The New York Islanders have named Bryan Calka as Senior Vice President of Partnerships and Tom Cerasoli as Senior Vice President of Partnership Activation. Together, they will lead an expanding sponsorship team as the club prepares its move to UBS Arena at Belmont Park for the 2021-22 National Hockey League season.
These two veteran sports industry executives join Leonard Edwards, Vice President of Partnerships, who has been with the organization since 2019.
Global financial institution UBS announced last week an exclusive 20-year naming rights agreement for the New York metropolitan area’s most anticipated, cutting-edge live entertainment and sports venue and the future home of the Islanders.
Oak View Group negotiated the partnership with UBS and will continue to lead the UBS Arena partnership sales effort while working closely with Calka, Cerasoli and Edwards.
Calka is responsible for overseeing the team’s short and long term partnership revenue growth. He joins the Islanders with more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience, spending the last two years as Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships for BSE Global, where he oversaw the strategy development and execution of sponsorship marketing for
corporate partners of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center.
Prior to that, he spent 10 years with the New York Yankees, serving as Vice President of Partnerships, where he managed the Partnership Sales and Activation teams.
Cerasoli is responsible for managing the corporate partner portfolio and developing the department’s strategic and business solutions capabilities. His role will be a shared service with the Islanders and UBS Arena.
Cerasoli joins from OVG, where he served as Vice President of Global Partnerships supporting new business efforts for the arena development portfolio with a specific focus on UBS Arena. Prior to OVG, he spent eight years as Vice President of Marketing Partnerships for The Madison Square Garden Company, developing and executing strategic platforms for a roster of corporate partners across all properties in the organization.
Edwards’ prior experience includes serving as Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships for the Arizona Coyotes where he was in charge of partnership sales and activation.
For more information on becoming a season ticket member, call 888-NY-ISLES or email the team at sales@newyorkislanders.com.
-Submitted by the New York Islanders