In this episode of "Against The Sales Odds," we dive deep with Andrew Sidney, SVP of Sales and Service for the Washington Commanders. Andrew shares his extraordinary journey from humble beginnings in minor league baseball to leading high-stakes sales teams in major professional sports. Discover how he navigated leadership challenges, including multiple ownership changes and team rebrandings, while maintaining a relentless focus on results. Learn about his servant leadership style, the importance of investing in people, and the strategies he employed to build high-performing sales teams. Tune in for inspiring stories, actionable advice, and a behind-the-scenes look at the world of sports sales.
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The Sales Game Changer: The Importance Of Investing In People With Andrew Sidney
I’m excited about this episode of the show because I was going through my photos on my iPhone and there were some pictures of me and a group of people in Houston at this margarita bar. We weren’t drinking at this point, but we were having lunch, and then we were going to get into having a sales team do what we do at Tyson Group called Hot Seat where they have to make live calls in front of peers. We were prepping for it. My guest was in the photos in the room. I’d like to welcome Andrew Sydney, Senior Vice President of Sales and Service for the Washington Commanders.
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Welcome to the show. It’s about time we get on here.
Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here. Remembering those Houston moments. That was a fun time.
We get a lot of leaders that tune in to this, people in sports and out of sports. The audience is wide. We have a leadership audience. It’s two pieces. We then have this audience of up-and-coming salespeople or seasoned folks who want some insight into sales and what’s going on. Describe to the audience your role. You are with one of the biggest brands in the world, the NFL. Plus, the Washington Commanders really is a big brand in a major market. Talk about your role and your responsibilities.
SVP of Sales and Service for the Washington Commanders
No problem. For me, in my role as SVP of sales and service, I do two main things. One is to oversee ticketing, so all of our ticket sales. That comes from everything from season tickets to group tickets. There is service on that side too, so membership services. I work on the suite side as well, so premium sales, annual suites, suite rentals, and some of our low boxes here in the Commanders Field. Those are the two biggest areas of focus for me in generating revenue. We have about 65 or so on the team. I am managing that group to success.
Talk about the leadership infrastructure that reports to you. For anybody that’s not in sales, there’s a revenue stream in tickets but there’s also a revenue stream with premium seating, which is a very big part. You then have membership services, like customer service account management of the organization, correct?
Yeah. Structure-wise, we have two arms. One is our ticketing arms. There are new season ticket sales underneath that. There are groups. There’s also a season ticket service team. We break it up that way where we have straight-up ticketing. That’s our general admission ticket sales. We have our club-level seats fall into that as well. They’re focused there. That’s the three main teams along with an inside sales group and entry-level salesforce.
On the premium side, it’s a separate arm. The VP of premium overseas that team. They’re focused on our highest-end clientele, our suite holders. We have the utmost third-most suites in the NFL to sell as part of our stadium. That’s a huge focus for us. We have a new sales suite team focused on new folks. We then have a service team that’s activating our suite partners, upselling, cross-selling, and generating new business as well.
In your leadership team, do you have two VPs that report to you?
Two VPs.
Is there anybody else that reports directly to you?
Yeah. I have one additional. She’s the senior director of sales operations. Since it’s a pretty large group, there are a lot of things from a strategy standpoint, making sure things don’t fall through the cracks, and keeping us on point. We run a lot of sales events. This person heads up the department where we’re specifically focused on. It’s a revenue-generating leadership role, but for us, breaking it out from the two VPs and having them report to me gives us a little bit more opportunity for me to be hands-on with that piece and make sure we’re driving forward.
Before you got here, I’m curious because leaders like yourself have to deal with a lot of change, got to plan for the change, and have to be agile and pliable. You, in the last couple of months, have gone through an ownership change where you’ve gone from Dan Snyder to Harris Blitzer. From a personal leadership standpoint and productivity because you couldn’t shut it off and you probably were dealing with a lot of unknowns, talk through that. What was the hard thing about that? What did you realize about yourself?
