Somewhere, Red Auerbach must be smiling. The biggest story of the 2007-2008 NBA season has been the Boston Celtics. First, it was the late June trade that brought Ray Allen over from the Sonics, and then the icing on the cake was the blockbuster deal that brought Kevin Garnett over from the Timberwolves. Throw in Paul Pierce, and the Celtics have one of the most exciting trios the NBA has seen in recent memory. That has created a team, that as of publication, has yet to lose in double-digits (39-9), are a staggering 13 games up on Toronto in the Atlantic Division and 3 games up on the Pistons in the Eastern Conference.

What that has translated to in Boston is a renewed buzz about the Celtics. The Celtics finished an anemic 24-58, 23 games out of first last year. Worst to first this year? Might as well bank on it.

In the midst of this renewed interest, is Rich Gotham, President of the Celtics.

In June of 2006, Gotham was named Chief Operating Officer for the Boston Celtics. From April 2003 through June 2006, Gotham served as Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Corporate Development for the Celtics.

In April of 2007, Rich Gotham was promoted to team President, oversees all business operations for the Celtics, and reports directly to CEO and Managing Partner Wyc Grousbeck.

The following interview covers how the Celtics see themselves in the competitive New England sports market, the marketability factor of the Celtics since acquiring Kevin Garnett, they’re efforts from a sponsorship perspective, how they are situated in terms of full-season and single game ticket sales, their relationship with TicketReserve.com for postseason tickets, whether there will be an increase in courtside seats at TD Banknorth Garden, the new “Celtics On Demand” deal with Comcast, community based sponsorship relationships, and initiatives that the Celtics are working on for the future, and much, much more.

Select Read More to see the interview with Rich Gotham

Maury Brown for the Business of Sports Network: New England sports is going through an incredibly successful run as of late. Between the Red Sox, Patriots, Boston College… even the Bruins have improved this season. Is there extra pressure on the Celtics organization to try and raise the bar to compete in the Boston market, or do you see the increased visibility of the other sports options in the market as a plus?

Rich Gotham: I think in Boston there’s always pressure to have a good team. It’s a fan expectation. I think it's healthy pressure, and it’s pressure we’ve embraced. At the same time, as team operator, there’s no such thing as a quick fix. I think a lot of people are under the impression that we turned it around over night, but the reality is it took us almost four years to get in a position where we could make the moves that we made this summer to land Ray Allen and then KG. So we’ve always felt pressure to be successful, but at the same time as a responsible team operator, you have to have the right mix of high expectations, but patience, so that you’re not making short-sided moves.

Bizball: From a marketability standpoint, the addition of Kevin Garnett is arguably the biggest name in a Celtics uniform since Larry Bird. Is the resurgence of interest in the Celtics about the acquisition of Garnett, or is it about Garnett along with Allen and Pierce as an All-Star trio that helped fuel interest at the beginning of the season?

Gotham: I actually think it’s both. I certainly think the KG acquisition was the catalyst for the growth we’ve enjoyed this year; but it’s KG being added to Paul Pierce and Ray Allen that really made it special. That’s what fans really stood up and recognized. I think the conventional wisdom was that after we made the acquisition for Ray Allen that we really didn’t have enough left to go out and acquire someone of KG’s caliber. And when we did, people sort of woke up and said, “Wow, this team’s got Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett?” So the Garnett deal was what was the catalyst, but the three guys together… that was really compelling to fans and really anyone who follows the NBA.

Bizball: The Celtics must certainly be feeling positive about matters, since early October you began approaching current companies that are team sponsors about a multi-year presenting sponsorship agreement that ties into the postseason. How big of a gamble was that early approach, and do you have a targeted date when you will announce the presenting sponsor?

Gotham: We don’t have a targeted date to announce a presenting sponsor, but what has really happened is by putting that out there – while we haven’t actually sold the presenting sponsorship yet – what we did is sort of shook the trees to see what companies and businesses out there were interested in leveraging a unique partnership to build awareness in this market. It’s been successful in that we’ve started conversations with three or four different companies, with the starting point being season presenting sponsorship, which has turned into sizable deals, but not season sponsorship deals. So, it’s been good in terms of generating interest. But at the same time, we’ve been very cautious in our dialogue about that. We haven’t wanted to just go do a deal with anyone. It’s got to be the right brand. It’s got to be the alignment of goals. So we’re still actually looking at that. We haven’t announced it yet, but were going to do a playoff presenting sponsorship. But we haven’t done a full year presenting sponsorship at this point.

Bizball: The Celtics were recently recognized at the league’s sales and marketing meetings for selling more than 2,000 new full-season tickets. To date, can you estimate how many total new full-season tickets the Celtics have sold?

Gotham: I’ll put it this way: We’ve just about doubled our season ticket holder base, so it’s been a good deal more than 2000. We’ve really ratcheted-up since July; it’s just been a wave of demand, to the extent where we actually put a cap on season tickets. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had any individual ticket inventory left over, and we wanted to give ourselves some flexibility from an inventory management standpoint. There were some other programs that we had plans for the season. So the number could be a higher number, we put a cap on it. Were going to look at adding a couple thousand new full-season ticket accounts going into the ’08-’09 season as well. We’ve had good growth, and that growth we expect to continue in ’08-’09.

Bizball: In early December, the Celtics had seen overall ticket sales increase by 11 percent from the year prior. With Garnett being injured, have ticket sales remained brisk? Has it impacted ticket sales?

