NLL Names Kurt Hunzeker Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations

PHILADELPHIA - Feb. 28, 2023 - PRLog -- The National Lacrosse League (@NLL), the largest and most successful professional lacrosse property in the world, today announced industry veteran Kurt Hunzeker has been named to the newly created position of Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations. Hunzeker brings more than 20 years of executive sales, marketing, and brand building to the NLL, most recently as Vice President, Minor League Business Operations for Major League Baseball. He will report directly to NLL Commissioner Brett Frood and will begin his work this week.

"The National Lacrosse League is enjoying a post-pandemic rebirth on and off the field, as evidenced by our rise in attendance and revenue, media exposure and the expansion of partnership programs by our teams," Commissioner Frood said. "Kurt has the perfect blend of creative and practical business experience to help us capitalize on this next vital phase of enterprise growth. His experience with disruptive properties like the XFL's St. Louis BattleHawks, and with emerging businesses like MiLB, provide the right mix to help shape and grow the NLL business and promotional platforms like never before."

"I look at the NLL as a property that has exactly what brands and consumers want—fast paced excitement, great athletes, a growing fan base, a solid ownership structure, and great media partners in ESPN and TSN—and I am looking forward to helping the League realize its business and brand potential beyond what exists today," Hunzeker said. "The industry has heard about the emerging growth of lacrosse as a sport, now it's time for the NLL to push the narrative to an even wider audience, while continuing to engage and develop that stronger base of fans who have enjoyed the NLL for years."

Hunzeker joins the NLL after overseeing all business-driving and revenue-generating functions of MLB's restructured player development system and its 120 MiLB teams since 2021, including: national commercial sales and partnership activation, marketing and communications, content strategy and creation, media production and multimedia platforms, community relations and fan engagement, ticketing strategy, licensed consumer products, and ecommerce. He also authored the initial five-year business strategy and activation plan for MiLB's new centralized business fully integrated within MLB, and generated the most commercial revenue in MiLB's 122-year history in 2022.

It was Hunzeker's second successful stint in baseball, having served as Vice President, Marketing Strategy and Research for Minor League Baseball from January 2015 to June 2019 where he built, enacted and measured the go-to-market corporate partnership and fan engagement strategies.

http://www.nll.com