Coffee With Cagnetta
Join Andy Cagnetta, CEO of Transworld Business Advisors, as he sits down with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and industry pioneers to uncover the secrets of success, leadership, and growth.
Coffee With Cagnetta
CWC EP 32 | Andy Cagnetta Sits w/ Rob Stevenson, Florida Panthers President and CEO
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In this episode of Coffee with Cagnetta, Andy Cagnetta (CEO of Transworld Business Advisors) interviews Rob Stevenson, COO of the Florida Panthers. As the first recipient of the Transworld Iconic Business Award, Rob shares the "insider" story of the Panthers’ rise to Stanley Cup glory, his transition from Afghanistan combat to a Yale MBA, and why he believes the secret to any successful organization is "hiring for character" in the locker room and the front office.
We dive into the business of stadium logistics, the future of live sports as an "unskippable" asset class, and why South Florida has become the premiere destination for the world’s best athletes and CEOs.
📍 Filmed at Amerant Bank Arena
🏆 Featuring the Florida Panthers — Stanley Cup Champions
📌 Visit TWorld.com for more information about M&A, Leadership, and Business.
Hey, welcome back to Coffee with Cagnetta. And we have such a special episode today because we are here at the Amory Bank Arena with the Florida Panthers, the recipient of the first Trans World Business Advisors Iconic Business Award. And we are here with the COO, the Chief Operating Officer, Rob Stevenson. Rob, thanks for coming on today. Thanks for accepting our first iconic business award. We're so honored to have an organization like the Panthers be our first recipient.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, we're we're humbled to receive it. Um, you know, I can't wait. I'm gonna take it right up to the office and parade it around.
SPEAKER_01Oh, thanks. I appreciate that. And you have an amazing organization. That's the reason we picked it. You've been here in in South Florida, I think I said 25 years before. That was way wrong. It's been way longer than that since 1993. And it's been uh an organization that was born by a great entrepreneur, Wayne Heizinga, and then eventually bought by another amazing entrepreneur, Vinny Viola, and the Viola family has put roots here in this community. And being today is Veterans Day that we're filming this, which is very apropos, because the Panthers support a lot of veteran uh initiatives, and uh Vinny being a uh a veteran himself, uh West Point grad, yourself a uh Naval Academy grad, right? Uh Naval Academy grad Officer Canada School. Yeah, yeah. Officer Canada School. Yeah, uh that's a good story, though.
SPEAKER_00I got I've got a good story around that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh, do you? I do. Well, we're gonna tell that story. Yeah, we're gonna talk more about you, but first about the Panthers. Just tell us about you know you your experience being in this organization.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's been um it's been first class from the day that I started. I've been with the org now about four and a half years. And uh as somebody that grew up playing the game, I I never envisioned myself working in hockey or or in sports more broadly. It was really uh an alignment of the stars, God's will, if you will, if sure to to to land here and have the opportunity to do it. Um, but I could see when I when I first interviewed with our our former CEO, Matt Caldwell, uh, it was very clear that there was a lot of wood to chop and areas for improvement. It was still very much a startup culture.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And while on the hockey side, you could look at the roster, and I believe uh Bill Zito joined the franchise in 2020, and you could see some of the moves that he was making and what was already built at the core, this thing was getting ready to take off. And it was a matter of, okay, if the product is about to explode, we need to make sure that we have the business enterprise built around that product to capitalize on it and make it successful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, it was really a project when the, you know, when Vinny, the Viola family took over and eventually Bill and Matt. You know, I was talking to Matt, and Matt was here at the beginning, was, and he was talking about how they had a a vision, you know, and they wanted to get it done before 10 years. They thought they'd they actually talked about how they spoke to uh uh what's his name from the uh uh from the uh New England Patriots. Oh Kraft. Kraft, yeah. And and Kraft told them it would take 10 years, and Matt was like, right? Matt says it's gonna take us less than 10 years, but literally 10 years on the dot you're here for a couple of years through that, and all of a sudden you're Stanley Cup champions. Yeah, wild. Not once. Twice.
SPEAKER_00Twice. Twice. And we're not done. We're not done. We're not done. No, right? Um but yeah, no, I think it it every I feel like every owner probably has aspirations to uh win a championship as as quickly as possible. Right. And there are so many variables that factor into that timeline. And um and I think there there were they probably tried a few things early on, um, and then quickly realized that the most important pieces are the characters that end up in that locker room. Right. And when you look at championship teams, there is a bond in the locker room that can't be bought or manufactured. And Bill knew how to build that, right? And um when the opportunity arose to get Coach Maurice, Bill immediately knew that that was the piece that was needed to bring out the best of those characters in that room and bring them together to achieve what we've achieved thus far. Yeah, like I said, we're not done. We are not done.
