an unorthodox approach

“Her staff not only respects her but adores her. Thosekind of leadership qualities don’t come around naturallyor all the time. She’s been fabulous.” — EricWoolworth, president, Miami Heat

YOU CAN ALWAYS GET BETTER, OR

CANI (CONTINUOUS AND NEVERENDING

IMPROVEMENT) IS A MOTTO TO LIVE BY

FOR KIM STONE, executive vice president andgeneral manager, AmericanAirlines Arena andThe Heat Group, Miami. Stone is an avid learn-er, a fair-minded manager and, apparently, tire-less. Since 2006, she has been in charge of every-thing that is fan-experience related, from seasonticketholder retention to parking, food and bev-erage and housekeeping at the Miami arena,home of the champion NBA Miami Heat.

She is not only one of the few-ever femaleGM’s of a National Basketball Associationarena, she also reached that peak through amost unorthodox route — journalism andpublic relations. Her accomplishments and herleadership earned her one of the 2013 VenuesToday Women of Influence awards.

When Eric Woolworth, president ofBusiness Operations, The Heat Group, tappedStone to replace Alex Diaz as GM ofAmericanAirlines Arena in 2006, he did sobecause of her proven leadership qualities.“When I told her I was going to make her theGM of the building, she looked at me like, ‘Areyou crazy?’ In typical Kim fashion she said, ‘Youknow I know nothing about running a building,’”he recalled. “And I said, ‘I know but you’re really

smart and really capable and people will followyou. So you learn on the job,’ and so she did.”

The deciding factor for Stone was thatWoolworth believed in her, perhaps morethan she believed in herself. Despite neverhaving been unemployed for more than 15minutes, she has faced adversity in her careerclimb, which started as a journalism major atthe University of North Carolina-Chapel Hilland carried her to university sports informa-tion positions to PR for the Miami Heat tooperations for the WNBA Miami Soul to VPof season ticketholder retention for the Heat.

CANI was the driving principle when shedecided to go back to school to get her master’sin business so she could better understand herfirst job in operations when she took over thebusiness side for the WNBA Miami Soul.

“I learned that my journalism and PRdegree wasn’t enough and you have to knowbusiness,” she said. “I went back and got myexecutive MBA in 2003.” Her three-years ofgraduate schooling (while working full time)“was a paradigm shift in how I see the world.”

FROM PR TO OPSStone always loved sports, back as far as beingsports editor of her high school newspaper. She

An Unorthodox ApproachFrom season ticket retention to venue operations, Kim Stone relishes ensuring a great fan experience

by L INDA DECKARD

“I knew I was going

to be Peter-Principled

if I didn’t get the

knowledge I needed

to do it. CANI is my

key value. You can

always be better.” —

KIM STONE

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 >

V T 2 0 1 3 W O M E N O F I N F L U E N C E

30 VENUES TODAY JULY 2013

OUR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER, AMERICANAIRLINES ARENA — AN INSPIRING ROLE MODEL FOR WOMEN

IN THE WORKPLACE AND IN OUR COMMUNITY.

CONGRATULATIONS

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transferred from UNC Wilmington, whereshe was a marine zoology and geology major,to UNC Chapel Hill where she finessed herway into the journalism school. Growing up inNorth Carolina, her sport of choice has alwaysbeen basketball.

During collge, she interned for USABoxing, where she also learned the value of net-working. She worked for Leslie King, whogave her a referral to Rick Brewer, sports infor-mation director at UNC Chapel Hill which ledto a coveted student sport information directorjob. King also referred her to Larry Wahl,sports information director at the University ofMiami, where she worked in sports informa-tion during the Dennis Erickson-era “whichmeans I got exposed to a lot of the top sportsjournalists at the time,” Stone said.

In 1996, an opening at the Heat organiza-tion in PR presented her big opportunity. “Oneof my goals had always been to work with theMiami Heat. When I joined, they were onlyeight years old.”

THE JOURNEY HEATS UPBetween July 1996 and today, Stone’s life hasbeen the Miami Heat, first on the basketball

side and now in operations.She finds every day thrilling, from cham-

pionship parades for the Heat to becoming aghostwriter for legendary coach Pat Riley.

A month after being hired to do Heat PR,she was standing in a coffee nook and feltsomething behind her. Someone had come intothe room. “And there sat Pat Riley. I’ll neverforget that. ‘You are here! You are him,’ I said.What luck. I was hired and then he was hired.”

For four years, she worked closely withRiley, even ghostwriting his Coach’s Corner col-umn in the Miami Heat Magazine. Rileyshowed her to look for the bigger reason, thebigger goal, the bigger purpose in life, Stonesaid. She considers the time she spent with Rileypriceless and soaked up all she could, like how toovercome adversity, that it’s not a setback if youlearn and grow and continue on your journey.

“He always says in every adversity there isa silver lining. Don’t let bad things sidetrackyou. Rewrite the script and continue on,” shelearned.

