Sports: Q & A with Mark Hollis, Athletics Director Designate
On January 1, 2008, Mark Hollis, ’85, succeeds Ron Mason as MSU director of athletics. Hollis brings more than 20 years of athletics administration experience across nearly every area—marketing, financial administration, television negotiations, fundraising, game operations, facility management, personnel policy, corporate interaction, sports management and public relations.
While a student, Hollis worked as a basketball manager for Jud Heathcote in the 1980s. After graduation, he had stints at the Western Athletic Conference, where he worked closely with WAC commissioner Joe Kearney, former MSU athletics director, and at the University of Pittsburgh. Hollis returned to his alma mater in 1995, and has since made a dramatic impact on MSU athletics by helping increase revenue, attendance, web traffic and sales, and television exposure. He has hit a number of home runs that have elevated MSU’s profile nationally—including world-record-setting events in basketball and ice hockey, and the successful courtship of WJR 760AM Radio, a 50,000-watt Detroit station, now home to MSU football and basketball. He successfully negotiated a $2 million donation for the construction of the Berkowitz Basketball Complex, helped increase MSU’s annual corporate sponsorships from $350,000 to nearly $3 million, and most recently, spearheaded the searches that led to the hiring of Mark Dantonio as football coach and Suzy Merchant as women’s basketball coach. His successes and tremendous creativity have not gone unnoticed by his peers, who named him National Marketer of the Year in 2002.
Hollis recently met with Robert Bao, editor of the MSU Alumni Magazine, for this exclusive interview.
Q. First, congratulations on being named AD. Once upon a time, this was a position where you simply placed old football coaches. With the huge growth of intercollegiate athletics, this has evolved into a very complex, management position—as evidenced by the criteria set forth by MSU’s Board of Trustees before the search.
A. One thing I find intriguing is when you go to an automotive builder like General Motors or Ford, you see four to six basic components of running the organization. In intercollegiate athletics, we’ve identified 43 to 45 distinct different operations. More and more, you’re seeing athletic directors being hired across the country because they have touched compliance, academics, fundraising, sponsorships, and television negotiations.
Q. You’ve been exposed to all 43 to 45 separate areas—everything short of coaching.
A. I think I’m very well prepared to be the athletics director at any school in the country. I think I’m very blessed to be the athletics director at the school that I’ve grown to love. Way, way back, Dr. (Joe) Kearney told me to always remember you will love your alma mater much more than it loves you. What he meant was, “Keep your dream but realize that it may never come true, and never have any regrets that you haven’t prepared yourself for that position whether you get it or not.” You’ve seen me, I try to do things around here and I’m always trying to make the department better. Joe Kearney taught me that, Jud Heathcote taught me that.
Q. You’re taking over at a propitious moment. Recently at one of our alumni events, Joel Ferguson, chairperson of MSU’s Board of Trustees, noted we have coaches in football, hockey and men’s and women’s basketball who really want to be here, and an AD who really wants to be here.
A. Absolutely. We need to capitalize on that. This may be a good time to talk about one of my approaches to Michigan State, which is criticism. We, like a lot of places, tend to criticize for a variety of reasons. We have a group of coaches that are focused on the positives of Michigan State and criticize for the right reasons. With Tom Izzo we’ve achieved, yet we don’t seem to have the intensity that you might find at other places. Why is that? Well, rather than blame a fan or a student, let’s look internally. Let’s criticize ourselves with the aim of getting better. If you attend an event at MSU it should be fun. If it’s not fun, if it’s not enjoyable, if it’s not rewarding, if it doesn’t bring you pride, then that point should be made to the athletics director. Criticism should make us better.
Q. Mark, your concluded your press conference by saying, “Wake up Spartans, it’s our time now.” In broad terms what are your strategies for moving us to the next level?
A. The main thing—this may sound trite—is creating a formalized plan for where we want to go collectively as a department working within the university structure. What is our mission? Make sure everybody in this department and those in the university structure understand this mission. It needs to be meaningful, and it needs to be in the back of our minds every time we do something. Input will come from the people on our staff, the student-athlete, and alumni and friends. Many refer to athletics directors as CEOs but I refer to them as, “We are here to serve.” I am here to serve student-athletes, and alumni and friends.
Q. What are some key concepts that will spark your mission statement?
A. The key words will include “respect,” and “confidence.” The strategies will focus on student-athletes, front and center. We have 800-plus student-athletes. They must have what they need to be successful, whether it’s socially, academically or athletically. The next step is to make sure, not just with lip service but with engagement and excitement, that we work with the university to build this community together. We want to be an important cog that energizes the entire campus.