SPEAKER_01And I I think you've heard you you heard that, you know, from Brad Marshawn when he came in and he talked about the esprit decor here that that he immediately, I don't know if he fit in immediately, but he felt like because I think they were really kind of hazing him in a little bit, but he obviously became an integral part of the championship team.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he did. He did. And um you see it even more so now, right? We saw what he brought to the team in the playoffs, right? Because if you remember, he was injured when he first came. That's right, right? And then he wasn't available until the playoffs, and the spark that he gave on the ice um was great. But now, like we're we're battling through a a period of injuries. Um, fortunate enough that it's on the uh on the first half of the season. Yeah, but that's when when guys like Brad really step up. Yeah, right. And and you've seen it in his play, you've seen it in his leadership, um, and we're blessed to have him.
SPEAKER_01So speaking of blessed, um, we're blessed to have him from Boston, which is your former uh where you hell from. So tell us tell us how you, you know, tell us your early childhood growing up in the Boston area and how you got into hockey and how that all came about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh it's a long story. Uh so I want to be mindful uh for your viewers, uh, so we don't put them to sleep. But um, no, yeah, I I I grew up just outside Boston in in uh the city of Newton and learned how to skate uh when I was five or six years old at the skating club of Boston. Okay, which is uh kind of right on the Charles River as you're making your way uh on Storo Drive toward Harvard. And um, that's where it all started. And then got into the game uh playing Newton youth hockey, uh, and then started playing in the Metro League around Boston. And I was in '83 birth year, and the South Shore Kings were like the powerhouse. They had guys like Brian McConnell, Keith, or no, Brian Yandel, Keith's older brother, uh Ryan Whitney, who now does the spit and chicklets podcast, uh, Jack Greeley. I mean, these like they were good and they beat everybody, right? And they won the Pee Wee hockey tournament. Um, so I was blessed to be like, holy smokes. I'm like, you could tell early on that these kids were special. Um, and that level of play brought anytime any team played them, you got like that opposing team got better, right? You got better playing against those kids. Um, so I played in the Metro League and then um went through the Newton Public School system, transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in the late 90s. Uh, I I enrolled in the school there uh the year after they won the New England uh Prep Championship, and they had an incredible team. Uh that was a transformational period in my life, uh, those three years that I did at Exeter, uh, not necessarily just from a hockey perspective, but more so from a maturity and um internal awareness of who I am uh and really kind of forged the path for me for the for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_01All right, you look like a speedster. So you're a winger or no, I was a D-man.
SPEAKER_00You were a D-man. I was a D-man. And uh, you know, I joke, you know, Bill Bill, when I first met Bill, he's like, So where'd you go to school? I'm like, I I ended up going to Amherst. He's like, okay, uh, you play? I'm like, I yeah, I played there. Okay, okay. I'm like, Bill, I can make tape-to-tape passes and block shots. That that's what I did, right? Uh I was never on the power play, I was a penalty kill guy, net front press, like I clear the front of the net, play a hard physical game, and uh that's the style of play.
SPEAKER_01All right, yeah. So you you left school and you went into the military.
SPEAKER_00I did, yep. So I knew uh I was fortunate early on in my life, I think it was probably 14, um, that I knew that I wanted to join the military. Right. Right. And I read I read uh Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy. And there's a character in that book, uh Domingo Chavez, Ding Chavez. He was a force recon sniper, and I was like, that's what I want to do. And I just it just like boom, like went into my soul. Um and and I so I just started learning as much as I could about the different branches of uh the special operations community um and honed in on the on the SEAL teams. And uh their their mission set just seemed incredible to me, and I love the water. Uh I I learned that I don't love it as much as I thought I'd know if anybody goes through that training, loves it as much as they used to. Yeah, you yeah, you go to the going to the beach is a different experience now for me, uh, forever. But um no, for me, yeah, I knew that I'd wanted to join the military at an early age, and the SEAL teams was was the uh was the goal for me. And um after graduating from Amherst in 08, I went to officer candidate school uh with follow-on orders to BUDS and checked in there and went through the went through the pipeline. And you were deployed a couple of times. Yeah, I did two deployments um with SEAL team two to Afghanistan. Uh incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to have done that. And uh I don't think I I wouldn't have felt whole had I not gotten the opportunity to go to combat. Right. That was that was the goal. 9-11 is my 18th birthday. Wow. And um I remember that was move-in day for the new students at Exeter, my senior year. Right. And I remember everything stopped. And um I I call my parents, I say, Ma, Dad, like if this isn't a sign, I don't know what is. I think now's the time. I think I got I'm I think I'm gonna go. And they had the foresight to say, son, like understand that. Um trust us when we say this is going to be a long war. Right. You will get your opportunity to go if and when you decide that you want to go. Um, so that was that was good advice from mom and dad. Um but yeah, no, that was I I was blessed.
