeps me up at night, actually.
04:37 But I mean, it's the unknown unknowns.
04:39 And so making sure that we're trying to be bleeding edge
04:43 if we can be.
04:44 We certainly don't ever want to be behind as a league or team.
04:47 But where does it make sense?
04:49 I mean, sometimes I think there can be tech
04:50 for the sake of tech.
04:51 And if you're only hitting a couple of fans,
04:53 I don't know that that's worth--
04:55 the juice isn't worth the squeeze on it.
04:56 So just trying to make sure that what we're doing is impactful.
05:00 Yeah.
05:01 Take me back right fast.
05:02 You grew up in South Bend, earned your bachelor's
05:04 in telecommunications at Indiana University.
05:07 And you worked for Dick Cheney for some time.
05:09 What was that like?
05:10 You know, it was great.
05:11 He was one of the best bosses I've ever had.
05:14 He has a very smart, strong wife and a couple of very smart
05:20 daughters as well.
05:20 He really likes working with women.
05:24 And I thought-- he gave me every opportunity I could hope for.
05:29 Very good feedback, but he's a really good mentor as well.
05:32 He's been the White House Chief of Staff,
05:34 so he understood what it was like to be a staff person,
05:37 which is unique.
05:38 I don't know many presidents or vice presidents that
05:40 had a seat the same way that we did.
05:43 But it's certainly-- you're on the hot seat every day,
05:45 and it teaches you an awful lot.
05:47 Yeah.
05:47 And then you leave politics, and then you finally
05:49 get into sports, right?
05:50 What was that transition?
05:51 Because I love politics.
05:53 I love monitoring it.
05:54 I don't necessarily know if I want to dive too much into it,
05:56 because someone told me a long time ago,
05:57 if you're into politics, make sure your stomach is strong,
05:59 because you've got to sleep at night, right?
06:01 But what was that transition, leaving politics,
06:04 going over to the corporate world?
06:05 I'm grateful I worked in politics when I did.
06:08 I'm very grateful I don't work there anymore.
06:11 And I had worked on six Republican conventions, which
06:14 are these major events similar to Super Bowls and All-Star
06:17 Weekends.
06:17 And so my first job in the sports
06:19 was working on the 2012 Super Bowl host committee
06:22 here in Indianapolis, which was a great experience.
06:25 I did not dream of working in sports as a young person.
06:28 I played them.
06:29 But I never imagined I would work for an NBA team,
06:32 let alone be the CEO of an NBA team.
06:33 So my career path took a bit of a turn,
06:37 but it's been a great one.
06:38 And it feels familiar.
06:39 I work for the Simon family, Herb and Steve.
06:42 It's not terribly different than-- and Stephen
06:44 Rails, who's also an owner of our team.
06:46 It's not terribly different than working for a political figure,
06:49 but we certainly have a different bottom line.
06:52 But we're a small, nimble family business,
06:54 and that feels familiar to me from politics.
06:56 Yeah.
06:57 What is it like running that family business?
06:58 Because I was just talking to someone from the NBA,
07:01 and I said, each team is like their own.
07:04 They have their own economies, right, and their local markets.
07:07 They're all local businesses in a way.
07:09 And you obviously work for one of the longest-tenured families
07:12 is only NBA team in the Simon family,
07:13 a family known for the malls around America.
07:15 I know I use a lot of them.
07:17 But what is that like, running basically a local big brand?
07:21 Yeah, for us, it all comes from Herb.
07:25 And his brother Melvin bought the team in 1983.
07:28 And Steve, now his son, who's very active,
07:30 and several other family members,
07:32 they're very committed to this community.
07:33 They will tell you that Indianapolis
07:35 has done more for them than they could ever do for the city.
07:38 And so we're very community-driven,
07:40 which is important to me personally.
07:42 I think we have the best owner in the sports.
07:45 I'm sure everybody says that, but I really think that we do.
07:48 He really always wants to do the right thing.
07:50 We want to have the right kind of players on our teams
07:52 and make the right kind of impact.
07:54 And so we lead--
07:55 I mean, he very much leads from his heart, and we follow.
07:58 So I feel very lucky to work for them.
08:00 Yeah, looking at some big picture stuff, right?
08:02 And let's stay with the Simon family, right?
08:04 Because obviously, you work day in day
08:05 and know what's going on in your other business.
08:08 The malls, right?
08:09 Where are we looking at when we look at malls around America?
08:11 I see that they're going through this revitalization,
08:14 because when you look at them now,
08:15 they've got movie theaters, bigger movie theaters, arcades.
