MSG head talks leadership

He's negotiated contracts with some of the sports world's most powerful personalities, including Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Ewing and Pat Riley. But yesterday, David Checketts, chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden, faced his latest challenge as he spoke to a crowd of Wharton MBA students. Approximately 140 students attended the speech -- held in the David Rittenhouse Laboratories -- which was part of the Zweig Executive Dinner Series and sponsored by the Office of Graduate Student Affairs. At the event, Checketts discussed the value of leadership in contributing to success in the business world -- in which he is now the head of one of the largest sports and entertainment companies. He spoke about the excitement of daily operations in a multi-faceted enterprise. Checketts has overseen all operations of MSG since becoming CEO in 1994. The corporation owns the New York Knicks of the NBA and the Liberty of the WNBA, the New York Rangers of the NHL, the Hartford Civic Center, Radio City Music Hall and the Nobody Beats the Wiz electronics superstore chain. In addition, because MSG has control over the MSG Network and Fox Sports Television, it has the cable television rights to the games of seven of the nine major New York sports teams. Checketts began his talk by giving away a pair of tickets to Friday night's New York Knicks-Philadelphia 76ers game to a lucky student. He then told the students how his job has provided him with a "great opportunity to learn about business, teamwork and leadership." He urged students to do more than just try to make money. "What is it that you aspire to?" Checketts asked. "What we need most these days are people who aspire to make a difference." He suggested that each person "become a leader, create a compelling vision and define where you want to go." "Leadership is a learned behavior," he said. "It is not learned in a textbook? it is learned in real experiences, but it must be learned." Many of the students said they were fascinated by the sports side of business that past Zweig speakers could not provide. "Most people will be here because they are interested in sports and in learning a little about the business involving professional sports," said first-year MBA student Dave Bard. Others, like Wharton freshman Joy Lin, were "interested in seeing how executives managed their companies." Lin was interested in learning business strategy related to sports and learning how Checketts achieved his success. When he was appointed president of basketball's Utah Jazz in 1984 at the age of 28, Checketts became the youngest chief executive ever in the NBA. There, he brought stability to what was then one of the worst franchises in sports. He was appointed president of the Knicks in 1991, a position he held for four years before being named CEO of MSG. When he first took the New York position, MSG had a negative $22 million cash flow. "There was too much political infighting," Checketts said. As CEO, Checketts said, he revamped the company so "the many different businesses within MSG could work toward the success of the overall company." In doing so, he created an "organizational truth." Today, the company has a cash flow of several hundred million dollars and $1.5 billion in revenue. Second-year MBA student Andrew Trader was intrigued by this tactic. "I found it fascinating that a company's subsystems were what was actually checking it and preventing it from being a successful and profitable organization," said Trader, who is a member of Zweig and helped to organize the event.