Jason Farris’ new job is to realign the Dallas Stars.
The West Vancouver business operations and development executive is No. 3 on the front office depth chart, below president Jim Lites and owner Tom Gaglardi, Farris’ Magee secondary classmate in the mid-1980s.
Gaglardi bought the franchise for $240 million (including $50 million cash) out of bankruptcy last November. Previous owner Hicks Sports Group, which also owned the Texas Rangers, defaulted on $525 million owing in 2009. The Stars lost more than $92 million over the last three seasons.
Farris is Gaglardi’s “chief strategist” in turning around the 1999 Stanley Cup champions.
It might be the biggest challenge of Farris’ career. The Rangers are the reigning American League champions who twice came one strike away from their first World Series championship. The Dallas Mavericks are NBA champions. The Dallas Cowboys missed the playoffs, but their stadium is the glitziest in the NFL.
“We can’t be waiting for a window of inactivity with the other teams,” Farris told Business in Vancouver. “We’ve got to assume those teams are strong and thriving, and we hope they are, but we’ve got to move our message out.”
That message included minor hockey rinks and community-relations programs that were ignored as previous ownership fell deeper in the hole.
“We can let people know we’re back and put some resources into going to the community and telling the story of the Stars,” Farris said.
“He has a passion for hockey that is undeniable,” Gaglardi said. “He’s really a brilliant guy with all kinds of skills. It didn’t take me long to realize that what a key part of the organization he could be.”
While Gaglardi was groomed to run the family business, Northland Properties, Farris collected degrees in physics from the University of BC, political science from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The BIV Forty-Under-40 winner in 2001 put his specialty in post-merger management of high-tech firms to work as vice-president of marketing for Richmond bank software company Fincentric. When he joined in 1998, it was wrestling with a $12 million loss. By the end of September 2001, Fincentric had a four-quarter profit streak thanks to Farris closing a major contract with Banco Inbursa of Mexico.
Farris’ resume also includes managing operational accounting and IT projects for MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, consulting for the Jim Pattison Group and, most recently, president of Citizens Bank of Canada.
Like many British Columbians, he grew up a Canucks’ fan, listening to the voice of play-by-play announcer Jim Robson.
Farris self-published Hockey Play-By-Play: Around the NHL with Jim Robson (2005) and Hockey Play-By-Play: Canuck Captains with Jim Robson (2010), as well as 2006’s Hail Cesare!, about his favourite netminder, Cesare Maniago.
His latest book is Behind the Moves (NHLGMs.com), a deluxe coffee table publication that is the most comprehensive, behind-the-scenes look at the men who try to build Stanley Cup champions. It was yet another reason for Gaglardi to hire Farris.
“He’s got a bunch of great ideas, knowledge and knowhow that was bolstered by the process he went through for a year-and-a-half writing the book,” Gaglardi said.
Farris describes Behind the Moves as a bit of an art piece, a bit of a history piece. Some copies are even numbered and signed by Stanley Cup-winning GMs.
“The retail model is to blow out tens of thousands of books,” Farris said. “The books I’ve done find a different audience. I print them once and those that like them, get them.”
Farris said there aren’t as many “swashbuckling” deals anymore since the advent of the salary cap, which has forced GMs to become even more business savvy.
“These guys live each one of these transactions, partly because it affects their well being and partly because these are people involved,” he said. “They see them as people.”
Farris found how friendly, yet competitive the GMs are. Toronto Maple Leafs’ boss Brian Burke, for instance, sends new GMs a welcome letter.
“They have to compete like crazy,” Farris said, “but have to co-operate to succeed as well.”
Farris said Canucks’ GM Mike Gillis has emerged from the shadow of the Burke era to establish his own credibility, and initial resistance from other GMs to the former player agent has vanished.
“He holds one of 30 sets of assets,” Farris said. “While there may be a cool reception initially, that begins to fall away if somebody else thinks he has something they want.”
Farris said his model GM is Serge Savard, the Montreal Canadiens’ Hall of Fame defenceman who guided the team to Stanley Cup championships in 1986 and 1993.
“He went in there with a mode of understanding the connection to French Canada and the community and having players that lived and were from that area,” Farris said. “French-Canadian players and players that were held accountable by fans. He changed all the compensation structure for his team to be all team-based with no additional bonuses.
“He was the last GM that could really get away with that. He did it in an era where the agents had quite an increase in power.”
These days, the GM with Farris’ attention and support is Joe Nieuwendyk, whose aim is to restore the Stars as a Stanley Cup contender. •