08:17 It's like we're entering this nostalgia period,
08:20 and malls are at the center of it and revitalize.
08:23 What do you see?
08:23 What does that family-- what do you guys see
08:25 from that particular retail space?
08:26 Herb is the chairman emeritus of Simon Property Group.
08:30 Melvin, Simon's son, David, runs that business very successfully.
08:34 I sort of see it from a different seat,
08:36 almost more of a consumer.
08:38 We have a downtown mall here that's
08:40 going to be redeveloped into something different.
08:42 I think Simon Property Group has done a masterful job
08:45 of repurposing different spaces and malls for uses
08:48 that I never would have imagined when I was younger
08:51 and used to walk around the mall with my friends
08:53 in the seventh and eighth grade.
08:54 It's different now, and the things
08:56 that they're doing in them are different.
08:57 And I think they've maximized that real estate
08:59 opportunity really well.
09:00 Absolutely.
09:01 Now listen, no one says it's going to be easy as CEO, right?
09:03 And here you are in this very interesting media environment
09:06 where distribution and the future of distribution
09:09 is really up right now.
09:11 So you have Bollies, and I know they're now--
09:13 Amazon is a part of that.
09:15 Where does the Pacers fit into that ecosystem?
09:17 I believe you guys are getting your local media rights back,
09:20 if I'm not mistaken.
09:21 So--
09:21 What is that going on?
09:22 You know, that's-- we are with Bollies right now.
09:26 The attorneys are working through those details,
09:28 and there's a lot of them working through that.
09:30 So right now, we're with them for the rest of the season.
09:34 And certainly, we'll take a look at what future seasons look
09:37 like, but the rest of our regular season games
09:39 and playoffs will be on Bollies.
09:41 There's a fear among small market teams a lot that, hey,
09:44 we're going to go through a period of maybe losing money.
09:46 Because when you have so many distribution channels now,
09:50 it's all fragmented, right?
09:51 And advertisers may not be getting the audience
09:54 that they were signed up for.
09:56 How do you deal with that?
09:57 And if there is any short-term revenue loss,
10:00 how do you make that up?
10:01 I mean, we're all working through that in real time.
10:03 I mean, this is evolving.
10:04 This RSN situation is literally evolving on a daily basis
10:08 for baseball and hockey and for the NBA teams as well.
10:12 And so we're going to-- we certainly
10:15 want to reach as many of our fans as we can.
10:17 And then we obviously have a bottom line.
10:19 We want to have the best players that we can have as well
10:21 and the best team.
10:22 So it's a constant balancing act,
10:25 and we're going to figure out the best path for us
10:28 over the summer.
10:28 Yeah.
10:29 Forbes has this $2.9 billion team, the Pacers,
10:34 and about over $200 million in revenue.
10:36 How do you grow that?
10:37 How do you get to a point where, OK, we're
10:39 getting better in value?
10:40 I mean, listen, if another team is sold,
10:42 I'm sure that's going to help you a lot, right?
10:44 But how do you grow locally to make sure that that revenue is
10:46 stable and headed up?
10:48 Yeah, I mean, I think we have a great business-side team.
10:51 Obviously, I'm excited to lead them.
10:53 When you're doing well on the court-- and we are,
10:55 and we have some great players right now--
10:57 Tyrese and Miles Turner.
10:59 We're lucky to have a good team, and the Fever team
11:04 is on the rise as well.
11:06 And so the rising tide kind of lifts all of the boats
11:09 from a business perspective.
11:10 We're selling more tickets, more sponsorships,
11:13 all those kinds of things-- suites and all those things--
11:15 sort of help to the bottom line.
11:17 And we're going to keep growing that business
11:18 and growing our brand here in Indiana
11:20 and throughout the Midwest.
11:21 Yeah.
11:22 Do you feel the excitement?
11:23 I mean, the teams-- well, every time I turn around,
11:24 I don't think people are watching the Pacers as much,
11:26 right?
11:27 And every time I turn around, they're winning another game.
11:29 I'm looking at this thing, and it's like, wait a minute.
11:31 This team seems like they're legit.
11:33 Like, what are you excited about when you watch them play?
11:36 You know, it was great to make the in-season tournament
11:39 the semifinals we won.
11:40 And then we made it into the final game,
11:42 and we didn't have the outcome we wanted.
11:44 But that exposure, national exposure for the team
11:46 was really important.
11:47 And we recently acquired Siakam from the Raptors.
11:49 He's been a great addition to the team.
