The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - CEO of The Rockets Tad Brown Discusses Path To NBA Returning

Episode Date: March 27, 2020

Rockets CEO, Tad Brown, joins Matt to discuss how the Rockets organization is looking at the current situation and what really has to happen before we can know when NBA, and sports in general, can return

This is your home for Houston Rockets basketball, Sports Talk 790. 131 on 790. The Matt Thomas show continues. Our next guest is the CEO of the Toyota Center and the Houston Rockets. Tad Brown with us on the program. Tad, I got to be honest with you, I check Shams and Woj's tweets about every 45 minutes because I'm an NBA geek and I want good news. So can you give us some good news right now? Anything, anything good news at all? Well, yeah. It's a beautiful day here in Houston, and we've got to stay focused on making sure that we all get through, you know, the current situation safely and that we follow all the guidelines of social distancing and everything else.

But from an NBA perspective, I think that the most important thing is, you know, we are going to be playing basketball again. going to be, you know, hosting concerts and celebrating at Toyota Center again, we are going to make sure that we listen to all the experts. And Dr. Fauci, I know, like many Americans, we all have a new hero, and I love that guy. And I appreciate all that, all the information that we're getting from all the experts nationwide. But we are going to get through this. We are going to be playing basketball.

We are going to start getting back to our routines. and hopefully that's going to be sooner than later. And as it relates to the league, we were, unfortunately, probably the beginning of the tipping point for all of sports to shut down with Rudy Goberra's positive test. And hopefully we can maybe be the ones to book in that and kind of get people going and people excited again about restarting our sports environment. Well, certainly good news today. Mitchell and Goberra have both been clear.

cleared, so that's some positive news. You know, you are a part of the, obviously, the leadership group of the Rockets in the arena. How often do all of you get on conference calls? Is it twice a week, daily, once a week with the league? And how often are you in communication with Commissioner Silver during all this time? I talk to Adam pretty often, a few different times a week, depending on what's happening. We'll have conference calls with the league at various times. We've had a few different Board of Governors calls. And from a staff perspective,

I literally just got off the phone five minutes ago with all of our team where we're doing the Microsoft team conference calls. And you give them updates. You give everybody updates. Everybody's able to hear. Make sure everybody's safe. make sure everybody's taking care of getting the resources they need, but also that we're focused on what we need to do to get ready for when we start playing again.

And just because the season's got a little bit of a hiatus here doesn't mean that we're, that business is stopped. We're doing everything we possibly can to make sure that our customers know we're engaged that we're taking care of us and our players and our coaches and that, that we're prepared as soon as we're ready to get on with the rest of the season. Because it's going to happen. We're going to play games, and we're going to play the playoffs, and there is going to be a champion crown,

and hopefully that's going to be us as soon as we get going. Amen to that. Tad Brown, the CEO of the TOTA Center and the Rockets with us here on the Matt Thomas show. You do control your building, so you have a master counter, I'm sure, in your office. How much flexibility do you, in particular, Houston and the TOTA Center, have when it comes to dates, or will there be, you know, some consideration of doing it somewhere else if fans are not welcomed in the arena just right away? You know, it's certainly preferable not to do it somewhere else. And it is always our preference. You know, Tillman and I and our team, you know, it's always our preference that when we're

able to come back, it would be great to be with our fans. The experience is second and none. And it's just the entire ecosystem of the league that it's such a fan-based interactive sport. But this is a unique time in history. And if we need to start up, say, mid-June and the recommendations from the healthcare professionals are that we start up in Toyota Center, possibly without fans, for a little bit to make sure that we get to the next level. and then, you know, through the playoffs, we engage in a different manner. We're going to have to figure those things out as we go along. I think the most important thing, we're planning and all of us are aligned with the same objectives,

whether it be players, owners, fans, everybody, all constituents who rely upon the NBA, whether it be part-time employees, full-time employees, every broadcasters, you name it. I mean, everybody through the entire environment of the league, the infrastructure of the league, we're all aligned with the same objectives, and that's to make sure that we finish this season out in week and we get our playoffs in. But making sure that we do so with everybody's safety, top of the list, and that we do so at the recommendations of the CDC and the health care professionals from around the country and here locally. So we might have to be a little creative on the way to get things kind of kicked back off, if you will. But, you know, at some point we're going to be back in, we're going to be living our lives again,

and we're going to be back in restaurants and we're going to be in hotels and we're going to be traveling the world. And we're going to be doing it in a very safe manner that's going to be at a time when the health professionals say we're ready to do so. but I don't think we've ever seen anything like this before, Matt. You know, we've gone through floods, we've gone through hurricanes, we've been through lockouts, we've been through the financial crisis in 0708. But there's never been anything like this from a standpoint of whether it be, and it's not just the sports world, it's all of the business world where there isn't an end date. There isn't, you know, deadlines make deals,

and there's no deadline that you can point to to say that that's when we're going to be back. All we can do is continue to monitor all the information that we have and make the best decision possible based on what the health care professionals and the experts are telling us and be as prepared as we possibly can. Our guys, our staff, the building, everybody be as prepared as we can. As soon as that opportunity comes, we're ready to turn it out. How much flexibility do you have, Tad, when it comes to the arena, say in the months of July, August, September? I'm going to presume that I've gone to a lot of concerts in the building. That's a heavy concert time. A lot of those concerts either being postponed or rescheduled.