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you came back. So how'd you wind up in sports?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Again, I feel bad for your viewers. They're gonna have to listen to me ramble.
SPEAKER_01No, it's a great story. That's what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's it's um for me. So I got back uh from my second deployment, and uh, so I met my wife and my stepson when I was going through SQT in in San Diego. Um, and it was one of it was classic, right? What this was back in the day where it's like you actually go and meet people and right, like you date off your phone. Yeah, you get to know them. Um, and and I was out, we were we were home for a weekend from from training in the desert, and I was out at the bar with some of my buddies and my roommates, and one of them was this six, seven water polo player, just like Captain America. And I looked up, I'm like, Tom, not that one. Not no. Like, let me at least try. And uh, and so yeah, it uh it ended up working out, and and uh we moved across the country, asked you know, her dad's permission on the way.
SPEAKER_01Sure, right?
SPEAKER_00We stopped in Iowa.
SPEAKER_01It was love at first sight.
SPEAKER_00It was, man. It was, it still is, and I and I and and we drove across country, stopped in Iowa, met her family, asked for her dad's permission, continued the trek across, had her meet my parents, and then proposed in Newport, Rhode Island, and then you know, back down to Virginia to check in the team. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, yeah, yeah. What was that all in a week?
SPEAKER_00Uh pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. No, it feels like it was very, it was, it was it was fast, but that's like when you know you know. No, I mean you know you know. And it was there was no doubt, right? Um, but uh I had plans initially, like I I was gonna try to be in the SEAL teams for as long as possible. Right, right. And um there there were some things that I chose not to do in order to prioritize my marriage um and being a good stepdad, and then hopefully uh starting and growing our family like together, uh, which we've been fortunate enough to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um three three more times.
SPEAKER_00Three more times, yeah, three more times. And um we moved up to Albany, New York uh in 2013. So I transitioned from active duty to the reserves. So the reserves have um two uh the SEAL teams have two reserve teams on one on either coast, right? And so I affiliated with the East Coast reserve team, uh, moved up to Albany, New York, started working in private wealth management uh for a company uh up there called ACO. They're owned by uh Goldman Sachs, and it was 2015. My wife was in labor and with with Fitzgerald, who's now 10. And I get a phone call from the team. This was like something out of a movie, right? And I'm like, uh, and she's like in the bed next to me. I'm just like, uh so I don't answer it, but I text and say, hey man, um, just want to let you know you're getting mobilized for a deployment. And I'm like, hmm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hang on to that bit of information for a minute, right? And uh uh focus on like what's really important right now. But I ended up uh doing a deployment, um, getting activated back to active duty for a year. Came back from that deployment and uh had the opportunity to take a new job with 0.72 asset management based out of New York and did the commute. So I would go down Monday morning train from Rensselaer station down to Manhattan, right? And work in Manhattan until Friday, and then uh go back home. Uh and then decided that I needed to get my MBA as well. I had I had some gaps personally that I need to fill and professionally. So um started the executive MBA program at Yale, and it was, you know, every other weekend, and then reserves were one week in a month. So my wife was just like, wait a minute, yeah, she's just like, wait a minute. Like, didn't we uh didn't we get out of the military so that like we didn't like so that we would have you home? Um but those are the sacrifices that that that are sometimes necessary to do what's best for the family, right? Yeah, um, and it was during COVID that Steve uh had a town hall for everybody in the firm and said, Hey, so my portfolio managers are currently operating out of Florida. They tell me they love it there, they don't want to come back. Um, so I'm buying an office in West Palm. If you want to go, I'll get more office space, just raise your hand to HR. So I said, Hey Kristen, what do you at this point? Jackson was 17, he's almost done with high school, getting ready to go play soccer in college. We're like, what do you think? And um she said, sure, let's go. House is packed, get literally like they're fly, they're getting ready to fly out. I'm getting ready to drive down. And I got a phone call from a f another friend of mine from Amherst, who was also in the SEAL teams a couple years ahead of me, who was friends with Matt Caldwell. He said, Hey, I know you're happy doing what you're doing, but I just got a random phone call from Matt Caldwell, the CEO of the Florida Panthers, and they're looking to fill a specific role. I don't really understand much about it, but you probably would. Would you be interested? And I said, Hmm. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Right? And then uh four months later, we'd already moved down here and the opportunity was here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So it's uh that was June of 21.
