I worked for the San Antonio Spurs from October of 1999 through May of 2002, and one of my tasks was updating an email database. The only person who had access was Tod, so I would have to kick him out of his office for a few minutes while I replied to emails, updated email addresses and unsubscribed email addresses. Even on my last day, I was in his office!
His son Chris was a quarterback at Madison High School, and when I was doing stats for Madison (which, was a lot games as they were one of the top teams in the city at that time), he would always light up my stat board.
I didn’t realize they were related till after I left the Spurs. Tod and I connected through social media, and I saw some highlights and memories of Chris playing arena football. Pretty cool connection.
Where are you from?
I’m originally from Wisconsin. My father was a research scientist so we moved around a lot as a kid with him working on different medical research projects – Minnesota, Texas, New Mexico and Massachusetts
What brought you to San Antonio?
I was recruited for a job with Clarke American after spending a few years working for IBM and EDS in Dallas. It seemed like a good move for me and my family.
Did you want to be in the sports industry or did you go where jobs were?
It was never in my plan. I was doing computer graphics work and enjoying that but a merger had me traveling a lot and we had little kids at home.
How did you get the job as the Director of Information Technology with the San Antonio Spurs?
As I started to look for a job that had little or no travel, I ran down a series of networking connections which ultimately lead me to having lunch with a woman who knew Russ Bookbinder, President of the Spurs. She shared his office number.
I called Russ and introduced myself and made my pitch about my talents. It turns out they were looking for someone to do computer graphic work for Spurs games and support their small computer network in the front office.
What would a typical game day and non-game day look like?
Both typically started early. Game days included a production meeting to go over the game operations timeline. They would confirm any special graphics or animation needs would be ready. The larger, more elaborate elements we’d usually be given as much time in advance to prepare that they could. I’d usually be creating animations like the dot races a few at a time so we wouldn’t get repetitive and there were special versions like when the Spurs went from flying commercial to private – so I did an animation where the dots landed, deplaned, raced and got back on the plane a took off. We’d also have guest dots sometimes. On non-game days (and game days during regular business hours) I’d work on network, ticketing or server-related needs as well as supporting end-user issues.
What were your duties and responsibilities?
Duties and responsibilities were pretty much keeping the computer operations working in the front office – business, sales, executive, ticketing and team operations – all working so the staff could do their jobs.
At first it was just me but as the staff grew and more technology was integrating into the business of sports in general, I added an intern for help, who was solely focused on staff support, then eventually was able to make the case for full-time people, one by one.
Once we opened the AT&T Center (SBC Center at the time, now the Frost Bank Center) in 2002, the technology operations of the Spurs and subsequent teams I worked for were pretty similar. It was just a matter of scale.
The Spurs staff tripled in size by 2002 as we not only took on operating the arena (we were tenants at the Hemisphere Arena and Alamodome prior) but also added non-Spurs event booking and operations, a minor league hockey team (the Rampage) and an WNBA team (Silver Stars).
I saw you provided graphics and animations for the Spurs Jumbotron, any interesting requests from fans?
Not so much requests from fans but really internally to keep upping our level of fan experience. That’s where small market teams live, especially if they are mediocre, to keep people coming back despite not winning. We were really good at that and we had some of the best in the business at the time between Bruce Guthrie, Wendy Welsh and Don Costante.
Who came up with the popular dot races?
Not sure who came up with that as pretty much every team was doing them, or some variation. We had an outside firm doing ours until I showed up.
Why did you leave the San Antonio Spurs for the New Orleans Hornets?
I had been leading technology at the Spurs for 17 years, 5 at the new arena. We had just won our fourth NBA Championship – so I had one for each of my kids. Budgets had flattened and operations became pretty routine. I liked to try new technologies and work on new projects and those just weren’t in the cards.
In 2007, the Hornets were returning to New Orleans after having spent the previous 2 years in Oklahoma City due to the damage to the New Orleans Arena by Hurricane Katrina. This was an opportunity for me to literally build everything up from scratch – network, staff, support, office and arena. It was perfect and I quickly fit in with the staff and team personnel as we all had a common mission. They were some of the best years of my career despite the team being so-so because we were like family.
