“Showtime!” With Peterborough Petes Executive Director Of Business Operations Burton Lee

My role as Executive Director is all about driving positivity at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, in the hearts and minds of Petes’ fans, and ultimately in team revenue. This has never been so evident as during the current global pandemic.

I oversee our business operations department, directly managing a team of full-time and part-time employees, and indirectly overseeing our many interns and volunteer team members.

Reporting directly to the Petes’ Board of Directors, I am responsible for ensuring the financial viability of the OHL’s longest continuously operating franchise. Our team operates as a not-for-profit organization, which is extremely unique in both pro sport and elite-level amateur athletics. As a result, every dollar must be made before it is spent, so for us to expand and grow, we must first drive profit to eventually invest.

In general, though, the cliché is accurate: no two days are the same. My priorities are ensuring that all staff have the resources and tools they need to meet their unique goals and key performance indicators. Beyond that, I spend a lot of time in meetings (e.g. Zoom, Google Hangouts, Jitsi and FaceTime!) and on phone calls in an effort to build and maintain key relationships, including those I develop with staff from the league and other OHL teams, our facility (which is owned and operated by the City of Peterborough), community partners, and our hockey operations department.

What is the best part of your position, and why?

There’s nothing like seeing a full, energized crowd at a home game. This requires all staff to be working in sync, including our ticket sales department who work to sell out a game, our game operations and marketing staff who entertain the fans, our corporate partnership sales team who ensure the sponsor activations are fun and engaging, and our communications staff who tell the stories (not to mention the hockey operations department who try to put a good team on the ice, but that’s beyond my control).

We’re fortunate that our strategic changes have paid off, as we’ve seen consistently improving revenues along with double-digit attendance growth year-over-year since 2016. Crowds lead to crowds, and the more butts we can put in seats, the more other people want to join in on the fun, which keeps our entire team going.

On top of that, I love hosting our weekly Showtime! Sales & Marketing meetings in the Petes’ Office. We invite guest speakers from across the industry and around the world to chat with us about their career, current roles, industry challenges and opportunities, and more, all in an effort to give the Petes’ staff members a more global context. It can be extremely easy to fall into various bubbles in junior hockey, and this helps us stay up-to-date with the industry.

Which department in your organization is the most difficult to hire for, and why?

Every job is absolutely essential on the business operations side, and weak links reveal themselves pretty quickly (see former GE CEO Jack Welch’s “Vitality Curve,” but be careful to read too much into “hard-and-fast” systems like that!). With that said, finding quality ticket sales staff is always a challenge. It takes a special type of person to fully buy into the sales process and commit to “owning” their ability to sell tickets.

Training for these positions is also time consuming, so when teams get into a position of high turnover in sales departments, it can be a vicious cycle.

What are three essential skills someone needs to succeed in the sport industry?

Despite what most interviewers say, having “a passion for ” is not all that important. You need passion, but it’s not likely that your passion for that sport will sustain your employment in the business past a few years.

To build a sustainable career in sport, you need to find a passion beyond the “sweaty men [and women] running up and down the court/field/rink,” to take a line from LA Clippers sales executives. For me, that passion is bringing people together and making connections.

In general, these three skills are very important:

1 Relationship Building

Being able to make genuine connections and grow the relationship will take you far, either as you build trust with clients, grow your media relations presence, or generate buzz in the community, you will need to be able to connect and relate to people.

2 Resourcefulness

No school program will teach you everything you need to know to be successful in the industry. What you should aim to learn at school is how to learn. Being able to find effective solutions to problems and challenges.

3 Fun

If you can’t find fun in working in this industry, it’s just not worth it. There are plenty of high-paying jobs with better hours and other perks out there. If you don’t look forward to coming into work most days, cut your losses (but I would suggest you wait at least a few years in the industry before making this decision – it takes some time to find your place).

What advice would you give to someone starting out their career in the sport industry?

Spend a little time making connections and being curious, but most of your time putting your head down and doing your job. Attend every conference call, meeting, and panel discussion you can to learn more about your job and others, but you will really get ahead in the early days by blowing your job expectations out of the water in the first few months. You’d be surprised at how quickly new opportunities open up after 12-24 months if you shine in your first job.

And go read ‘The First 90 Days’ before you start your next opportunity (or read the summary, at least).

What differentiates your culture and staffing philosophy from other sport industry employers?

The Petes’ are very keen on learning and development. Much like our players on the ice (we’ve graduated more players to the NHL than any junior team in the world), we want our staff to learn a ton, grow fast, and then advance in the industry within a few years (either into new positions with our team or at other organizations in the industry).

This starts with our interns, who we task with real opportunities that will help them prepare for full-time opportunities.

With that being said, even though we’ve made great strides in the past several years, we have a LONG way to go in every area of our operation. We try to get better every day, and I hope that we never settle in and get comfortable.