Sports Facilities: From Venue Ops to City Builder: The Changing Job of Facilities Leadership

Wednesday, September 16 | 12:30 PM ET

Sports Facilities

From Venue Ops to City Builder: The Changing Job of Facilities Leadership

The role of facilities leadership is expanding far beyond event-day operations. Today's venue executives are increasingly responsible for mixed-use districts, real estate development, capital planning, revenue generation, and community engagement strategies that extend well beyond the venue footprint. This episode will explore the evolving responsibilities of sports facilities leaders and examine the skills required to lead increasingly complex development and operations portfolios.

What We Will Discuss:

• How facilities executives are becoming key leaders in real estate development, district planning, and long-term growth strategies.
• The new executive skillset required to manage construction projects, stakeholder relationships, partnerships, and risk management.
• How organizations structure facilities, real estate, and venue operations teams—and why those reporting models matter.
• The expanding definition of success, including revenue generation, fan experience, year-round activation, and community impact.
• Career lessons and leadership perspectives from executives overseeing some of the industry's most ambitious venue and district projects.

Who Should Attend:

• Venue executives
• Team presidents and senior leadership
• Operations and facilities professionals
• Real estate and development executives
• Venue operators
• Architects and consultants
• District development stakeholders
• Anyone responsible for venue strategy, capital planning, or sports infrastructure development

Featured Speakers

Antony Bonavita is the Executive Vice President, Chief Venues and Development Officer of Rock Entertainment Group (REG), the entity behind Chairman Dan Gilbert's Rock Family of Companies. REG encompasses the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers, the Cleveland WNBA 2028 Cleveland Sirens, the AHL Cleveland Monsters, the NBA G League Cleveland Charge and Rock Entertainment Sports Network (RESN). REG operates and manages Rocket Arena, Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center, Meet Me Here Plaza and Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence, Ohio. In partnership with Bedrock Cleveland, REG is growing downtown Cleveland's experiential economy through an expanding portfolio of development projects, including Rock Block, Cosm Cleveland and a newly announced outdoor amphitheater.

Jake Burns joined Tepper Sports & Entertainment in April 2021 and serves as the Chief Strategy and Development Officer. In his role, Burns focuses on forward-looking, high-level strategic initiatives, encompassing commercial endeavors of significant impact across the enterprise, while also leading the renovation and modernization efforts of Bank of America Stadium.

Chelsea Lipocky is Head of Stadium Revenue and Strategy for the Tennessee Titans and Nissan Stadium, focused on stadium programming, private events, and the future stadium's food and beverage program and merchandise operations.  In her previous role with the team, Lipocky was on the Partnerships team, supporting the activation and sales teams, focusing on partnership strategy, inventory and proposal development and client relations.  She previously held similar positions with the Los Angeles Rams and SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park.   

Registration is free. All registrants will receive a recording of the webinar following the event.

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