Sam Zussman
(Tomeriko)
CEO of Brooklyn Nets parent company Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment says sports franchises must think in generations, not quarters.
Sam Zussman, CEO of Brooklyn Nets parent company Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, believes the business of sports differs fundamentally from almost every other industry. Unlike software executives, he says, sports owners and operators cannot fully control their product, only the experience built around it.
“You control every line of code” in a software company, Zussman said in an interview. “I can’t control my product. I can’t control what happens on the court, can’t control what happens on any given night.”
Instead, he argues, sports executives operate in what he calls “human unscripted drama,” where the focus is on ensuring fans leave with a memorable experience regardless of whether the team wins or loses.
The challenge is amplified by the emotional relationship fans have with teams. “Fans have a very different relationship with your product,” he said. “They feel like they’re sort of a minority owner. They feel invested.”
That dynamic shapes everything from ticket pricing to long-term strategy. “When you raise prices, you have to think about how fans would respond and what happens to loyalty,” he said.
For Zussman, one of the key lessons from sports is that companies outside the industry may be thinking about customers too narrowly. “I realized it’s probably the healthier view for them to view their customers as fans,” he said, “as opposed to us thinking about our customers any differently.”
The long-term thinking extends well beyond quarterly financial targets. Zussman said words such as “revenue” or “EBITDA” do not even appear in the company’s business plan.
“It’s not because I don’t like money,” he said. “It’s because I believe that you don’t have levers that increase revenue in the long run. You have operating levers, you have product levers that you have to pull.”
One of those levers is grassroots basketball. Zussman noted that the Nets moved to Brooklyn only 14 years ago and lack the generational fan base of older franchises.
“We don’t have this generational fandom,” he said. “You became a fan of a team somewhere between the age of six and 10.”
That realization led to the creation of “Brooklyn Basketball,” an initiative that provides clinics for roughly 40,000 children a year in public schools and community facilities. While the program costs millions of dollars annually, Zussman frames it as a decades-long investment in loyalty.
“The revenue is a stream of season ticket holders that could be season ticket holders for 50 or 60 years starting 10 or 15 years from now,” he said.
Like many executives, Zussman is also grappling with the impact of artificial intelligence. But unlike many industries rushing to place AI directly in front of customers, he said sports organizations must be careful not to undermine the live experience itself.
“You already have a superior technological solution,” he said, referring to watching games at home on large screens with replay controls and greater comfort. “Yet people get in a car, subway, whatever, they spend a lot of money on a ticket ... just to physically be there.”
“There is no substitute for the passion, the energy, the experience, the memory of being there,” he added.
As a result, the company is using AI primarily behind the scenes. Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment has hired a vice-president of AI and is using the technology to improve operations, create efficiencies and encourage internal experimentation.
“We’re firm believers in AI literacy,” Zussman said. Employees are being incentivized financially to build what he described as “digital employees” and internal AI-driven capabilities.
Zussman also addressed the recent drafting of Israeli players Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf by the Nets, stressing that decisions were based strictly on merit. “They were the two best players that our GM and our front office picked at those positions,” he said.
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But he also spoke at length about his connection to Israel and his involvement with Irgun Nechei Zahal in the United States.
“Being an Israeli, being born and raised in Israel and serving in the IDF, that’s a really important thing,” he said.
He described bringing wounded Israeli soldiers to New York following the October 7 attacks, including visits to Nets practices, games and the United Nations.
“You could see that they felt the warm embrace of the Jewish community,” he said. “You could see that they felt like there’s life after.”
Watch the full interview in the video above.