🎙️ Going Deep E5: The San Francisco Giants "Idea Man"| Pat Gallagher

The Going Deep Podcast provides an inside look at the playbook for leadership directly from legends of sport.

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Pat Gallagher is an influential marketing and business driver whose entrepreneurial instincts and clarity of vision have carried sports, entertainment, and hospitality organizations through change and growth. His expertise in capturing the essence of an idea and molding it into effective solutions and business platforms has contributed to the creation of innovative opportunities for bottom- and top-line growth. 

Most recently, Gallagher led the development effort beginning in 2012 for the successful bid to bring Super Bowl 50 to the Bay Area. Then, as the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee's Executive Vice President of Marketing, Partnerships & Communications, supervised the creation of corporate and civic partnerships that generated over $50 Million to execute an ambitious plan that delivered the 9 days of lead up events in San Francisco and other key locations in the region culminating with the milestone Super Bowl 50 on Feb 7, 2016 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. By all accounts, the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee delivered on core objectives of being the most shared, most participatory, and most philanthropic Super Bowl ever and delivered an expected impact to the region in the hundreds of millions of dollars. More than $13 Million has been distributed to non-profits in the region to date and many industry stakeholders have agreed that the Super Bowl 50 effort has redefined how a region can come together to successfully deliver a world-class event.  

 Prior to the Super Bowl 50 Committee, Pat became known as the longest serving "idea man" in San Francisco Giants history and one of the most creative marketing and business minds in professional sports. Hired by owner Bob Lurie in 1976 as the organization's first marketing director with the mandate to sell tickets, endear fans, engage the community and bring the franchise back to life, Pat did just that and more in his 33 year career with the Giants.

He is widely credited as the impetus behind the Giants evolution to a billion-dollar, championship caliber, organization by creating a high-performance, team-focused culture that established support a new level of quality service, pride in the uniform, and fan experience. Gallagher’s groundbreaking and memorable campaigns to sell cold and windy Candlestick Park in the 1980’s and 1990’s included the Croix de Candlestick and Crazy Crab, the anti-mascot and later Ball Dudes, first woman public address announcer in big league baseball. Gallagher and the Giants won multiple EFFIEs, a Clio, and several Major League Baseball marketing excellence awards during those years.

Gallagher was a key contributor to the business and financial cornerstones of the first privately funded Major League Baseball facility in more than four decades: Pacific Bell (now AT&T) Park which opened in 2000 on San Francisco’s waterfront. Gallagher and his team created the Charter Seat License, sale of ballpark naming rights and landmark sponsorship concepts such as the Coca-Cola Fan Lot, Splash Landing overlooking McCovey Cove and Double-Play Ticket Window, the first secondary ticket marketplace in professional sports (forerunner of StubHub). As President of Giants Enterprises, he was the force behind using the stadium for non-baseball, alternative events set the industry standard and contributed to the franchise's dramatic growth. AT&T Park has been heralded as one of the best facilities in professional sports.

Pat gained media attention internationally in 2011 for the launch of the Alternative Golf Association (Project Flogton), an organization he co-founded to bring attention to new technology and business strategies for reviving the industry by marketing to the millions of recreational golfers. His book on the subject, "Golf is Dying. Does Anyone Care?," was published in 2013.   

Gallagher also serves on the Martin Resorts Board and Wells Fargo Community Advisory Board.