For me in my career, and I’m sure we’ll get to this later, it’s the third ownership change I’ve been through. We’ll get to it. This was the largest scale and the biggest in terms of most well-known when an NFL team switches ownership. For me, having leaned on some of that experience, having gone through it at a lower level than where I’m at, and seeing leaders and how they went through it above me at that time helped me.
The biggest thing was like, “Let’s be the group that nobody has to worry about. Let’s continue to push forward and control what we can control.” I know everyone always says that super cliche, but in this moment, that’s what mattered most. When the new group came in, I wanted to be very open, honest, helpful, be an open book, be open to thoughts, share best practices, and also show that we can produce results. Since we continued to do our work and took the approach of, “Let’s control what we can and not be a problem here. Let’s be the ones where they look at our department and say, “They know what they’re doing,” that served us well.
Investing In People: Let's just control what we can.
I love that philosophy because as a leader, what are you facing? With a lot of our clients consulting and things like that, they have to deal with that. There’s fear, especially for somebody at your level because the top of the organization can easily get knocked off. You’re sitting there and going, “If anything, I’m probably the object that gets moved.” With some of your key direct reports, you’re like, “You have to behave in a way that you’re very confident to keep your critical mass, your talent, or your souls underneath you moving forward. We got a job to do.” You’re in one of those businesses where the season has a start and the season has an end, so you got to keep the bus moving, right?
Yeah. For us, it was unique because, at that time, there were a lot of things in social media and the news. You don’t really know. You’re in the dark. You don’t know what’s going on. You’re learning as everyone else is learning along the way. For me, it was like, “There’s only one option here. We keep doing what we’re doing.”
There’s only one path.
There’s one path forward. The other path is not even an option. It leads to failure. It’s not really a choice. I was like, “There’s one path forward here. Let’s put our best foot forward to get there.” Did we have moments where my leadership team would come in and ask certain questions or I would have certain questions, or our sales reps are seeing things and asking their direct leader? For sure, but because we had such a strong focus on, “Let’s put our best foot forward here and show what we can do,” and let the chips fall wherever they may and be confident in that, that helped us.
Let's put our best foot forward, show what we can do, and let the chips fall where they may and be confident in that.
In the years that I’ve known you, I’ve seen you in multiple different roles at this point. We might be going a good ten years at this point relationship-wise. Something I admire about you is you’re a no-distractions person. You’re like, “We got a job at hand.” Your answer is probably more of a metaphor for what you’ve done with your career. Let’s take that and go backward. I ask all my guests, “How the heck did you get here? Where did you start?” How do you get to SVP in one of the biggest, busiest that is our nation’s capital with a major brand or major league? How do you get there? What’s that beginning career path move for you?
I’m happy to go backward. Number one, you get really lucky and meet good people right along the way. That’s the biggest thing for me. I went to Ithaca College with a Sport Management major. At this point, that program’s great. They give you a lot of access to what sales is. At that point, they were getting started and I didn’t have a ton of info about what I was getting into.
I applied for jobs. I ended up getting two opportunities. I won’t name the team, but it was one of my hometown teams. I’m from New York. The other one was the Frisco RoughRiders down in Dallas, Texas, a minor league baseball team. The New York team was a major league team. It was a professional Big Four team. I fell in love with the people in Frisco. I fell in love with the leadership folks who were there and their track record of producing successful folks.
I wanted to take a chance, move away, and start something new. I figured that if I failed, I could come back to New York and I’ll be okay. I went down to Dallas. I worked for three years as a sales rep in Frisco. I started in inside sales, moved up to group sales, and did outside sales. I learned from some great people who are still in the industry doing incredible things. I have stayed in touch with most of those people.
My vice president of sales, Gina.
Gina’s one of them. I didn’t work when Gina was there, but I know all the names. We have this connection.
