Dave Checketts is among the nation’s foremost sports entrepreneurs, and has been the guiding force behind the Real Salt Lake soccer team in Utah, as well as its glistening new Rio Tinto Stadium located in the suburban town of Sandy — not far south from his boyhood home in Bountiful, Utah.
The 54-year-old former president of both the New York Knicks and Utah Jazz of the NBA also owns the St. Louis Blues of the NHL, and has acquired two entertainment production companies and a sports radio station in Salt Lake City as part of his portfolio as the founder of SCP Worldwide.
He is the scheduled keynote speaker Thursday, June 24 at the Associated Press Sports Editors’ annual convention in Salt Lake City.
Checketts founded his company in 2001, shortly after a noteworthy career as the president and chief executive of Madison Square Garden in New York City.
There, Checketts oversaw all operations of one of the world’s most powerful sports and entertainment companies, which included not just the namesake arena but its three pro sports franchises — the Knicks, the New York Rangers of the NHL and the New York Liberty of the WNBA — as well as the MSG Network and Fox Sports Network. He also
spearheaded the restoration of the famous Radio City Musical Hall in New York City, and came to know some of the biggest athletes and performers on the planet.
It was a spectacular leap for a kid from small-town Utah.
But Checketts enjoyed an early start.
After attending both the University of Utah and Brigham Young University — he matriculated as an undergraduate from one rival, then graduated from the other with a master’s degree in business administration — he took a job with the renowned consulting firm Bain & Co.
There, he was analyzing professional basketball teams for a prospective investor in 1983 when he sought an unsolicited audience with Larry O’Brien, then the commissioner of the NBA, which at the time was only a modestly successful league.
But O’Brien wasn’t in, and Checketts wound up meeting with an executive vice president named David Stern. The two hit it off, arguing about league values and business models. Soon, the man who eventually would become commissioner of the increasingly powerful NBA recommended Checketts for a job as president of the Jazz — which Checketts landed at the ripe old age of 28 years old.
From there, it was a rocket ride to the top.
Checketts helped turned the struggling Jazz into a formidable franchise, then departed to spend a year as general manager of NBA International before joining the Knicks. He engineered some successes — the Knicks reached the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals twice in his four years as president, but never won a championship despite setting attendance and revenue records — but also some failures with both the Knicks and the Rangers that helped lead to his ouster from MSG in 2001.
Since then, he has focused on building his sports empire, and continues to serve on a number of corporate boards of directors.
He resides primarily in Connecticut with his wife Deb. They have six children and four grandchildren.
The deadline for the $200 registration fee is June 1, and APSE members should have received registration forms and a listing of social activities in the mail. If you have not, e-mail Executive Director Jack Berninger at jackapse@aol.com or at 804-741-1565. To see an outline of convention events, click here.
In a change from past years, one registration fee allows multiple people from your organization to attend. Register for the hotel, the Marriott City Center, by calling 877-907-4491. The group code is APS (no E).
