Agent
of Change: Amy Brooks (’96) Is Leading the NBA's Innovation Push
The NBA has become
known as the league most willing to innovate—and top exec Amy Brooks is leading
the charge. Jamie Lisanti, NBA, Nov 2019
If the NFL has developed a
reputation for stodgy traditionalism, the NBA has done the exact opposite,
innovating—and yes, Tweeting, 'gramming and TikToking—its way to status as the
fast-changing league of the future. Chief innovation officer Amy Brooks' job is
to lead that push, whether that means changing the shot clock, tweaking the
playoff format or, yes, finding new ways to make the NBA and its partners even
more money.
"If you're watching a game and you see a player's shoe, why can't you put up your phone and scan a QR code and buy that sneaker instantly?" says Brooks, 45, whose title also includes president of team marketing and business operations.
"If you're watching a game and you see a player's shoe, why can't you put up your phone and scan a QR code and buy that sneaker instantly?" says Brooks, 45, whose title also includes president of team marketing and business operations.
Amy Brooks with Kobe Bryant
Her job has two parts:
advising teams on ways to innovate and then driving change at the league level.
As for part one, she leads an internal consulting group of about 40 people that
helps the 93 teams of the NBA, WNBA, G-League and the e-sports NBA 2K League
pump up revenue and popularity and develop new ideas. When the former Stanford
guard (and Stanford M.B.A.) was promoted to the job in 2017, after 12 years of
working in the league office, one of her first tasks was to spearhead the
league's new jersey patch ad program.
That particular innovation may have been
better loved by owners than fans, but Brooks says that to do her job right, she
has to serve the league's faithful first: "Growing the business starts
with our buildings being full, but it's also about how we deliver the game to
our fans globally, because only 1% of our fans will ever attend a live game.
Which brings up the second part of her job:
leading a 10-person, league-focused global strategy and innovation group. The
NBA's embrace of, in Brooks' words, its young, diverse and global fan base has
allowed her to tinker with tradition and explore novel approaches—as opposed
to, say, the NFL, which has limited appeal beyond the U.S. and has been slower
to embrace social media.
Chief among those efforts is
the NBA 2K League, which was launched 18 months ago, making it the only U.S.
pro sports operation to own and operate an e-sports league. Next year the
23-team league will add a franchise in Shanghai, continuing the NBA's
(increasingly complicated) push into China. Brooks's group is also aiding the
March 2020 launch of the NBA's new Basketball Africa League (BAL), which will
feature 12 clubs competing in Egypt, Senegal, Nigeria, Angola, Morocco and
Tunisia.
Brooks's team is involved in
everything from the schedule changes that reduced the amount of back-to-back
games on consecutive days to teams' advanced mobile apps that power the
in-arena experience. In Sacramento, fans can crowd-source the temperature in
their seating areas to adjust the A/C or heat, while in Milwaukee, jersey patch
sponsor Harley-Davidson added a vroom sound within the app for fans to hold up
during games.
"Innovation happens
everywhere at the NBA—that is the secret to our success," Brooks says.
"Our group is trying to inspire and pull it all together."
Perhaps the biggest indicator
of the NBA's openness to change is Brooks herself. The Sacramento native is one
of the highest-ranking female executives in American
sports and, according to the University of Central Florida's 2019 NBA Racial
and Gender Report Card, NBA franchises have seven women serving in the role of
either chief executive or team president, more than in all other U.S. pro
leagues combined.
"I see
myself as an example, but my goal is to help others," Brooks says. "It's
only a matter of time before we see a female head coach in the NBA."
