Saltzman Named New Atlanta Hawks CCO

Manhattan in the early 1970s naturally meant being a diehard fan of the Joe Namath-quarterbacked Jets and the great Knicks teams headlined by Bill Bradley and Walt Frazier. He loved all sports, particularly basketball, and grew even more enamored of the game when he was a freshman at Georgetown University in 1984 and the Hoyas won a national title. But Saltzman, who’s now lived in Atlanta for 27 years, never expected to be making a career out of sports, a great irony considering just last month he was promoted to President of Business Enterprise & Chief Commercial Officer for the Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena.

“I never set out to be in the world of sports as a business. I really didn’t,” explained Saltzman, who since 2015 has been the Hawks’ Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer. “I knew that I wanted to be in sales and that I wanted to drive revenue. I don’t think back then you thought of sports as an industry that you could get into. Nowadays, every other call I get, it seems like is a friend or a partner or a colleague or someone I know saying, ‘Hey, can you meet with my son or daughter?’ They love sports. They want to be in the business.”

Indeed, Saltzman’s path to a now-decades-long career in pro sports was a circuitous one. His first job out of Georgetown was loading and driving a UPS package truck in Nantucket, Mass. Shortly thereafter he moved over 3,000 miles away to San Francisco where he got a job selling airtime at a rock ‘n roll radio station – a gig that, by his estimation, enabled him to attend dozens of Grateful Dead concerts. But sports remained his undying passion and by the mid-90s, sports radio was starting to become all the rage for a certain demographic of listeners. So, in 1997, Saltzman and his wife settled in Atlanta, where he co-founded and became president of Atlanta’s first sports radio station, 790/The Zone, before ultimately getting hired by the Hawks nine years ago.

Which meant instead of chronicling the Hawks, he was now waist-deep in the franchise’s ticketing, sponsorship, and hospitality lines of business.

“I didn’t realize how complex a business it really is, being on the team side,” acknowledged Saltzman.

As the Hawks have made great strides in becoming more ingrained in the fabric of the Atlanta community over the past decade, Saltzman came to another realization.

“I really didn’t fully comprehend how much a sports team can impact a community in such a positive way,” added Saltzman, who takes great pride in the fact that State Farm Arena was transformed into a polling precinct during the national election cycle in 2020 (55,000 voters streamed through the arena in 20 minutes during the heart of the pandemic) and that the Million Meal Pack has emerged as an annual event having such a profound impact on the Atlanta community by addressing food insecurity.

In his new post, Saltzman will be chiefly responsible for capitalizing on new commercial opportunities via new strategic integrations and partnerships, many of which involve the Centennial Yards downtown district, slated to launch next year.

“We believe in downtown,” Saltzman proudly stated. “It’s exciting to look out our window and see these five or six cranes.

“You look at what sports and entertainment venues have become and we like to say we think they’ve become the new anchor tenants of malls. Back in the day, you went to a mall, and you had a Macy’s or a Bloomingdale’s that would drive in the traffic for all the other retailers. Well now, sports and entertainment venues have really become that. What the Braves have done with The Battery is truly beyond impressive.”

As the development process comes to fruition in the ensuing months – the mixed-use district will have, among other features, a 300-key hotel and 300-person apartment building – the primary focus becomes finding the optimal means to leverage State Farm Arena’s prime location toward driving forward new business ventures around the slew of mega events (2024 College Football National Championship Game, World Cup Games in summer 2026, Men’s Final Four in 2031, a potential Super Bowl) that will be descending on downtown.

“This is a really, really exciting opportunity,” Saltzman added.

Of course, Saltzman never would have been so intricately involved in the transformative process – and its enticing potential — had he not made the cross-country trip to Atlanta just after the 1996 Summer Olympics and decided to stay put down south. For that, he is quick to credit how welcoming the Jewish community was when he arrived late last century. In fact, one of the very first people he met when he moved to Atlanta was Steve Selig, who at the time was President of the Atlanta Jewish Federation and graciously hosted Saltzman for Jewish holidays during his first year in town. While Saltzman refers to Selig as “the trunk of my Jewish tree here,” he has also grown very close with Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple, where his two sons would celebrate their bar mitzvahs.

“I just have incredible respect for Rabbi Peter Berg,” said Saltzman. “He’s become a friend and confidant at times.”

Though Saltzman will never forget his New York roots – and, in particular his old stomping grounds of Madison Square Garden – he fully considers himself an adopted son of Atlanta, the city where he has now lived longer than anywhere else.

“Anybody who will listen, I will tell them what an amazing city this is,” raved Saltzman. “Specifically, the Jewish community has been so incredible for me and my family.”