The Mandalay. Brent Stehlik, Kevin Rocklidge, and Mike Gray.
Matt Goodman.
I forgot that about you that it was the Frisco RoughRiders. You decided not to go to the big league. You said, “I’ll go to a minor league here.”
It was, for me, seeing those people move on to bigger and better things. That was the story for Frisco. It was like, “Come here for 3 to 5 years. We’re going to have to teach you the right way to sell. You’re not going to rely on wins and losses. You’re going to learn how to sell in a tough environment and sell minor league tickets in a market that has some major brands inside of it.” I did that. My boss at the time, Justin Ramquist, who works for the Indiana Pacers, took that role and I was able to move into a Director of Sales in Frisco. That was my first move into management and leadership at that time.
Before you go there, hold on a second because I didn’t know this right here.
Go ahead.
Andrew as the salesperson, who were you? Were you at the top of the board? Were you in the middle of the board? Where were you at?
The Number One Salesperson
I was the number one salesperson, but it wasn’t because I’m a great seller. I outworked everybody. I put my head down and outworked everybody. We had a sales pitch. It’s a little bit different than how we do it now, but in Frisco, you learned a sales pitch and needed to memorize it. You memorize the sales pitch and go into the meeting where these are the questions you ask. It was something that gave me so much confidence in the meetings. I set a ton of meetings and went out, out-hustled people, and put myself in those opportunities.
Did you gradually get to number one or maintain number one at the time you were there?
I started at the bottom with inside sales. You then work your way. In the last year and a half of my selling, I was at the top and then had a chance to move into leadership after that.
Out of curiosity, because I said this to a group, when you started in inside sales of Frisco, think about that incoming class that you started with in maybe the first six months. How many were there and how many are left?
We only had six in our class. It was 1 of the 1st inaugural classes for Frisco. in terms of inside sales. None of them are still in sports.
Some of them probably left where they volunteered out and some were opted out. If I know anything about you, I know you put the hours in. You said it at the beginning of our interview, “I put the hours in. I put my time in there. I outwork people.” We forget that. A lot of people looking for jobs don’t realize sometimes money doesn’t lead. Money follows and usually comes from the no. You then get to that director role at Frisco where you lead.
Most people looking for jobs don't realize that sometimes, money doesn't lead. Money follows.
It was my first chance to lead. It was super challenging for me. I was managing people at the time. You don’t know this either, I don’t believe. At the time, I was living with three of the people that I was moving into management with. I made the choice like, “I have to move out. I have to get my own apartment. I’m now your boss.” I quickly moved out and went through about six months of extremely challenging, for me, management. I didn’t feel like I was doing anything right. I felt like I was trying to be somebody else.
They probably felt you bailed on them a little bit.
It was like, “I’m not part of the we. I’m the they now. It was that type of thing. What’s interesting for me was about six months in, I didn’t know at the time, but I took the approach of confronting them head-on. I remember this. After one of our games, it was late at night, working a minor league baseball schedule. It was some weekday game. It was probably 10:00 PM. I grabbed 4 or 5 of the team and brought them into one of our restaurants. I was like, “What can I do better? I feel like I’m failing for you. I feel like I’m failing at this role.” They saw me being me and taking that approach. Ever since that conversation happened, after that, it got a lot better. For me, I was able to learn, “I have to be myself here.”
Was it hard for you to be vulnerable like that? I always think great leaders can humble themselves. They can be self-effacing. They can be vulnerable. The ones that really struggle with that identity crisis can’t do it because they think they have to be Teflon at all times. Was that hard for you?
Investing In People: Great leaders can humble themselves.
Being A Great Leader
Yeah. For me, growing up, I don’t know why, but in watching sports, you see leaders and what you see on TV is you see these tough guys. I was growing up watching Bill Parcells as a head coach. You never thought Bill Parcells would be vulnerable to his team. That was one of the guys I grew up admiring as a head coach from a leadership standpoint.
