New President of NJ Devils on Building a Fan-First Culture

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Jake Reynolds, President, New Jersey Devils, to talk about his newly expanded role and the importance of building a “fan-first culture”.

11/4/19 #2257

Excerpt:

"Welcome to One on One. Hey listen, you don't have to love hockey. You just have to appreciate a good sports team. And right now, we're gonna talk to the president of the New Jersey Devils, Jake Reynolds. By the way, let folks know, as we're taping here in Brick City, Newark, New Jersey, NJTV Studios, where are you guys based? We're based right here in the heart of Newark. Right around the corner at "The Rock?" Right around the corner. What did you say the slogan was? Rock The Rock. Rock The Rock? It's gonna be an exciting year for the Devils. Now let's make it clear. We're taping on the 3rd of October, they open on the 4th? We are not a sports program that looks at X's and O's and analyzes the team in detail, but go ahead. Make your prediction. I think the team is going to surprise some people this year. We have incredible expectations And if you go into that locker room, and you ask anybody in our organization, we have high hopes, not just for this year, but over the course of the next five years, to build a team that is going to sustainably compete. You know, I'm curious about this. We were just talking before, there are eleven professional sports teams in the New York-New Jersey market? Yes. There's another hockey team that plays across the river at the Garden... I cannot think of their name right now, and one that I think is still in Long Island as of today? How competitive? We'll leave those be. Yeah. How competitive? You know, it's interesting. One of the things that we take a tremendous amount of pride in is being New Jersey's team. We're the only team of those eleven that have New Jersey across our chest. So it is something that we are incredibly passion about tapping into the state of New Jersey and representing New Jersey, and especially, as you mentioned, here in Newark. Yeah, talk about the Jersey sports fan, because it... for those of us who are New York Giants fans, we're very aware of the fact that they're called the New York Giants over in East Rutherford. Isn't that funny? Talk about the New Jersey sports fan. They are so passionate and so loyal, and they care so much. And we've seen some incredible examples of that, obviously starting with this Summer, with the NHL Draft, the fact that we ended up getting the number one pick, the response that we have seen from the fan base has been absolutely incredible. Talk about that Draft. Who did you get out of it? And why does it matter? So it started the Draft lottery. We were local here. We had about 50 employees... Woah! Whoa. What am I looking..."