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American author, sports marketer, and business executive (born 1946)
After graduating from Notre Dame in 1966, Spoelstra founded his first marketing company in 1970, The New School of Youth Marketing and Other Phenomena Inc. In the mid-1970s, his company obtained the rights to syndicate Notre Dame basketball games for $2,000 per game. In 1977, Spoelstra's career in the NBA began when the Buffalo Braves hired him as vice president of marketing. One of his biggest tasks he was assigned was to try to prevent a relocation of the Braves, although the team moved to San Diego ten months later. In 1979, then Portland Trail Blazers owner Larry Weinberg hired Spoelstra as senior vice president and general manager where he would serve for ten years before resigning.
The Denver Nuggets hired Spoelstra in 1989 as president and general manager, but he was fired after 90 days due to a dispute with management. Spoelstra returned to Portland, where he co-founded SRO Partners, and began teaching sports marketing at the University of Portland. He began consulting for the New Jersey Nets in March 1991, and became the team's president 1993. During his time with the Nets, Spoelstra implemented marketing tactics that increased the team's home game attendance from last in the league when he initially arrived to first in the NBA. His most famous marketing gimmick came in 1994, when he sent rubber chickens through direct mail with the tagline "Don't Fowl Out!" to Nets season ticket holders who had not yet renewed their season tickets.
Bibliography
Spoelstra, Jon (1997). Ice to the Eskimos: How to Market a Product Nobody Wants. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN0061745839.
Spoelstra, Jon (1999). Success is Just One Wish Away. DelStar Books. ISBN1891686151.
Spoelstra in January 2012