Why did you leave the New Orleans Hornets for the Memphis Grizzlies?
Despite all of the great stuff we did as a group at the Hornets, the team struggled a bit financially and went through 2 ownership changes in the 5 years I was there. As tenants at the New Orleans Arena we had little control over improving the place, even when we were willing the pay for it. That was frustrating for me after driving technology at the AT&T Center. One day I got a call from my friend, the VP of IT at the Memphis Grizzlies, who I had helped with technology design for the FedEx Forum as they used the same basic building structure as the AT&T Center. He told me “Friday’s my last day with the Grizzlies, someone from HR will be calling you. The job’s yours if you want it.”
This was intriguing as the Grizzlies operated the FedEx Forum and venue technologies like digital signage and WiFi were just starting to take off. Plus the Grizzlies were coming off a deep playoff run and much more competitive team than the Hornets. I got that call from HR, flew up for an interview and they offered me the job. Easy Peasy. The irony there is the week after I started they announced an ownership change. I thought I’d be safe as I survived the ownership change at the Spurs and 2 at the Hornets. But when the new owner is a tech guy out of San Jose and guts the executive staff at the end of the season, the VP of IT goes too.
I jokingly tell people that I had season tickets for all of the seasons and all of the teams I worked for (27 years), but can probably count on one hand with fingers left over how many times I actually used them. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the games, some were obviously better than others, but I never used my tickets. I preferred to walk around and observe, make sure things were working like they should and help out where I was needed.
Why did you leave the Memphis Grizzlies for the Detroit Red Wings?
Ownership change as I described above – pretty much the entire executive staff saw the door.
Why did you leave the Detroit Red Wings for the Minnesota Vikings?
For a very long time I had wanted to work for an NFL team. And knowing quite a few NFL IT guys and talking with them, the responsibilities were pretty much identical to NBA and NHL. And fewer games though they tended to be outdoors mostly. I got a call from a recruiter inquiring about my interest in joining the Vikings and I let him know I was his man – despite being from Wisconsin and a Packer fan my whole life. At the time the Vikings were in the final stages of building the US Bank Stadium and planning to build a new practice facility and mixed use development (Viking Lakes). At the time, I was half way through the Little Caesars Arena construction project and doing some work with District Detroit so there were a lot of parallels. After a few phone interviews and couple trips out to Minneapolis, the Vikings made me an offer.
Do you have any memorable games or players?
Lots over 27 years …
May 31, 1999 – Spurs Playoff game versus Portland where Sean Elliott hit the 3-pointer from the corner of the court. That propelled us into our first Championship.
November 4, 1994 – Opening night, Spurs versus Golden State at the Alamodome when some pyrotechnics triggered a water cannon that drenched the baseline stands.
George Gervin – I loved when he came into the Spurs office, such a good guy. I got to know him outside the office as he was an avid golfer. My wife and I lead the booster club at Madison High School while our son Chris played football there. The booster club would host a golf fundraiser each year and George would come out and help raise money by playing with teams and judging longest drive, longest putt competitions.
Coach Pop – I got to know him originally when he was an Assistant Coach under Larry Brown and was very excited when he returned as Head Coach/GM. Another great guy as everyone knows, so good with people and relationships. Explains why he’s been around for so long.
Any fun run-ins with players or coaches?
Larry Bird – ran into him after shoot around one morning at the Alamodome when he was coaching the Pacers. Told him I loved watching him play at the Celtics while I was in college and my roommate and I would run into Boston to see Celtics games. He had some funny stories to share.
Charles Barkley – He was the only player from the Suns that showed up at the Alamodome for shoot around the morning of a game. I was working on some equipment courtside, and a missed shot sent the ball my direction. We talked for a while, I shagged some shots for him as he looked/seemed very hungover from hanging out at Dick’s Last Resort on the River Walk the night before. I figured he’d be a mess for the game – totally wrong as he hung like 40 points on us that night.