The Heat Group grew rapidly during theRiley era, particularly in media scrutiny, andStone was at the epicenter. At the time, theNBA team was a tenant at Miami Arena.

In 1998, the team began construction of

AmericanAirlines Arena, which opened in2000. Stone began to see a ceiling in PR.

She made a pitch to become director of oper-ations for the planned WNBA team and got it.She became “an executive-in-training-wheels.”Hers was a hybrid job, much like it is now, whereshe reported to both basketball and operations.

Launching the WNBA team coincidedwith opening AmericanAirlines Arena and,unfortunately, with a downward spiral for theHeat. To read the media reports, the buildingwas not great and the resident team was notmeeting expectations and, in 2002, the ownerresponded by divesting all but core assets —the Heat and the arena. “It’s the nature ofsports,” Stone said. “We were in the trough ofone of our cycles.”

Eight full-timers, including Stone, as wellas the players and coaches were about to be outof a job.

“I drove into work that day just sobbing,sobbing, sobbing. Sometimes you can do every-thing right, work as hard as you can and stillfail. That’s where Pat Riley’s silver liningcomes in,” Stone said.

She was offered two new jobs that sameday. “One was to be chief of staff for our

AN UNORTHODOX... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30


president (Woolworth), who had just firedeverybody; the other was to go back to the bas-ketball side and do PR. I decided to go to thebusiness side; I have a passion for that.”

Stone worked as Woolworth’s chief ofstaff from 2002 to 2004. When the team recruit-ed Shaquille O’Neal, business boomed.Woolworth promoted Stone again, this time toVP of service for season ticketholders. From2004 to 2006, she handled season ticket reten-tion and managed to maintain the largest sea-son ticketholder base in the NBA, which shewill only peg as “above 16,000.”

Servicing and retaining season tickethold-ers was in its infancy, she recalled. “Now there isa lot of science behind it. Big data helps us withdecisions, strategy, how to interface, policies, butwe’re always focusing on the relationshipbetween the rep and the person. If you know meon a first name basis and you can get me into theHigh Five club where my nephew slaps thehand of the player, that’s more important.”

That's just half her day; her responsibili-ties expanded to include GM of the venue.

When Woolworth called her back into hisoffice that day in 2006, Stone asked what foldershe should bring. She likes to be prepared. He toldher not to bring anything, and her heart stopped.

But when she was invited to the quieterlounge area of his office, not a behind-the-deskencounter, she realized it would be friendly. Hetold her Diaz was leaving and he wanted her totake the GM job. “He said, ‘You’re not going tobe changing light bulbs. You are going to bemanaging and leading the team and I thinkyou can do it,’” she remembers.

Woolworth already had the organization-al structure in mind, with Jim Spencer elevatedto assistant GM on the operations and construc-tion side, and Brian Babin on the basketballfront of house and event services side.

Stone left the office, went on a six-milerun on the beach, slept on it and the next day,made her story by taking the job.

LEARNING IS CONTINUOUSStone spent the next 12 months working everysingle event, from catering to concerts, awardsshows to Heat games, to understand her newjob and to gain respect from the hardworkingpeople who do the job every day.

Don Rankin, Pritchard Sports &Entertainment, has had the cleaning contract atthe building from the beginning and, as a vendor reporting to Stone, he has admired her



THE PEACEFUL RIOT AND THE CHAMPIONSHIP RINGThe low and the high points for Kim Stone revolve around Miami Heat National Basketball

Association championships. As executive VP and GM of AmericanAirlines Arena and The Heat

Group, she hit the skids five months into her new job, in 2006, when she planned the victory

parade for the Miami Heat, without precedent and with lots of presentiment. There was no

game plan and she was new to the job.

Because of superstition and because “the media will report anything about you,” the Heat

Group was well aware of the fact the Dallas Mavericks were crucified in the press for planning

a victory parade before the victory was clinched. “We couldn’t even talk about a parade

because of that,” she said.

Not only was she new to the job, but this would be Coach Pat Riley’s first win with the Heat

and he had said when he was hired 10 years prior that he could see in his mind’s eye a victory

parade down Biscayne Boulevard. Victory parades in Miami were traditionally down Flagler

Street.

“In two days we planned and executed a parade. It was not the best thing I’ve ever put for-

ward,” Stone says today, with two more victory parades under her belt.

They went for the traditional timing, a parade in the afternoon and a celebration with fans

outside the arena afterwards. But they chose the nontraditional route, per Riley, and decided

to make a U-turn on Biscayne Blvd. Fans lined both sides of the street.

“I knew I was in trouble when I showed up at 7 a.m. and there was a guy asking, ‘Where is

your disabled viewing area?’ So okay, I made one.”

The ramp on the arena’s west side was set up with the stage, but Stone was well aware it is

hollow underneath so there is a maximum weight capacity of 1,600 people. “We had to main-

tain that ramp, so we set up plans to do that,” she said.