Gotham: No, it hasn’t. We are effectively sold out for the season. So the team is 5-2 without KG, which is a real tribute to the players and Doc [Rivers]. The demand has remained really strong, and the reality is that we’ve been operating within the shadow of the Patriots fantastic season. While the Celtics have been a huge story nationally, locally, the Patriots have been such a big story that people haven’t turned their attention fully to basketball. Now that the Super Bowl is by us, there are more people looking to the Celtics, and the ticket is getting tougher and tougher to purchase.

Bizball: The Celtics are already taking reservations for playoff game tickets through TicketReserve.com. You started the program in, I believe, January, without setting ticket prices for the postseason. How is that program going, and have the Celtics set prices yet for the playoffs?

Gotham: The program is doing great. I think if you talk to the TickerReserve folks, they will tell you that we’ve been their single-biggest on sale. We have not set single ticket pricing yet. We will probably do that at some point in mid to late-February, probably after the All-Star Break at some point. We’re about ready to go on that. I think the idea behind the TicketReserve partnership and futures options, if you will in general, is that people believe that it will be easier and more cost effective to reserve a ticket that way, than it will be to try to go out and acquire a ticket on the secondary market. Unless you’re a season-ticket holder, it’s going to be next to impossible to get your hands on playoff tickets. I think the people who are doing the TicketReserve thing are effectively hedging their bets and they are pretty smart because with the TicketReserve marketplace, there’s a limit at least in the first round, on what an auction costs.

Bizball: Courtside seats have become an incredibly lucrative revenue stream. As an example, VIP boxes at Madison Square Garden are going for $800,000 each on an annual basis this year. The Celtics have the lowest number of courtside seats in the NBA at 122 at the TD Banknorth Garden. Is there any consideration by the Celtics in increasing this figure in an effort to further maximize this revenue stream?

Gotham: Yes, there is. We look at that every season, and we try to find the right balance. One of the things that drives our courtside seating number is the fact that our arena bowl is much smaller than most arenas and our foot print is much smaller than most arenas. It’s just based on the fact that our arena is built on a small lot in the middle of downtown Boston. That intimacy gives us a great game experience, it’s such a loud home court advantage, but at the same time, we have less room around courtside than a lot of the other arenas do. We are currently looking at some reconfiguration plans; some projects that we'll implement during the off-season, which will free up quite a few more courtside seats for us. It’s something that we look at every year and say,”How can we create more than beachfront real estate?”

Bizball: Shifting gears, the Celtics recently partnered with Comcast SportsNet to offer a video on demand package labeled “Celtics On Demand” in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Can you go over what this package means to fans, and what it means for the Celtics?

Gotham: Sure. Celtics On Demand is a way for Celtics fans and Comcast subscribers to get behind the scenes access to what’s going on with the team, get more insight into the players, and their personalities—what they do off the court. At the same time, also get to hear directly from people who are running the organization. Whether that’s Danny Ainge, or Doc Rivers, or ownership and their point of view on what were trying to accomplish, how we’ve put this team together, where we are with our program... everything from commentary on things we’re doing in the community to post-game news conferences. So, it's fresh, unique content, which is great for Celtics fans. For the Celtics, our goal is to have more content and more opportunities for fans to engage with us. Video on demand and Celtics On Demand is a great way to do that.

Bizball: The Celtics, along with other franchises such as the Blazers, have been very visible in community based sponsorship activation. The deal that the Celtics have with Re/Max is a good example where basketball courts are being refurbished. Do you see this as a model that the NBA would like to see all franchises move toward?

Gotham: I think it’s something that a lot of franchises do. I think it makes great sense for sponsors. The reason I think it makes sense for sponsors is that if you’re a brand trying to make a connection within the community that you’re operating in, it’s a challenge to create that emotional appeal. If you look at the different sports team—particularly in Boston, the sports teams are so beloved, and play such a big role in the community—by affiliating your brand with one of the sports teams, in this case the Celtics, you’re really tapping into something that allows you to better position your brand as a brand that gives back and is a part of the fabric of the community. Specifically, if you are coming from out of market and you don’t have a big presence, or if you’re really looking to generate awareness. So it not only benefits the sponsor and the team, but it also benefits the recipients in the communities because it provides a source of funding, as well for these programs that gives them some addition lift that otherwise would be hard to come by.

Bizball: Finally, what initiatives are the Celtics working on for the future?

Gotham: One of the things we’ve begun to focus on this season—and will continue to build out—is our content and our programming. Celtics On Demand is a good proof point, but we’ve also launched a new Celtics lifestyle show this season called “Celtics Now” and we’re looking at a couple weekly show type opportunities. We’re looking at different opportunities to get our game telecasts broadcast to a wider audience. Were looking at digital rights, at the local level, to see what opportunities might exist for streaming media, streaming video, video on demand. There’s a lot right now that’s on the plate. When it comes to ticketing, were looking at ancillary ticketing revenue streams. Ticket reserve is a good example of that. Where there’s excess demand for tickets, were looking for creative ways to package tickets and deliver tickets in the market. There’s a lot on our plate right now, there’s really no end to the amount of opportunity. We’re in a very fortunate position. There’s a lot of demand for what were doing right now. For the past few years we’ve been growing our business—fortunately that’s even in the face of some tough times on the court—we’ve actually had to grow our business, our tickets sales, attendance, T.V. ratings. So we’ve raised the floor on the business the last few years, but now that the team is winning, the ceiling has gone up and we’re entertaining a lot of more new business development type opportunities.

Interview conducted by Maury Brown on 2/11/2007

Transcribed by Nick Kappel

Editied by Maury Brown