Fanatics Inc. announced that former Ticketmaster Chief Revenue Officer Cole Gahagan has been named chief commercial officer, a leadership position created to support the company’s professional and collegiate team business. Gahagan comes to Fanatics with an extensive background in sports and entertainment, having spent nearly 10 years leading Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s client business, strategic partnerships and business analytics.
Gahagan will report directly to Fanatics CEO Doug Mack and will oversee a new division that was created to provide omni-channel growth opportunities and optimize service and support for the hundreds of professional and collegiate teams across the Fanatics platform. Gahagan will bring together many company capabilities, including e-commerce, apparel manufacturing and Fanatics’ rapidly expanding in-venue and stadium business, to ensure all team partners can maximize the full range of growth opportunities available to them from Fanatics.
“With our professional and college business rapidly growing in size, scale and diversity of solutions, we are excited to form a new division dedicated to enhancing the omni-channel growth opportunity for our extensive team partner roster and adding someone with the background and strategic expertise that Cole brings to the company,” said Mack. “There’s no better person in the industry to lead this new division as Cole’s deep relationships and thought leadership will continue to elevate our capabilities both online and off.”
Gahagan has more than 16 years of experience leading a variety of organizations in the sports and entertainment industries. In his most recent position at Ticketmaster, he was responsible for the company’s business throughout North America, and spearheaded its league-wide enterprise deals with the NBA, NFL and NHL. Gahagan joined Ticketmaster in 2010, following the company’s merger with Live Nation. Prior to that he served as senior vice president, business development and strategy for Live Nation e-commerce. Prior to Live Nation, Gahagan served as EVP at Vertical Alliance, where he led the company’s merger with Flash Seats, ultimately forming Veritix.
“Today’s fans demand the absolute best customer experiences, and Fanatics has done a tremendous job setting that standard across professional and collegiate sports retail,” said Gahagan. “The next evolution of that interaction will be driven by the omni-channel experience, and I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to help our partners leverage our world-class capabilities. The future for teams and fans alike is very exciting.”
Gahagan received a BBA in marketing from TCU and an MBA from SMU.
