“Logan is still very active with me,” said Brown. “He will stay very actively involved. I’m more involved with marketing and hopefully move the needle that way and that's what we really need. We need to start resonating in the community and that's what we can add to it.”

 

Brown started her marketing agency, Kim Brown & Associates, in March of 2000. Over the past 13 years Kim Brown & Associates has grown into one of the top marketing agencies in the state of Utah. With that marketing background, Brown hopes to make the Blaze one of the hottest tickets in town.

 

“The most important thing to get people out here is for them to get to know our players. Our players are your guy next door. They're awesome and very talented, they just don't happen to be playing in the NFL. We feel like if we can get our player out in front of people at different events, even things like youth nightclubs, areas where our fans will probably be. We've got a number of Gold’s Gym where they'll be out meeting people at Gold’s Gyms. So we'll be doing a lot of different things in a social connecting (way).”

 

Recently, Brown has taken an interest in social media and in mobile platforms. Her experience as being an entrepreneur of digital spaces has lead her to take interest in the Blaze and to use the team to find unique revenues streams not used by many in the AFL.

 

“We are going to be taking in-house our merchandising side and not having it outside of the Blaze and a big part of it is where things are going in the mobile platform side of things,” said Brown. “We have a game that we're creating that's going to be a real time fantasy football that you can watch the Blaze game either here in the arena or at home. It will be another revenue stream that the Blaze can tap into. There'll be sponsors of things like that. It's a new “game-ification” idea that's not being done anywhere else. We're fortunate, because I kind of am owner in both areas so we can start something that I think can revolutionize the sporting world.”

 

Sports world revolutions aside, her investment into the Blaze and the AFL comes at an interesting time in league history. A year removed from major labor issues and 4 years away from a complete revamp, the league is still on very unsteady footing. Yet Brown was excited to become an owner and saw an opportunity to be involved in her passions.

 

“I'm an avid lover of football. I'm from Texas originally, and football is really big there. I was actually a cheerleader down there and we went to the semi-finals and as a high school team we played in the Astrodome. So, that's how avid it is down in Texas.”

 

“I'm very competitive and I don't give up. I saw this as the product is the best. This is the best product of any team you can find out there. We just need to have better business sense, better systems, more creative marketing. My real excitement is in this digital side of doing social marketing and being able to explode that and also this “game-ification” side of things. I saw that as a wonderful opportunity to get all platforms. I think it will revolutionize. It will make our team a lot of money. I kind of wanted to; if Kim even breaks even on this thing, that's all I care about, because I wanted to be able to get to a point where the Blaze can be on a different platform, where they can be known as one of the leaders of the league.”

 

Ultimately Kim Brown's influence should be one that is minor to day to day operations, but possibly could be huge to the team and to the AFL as a whole. If her ideas of social marketing and “game-ification” can take hold, the Blaze may even be able to see attendance reach pre-2009 levels. That’s a big if, and while that change would be huge, it's important to note that the Blaze have become what they are by growing the product on the field to one of the premier teams of the AFL, and in that respect nothing has changed.

 

“We don't have an NFL team here. We will never have an NFL team here. I wanted this to be like NFL in Utah. I thought this would be my opportunity to be able to be a big part of helping that happen.”

Don Eisenbarth has been following the Utah Blaze since 2006, but this is his first year covering for ArenaFan. Born in Provo to a family of BYU fans and having graduated from the University of Utah, Don has enjoyed all sides of the Utah college football landscape for decades and is excited for the return of professional football to the Beehive State. You can follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/bigdondoo