The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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134 ■ THE WOLFPACKER ■ PACK PAST "It's easy to see why he's an important player in the college athletic community," ACC commissioner John Swofford once said of Sto- kan. "He knows the corporate side and the college side. He knows how to connect the two." Stokan's career has taken him to unimagined places and remarkable heights in the sometimes seedy world of athletics. "College athletics provided such an opportunity for me," Stokan said. "And it provides opportunities for thousands of young people. I think what people miss about college ath- letics is the values it teaches to its players and the relation- ships it helps them build." The Chick-fil-A Kickoff is now the biggest opener in college football history. The old Peach Bowl, now called the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, is one of the six bowls in the CFP semifinal rotation. And the College Football Hall of Fame attracts more than a quarter-million visitors a year to its interactive new home. "I think we have done ev- erything we can do to make Atlanta the college football capital of the world," Stokan said. "We've come a long way." Stokan's success is based on the core loyalty values he learned under Sloan and the business strategies and analytics he learned in what is now NC State's Poole College of Management. He's built his enterprises — and devel- oped his business model — on the team- work principles he learned as a star high school football and basketball player and a keen observer from his courtside seat dur- ing his college career. He recruits executives, managers and lower-level workers the same way he re- cruited players: he not only goes after tal- ent, but also looks for the proper fit in well- defined roles. He's even turned that knowledge into a series of guiding acronyms he uses with his network of sales representatives, planners, ticket managers and consultants. The most important of those is TEAM (Teamwork, Empowerment, Accountability and Man- age). But there are others like AIM (As- set Integrated Management), GAS (Goals, Actual, Strategies) and MAPS (Market- ing, Advertising, Promotion, Sales) that he preaches to his team members. Stokan's only regret is that he's not still coaching basketball. He misses the sound of bouncing balls in sweat-soaked gyms every day. In January, however, when the two best teams in college football square off in the NFL's newest stadium in front of 71,000 fans to determine a championship worth millions in cash and exposure to each school, he will be sitting on top of the col- lege football universe. And that's not a bad substitute. ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. You may contact him at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. Stokan walked on to the NC State basketball team in 1975 and played in 19 games over three years, graduated with a degree in business management in 1978 and then served as an assistant coach under Norm Sloan for two years. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS "Without my experience at NC State, I don't know where I would be. State meant everything to me." ■ Stokan