Michael Stanfield

As Senior Vice President of Sales of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans, Michael Stanfield is a key member of the front office for both clubs. The long-time sports administrative executive is responsible for overseeing the entire consumer and corporate sales efforts for both the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans, the two revenue-generating facets of both organizations.

Entering his 21st season with the Saints and ninth with the Pelicans, Stanfield is responsible for all of both clubs' sales efforts – directing the sale of season tickets, group tickets, floor seats and corporate partnerships, developing sales executives to the next level in their field, supervising the lease of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and Smoothie King Center luxury suites, managing food and beverage for both facilities, overseeing a vast merchandising business for both teams flanked by a Saints and Pelicans team store, as well as maintaining the clubs' high standards of customer service and retention.

Since taking over leadership of the Pelicans' ticket sales and merchandising efforts, the organization has seen an increase in season-ticket sales and merchandise sales that were the second-biggest growth in the NBA.

Under his direction, the Saints have surpassed the majority of the club's ticket sales milestones, including selling out on a season-ticket basis for the first time in franchise history in 2006 – a feat that has reached 14-straight seasons. In addition the club has leased every Superdome suite since the beginning of the 2008 campaign. Saints official merchandise has grown annually into one of the NFL's top sellers. Stanfield also supervises the ticket, suite sales and box office personnel on a daily basis, in addition to serving as the food and beverage service liaison with the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Since Stanfield's arrival in 2000, the Saints have sold out every contest in the Superdome but one. Prior to the 2006 season, an innovative season-ticket marketing program fueled the rise of filling the stadium on a season-ticket basis. Fans on all economic levels were reached in an effort to retain existing accounts while cultivating new ones, and those efforts built a waiting list that has continued to grow for season tickets for the first time in franchise history. In 2017, the team established a single-season regular season attendance record for games played at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with 585,113 fans attending Saints games.

Stanfield has also helped oversee the institution of a direct mail and email database to generate ticket sales and excitement surrounding the club and initiated other creative promotional campaigns by using the club's ever-expanding social and new media platforms. The Saints have been ranked number one by the National Football League in Overall Gameday Satisfaction for the past two seasons in a survey conducted by the NFL's League Observation Program and third party Expert Review Audits of all 32 clubs in an eight-category review. In 2017, the Pelicans were ranked first in the NBA in season ticket holder satisfaction in a league-commissioned survey.

At the same time as making fan experience a top priority, Stanfield's also been deeply involved in the extension and expansion of the already sizable corporate sponsorship base for both clubs. In recent years, Stanfield has directed the extension of long-term agreements with numerous valued partners like Cox Communications, Entergy and Verizon, as well as the expansion of the Ochsner Health System partnership to include naming rights for the Ochsner Sports Performance Center.

A graduate of St. Leo (Fla.) University, Stanfield started his career in sports, serving as the assistant general manager of the Clinton (Iowa), Class A baseball team in 1988 and had attained impressive sales results in sports prior to joining the Saints in 2000. In 2007, Stanfield completed Stanford Business School's Executive Education NFL-Stanford Program for Managers, an educational program and honor known league-wide as an important training ground for promising executives.

Stanfield is on the Board of Directors for the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, and served a member of the Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee and the Executive Host Committee for the 2014 and 2017 NBA All-Star Games. A sports industry public speaker, Stanfield has given presentations at many national events. He is also an active speaker at numerous youth foundations and professional groups both nationally and throughout the Gulf South.

Stanfield and his wife Stacey, have one daughter, Olivia.