11:51 I think we have a lot of-- it's a young, exciting team.
11:54 They like to play together.
11:57 Throughout the business, you feel it.
11:59 So everyone on the business side is also excited.
12:01 And so I think the sky's the limit with this team.
12:04 A few more things I'll let you get out of here,
12:06 because you're now a CEO.
12:07 You're busy, OK?
12:08 You are very busy.
12:10 The first is that you are a part of a short list of women
12:14 who are running teams.
12:15 St. Marshall, obviously, is one, and then Dallas Mavericks.
12:18 You got Jillian Zucker with the loss of Angeles Clippers
12:21 and more, but still maybe not enough, right?
12:24 When you're looking at the DEI, and you're
12:26 looking at diversity pipelining and all that,
12:28 what does Mel Reigns do?
12:30 How can the Pacers be the example for other teams?
12:34 Yeah, I mean, it's really important when I'm in a room
12:36 and I'm the only person that looks like me,
12:38 that I'm representing all the other people who look like me
12:40 and giving them those same opportunities.
12:43 I think the women in our company now see that this is a job
12:46 that they could have one day, and I hope that they do.
12:49 And then I take every opportunity
12:50 that I can when I can go speak to women's groups
12:54 to sort of talk through my path and ways
12:56 to kind of help them get to where
12:57 they want to be in their careers,
12:58 whatever industry that may be in.
13:00 That's a priority of mine as well.
13:02 And so I try to--
13:03 you only have so many hours in the day,
13:06 so you use a couple of filters in terms
13:08 of where you look at those opportunities.
13:10 And for me, the women's piece is very important.
13:13 Biggest positive surprise that you've
13:15 found so far in your month and a half as CEO?
13:18 Yeah, my emails get returned a little faster
13:20 than they used to.
13:21 So that's been a nice--
13:22 that's a nice thing.
13:23 But no, I mean, this is a small-ish town.
13:27 And so I've gotten a lot of really nice notes from
13:30 and calls from everyone and around the league.
13:32 And so I'm just excited to jump into it.
13:34 I mean, as soon as this weekend is over,
13:36 truly, I'll be kind of turning my sights
13:39 on what the next steps look like.
13:40 And hopefully, this is successful,
13:42 and it's a good launching pad for the rest of the season.
13:45 With positives comes negative.
13:46 What's the biggest negative surprise
13:48 you've had as CEO so far?
13:49 Oh, gosh.
13:50 Well, there aren't always somebody else
13:53 to go in their office and say, hey, boss, what do you--
13:56 not that I, of course, still have a boss,
13:57 but not as involved in the day-to-day.
13:59 So I just have to sit back and think, OK,
14:01 well, this is my decision now.
14:02 So I better-- usually, I'm giving my recommendation
14:05 on the decision.
14:06 And now I'm going to make the decision.
14:07 And so hopefully, they're the right ones.
14:09 And if they're not, I better learn pretty quick.
14:11 Absolutely.
14:11 Well, you still have a lot of work to do.
14:13 This is only a month and a half in.
14:14 So hopefully, it goes into years,
14:16 get you out of here on this.
14:17 Jim Collins' book, "Good to Great,"
14:19 one of my favorite business books, the favorite.
14:22 Go back and see your past.
14:23 What's the difference between a good COO and a great one?
14:28 Oh, well, I actually just bought that book,
14:29 and I just started reading it.
14:31 It's a phenomenal book.
14:31 Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
14:33 I think a great one is in 150% and is in the weeds quite a bit.
14:39 I mean, the importance in that job,
14:42 connecting the dots and the details,
14:44 is really, really important.
14:45 And so to me, I was vested all in.
14:49 And that was a lot of nights and a lot of weekends
14:52 to make sure you don't just forward the memo
14:54 before you read it, right?
14:55 Because there could be a mistake in it.
14:57 It's got your name on it.
14:58 And so to me, the devil in that job is in the details.
15:02 And now I need to step back from that a little bit.
15:04 So that may be hard for me.
15:05 But I think I'm looking forward to that challenge.
15:08 Absolutely.
15:08 Well, listen, I know you're going
15:09 to have to get a lot of rest after this weekend.
15:10 Because when you all start, it takes up all your time.
15:12 But you can't get too much rest, because again, you're CEO.
15:14 Congrats on the position, and look forward
15:16 to doing this again once you get comfortable
15:18 with diving to the numbers a little bit.
15:19 Thank you.
15:20 I really appreciate the chance to talk to you.
15:22 Appreciate it.
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