Building a Community
An interview with Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group’s Jeff Hunt
Success is not something that’s handed to you. Jeff Hunt, Owner of the Ottawa Redblacks, Fury, and 67’s, shares the story of his past working life—before his dreams of owning a sports team came true.
Dave: Let’s get down to it. Let’s start at the beginning of your career. You haven’t always been in the sports industry, have you? Tell us a little bit about your business journey before OSEG.
Jeff: My family and I moved to Ottawa in 1984, when I was 19. I had already done a year and a half of University at that point. I was looking to continue on at Carleton, but I was too late to get in. I once joked to a graduating Carleton class that I spoke to that not getting into Carleton was the best thing that’s ever happened to me — which is kind of true!
My father had said if I wasn’t going to school then I better get a job, so I took one at a carpet cleaning company that had just started in Ottawa. My brother and I both started working there; I was on the sales side and he was doing the actual cleaning. After about six weeks of doing that I realized that it wasn’t rocket science and that we were pretty good at it. “Why don’t we just do this on our own?”
We found a couple of friends to help and our initial investment was $6,000. I remember that vividly. We started in my parents basement and our desk was a ping pong table. My brother and I didn’t end up staying in the business together very long. As much as we were always good friends, the business proved to be something that came between us. He left pretty early on and I was on my own after that. After about two or three years of building this local business, I became aware of the fact that Sears Canada was licensing their name to carpet cleaning companies. We would basically operate as Sears and had access to their network. Carpet cleaning was — and is — an industry with no major brands, so a brand like Sears was quite a differentiator. Once I started working with them things exploded. They started offering me other markets, of which my first was Halifax. The next thing you know they started offering me more markets, which was almost impossible to service. I asked them if they would be open to me franchising. Once they said yes to that, that’s when things really exploded.
Within the next five or six years, I had 250 stores across North America and we were the second-largest carpet cleaning company in the world. And then in ’97, Sears decided to go a different route. They bought me out and that’s what ultimately led to my purchase of the Ontario Hockey League’s 67's. I had the resources to get into doing what I had always wanted and dreamed of doing. I always knew the carpet cleaning would be a means to an end. My true passion was to be in the sports business, the ultimate marriage of something I was passionate about and something I was pretty good at — being an entrepreneur.
Dave: Who would you say has been your biggest mentor over the years?
Jeff: There was no one mentor. I think I had a community of mentors. One of the things I learned early on was that I was a sponge. I joined associations and would go all over the country to visit with other carpet cleaning companies that I heard had a lot of success or were doing something particularly well. It was unbelievable how some of these guys would be so open with me, sharing everything about their business. I would go to conferences and seminars all the time. I was the subtotal of hundreds of interactions with very successful people in that business. What I found interesting, though, was that I never had one company ever come visit me, which was kind of funny. They didn’t realize it, but I was already bigger than most of them.
Amber: Were you ever afraid to reach out and ask for that information from your competitors or possible mentors?
Jeff: No, not at all. My only fear, if any, was that if they would say no. But the thing is, businesses are flattered when you call them up and tell them you want to pick their brain because they’re doing so well. They would be so flattered that when I got there, they’d always give me a tour, introduce me to their team, go to dinner, and then we just become fast friends. And now I can brag about all of my ideas because they’re really not mine. I got them from other people!
Dave: If you could time travel back to day one of forming OSEG, and had a few minutes to share a lesson with your former self, what lesson would that be?
Jeff: It’s like if you went out tomorrow and built a cottage from scratch. Then, after you’re done, someone asks what you would do differently. There would probably be over ten things. As much as Lansdowne, by most people’s assessment, is an extreme success, there’s a number of things I would redo. The biggest one I would say, if we could turn back time and we could make the money work, I would tear it all down. Renovating a 50-year-old building and hoping for another 50 years of life is a tall order.
Dave: As many entrepreneurs do, have you ever experienced failure? How did you overcome it?
Jeff: I think you learn as much or more from your mistakes as you do from your successes and believe me, I had many failures. A very wise guy once said to me, “Jeff, you can do anything you want. You just can’t do everything you want.” Sometimes when you get into any business or industry, you want to get into something else that’s related. You get distracted by these other opportunities and you get away from your core business that you’re best at. That’s where I’ve gotten into trouble — chasing other business opportunities that I thought were lucrative or worth pursuing. Ask yourself first, have you achieved everything you can within your business? Have you peaked? Why would you go chasing another opportunity when the one you’re in isn’t as far as you can take it?
Dave: What’s keeping you up at night now, if anything?
Jeff: OSEG has become a mature business in such a short period of time. We’re at a point now where we’re looking to just tweak aspects of our business. We’re past the “keeping you up at night” stage now. There are always challenges, of course, but for the most part the staying up late at night and worrying is behind us. I remember the first game we played, all I was worried about was something fundamental — a major design flaw or what have you that we hadn’t anticipated. Once we had our first game, and everyone came and went and there were no real problems, that was a big sigh of relief.
Dave: What is your strategy for staying ahead of the game, for making sure OSEG stays relevant and successful?
Jeff: You’re never there. Never get comfortable. We’re always trying to make improvements to the stadium and we continue to visit other teams. We share and hear about best practices, listen to our fans, and always try to improve the experience. Every year we have a budget we devote exclusively to the whole fan experience. Every year you go to TD Place, there’s probably something we’ve done over the offseason to try and make that experience better. For example, right now we’re creating more and more spaces for people to socialize because the way fans consume the game is different now. We have tons of young fans who never sit in their seats. They don’t want to go and sit in a seat for three hours, they want to hang out with their friends. The game is almost a backdrop.
Dave: Would you say going down to the Canadian Tire Centre (home of the Ottawa Senators NHL team) and checking out Club Bell is an example of you guys going and doing that research with a competitor? Drawing inspiration and ideas for the way that that fan experience is changing?
Jeff: Yes, I’ve always gotten great ideas from competitors. Never underestimate your competitors. The Senators in this case do a lot of really good things. I was just at a game the other day and I look at everything they do. I’m sure they do the same; every successful business does!