Just as giddy with excitement as anyone, Stone hopped on the business staff float and the

parade took off.

The first red flag was a call that Shaquille O’Neal had jumped off his float at the U-turn to

shake hands with fans. Fans crowded around him, up against the float tires, and the police lost

control of the street.

Stone was stuck on a float, but her first thought was the ramp, “we’ve probably lost the ramp.”

Her assistant GM, Jim Spencer, was back at the building. She was feeling devastated. Cell

phone batteries were failing. Slowly, she neared the building.

There were people everywhere — except the ramp. “Spencer got on the radio and said, ‘I’ve

got your back; we’re holding the ramp.’ That was my low/high point. The ramp — we would

have had a disaster,” Stone said.

The rest is a blur, from standing arm-in-arm with the police chief to form a human barri-

cade so players could get off the float to negotiating with the crowd promising photos for

cooperation to people all over the building to triage units on the mezzanine handling those

who had passed out from the day in the heat.

She ordered the ceremony cut to 30 minutes, warning there were life safety issues. After it was

over, “I went to a quiet place and I cried. I was so overwhelmed by how scary it was, how close to

something bad happening we were. I felt like I’d put my staff in compromising situations.

“I call it a peaceful riot,” she says now. “I think I decided to quit 10 times that night.”

The next morning, the media reports about the parade and ceremony were all positive.

Contrast that with last year’s victory parade and Stone has come full circle.” As bad as 2006

was, I felt very good about last year’s.”

Her career highlight would be “last fall when we all got our championship rings. Each divi-

sion head got to present the rings to their staff. Facility people work so hard, toil in the shad-

ows. They are like an NBA referee, people only notice you if something goes wrong. To be able

to share this with the staff was a special moment. Ownership was very generous. I have a

great organization.” — Linda Deckard



leadership skills from day one. “Kim took overwith no experience running a building. She’sextremely bright and articulate and she knowswhat she doesn’t know. She has developed ateam and empowered them and over the yearsshe has learned what they all do. She’s amongthe most elite facility managers that I’ve everdealt with,” Rankin said.

Stone’s departments today are parking,operations, engineering, event services, guestservices, cleaning, food and beverage (handledby Levy Restaurants), event security(Contemporary Services Corp.), Miami PoliceDepartment and fire.

“Then I have my other season ticket serv-ices side and the VP of season ticket servicesreports to me,” Stone said.

Her hybrid role is quite unorthodox for avenue GM. Eric Bresler, AEG, who has knownStone for years, noted: “She has a passion forpeople, a passion for the staff who work for herand she cares deeply about the fan who comesto the arena. There aren’t many venue man-agers who have a direct responsibility for sea-son ticketholders. When you build that rapportwith season ticketholders, it blends into howyou look at operating the venue from a staffstandpoint and how you deal with people.”

Stone’s best advice for women in thisindustry is “go for it. It gives me goose bumps.This is an industry that is pretty gender blindas far as I can tell.”

The venue industry is taxing — on yourfamily and your personal time, she admits,adding that it is also very rewarding.

She has managed to nurture a family life asshe has climbed the ladder and now has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, Quinton Clark Jones-Stone,and a partner of six years, Karla Jones-Stone. Theymarried in Vancouver, British Columbia.

To accommodate family and work, theybought a home six miles from the arena so shecan go home at lunch. Together time is a prior-ity. Sometimes, Karla and Quinton come to theoffice and he dribbles on the practice court.

Going into the 2013 NBA championships,she already had Tuesday, the day of Game 6, atAmericanAirlines Arena, planned. She wouldwork from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (office mode), gohome from 3-4 pm (family mode) and return tothe arena from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. (game mode).

“Life is complex — apparently I like itthat way. I like challenges, change, tryingsomething new, improving — all for the rightreasons,” Stone concluded. “I’m a littleunorthodox.”



Who: Congratulations to our 2013 VT Womenof Influence winners:Adina Erwin, Vice President andGeneral Manager, Fox Theatre, Atlanta

Maureen Ginty, EVP Marketing Servicesand Human Resources, SMG

Kim Stone, EVP and General Manager,The Heat Group (AmericanAirlinesArena & Miami Heat)

What: Venues Today reception with awards,drinks and appetizers.

When: Sunday, July 28, 2013, 5:30-6:30pm

Where: Hilton New Orleans RiversideTwo Poydras St., New Orleans, LA, 70130

Why: To congratulate the 2013 VT Women ofInfluence winners, honor the nomineesand past year winners.

Come celebrate with us!

Wear: Business casual or jazz attire. (For themusical spirit!) Gents-pull out thosewingtips and ladies-dress it up!

Come

Celebrate the 2013 Venues Today Women of Influence!Join us for a Jazz Session! Attendour reception in New Orleans dur-ing the IAVM VenueConnect AnnualConference for our 2013 VT Womenof Influence award presentation.


an unorthodox approach

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