For me, it was not what I had seen. Honestly, I don’t know how I stumbled onto it. I was being myself and it ended up working. Ever since then, that’s the approach I’ve taken. It’s to be me. Ultimately, you get more confidence as the years go on. At that moment, it was an important change in how I was approaching the role.
You were in that for another three years. You were all in about six years.
I was two years in that role. I was there for five.
You learn, “In sales, I’m going to outwork everybody.” You then bring that into leadership and realize, “I might not be built for this, but I got to be myself. I got my own personal signature. I’m going to talk directly to people that are going to know who I am.” You go to what role after that? Where did you go?
After that, I had an opportunity to join the Houston Rockets. I was two years with Frisco. It was five years in total. Back to my earlier point, we had gone through an ownership change there in Frisco. We were purchased. Mandalay sold the team. I felt like it was time for me to move on. I always wanted to get into a Big Four league. The NBA was the league that I felt like and I had heard did it best. I had been able to connect with a few TMBO reps at the time and got to know them. My name got through to Gretchen Sheirr with the Rockets at the time and ended up connecting. I took a role overseeing their group sales and their inside sales departments for the Rockets.
What was tough and what was easy about that transition? Gretchen is the President of the Rockets, right?
Yes. I got lucky with getting connected with her. The Rockets do a great job overall. Moving into that role, what was easy and eye-opening for me was I was like, “Our sales process in Frisco is better than what we’re doing here in Houston for some levels or at least on some things.” I always got a lot of confidence from that in terms of straight-up tactical sales, helping reps through situations and conversations, and going out on meetings. I earned a lot of trust with our IS team and our groups team off the bat because I threw myself into their pipeline and said, “How can I help you close deals?” That’s an easy way to gain trust. I was able to get a couple of easy wins off the bat.
What was hard for me is I was managing people who were older than and have me been with the Rockets for upwards of a decade. It was like, “Now we have more of a younger and had never sold at the NBA minor league guy coming in as my manager or boss.” That was hard off the bat, but I was able to lean on my experience in Frisco going through the time when I was managing people I was living with. I said, “This is easier than that. I have to do the same thing.” I did a lot of lunches and a lot of breakfasts for 30 minutes getting to know these folks and building trust. That’s the first step.
It’s interesting too. The role at a minor league team as opposed to 1 of the 4 major leagues is wider and the interest isn’t there. You have to scrape. It doesn’t matter how good the minor league team is. It’s a secondary play. Frisco’s part of Dallas. There are a lot of other things to do. It’s not like Wichita. This is what I know about you that I always got excited about when I first met you. You don’t believe in motivating people. You believe in the process. You said it when you were in Frisco. You were like, “I was confident because I had a process.” It doesn’t matter if it was memorized. It doesn't matter if you have cue cards. You still had a pathway. To build trust and credibility with the people, what did you demand from a process standpoint, or what was the design of the process that you installed into the deal?
Creating An Easy Sales Success
For me, the biggest area of focus was it truly felt like we were lacking more on the B2B side of things. I know that’s a little bit difficult for a new inside sales rep to come in, but getting them acclimated on how to talk to businesses was something that when I was their age and in Frisco, we did that and it was super helpful. For me, it was always so much easier to go B2C after learning B2B instead of the other way around, so I took that approach. They had never really leaned in on the B2B side for inside sales or groups and got some good conversations with companies and some easy wins with meetings and having some sales. That was one approach.
For me, it was all about trying to get face-to-face with people and getting them down to the arena or going out to their office. I remember driving around with reps and saying, “I have never done this before. This is cool.” Getting in the car, driving to someone’s office, and having a 30-minute meeting with them was an approach that we took. It created some easy sales success but it was more about, “This is an avenue where I can help the team right now and make a quick impact.” That was exciting for me.
As you start to work there, you start to come into your own. What I’m hearing from you too is interesting. The way you describe stuff, you don’t overcomplicate anything.
