Dave Howard and John Sergi have joined forces to create Howard and Sergi, a consulting firm dedicated to helping sports team owners and senior executives create experiences that express team identities, deepen fan relationships and drive revenue growth through strategic planning and design. Combining Howard’s experience with business operations and Sergi’s years in F&B and hospitality, the firm looks to tackle new venue development and existing venue reimagining and renovation.
Dave Howard.
“What Dave and I have in common is that we have both dedicated our careers to caring for fans, with great concern for what happens to them when they come to our venues,” said Sergi. “Dave has done it from the team side, and I’ve dedicated myself to the food and beverage and hospitality experience. We came together because we understand that if you’re going to try to create an atmosphere of welcome and care in a place as complicated as a stadium or arena where you have all these place you’re coming in contact with these fans, it requires you come at it in a holistic manner. You have to touch everything. Our collective experience is such that it cuts across all those places.”
The two have collaborated previously at Citi Field, New York, and both played roles in Madison Square Garden’s top-to-bottom transformation that was completed in 2013. Earlier this year, they developed the food and beverage conceptual plan for the renovation of the East Terrace at The Palace of Auburn Hills (Mich.). The plan added dining space and state-of-the-art lighting technology, showcasing three chef-inspired dining destinations. By summer they had been invited to join the design team for the Los Angeles NFL Entertainment District project. “It’s going to be an 80,000-seat welcome mat.”
John Sergi.
“The clients we work with, even though we come in for a food redesign, that’s not where the conversation ends, that’s where the conversation starts,” said Sergi. “We talk about and look at the entire relationship teams have with their fans. These people come to these places to have a good time, and they want to love everything that happens to them. We’ve put this business together to help teams and their senior executives figure out how to make that happen. Because, believe me, the fans want it to happen, and we’re capable of doing it.”
Both Howard and Sergi see 2016 as the year of the fan experience and, through a trademarked method, Hospitality Design Thinking, they will come up with singular solutions for their clients in the image of that client that takes what the fans are connected to and gets it to live in all the fan services.
“If the fans connect to the team, and if you think about what connects them to the team and can isolate those attributes and get those attributes to live in what happens to them when they buy food or go to the merchandise store or when they’re walking through security or when they talk to the parking lot attendant, what ends up happening is those fans connect to those things, too,” said Sergi. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Interviewed for this story: John Sergi, (704) 340-2100