SPEAKER_00That was June of 21. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you've had a good run here at in South Florida so far. Yeah, it's good. Everything. You enjoy you enjoy South Florida? I love it. I love it. I mean, you the Panthers have done such great things since you've been here. Yeah. Redid the whole war memorial. Yes. Yes. You're having event after event after event at the war memorial. Indeed. And here. Yes. And at the ice rinks. Yes. So it's uh it has to be a lot of coordination.
SPEAKER_00It is, but look, I mean, you know, we're an organization of call it 350 full-time staff. Right. Uh part-time staff is probably 1,500 to 1,800 people. Wow. Right. So it it is it is a collection of effort that enables us to go from hockey game to concert to hockey game to concert to hockey game, hockey game, hockey game. Oh, and there are events going on at War Memorial concerts, private events, et cetera. Um, let alone programming those two sheets of ice for the community and then the three sheets of ice in Coral Springs. So, yes, there are a lot of moving pieces. The calendar is full, but we have the best people in in the industry that that make it happen.
SPEAKER_01So you've gotten a lot of great people from South Florida. What do you like about South Florida?
SPEAKER_00Oh man, what's not to like? Right. Right? Honestly, um, no, don't get me wrong, I I love Boston, right? There's something like it's just you know, it's uh maybe not the teams growing up in Jersey, you know. That's fair, that's fair. But um no, I I for me it's it's the quality of life down here. Yeah, and um, you know, Bill talked about it from day one that he wanted to turn this into a destination franchise. It made no sense. Why are we down here like with so much to enjoy? Why wouldn't the best players in the world want to come play here, right? Right. Um, we feel that with our family. I mean, kids are playing sports year round outside. There are no domes, right? When Jackson, my stepson was growing up, we were playing indoor soccer in these like inflatable domes all over New England. Um I we love going to the beach, we love outdoor activities, going for hikes, making our way up to River Ranch every now and then. It's it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01And so you do some clay shooting up there? Every now and then. Every now and then. I hear you like to shoot. You keep keep the keep the rust off. Keep the rust off.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So you you wound up being a sniper. I did not. Oh, I did not. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, so as an officer, we're more of like a jack of all trades. Right. Um, we we learn enough to be able to do the job, right? Uh, but we're not going to the specialty schools of sniper, breacher, 18 Delta Medic, things like that. Um, our job on the battlefield is really making sure that what is going on down and in and handled by the boys uh is being routed up and out and getting guidance and approvals and making sure that our our bosses have you know an understanding of what's going on in the moment.
SPEAKER_01So military training, working for an amazing organization like um both in the financial world, yeah, uh working for an amazing organization here in sports, getting your MBA at Yale. Yeah. Um what would be your advice to someone that is trying to find themselves out there? You know, what's what's the advice to young people out there that are, you know, it it's a it's a tough world. Sometimes they I think the focus is lost. We were talking about that a little bit. You talked a little bit about finding your wife and being actually being able to do that in person. I did the same thing. I found my wife in a bar, by the way. So we have that in common. My and Allison would be very happy that I asked how they met. Because uh that's my wife's like first question. How'd you meet your wife? So, you know, what's your advice out there to young people these days? Yeah, it's I mean, you have four kids now, so you've given a lot of advice to young people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it it's hard. Um, and I think it's it's it's not it's not oh eight. Let's put it that way. It's not oh wait in terms of the the the macro job market, um, but it is hard out there. And and uh sports is a particularly small and relatively niche uh industry that oftentimes can be very hard for people to break into without happenstance that I like I was fortunate enough to have. Um the advice that I give younger people that are either preparing to graduate from college or maybe have just recently graduated from college and they're trying to find their first job and they want it to be in sports is don't work in sports. Right? Don't work in sports. It's good advice. Yeah, go go go f go find, go work somewhere else. Go work in the best organization in whatever industry it is that you can. Right. Learn the systems and processes that that place employs. Learn how they think about the customer, right? Um, learn about how they think about product development, product launch, continuous marketing. And if you are 100% certain you want to be in sports, then find another company that is tangential to sports. And there are so many of them, and new ones are popping up every single week, whether it be through AI or ticketing platforms, um public relations, public relations, yeah, anything. It's it's it's it's incredible. And um, there are so many companies that have tangential connectivity to sports that you're going to see sports through their lens. Right. Right? Think about it from a partnership perspective. I've got this WM Cup. Okay. Right. WM is a fantastic partner of ours. Right. If you were to go work at WM, you're going to understand how WM views the relationship and the partnership value with the Florida Panthers. Right. That's incredible knowledge to have. Were you to come work for the Florida Panthers and then be able to understand the other side of the table and what's of value to them? Right. So that's the that's really the advice that I give to younger people that are trying to break into the industry.