Q. Your view of the athletics department as a service organization is very interesting.
A. That focus is important in that we service alumni and fans and people that attend our events. I use the term “comprehensive excellence.” Are we the best that we can be? You never achieve perfection, you won’t make every fan happy, but what can we do to achieve comprehensive excellence for the best experience for the majority of fans attending events.
Q. What about on-field performance?
A. Pride comes from what we do competitively. How do we get to the Rose Bowl, to the Final Four, to a golf and a hockey championship? You stay on track and do not let special interests take you off track. You recruit student-athletes who can be successful academically and athletically. How can the university and how can the athletics director assist coaches in that process? Those are the things that we are breaking down. What does a 16- or 17-year-old look at today? What will make people want to come on campus and have events here and be energized? How do you get a group of middle school students to come here and say, “Wow, Michigan State is a great place”?
Q. You had that “wow” experience yourself as a youngster.
A. My father brought me to Jenison Field House, and I can show you the exact seat where I sat. I can describe exactly how I felt. There was no doubt in my mind, “This is where I’m coming.” I get goose bumps thinking about it right now. That’s what we really want to expose. We want to energize the campus and the community.
Q. At your press conference, you mentioned the “Three F’s,” which Tom Izzo paraphrased as “football, football, and football.”
A. We have 25 sports, and all of them are important, but we need to be very clear the football program and the men’s basketball program must be successful both financially and performancewise. Otherwise your entire department is going to struggle. How do you go about it? Some of it involves patience. You make decisions on where you want to go, how you want to get there, and who’s going to lead you. We made that decision with Mark Dantonio. The level of achievement you want may not happen in one or two seasons. You want to avoid a lot of turnover in leadership, because then you have what I call “panic seasons” of recruiting. Coaches struggling for their livelihood will make decisions that maybe aren’t in the best interest of the program longterm. That won’t happen under my guidance.
Q. We have a perfect model in Tom Izzo.
A. Even with Tom Izzo, there was a lack of patience when we were losing to Detroit. You can tell whether they have the technical knowledge, and whether they have the character. Both Tom and Mark do. You have to put trust and patience in them. Then, make sure you invest in the right things—for example, a football building where a recruit or current player or alumnus can walk into and feel pride. We’re doing it with basketball, with soccer and the Old College Field project. You also spend time with recruits to understand what they and their parents want in an educational process. After student-athletes leave—how do you engage them? How do you genuinely connect with them so they want to come back? You look at our players associations, you look at what Tom does with his former players coming back, which happens less publicly with all of our sports. Hockey has great reunions. It’s really taking an individual who might be 16 years old going through the recruiting process, being their family while they are on campus and being their extended family once they leave, and bridging that to people that aren’t student-athletes. You make decisions that go back to the core values on the front end of your plan.
Q. Recently Ron Mason was asked about the biggest challenge facing you and he alluded to revenues. You have a track record of incredible vision and creativity when it comes to revenue generation.
A. Revenue or your financial solvency is critical. What you spend has to be less than what you bring in. There is somewhat of a fallacy on where athletics revenues come from. At MSU there are no general funds, no tax dollars, that directly support our operations. We are self-sufficient. When you look at the scholarship fees that we pay back to the university, and services that we pay for, we are in some ways the best customer of the university. We pay rent to the Breslin Center and help generate parking revenues, which help support the infrastructure of this campus. You have to be entrepreneurial in how you generate revenues, whether it’s special events or changing your scheduling.
Q. Where does the Big Ten Network come in? We’ve received a lot of feedback, including criticism, here at the alumni office.
A. As a conference, we felt we have significant programming beyond the ABC, ESPN, and CBS relationships, and having our own network could create not only new revenues but also a platform to promote Big Ten members. The Big Ten Network is the fastest growing cable network in history, surpassing 30 million households after the first 30 days. Comcast hasn’t signed on, Time Warner hasn’t signed on. Those were anticipated. It’s part of the process to build a cable station. It’s the process that ESPN-2 went through. We believe the Big Ten footprint should be on the basic system, which it is on DirecTV and on the Dish. The intensity of the dialogue right now justifies our position. Clearly there is a passionate desire to have it there. We’re not asking the individual consumer to pay more for it like Comcast or Time Warner would have you believe. We’re asking for it to be included like the Food Channel, like the History Channel.
Q. Where will this end up?
A. I think it will be market driven. If the demand is there, it will become part of Comcast and it will become part of Time Warner.
