Sarah K. Spencer: Hawks CEO Steve Koonin: “Our relationship with all the civic leaders in Atlanta is very, very strong… We have been in communication with our city leaders and we are very, very, very supportive of what they have done, the words they’ve said, the actions they’ve taken.”
Tag: Steve Koonin
The Atlanta Hawks, through the Hawks …
The Atlanta Hawks, through the Hawks Foundation and State Farm, are funding the preparation of 4,000 meals weekly to be delivered to the more than 1,000 frontline healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients at Emory Healthcare through a four-week pilot that is part of the newly-formed Atlanta Healthcare Heroes inaugural program. The meals are provided in partnership with two local Atlanta restaurants, which are now able to re-employ “hundreds” of workers who were recently laid off or furloughed due to the financial effects of the crisis, according to Hawks CEO Steve Koonin.
How important is it to keep the Atlanta …
How important is it to keep the Atlanta economy alive during this time for the Hawks? Koonin: It’s critical to help small businesses. You know, we might be the only place that wears the name Atlanta across their chest when we go to work every day. We’re very proud to be a basketball team that wears its city name and it’s unbelievably important to support that [city].
When the NBA suspended its season March …
When the NBA suspended its season March 11 due to the coronavirus, the Hawks were left with 12,000 pounds of food they had ordered in preparation for upcoming games and events at State Farm Arena, according to CEO Steve Koonin. With those either postponed or canceled, the Hawks donated what they could to those in need in Atlanta by partnering with Second Helpings and Goodr, which both focus on reducing food waste and instead delivering it to those in need.
Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin recently …
Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin recently proposed starting and ending the NBA season two months than they currently do in order to avoid footballl. Due to the NBA suspending the 19-20 season because of COVID-19, the league may be forced to adopt “I even had one team president, who I respect, who I think has some level of influence in the league said to me the other day that he never really liked that Koonin idea, but the more he thinks about it now, the more it does intrigue him,” said Adrian Wojnarowski.
Hawks CEO proposes starting season in December
Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin has a plan to increase the NBA’s ratings: start and end the season two months later. Koonin spoke Friday afternoon at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston on a panel about possible changes to the league’s schedule.
Under Koonin’s proposal, the start of …
Under Koonin’s proposal, the start of the season would shift from mid-October to mid-December, after the college football season has completed its regular season and has begun its bowl season. More important, the shift would cause the NBA to avoid having to compete with two months of the NFL’s regular season, as it currently does in the first two-and-a-half months before the “unofficial” start to the league’s calendar on Christmas Day.
Meanwhile, the NBA Finals would take …
Meanwhile, the NBA Finals would take place sometime in August rather than June, with the draft and free agency to come after that. That would again allow the NBA to dominate more of the summer months, when it is only going up against Major League Baseball, instead of fighting with football for territory. “A big piece is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to enhance ratings,” Koonin said. “Sometimes, moving away from competition is a great way to grow ratings.”
More important than Koonin proposing …
More important than Koonin proposing the change, though, is that Evan Wasch, the NBA’s senior vice president of strategy and analytics, said the league was open to such an idea — as well as others that could reshape how the NBA’s regular season plays out, as well as when it does. “We certainly have no issue with reconsidering the calendar,” Wasch said. “To Steve’s point, you have to think about the other stakeholders. They need to get more comfortable with the Finals in August, rather than June, where traditionally the household viewership is a lot lower.”