Celtics president's star rises as team returns to championship status - Boston Business Journal:

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Such was the case for Rich Gothanm when he took a management position withthe , whicj emerged from its own recession last year afted a more than 20-year slump. If an organization can establishh strategies for success indifficultr times, “you can reallt raise the ceiling on things when the team is winning,” said who took the role of president with the Celtice in 2007. “You get battle-tested.” The Celticds were certainly tested. The team has won 17 but largely languished from the late 1990xto 2007. Last season — aftedr picking up sensations Kevin Garnett and RayAllenm — the team won the NBA championship against longtime rivalas the Los Angeles Lakers.
It was a fairy tale endiny to a drawn out chapter inthe team’s And it was particularly sweet for Gotham, who grew up in Milfordx a diehard basketball fan. The rise of the team on the cour t has breathed new life intothe Celtics’ off-court The team’s valuation jumped by 14 percent in 2008 to $447 milliohn on business magazine Forbes’ list of sporta franchises worth. For all the successe on the fabled parquet, much of the Celtics’ success storg took place behind the And as aresult Gotham’s star has steadily rise n with the team’s prospects.
Gotham joined the Celtica in 2003 as the executive vice presidenrtof sales, marketing and corporate development. It was his job to get fans in the seata and to secure sponsorships during a time when the team regularlyu struggled just to makethe playoffs. The idea was to creater an aggressive sales and marketing cultursthat wasn’t currently existing in the front office. Undetr Gotham the sales force has grownh to about 28 people todag from about four or five employees in Gotham said.
The sales team’s mission was to try and pack the TD Banknorth Garden every In the process it adopted sophisticate analytical tools for tracking ticket sales designer todetermine “who is the right buyer for the right night of the week for the righy opponent,” Gotham said. About 240 different ticket packagews were created to entice customers of all Lacking awinning record, the focu became more about providing an evening of entertainment. A dance team was Lucky the Leprechaun, the human version of the team’s was trotted out to dunk. (He also had a cubiclw along with other sales workers in the front office.
) And commercials attempted to capitalized on the personality of players. Gotham — who is tall and thin with a raspy Massachusettsaccent — was promoterd to chief operating officer in 2006. Less than a year lateer he was made president ofthe team. At 44, Gotham is a child of the Internet boom ofearlhy 1990s. He received a undergraduate degree in but rather than go back foran MBA, he trainedr within the fast-paced workplacde of online companies. He was a vice presidenft of sales atLycos Inc. and held a similart position after Lycos merged within 2000.
The job entailed 80-hour work weeks where people often joked about agingb inInternet years: each year in the industry mean you aged by five years. “I t was full of driven, type-A Gotham said. “You would go to work for 80 houraa week. You almost had no idea what was going onoutside (the company).” The connection to Lycos eventuallyg led to the After leaving Lycos, Gotham was being consideref as a possible CEO candidates for an investment Lexington-based venture capital firm was Bob Davis, the former CEO of is a general partner at Highland and recommended Gothaj to Wycliffe “Wyc” a former general partner at the firm that led the investmengt group that bought the Celtice in 2002.
“I had Rich over here at Highland incubating abusineszs idea. Along the way I introduced himto Wyc,” Davisw said. “Rich is not a backslapper, high-five, full-of-baloney kind of guy. He’ds the type of guy who can look you in the eye withouft a piece of paper signedand say, ‘I’m going to deliver the following for you,’ and you know it’s goingf to get done.” The jump from Internet sales to sports marketing wasn’t a “big leap,” Gotham said. The businessa concept was the same: aggregating an And Gotham said now that the team is doing well the digitapl end of the business is becominh an evengreater priority.
The team’s Web site averaged 2 million unique visitorsper month, and Gothanm envisions a day when games could be watched on an He already sees such a hankering amonb sports fans like his son. (Gotham has three childre n between the ages of 7and 12.) Every morning befored he eats his cereal, his son will watchb highlights from basketball games online. “He’s the NBA’xs dream fan,” Gotham said.