The What
Our why is aspirational and cannot be fulfilled without specific goals to support it. In other words, we cannot achieve our WHY without our WHAT.
Our goals are evergreen and successfully achieving them requires effective collaboration, cross-departmental synergy, and contributions from every member of our organization. Though we expect our goals to remain the same, our strategies, projects and tactics will change from year to year to ensure that we regularly reflect on what is working and where we can adjust or improve to best achieve our long-term plans. That is why our annual strategic planning and budget processes exist.
- Audience Development
- Partner Development
- Existing Business Growth
- New Business Creation
- Team Performance
Putting the Goals into Action
Building life-long relationships with our customers is the cornerstone of a thriving sports, entertainment and hospitality business.
By the very creation of bold, authentic, and unforgettable experiences, we foster generational fandom for our teams and encourage repeat customers for our entertainment and hospitality businesses.
However, to truly build those bonds, they must be reinforced often and in many ways. As our why suggests, everything stems from having a flawless core product. From there, we must deliver on the ancillary pieces that elevate a game or show to an experience. Finally, we must create a constant feedback loop of communication to reinforce the customer relationship. At every stage, consistency is key. We must always operate at the highest level.
Let’s take the Brooklyn Nets as an example. When we moved to Brooklyn from New Jersey in 2012, we faced the challenge of establishing new bonds with fans in our new home. Studies reveal that people form deep, lifelong affiliations with teams around the ages of 8 and 9 – critical years for fostering fandom. Our mission was, and is, clear we need to win the hearts of Brooklyn’s children and their families and inspire a new generation of Nets fans.
For many years, the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Liberty hosted a handful of community youth clinics per season to reach our kids and build fandom.
Two years ago, we reflected on the program and decided to more formally invest in our youth through NYC’s vast network of schools. We created a brand (Brooklyn Basketball) that brought together both the Nets and Liberty under one umbrella, and we greatly expanded our reach through a program with the NYC Department of Education to teach clinics in more than 200 Brooklyn schools, every day. Two years later, we again pushed ourselves to consider how else we could both make an impact on a younger generation through sports and meet our goal of Audience Development, and we decided it was time to make an even bolder and bigger investment in our next generation of fans by building a physical location they can call home. Building a new youth training center across the street from our arena creates a bond with the youth of our community that will extend beyond the court. We are building both the next generation of talent and fans in a way that is authentic to our brand.
But our audience isn’t limited to sports fans. Brooklyn is a vibrant hub of innovation, creativity, and self-expression. From musicians and artists to performers and media visionaries, this borough thrives on the cutting edge of culture. Recognizing this, we launched Brooklyn Media – a platform designed to amplify the voices of our local creators. By providing an outlet for Brooklyn’s talent to shine, we celebrate the artistry that makes this community so unique.
Our reach also extends far beyond our borough – or even our city or state. We are building generational fandom in international markets around the world. Take the Paris Game in 2024 for example. Our International Marketing team used a data driven approach to develop our award-winning Brooklyn Nets in Paris campaign that brought to life unique, accessible and memorable experiences to our fans in France. The Best of Brooklyn featured a Brooklyn pizza shop, a tribute orchestra to the Notorious B.I.G., specialized merchandise and youth basketball clinics inextricably linking The Brooklyn Way to the City of Lights.
Our partners are embedded in everything we build,create, and run.
We forge partnerships with intention, selecting collaborators who align with our vision, help expand our audience, and contribute meaningfully to the community. Together, we foster authenticity and a shared commitment to leaving a lasting positive mark.
With our brand sponsors, our goal is not only to land lucrative deals, but to align ourselves with partners who share our values and think creatively about how to activate in ways that will appeal to our audience. We want to deliver value for our partners, but equally important is how they add value to our fan experience. Recently, Gallagher signed a multiyear deal with BSE that includes a new premier club in Barclays Center, again setting us apart from our industry peers through the elevated hospitality opportunities that we offer our fans. The partnership also includes a community angle with the New York Liberty through a leadership training program for hundreds of young women in our communities and microgrants to non-profit organizations who support their development.
Our relationships with event promoters, forged over years of cultivation, allow us to bring the very best talent to the arena.
Although we compete with other nationally recognized venues near us, we consistently set ourselves apart from our peers due to our reputation and professionalism. Every day we must remain consistent and vigilant in our approach to our talent promoters to ensure that they think of us first, always.