Magic Johnson – I don’t recall which All-Star weekend it was (I worked a lot of them as I was an SME for an NBA partner courtside system) but I was called down to work on some equipment. I approached from behind the benches and there were some guys sitting on the cabinet I needed to get into, talking. I tapped the near guy on the back and said I needed to get into the cabinet to work. He stood up, turned around – Magic Johnson – and was very apologetic about being in the way. He then asked what the equipment did and watched and asked questions while I fixed it.
Any fixes on computers where it was a very simple thing and you just wanted to laugh (you don’t have name names)?
That happened a lot. Too many to recall specifics. But as a support guy you’re thankful for them as it gives you time back to work on the really tough problems.
What is the difference between working for an NBA team, an NHL team, and an NFL team?
NBA and NHL are practically identical – venue, schedule, time of year. NFL is a little different animal as the venues varied between open and enclosed, far fewer games and bigger budgets. In hindsight, I liked the NBA and NHL work more as the pace was faster and the NBA/NHL teams seem more nimble, less risk averse and innovative when it comes to technology.
If you had to go back to one team, which would you choose?
My wife would divorce me if I chose Detroit or Minnesota due to the weather. I’d go back to San Antonio as there are a lot of friends still there. But if I had to choose one, it’d be New Orleans. Despite the hurricane threat (we went through 2 while we were there), it’s such a cool place to live. The weather is great if you don’t mind humidity and there’s so much history. And as someone with deep farmer roots, I loved growing things there. We had lemon trees, Satsuma (orange) trees and grapes.
What are you doing now?
When I left the Vikings I started my own sports technology consulting practice, TechFoundry (TechFoundryLLC.com), which I still operate. A year after starting TechFoundry, the venue technology vendor partner team at CenturyLink (now Lumen) that I worked with on the Little Caesars Arena, US Bank Stadium and Vikings Practice Facility reached out and made me an offer which I accepted. I worked with CenturyLink/Lumen on a multitude of stadium and arena projects in the professional and collegiate ranks, along with mixed use developments, entertainment districts and smart campus for almost the past 6 years. The most recent high profile project was doing the technology integration at Globe Life Field with the Texas Rangers. Lumen has been struggling financially though and I was victim of the most recent reduction in force this spring. The silver lining however, as they say when one door closes, another opens. For many years a longtime sports tech friend who works for an International Olympic Committee partner has been asking me to come and work with him at the Olympics. Door open! So very soon I’ll be headed to Paris for the summer to manage tech support in some of the competition venues for the Olympics and Paralympics.
What does Tod do for fun?
As it doesn’t seem that I can get far from technology, I’ve developed a real passion for smart home technology. I started deploying smart home devices after we bought our home in Minnesota and it’s just taken off. As Debbie and I have been planning a new home build since before the pandemic it’s given me a lot of time to research and develop the entire technology roadmap for the project. A while back I realized I have a mountain of data and I was helping family and friends with their smart home needs so I decided to document what I was planning and how I would incorporate it into our new home. So I started the smart home site SmartHomeOnTheRange.com. I post every week on new smart home tech, trends, news and updates on our house build.
Another site I spun up is DecisionsWereMade.com. This one is strictly for fun as it’s crowdsourced content for the most part of weird pictures, usually in grocery stores (Walmart tends to be a goldmine), of odd places and things that people drop off along their shopping experience – like baby food dropped off in a beer cooler next to the Coors Light. It’s really a study in people, their priorities and the decisions they make in a fun format.
In the non-technology world, Debbie and I are regulars at the gym and enjoy exercise there. We also have a small garden which allows me to reconnect with my farmer roots – there are lots of plans for fruit trees and grapes at our new home once we get further into that. Debbie and I have also been doing some antique shopping for interesting items to build into our new home. We also enjoy spending time with friends and family which are spread all over the country so we have the opportunity to travel pretty frequently.