[
THE SCOOP] lifestyles A Silver Lining
Leaving lacrosse opened doors for Broncos senior VP and moneymaker Mac Freeman
M
ac Freeman credits his short-lived lacrosse career with where he is now: senior vice president of
business development for the Denver Broncos and president of the Denver Outlaws.
Freeman, a 1989 Hampden- Sydney grad, was behind several attackmen on the depth chart early in his college career, and once he decided he wasn’t going to leapfrog them, Freeman got involved in the business side of athletics. There have been many stops since then, but Freeman now runs all things revenue- related with the Broncos. He also was the driving force behind creating Denver’s prosperous MLL franchise.
What do you do with the Broncos? I oversee all the revenue lines —
everything from ticketing, to suite sales, to premium seating sales, to sponsorship sales, community development as well as the stadium. The lacrosse connection is I’m president of the Denver Outlaws. I wear a bunch of different hats, but the primary role with the Broncos is overseeing revenue generation. We’ve got about 160 full-time staff and on game day, if you include the stadium staff, it can get as high as 5,000.
What’s your role with the Outlaws? I’m the president of the team. I was the guy who talked Mr. Bowlen (Broncos owner Pat Bowlen) into expanding the company into lacrosse from football. It’s been a passion of mine and a love of mine since we kicked it off. We’ve had great success from a fan engagement and an attendance level. We’ve had great success on the fi eld. We’re still hunting for our fi rst championship, but hope that is in the near future.
16 LACROSSE MAGAZINE February 2014 >>
After that fi rst year, because it was so crowded at attack, I went out fall ball of my sophomore year and tried picking up a long stick, but I was not going to catch up to a lot of the talent on the team. The end of my lacrosse career opened the doors to the sports career. And even though I found myself into football, I ended up coming back to lacrosse.
How did you talk Pat Bowlen into doing an MLL franchise in Denver? He’s Canadian, so he was familiar with the game. That helped. His son had played high school lacrosse at Kent Denver (Colo.) and had won a state championship.
What’s your lacrosse background? I was an attackman at Hampden-
Sydney. I had a short and undistinguished career on the fi eld. I didn’t pick up a stick until junior year of high school, but I had a pretty good senior year and fell in love with the game. When I got to Hampden- Sydney, I lettered my freshman year, but I was behind several future All-American attackmen and decided I was going to put my time into something else. When I stopped playing, I took a sports internship in Richmond and ran the intramural program at Hampden-Sydney.
Lacrosse still had a lot of growth in it. He saw that as a long-term opportunity. It engaged the youth today and the growth statistics are exciting. It’s growing as fast as any sport out there. We believe it’s going to continue. He had an appreciation for the game, believed in its growth and let us take a swing at it.
What was your fi rst job after college? I interned at the Richmond Coliseum two days a week my senior year at Hampden-Sydney, and they offered me a job starting the Monday after I graduated. I went into the marketing department at the Richmond Coliseum in 1989. I was
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©DENVER BRONCOS
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