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Who Are These Guys?

The Ultimate Toolkit Company is run by industry professionals with more than 70 years combined experience helping teams increase revenue. Add in Jon Spoelstra as a senior adviser and the total years of experience gets close to 100. No other sports consulting company can claim the same level of success within the industry.

STEVE DELAY
CO-FOUNDER OF THE ULTIMATE TOOLKIT

Steve DeLay has spent more than 25 years in the sports business working at all levels including the NBA, NHL, MLB and MiLB.

He is the co-author, with Jon Spoelstra of “The Ultimate Toolkit to Sell the Last Seat in the House”, a comprehensive ticket sales strategy, tactics and training system for teams, schools and special events and “The Ultimate Toolkit – Sponsorships”, a complete sponsorship sales strategy and training system.

Steve is also the owner of the Macon Bacon baseball team, a summer collegiate baseball team in the Coastal Plain League who played their inaugural season in 2018.  The Bacon finished among the top 15 teams in the country out of 395 summer collegiate baseball teams.

He was also part owner of the wildly successful Savannah Bananas – in the same league – and developed the strategy to help launch the Bananas to #2 in the country in attendance and record-setting sponsorships.

Steve’s background is in enhancing revenue streams with a focus on ticket and sponsorship sales.  He has consulted with NBA and NHL teams such as the Portland Trail Blazers, and Columbus Blue Jackets, Major League Baseball teams, college athletic departments, conferences, bowl games and various other properties.

 

JON SPOELSTRA
CO-FOUNDER OF THE ULTIMATE TOOLKIT

Jon Spoelstra has spent over 40 years in the sports business working at the NBA and Minor League level.

He is the co-author of “The Ultimate Toolkit to Sell the Last Seat in the House”, a comprehensive ticket sales strategy, tactics and training system for teams, schools and special events and “The Ultimate Toolkit – Sponsorships”, a complete sponsorship sales strategy and training system.

Along with that Jon is a New York Times Best Seller with books like Selling Ice To Eskimos, Marketing Outrageously and Success Is One Wish Away.
Jon is known as the Father of Sports Marketing with his successful marketing tactics over his career.

With his time in Portland with the Trail Blazers from 1979 to 1990, Jon had created a sellout record of 460 games.

Jon was so successful in Portland, former NBA Commissioner David Stern asked him to move over to New Jersey and help the Nets, a struggling NBA franchise at the time.

Jon was able to turnaround the Nets sponsorship and ticket sales around to create 54 sellouts from 1991 to 1995.

Jon and Steve linked up at the Nets. They later teamed up to help launch Mandalay Baseball Properties that oversaw the operations of 8 minor league baseball teams. From 2000 to 2009, all 8 teams combined for over 900+ sellout games. Including the Dayton Dragons which has sold out every game since 2000 using the tactics Jon implemented.

In 2016, Jon and Steve helped start the successful Savannah Bananas who have sold out 100 straight games. Jon also helped oversee the start-up of the Macon Bacon who have sold out half of their games since their inception.

Jon is now retired but his tactics and philosophy on tickets, marketing and sponsorship stand strong today in the world of sports.

BRANDON RAPHAEL
VICE PRESIDENT

With over 20 years of experience in the sports and entertainment industry, Brandon bring great insight to the team. Currently, Brandon is the President of Steve’s team: The Macon Bacon. He has been in this role for one year now and helped the Bacon grow 19% in attendance from 2018 to 2019 and earn over $500,000 in sponsorship (#1 in their league).

Before the Bacon, he has experience in various roles in sports including the Senior Associate Athletic Director of Development and Ticket Sales at the University of Texas – San Antonio. Brandon previously worked with Steve with the Frisco RoughRiders and the Las Vegas 51s.

Brandon has vast experience in corporate ticket sales and sponsorship sales that can help your team grow.

MICHAEL BRINKMAN
VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES

Michael has worked in the sports industry for 20+ years and a good majority of that time with Steve.

He started as an intern with the La Crosse Bobcats of the CBA. From there, he was a Corporate Marketing Manager for the Las Vegas 51s. After battling the heat, he then took to the snow and ice and worked for the Minnesota Wild for 9-years in various ticket sales and marketing roles.

He exited the industry for a few years to work on the digital sales team for Target Corporation and then jumped back into sports and now works with teams across all levels and leagues.