Strong relationships with our local government officials are equally imperative to our success. New York State is Barclays Center’s landlord and our close collaboration with city and state economic development officials, police, fire and other agencies keeps our patrons safe and paves the way for us to build new businesses, such as the New York Liberty Practice Facility, One Hanson and Brooklyn Basketball Training Center which require multiagency approvals for everything from zoning to parking to liquor licenses, signage requirements and more.
As an anchor of the community, we know that people look to us to set an example. Not only do we crisscross the borough to bring our brand and resources to every part of Brooklyn, but we consistently host community events in our home from youth basketball clinics to STEM days, financial literacy programs, college and job fairs and more. We also want our communities to experience our regular programming and so we give away tens of thousands of free tickets to community organizations each year. These efforts reinforce our goal to develop new audiences and cultivate longterm relationships.
Another example that showcases our commitment to the Brooklyn community is our Brooklyn Market in Barclays Center. What was once a small, underutilized area of the arena has now become a vibrant showcase of local culinary talent. We partnered with food vendors from Brooklyn, giving them the opportunity to share their unique cuisines and authentic flavors with hundreds of thousands of guests. For some, success in Brooklyn Market has even led to permanent spots in the concourse.
Finally, beyond the media we host for each game, concert and event or the stories we pitch reporters to cover our news, we also partner with media organizations to support their business goals. Recently WNBA Finals MVP, Jonquel Jones, was named one of USA Today’s Women of the Year. USA Today hosted their star-studded awards ceremony at the Toki Row. Their positive experience led them to book the space again just a few weeks later to launch Studio IX, their new multimedia women’s sports platform which will, in turn, cover the New York Liberty.
Growth isn’t just about expanding our footprint.
The Brooklyn Nets, the New York Liberty, and Barclays Center are the pillars that have defined our legacy, and their continued evolution and commitment to excellence remain a top priority. We must consistently reinvest in the businesses that are central to our identity. These core businesses not only drive our success today, but they also set the stage for the success of tomorrow.
Not only do we continue to invest in our teams to deliver the highest level of on-court performance, but we also consistently pursue improvements to our arena to push the boundaries of innovation and hospitality.
Some investments that are underway as of 2025 to continue to deliver best in class experiences are:
We are Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment.
We take seriously our commitment to our three sports teams by ensuring they have all the tools they need to win championships. But sports are just one form of entertainment – and it is our responsibility to continue to evolve as a business by widening our circle of experiences to bolster our ecosystem including comedy, magic, circus, immersive entertainment and new types of hospitality.
As we look to the future, we are actively seeking profitable business opportunities uniquely connected to the BSE ecosystem – ventures that align with our purpose, serve our passion points, and enhance the connectivity of our platform. These new businesses are vital to our evolution, enabling us to reach new audiences, expand our impact, and stay ahead in an ever-changing landscape.
We aim to add new business that have a network effect – a synergetic impact on the rest of our businesses, whether existing, or new.
Each venue, event and program serve as a gateway to the broader BSE experience, introducing customers to various offerings. For example:
Whether it’s sports, entertainment, hospitality, or cultural engagement, our business is designed to encourage customers to interact with multiple aspects of our platform.
What makes this approach unique is the synergy between our venues and our businesses. Unlike organizations with isolated ventures, our venues – and the experiences we offer within them - form the backbone of an integrated model, where every touchpoint adds value to the whole. These synergies aren’t just obvious to our customers, they exist behind the scenes because of our platform model (as we will further explain). From how we deploy technology to our marketing cross-promotions and content integration, we find meaningful efficiencies across the organization.
To achieve our WHY and deliver on our company goals, we must operate at the highest level, with conviction and confidence.
There are countless stories about how individual and team performance truly drives our goals.
When teams collaborate seamlessly, their strengths amplify each other, leading to creative breakthroughs, stronger relationships, and tangible growth across all areas. No single success happens in isolation; every win reflects the dedication, strategy, and shared vision of a well-aligned team.
That’s why each of us must also commit to hiring and developing the best talent. Our talent acquisition process starts well before we extend an offer to a new hire and welcome them through our doors. It begins with cultivating a strong company reputation, having a sense of clarity about the type of talent that will thrive at this organization and then using the necessary tools to identify that talent.
But our team performance is not just about what you do; it is also about how we invest in you.
How We Put Our People First