SPEAKER_01Sports has, I think, you know, talk about things that probably won't be AI'd in the future. Sports has the ability, and we talk about it all the time because again, you know, trans world, we're out there marketing, and we still love live sports because people are still tuning in and they don't necessarily tune away. And live sports gives that content, that that live content that's really advertisers are looking for still.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's an incredible piece. Um to to to the the younger generation that's thinking about breaking in, right? Is understanding that um live sports has been, is, and for Evil will be a unique experience and asset class. And um you see it in the franchise values.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right across we've been talking about that for a little year.
SPEAKER_00It's wild. It's wild. Yeah. Billions of dollars for these organizations. And it doesn't seem to be slowing down. And private equity is now coming in, too. Indeed they are. Indeed they are. And I think I think we just saw Apollo uh just became a majority uh owner of Atletico Madrid. I think just well within the past.
SPEAKER_01I mean individuals, 99% of the individuals can't afford to be the sole owner of a franchise. That's right. That's certainly the five major sports, you know, throw soccer in there because it's huge worldwide sport that you it's very difficult to own is by yourself.
SPEAKER_00It is, it really is. Um, but it it it's an incredibly unique asset class that I think um it would behoove people to get that experience outside, yeah. And and uh really understand how those external organizations uh view the value of professional sports.
SPEAKER_01Let's uh let's wrap this up talking about the current season and what's going on here at the Panther Arena and in the organization. You know, what's what what should fans look for? They should come out, right?
SPEAKER_00Oh, 100%. Yeah. I think look look, we've we're on a we're on a s uh a sellout streak right now that's that's pretty strong. Um and uh we have you know our 50th uh straight sellout game that is on the near horizon. Wow. And I think, sure, that's great. Right. But what is really interesting to me and really tells the story of what this organization has been able to do over the past five and 10 years is become uh a truly resilient brand. Right? Our performance right now on the ice isn't as good as it has been to start the season the past few years, and yet we're still selling out, right? That to me is a great, great story.
SPEAKER_01You're a long way from giving away tickets like you used to. That is that is that is true. And that's that that's a hard thing to break, right? You guys had a look at yourselves and say, we're more worthy than that. We're we you valued yourself maybe even before the public absolutely before and and and I think this is a little bit of the military background that you had, the very you know, I think just building it up from where you were was just an amazing, and again, why we picked the Panthers to be the first iconic no, it's yeah, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's awesome, it's awesome. I would I would if I if I were gonna give people something to look out for, um you know, uh Bill Zito is is the most beautiful mind in hockey when it comes to building teams. Okay, without a doubt. We've got we've got that, right? Right. Paul Maurice is a philosopher coach, yes, a philosopher coach. And the men in that room makes you stick around to watch the news.
SPEAKER_01It's all it's the best.
SPEAKER_00His pressers are the best. Pressers are also the best. And and the men in that room, they know what it takes. There's there are no surprises. They know that adversity is part of the process, right um, and they thrive on it. And if and when we get our guys fully healthy and that roster's back, whew, I feel bad for whoever would play in the first round.
SPEAKER_01Well, I hope so. I look forward to having the full team back. Yeah, we look forward to being fans for a very long time and coming down to the arena, not only for hockey, but for special events and the war memorial. Yes, and you know, everything you do in the in the community. Thank you to the Florida Panthers. Panthers really appreciate it. No, thank you. It's an honor. Thanks for being here. Thanks a lot. Pleasure.