Jon Pritchett, Chief Executive Officer
Jon Pritchett, Chief Executive Officer of General Sports Venue, brings 15 years of industry management experience to General Sports Venue. His career has included several management positions in a diverse group of sports and entertainment companies. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, major colleges and conferences, professional sports teams and leagues, television networks, US cities, minor league teams and leagues and major sports and entertainment venues. His leadership experience includes national sponsorships sales, television negotiations, venue development, naming rights and premium seat sales, event marketing and management and organization leadership of a variety of businesses. He has developed a consistent record and reputation for building new businesses or energizing stagnant ones through dynamic leadership, effective communications, excellent operations and creative management skills.
Before joining the senior management team as CEO of General Sports Venue, Jon was President/COO of Team Sports Entertainment, Inc., the publicly traded, parent company of TRAC. Hired by the original founders as a consultant and later named COO by the initial investors, Jon developed the strategic business plan, secured the initial financing, solicited and negotiated strategic corporate alliances with television networks, sponsors, venues, engineers, financial/legal advisors and managed all day-to-day operations. Developed as a content provider for major motor-sports venues and major television networks, the single-entity, motor-sports league is scheduled to hold its first race in the spring of 2004 and will have all events broadcast live on ESPN.
While consulting on the TRAC project with partner, Carl Scheer, Jon was also serving as Sr. Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ScheerGame Sports Development. ScheerGame is a sports venue development company offering an array of services to the sports and entertainment industry including: finance; construction; sales & marketing; and team management. While at ScheerGame, Jon developed and executed a highly successful sales & marketing strategy for naming rights, corporate sponsorship, and premium seating for Verizon Wireless Center, New Hampshire’s largest sports and entertainment venue. Jon also led the company’s consulting efforts with the NBA, Arena Football, Oklahoma State University and Maxx Motorsports.
Prior to becoming one of the founding partners of ScheerGame, Jon spent four years as President/COO of ScheerSports, Inc., where his impact was dramatic. As President/COO, Jon led the sales & marketing efforts of the very successful development of a 16,000-seat, downtown arena and oversaw a management team that produced revenue streams for teams, venues and events previously unattainable in secondary markets. He also ran the day-to-day operations for two of the most successful franchises in minor league sports, leading the ECHL in attendance and gross revenue for its hockey team and building the second highest grossing franchise in af2. Jon’s tenure also included attracting, promoting and producing a variety of regional and national sporting events including the NCAA Men‘s Basketball Regionals, College Basketball Tournaments and NBA as well as NHL games.
Jon spent four years at Host Communications, Inc., the largest amateur and collegiate sports marketing firm, in various sales and marketing positions. He managed key corporate accounts within the Southeast for multiple properties including: the NCAA Corporate Partner Program; StreetBall Partners; USC, FSU, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Kentucky, UVA, Texas, SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve and Southern Conference; The Historically Black Collegiate Coalition; and High School Properties. During his tenure, Jon helped produce significant, double-digit, annual growth in corporate sponsor sales for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions and developed a talent for creating and marketing vertically-integrated platforms previously undeveloped by competitors.
While attending graduate school at the University of South Carolina, Jon served as Host and Executive Producer of the television shows for the school’s football and basketball head coaches. In this role, Jon first discovered and began nurturing his entrepreneurial talents while producing, selling, syndicating and hosting the programs. In 1990 and again in 1991, the shows won the South Carolina Broadcasters Association’s Award for Best Sports Television Show. While maintaining a 4.0 grade point average at USC, Jon also served as Assistant Recruiting Coordinator where he was responsible for various Department of Athletics’ activities including: NCAA compliance, official visits, special events and marketing programs.
Jon received a Bachelor of Science degree from Appalachian State University in 1988. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Alumni Advisory Board for the School of Communications at ASU. Jon is also a 1996 graduate of the Sports Management Institute Executive Program held at the Universities of Southern California and North Carolina.
