Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Executive of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chris Wright, spoke to the Ole Ventures Club on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

Formerly known as the Entrepreneur¹s Club, Ole Ventures invited him to speak about his role with the NBA team and how the marketing of the team compared to other sports organizations in the Twin Cities.

Wright, originally from Yorkshire, England came to the states after a soccer injury to market professional soccer teams in Pittsburgh and Minnesota. A year after the Timberwolves were awarded a franchise in 1988, Wright joined the organization.

Wright addressed a few of the decisions within the front office of the team that have made the organization a thriving business. The basketball team has total control of on-air coverage, unlike the Vikings, whose television rights belong to the NFL, and the Minnesota Twins, who have deals worked out with local stations.

The advantage, he explained was that "we have all rights in house. We have two and a half hours of total control." Anything said on air is what the Timberwolves want to be said. They hire their own announcers and are responsible for all of the advertising. This protects the team and it also protects the companies that chose to endorse their products within the organization.

The Timberwolves also have total control over the Target Center, where the team plays. "Our store is open 41 times a year," said Wright about the regular season games held in the Target Center. This allows them to print their own program every night and advertise the same products on air as they do within the arena.

"We control signage and negotiate deals," Wright said, "With Pepsi, we can protect them from their major competitor in the market: Coke. This creates leverage in every deal we make." He also credited long term deals with companies as being a key factor in keeping connections. Even after the team threatened to move to New Orleans in 1995, companies stuck with the organization.

Once known as "Clipper¹s East" because of the terrible games resembling those of the Los Angeles Clippers, Wright maintained that the organization has always had a solid front office. However, with the sale of the team to Glen Taylor in 1995, some changes were made, such as hiring Kevin McHale, who subsequently purged the team of J.R. Rider, Christian Laettner, and Donyell Marshall, in addition to drafting Kevin Garnett.

Wright compared attending a Timberwolves game to going to Disneyland for a family vacation, "we want to make coming to the Target Center something special." The key to Wright¹s plan is to sell out every game. "If you look in the box score after a game, look for the number 19,006, that¹s capacity of the Target Center," said Wright. "We want to maximize revenue in good and bad."

The continuing attendance of the fans is the main goal of Wright. "We want to at the expectations of the consumer," he noted.

Ole Venture¹s is an organization aimed at educating its members on the entrepreneurial life and doing projects to enhance their learning. If interested in joining, email co-presidents Hanni Wenker, wenkerh@stolaf.edu or Trish Bainbridge, bainbrid@stolaf.edu.