ATLANTA -– The Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club has hired nationally-recognized, sports sales and marketing executive Michael Drake as its Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships and Premium Sales. He most recently served as SVP & Chief Revenue Officer of Business Operations for AMB Sports & Entertainment (AMBSE), overseeing all ticket operations, service initiatives and marketing and analytic strategies for suite, loge, season ticket and seat license sales for the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United and Mercedes-Benz Stadium (MBS).
In his new role, Drake will be charged with driving corporate partnership and new premium space revenue for the organization inside the soon-to-be new Philips Arena. In addition, he will be a key member of the executive team responsible for partnership and innovative activation efforts for the Hawks-related downtown real-estate project taking place around the new arena.
“This is an amazing time to join the Hawks organization. I’ve been fortunate enough to help launch three incredible stadiums and although there were a number of opportunities across the country, I quickly saw nothing compared to this year-round sports and live entertainment approach happening in downtown Atlanta with this new arena,” Drake said. “The Hawks have a tremendous ownership group and I look forward to not only broadening the first-of-its-kind fan experience initiatives inside the arena, but engaging the community to further support the Hawks’ integration with downtown Atlanta.”
With AMBSE, Drake led an 80-person sales group that helped the Falcons and Atlanta United meet or exceed company sales goals as they opened MBS. Prior to his work on MBS, Drake served as vice president of Legends Global Sales where he led and played a key role in the new stadium projects for two of the NFL’s most historic teams, the San Francisco 49ers (Levi’s Stadium) and the Dallas Cowboys (AT&T Stadium).
“We feel fortunate to be able to add someone with Michael’s vast knowledge to our team. His experience launching three world-class stadiums in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Levi’s Stadium and AT&T Stadium will aid us greatly as we continue the transformation of Philips Arena into a state-of-the-art fan-focused sports and entertainment venue,” Chief Revenue Officer Andrew Saltzman said.