Q. Mark, you’re known for thinking big. Whether it’s staging a spectacular record-setting event or in gaining WJR Radio from Detroit, these coups have had huge impacts on MSU athletics. Can we expect more such things?
A. Absolutely. A college campus inspires that type of thinking outside the box. MSU has grown in national awareness because of some of the events that we’ve done both traditionally through the Rose Bowls, through the Final Fours, but also through the untraditional—the Basket Bowl and the Cold War. The fact that Michigan State holds attendance records for two of the biggest sports events in this country is an astonishing feat. As we consider future events, you need to evaluate the risks, assess the positives and the negatives, and then pursue those that are deemed viable.
Q. One event you’re considering is a basketball game on an aircraft carrier, which also translates into support for our troops.
A. That’s still a dream. We’ve been to the Pentagon to meet with them about the possibility of a four-team event on the flight deck down in Jacksonville where the weather can accommodate it in early November. The JFK, which was just retired in October, is the desired vessel. We want to make sure it’s done with respect and is something positive for the men and women who are engaged on those ships on a daily basis, and that it’s positive for college basketball. We’ll continue to explore it, but it can’t take us or detract us away from what the long term mission is of planting our feet in the roses or heading to another Final Four.
Q. Speaking of roses, when we went to Pasadena in 1987, very few of us thought that we wouldn’t get another opportunity in the next 20 years. What will it take?
A. If you want to plant roses in your back yard, you have to cultivate the soil, you have to prepare the soil, you have to let them bloom and you have to continue to take care and nurture those roses, and that’s what you have to do with an athletics department. You can’t expect overnight that we’re going back to a Final Four next year because we were there last year or we’re going to the Rose Bowl because we went two years ago. However that process plays out, it’s something that you strive for. That’s our goal but at the same time we have to be prepared for the patience that I talked about, the nurturing, and the preparation. We will get there, with patience and nurturing to make it happen.
Q. I think Mark has a very sound strategy in that he wants to recruit Michigan first and then branch out from here. The people who grow up in Michigan know us best. They are exposed to our traditions, and like you, some are actually passionate about becoming Spartans.
A. In any sport, you want your core student-athletes to come from Michigan. In football, Ohio has almost a four-to-one ratio of football prospects and they can’t all go to Ohio State so logically you want to extend your circle there. Then it’s the Midwest and then it’s looking for players on a national level. Mark is well-connected in both Michigan and Ohio. He has a solid strategy, he has the right attitude, he’s not going to take shortcuts, and he’s not going to tell a parent or a recruit just what they want to hear. He is what he is. I don’t know of an individual that has more character or more integrity than Mark Dantonio.
Q. We have some on-going projects that can help Dantonio succeed.
A. On the development side, (Ralph Young Fund director) Chuck Sleeper and his staff are working to make possible the Perles Plaza and the addition to the weight room. These facilities are not flamboyant but they create pride. Right now I see a lot more that’s right than wrong with Spartan football. There is a path that we have to take in order to get where we want to go. That’s our vision with all of our programs. Look at what’s right, correct what’s wrong, continue on that path. That’s where we’re headed and Mark is the guy that’s going to take us there.
Q. I’ve noticed that Spartan Stadium has not sold out this year. Will winning alone solve this problem?
A. The performance of the team is not the most prominent reason some people did not renew their tickets. It’s the state’s economy, where people have moved to take jobs elsewhere. Our fans have been loyal and we appreciate it. In addition to being athletics director, I’m a fan as well. I have to step away from being a fan to make decisions. Mark is working on the performance part but at the end of the day, people have to enjoy their experiences on campus on football Saturdays. We’ll be back. We haven’t fallen as far as some think.
Q. Give us a final thought about your new challenge.
A. When you look at the campus and alumni, athletics, development, colleges, the level of trust among our entire university has to be such that we want to help each other. We are all trying to achieve the same objectives of bringing pride and respect among anybody associated with us. A decision that is for athletics’ best interests but hurts other areas is not a good decision. The same is true with what we are doing for development, and with alumni. When you pull the trigger on a major decision it has be in the best interest of your department and in the best interest of the campus. That goes back to the formalized plan. President Simon has made clear her vision. She has made “land-grant to world-grant” a major focus and has specific expectations for different areas. What are we doing to push that forward? All of us need to work on that.
Q. Mark, thanks for your time. After listening to you, I feel that indeed it may be our time.
A. I appreciate the time with you personally but also with where we are heading with this process. It’s an ongoing process.