1. Career

2. Personal life

3. References

4. External links

David W. Checketts (born 1956) is an American businessman. Checketts is the founder and chairman of SCP Worldwide. He also sits on the board of JetBlue Airways and was the original owner of the Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake. He was the CEO of Legends, which operates One World Observatory.{{cn|date=September 2016}}

Career

Checketts attended the University of Utah and later earned a master's degree in business administration from Brigham Young University. After graduation, he joined the Boston-based consulting firm of Bain & Company. At 28, he became president and general manager of the Utah Jazz, making him the youngest chief executive in National Basketball Association (NBA) history. He then spent a year as the general manager of NBA International, where he worked to increase the league's presence around the world.

He became president of the New York Knicks in March 1991, and in his four seasons as president, the team made it to the Eastern Conference Finals three times and went to the NBA Finals in 1994. The team set records for attendance, television ratings and revenue during his tenure, but the club failed to win the NBA Finals.

He went on to become president and chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden, the company that owns the New York Rangers, New York Knicks, New York Liberty of the WNBA, Madison Square Garden and the MSG television network.^[1] In 1997, MSG acquired Radio City Music Hall. From 1998 to 2001, the Rangers failed to make the playoffs four straight seasons despite having one of the highest payrolls in the NHL.

In September 2001, Checketts founded SCP Worldwide, a consulting and investment service firm for sports teams. In 2002, SCP acquired SportsWest Communications, a syndicated broadcaster of college sports. In July 2004, SCP bought into Major League Soccer and established a team in Utah, Real Salt Lake, which began play in April 2005. On September 29, 2005 it was announced that SCP had officially signed an agreement to purchase the St. Louis Blues.

In 2009, Checketts was in an ownership group, along with talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, that was publicly linked to a potential purchase of the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League (NFL); after numerous NFL players objected to Limbaugh owning an NFL team,^[2] Checketts dropped Limbaugh from the group and never made a bid for the team.^[3]

Checketts was hired in 2011 to serve as a consultant for new Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores.^[4] Checketts has been Chief Executive Officer of Legends Hospitality Management, LLC since January 2012.^[5]

Personal life

Checketts is married to Deb Checketts and they are the parents of six children. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was featured in the book The Mormon Way of Doing Business.

In 2007, Checketts was called as president of the church's Yorktown New York Stake, succeeding Gary Crittenden.^[6][7]

Checketts is chairman of the Advisory Board of the Clinical Neurosciences Center at the University of Utah Hospital

His son, Spencer, worked as a Radio Host on "The Big Show" on 1280 KZNS (AM). He was also an anchor of Gameday Coverage of Utah Jazz for 1280/97.5 The Zone, NBA Analyst for KJZZ-TV and Root Sports Utah.

In July 2018, Checketts will begin a three-year term of service as president of the LDS Church's England London Mission.^[8]

References

External links

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