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 all revenue generation for both the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans.
Entering his 25th season with the Saints and 13th with the Pelicans, Stanfield is responsible for all of both clubs' sales efforts, overseeing season ticket sales, group tickets, floor seats and corporate partnerships, developing sales executives, supervising leases for the Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center luxury suites, as well as managing food and beverage on gamedays for both teams. Stanfield also directs a vast merchandising business for both teams flanked by Saints and Pelicans retail operations, as well as maintaining the clubs' high standards of customer service and retention.
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 2006 – a feat that has reached 18-straight seasons. Additionally, the club has leased every Caesars Superdome suite since the beginning of the 2008 campaign. In 2021, 12 field level suites, sold out by Stanfield's staff, made a successful debut. Under his guidance, 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.
Since Stanfield's arrival in 2000, the Saints have sold out every contest in New Orleans 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 for the first time in franchise history, a list that has continued to grow.
In his tenure with the Saints and Pelicans, Stanfield and his staff have provided elite service and value to all team partners and staff, consistently performing at the top of both leagues in all categories. The Saints were ranked number one by the National Football League in Overall Gameday Satisfaction in 2018 and 2019 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 2020 and 2021, Stanfield empowered his staff to respond to the challenges of providing the safest and most pleasurable fan experience possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the annual league audits, the Saints have ranked among league leaders in categories such as safety, security and mobile ticketing based on recent successful adjustments.
While making fan experience a top priority, Stanfield has also been deeply involved in the extension and expansion of the already sizable corporate sponsorship base for both clubs, providing platforms for companies across the Gulf South and beyond to use the Saints to further their own business objectives. In recent years, Stanfield has directed the extension of long-term agreements with numerous valued partners like Caesars Entertainment, 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. In 2021, Stanfield and his staff finalized a ground-breaking 20-year naming rights deal for the Saints' iconic stadium with Caesars Entertainment.
A graduate of St. Leo (Fla.) University, Stanfield started his career in sports in 1988, serving as the assistant general manager of the Clinton (Iowa), Class A minor league baseball team and had attained impressive sales results in sports prior to joining the Saints in 2000. Stanfield has also 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 currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, the Super Bowl LIX Host Committee and on the advisory board for Archbishop Chapelle High School. Previously, he served as 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, a sophomore at the University of Alabama.