Is your calendar right now kind of up in the air because somebody wants to come perform, but you also want to open up some dates for potential playoff games and other things that are happening in the building? It's a daily give and take, right? And Hillary Thomas for our staff or Booker, she's doing Yeoman's work right now. Because, yes, we're rescheduling concerts that currently now are looking to pushback possibly into the fall. And then we're also looking at dates that even possibly traditionally might have been not only for concert dates, but maybe, you know, early family events that might be during back-to-school time that we might need for basketball events, and whether it be August or, you know, early September or July.

but it's just part of the process that we're going through right now. We've got to be as flexible as we possibly can. I think our organization is dissimilar to many in that we control the entire aspect of the experience at Toyota Center. So we're able to kind of easily look at things and say, okay, this hold might be for one show, yet we know that they can reroute somewhere else, and then we can plug in a game there.

So we've got a little more flexibility, but it is a Rubik's Cube at this point, one that we're hoping is soon, again, the next trigger point, which is going to be important, which I think is going to be happening. Hopefully, we'll get more information throughout the coming weeks, but the next trigger point is going to be, okay, this is when we believe we're going to be starting again. And I do think that that's going to be, you know, sooner than later, but only at the time when the health care professionals are going to say that we think it's safe and we think these are the parameters upon which

we can start playing games again. A couple more questions here for Ted, Brown Rockets and Toyota Center CEO. There has been a lot of conversation about how many games are played when everybody resumes post-season five-game, seven-game series. I'm going to assume that you're into the category of

we need a few regular season games to get back acclimated. Are you in that group or do you envision this thing maybe potentially going right to the playoffs? Not sure yet, but I am in the group where, you know, if they were asking me, I do think we need some regular season games, you know, without question, because remember, the guys are going to be coming in from a little bit of a layoff through the recommendations from the CDC. They're not working out at the building right now.

So nobody is really in the, they're all working out. I know that they're doing everything they need to do to stay in shape, but you have to get back into basketball, the basketball cadence. right, of practice and playing and getting through it to make sure that you're that you're getting the guys as ready as possible, the players as ready as possible to play at the highest performance that they can. So I would say we definitely need to hit some of the regular season games, if not the majority of them, if not all of them, and then go right and then go into the

playoffs. But some of these things, it's interesting, Matt, because there are so many different people who are leaking, whether it to be to the guys that you were talking about earlier or local reporters or people. And there are so many different voices that possibly could say something, hey, this is what I think. And then it goes out there and it becomes viral. And then you realize that it's not even something that was even vetted through the league or would be presented to the board.

So I think we're kind of in a moment right now where everybody's just got to take a breath. We've got to focus on what's most important, which is let's get through this current situation. specifically for us in Houston. Let's make sure that we give our health care professionals, we take care of the people who are the most at risk, and that we make sure, at least from my perspective, from Tillman's perspective, of making sure that the organization is good, and we've got the resources applied to the people who need them the most

and to our players and our coaches and our families so that everybody gets through this time really safe. And the rest of the stuff is going to take care of itself. We are going to be looking at this down the road later on this summer, you know, hopefully later on this spring where we're going to be, you know, we're going to be moving on. And we're going to be still cautious about the environment that we're in. But we're going to be back to playing games. We're going to be back to, you know, hopefully competing for a championship and getting this thing going sooner than later. But again, let's get through the current situation, which is we've got to be as cautious and as vigilant as we've possibly. we can follow all the guidelines from the mayor, from the county judge, and from our health

professionals to make sure that we're all safe. Last question, Ted. Let's say an NBA champion is crowned, give or take, September 5th. Hopefully it's in Houston, Texas, on the floor of the TOTA center. That would then probably push the start of next season into a December start, and then there will be, I think, pretty good dialogue out there about whether or not the NBA should move its season permanently to December. Any thoughts on that, or do you want to kind of wait and see how things go out here first?

Long term, you know, that's going to be something that the board will take on. Me personally, and the conversations I've had with people is I think we should really look at the rest of this year and next year in more of a rolling kind of 18-month, 20-month cycle. And if it means that we start our next season a little bit later, whether it would be around the holidays or the like, depending on when we end up finishing up, that's okay because again, we're all aligned to do the same, to really focus on the same objectives. And if that means that we finish the playoff this year coming in in, you know, August or Labor Day, let's say that you said that, I didn't say that, but I'm just responding to what you mentioned. And that means that we push back into the, into the holiday season to start the season, which means then we finish a little bit later than we normally would.

Hey, it's really, these are unprecedented times that are going to call for unprecedented reactions. And whatever we have to do to make sure that we, that we protect the game, we protect the players and the people who are serving the game, as well as the infrastructure that relies upon the game for so much of their livelihood and so much of the benefits that we all enjoy and the great experiences that we all enjoy, that if it takes a little bit longer, it takes a little bit longer. That's the right thing to do. And I think that's what we really have to focus on.

Ted, thank you for the time. You know, we've got a huge rocket audience here. So anytime you have news that you want to pass along to us, we would be glad to have you on to discuss. And I can out wait for the text, whatever met me be, say, Matt, time to come back to the arena because I'm, King was a great community, as you know, but I want to spend more time in downtown Houston.

We'll do it in the right situation to get these teams back on the floor. Thank you for the time this afternoon. I was wondering if you were at your Kingwood Broadcast studio, because I'm at my Kingwood office as well. No, I'm actually in the gallery, but I have used Kingwood occasionally. But I got to hang out with my people here at 7-90. They miss me too much. It's good talking to you. Take care.

Everybody be healthy. We appreciate it. And everybody stay safe. Thank you, Ted. Pat Brown, Chief Executive Officer of the Rockets and TOTA Center with us here on Sports Talk 790. He sounds encouraged. I'm glad he did. because we've had some discouraging stuff out there

a lot in the last few weeks especially when it comes of getting back to sports. One person wasn't nearly as encouraged about the return of sports, and we'll tell you who that is, and what he said next, 146, it is the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790.