I try not to.
You’re very clear on what you’re trying to do, like, “I’m going to spend some time with folks. I need to get them to trust me.”
From that level.
It’s interesting because I talk to a lot of leaders and they do overthink it sometimes too. Simple is genius at some level, right?
I agree. It’s not rocket science. We’re not doing brain surgery here. We’re dealing with people, and people are complicated. For me, having the ability to connect with people and get to know them on a personal level is important. Showing them how you can help them professionally is equally important. The other piece of it too is you start to get an understanding of who’s bought in and who’s not.
You can then manage appropriately and either understand, “These people aren’t going to be long for this role the way that we need everybody bought in.” That’s one thing that’s crucial when you think you’re building a culture. Culture, for me, is bottom-up. It’s not necessarily top-down. It comes from your team. Ultimately, you have to have the right people to build that team. Those moments where I’m out there and building trust or having lunch, I’m also taking notes on, “Is this person bought in? What does this look like?”
Investing In People: You need the right people to build that high-performing team.
That’s probably key going back to what you did in the last ownership change. You were like, “Who’s bought into the system? I need you to buy in at some level.” Buy-in comes before ownership. It’s only a buy-in then a transaction. Buy-in comes from ownership. You’re at the Rockets for how long? Another 4 or 5 years? What year are you in?
Four years in Houston. We had some really fun success on the court. That was the first time I had tasted how winning can help. We had Chris Paul and James Harden and won a bunch of games. At that point, things were running themselves. For the first time in my career, I was like, “Am I really making an impact?”
I always felt like I was making an impact in Frisco, but in Houston in the end, I wanted to go somewhere where I could start afresh, take on a challenge, build something, and feel like I was impacting it. I got a call about a role up in Detroit with the Detroit Tigers from Dave Baldwin. I ultimately moved from Houston to Detroit to be our director of the new business and group sales overseeing season tickets and new business.
There’s a spot in there.
Go ahead.
You applied to the Colts, right?
Do you want to go there?
We have to because it’s such a great part of your story. I’ll tell it from my version. It’s a great part of your signature. Andrew calls me and there’s a good job opening at the Colts. This was before Detroit. Sometimes, it is who wants to know you. He was working on his network. I’ll throw my cards behind you a little bit because we do some business with them. I never have a challenge vouching for anybody that I believe in. It comes down to a competitive situation. The person who got the job is a great human being too. He is still there.
I’d never seen that side but I saw the competitive side of you I hadn’t seen. You called me and you weren’t really happy. You were frustrated. You were like, “I deserve this.” You said something in the pregame here that caught my eye. The leader left that was trying to hire you, and then afterward, you went back and said what? It’s important to who you are.
At the time, I wasn't pleased with the decision, but looking back on it, the way it played out, I wouldn’t have been ready for the opportunity that was presented to the person who’s there who got the role Ultimately. I would’ve been ready to step into that. Having the ability to have some perspective on it and looking back, it was one of the better things that has happened to me, not getting the role. I probably wouldn't have had as much success or may have failed in that spot because I wasn’t ready. Ultimately, things worked out really well all across the board.
That’s humility though. That comment there for anybody reading is you get fired up in the moment. At some level, you became resolute and said, “This isn’t right for me.” You look back and you go, “I’m not ready,” which probably helps you in the future when you coach a lot of your people. You have to put things in perspective. Some people say, “I was always ready.” Maybe not though too. That’s such a great comment. It’s such a great lesson.
Investing In People
It taught me a lot. I’m a competitive person. I want to win on the field with the Commanders. I want our team to win. I want to win off the field. I want to be number one in everything we do. I want our people to be the best. Sometimes, you have to lose to learn how to win too.
I want our people to be the best, but sometimes, you should lose to learn how to win.
I don’t think you like to say that word though.
You don’t.
Do you like to win more or do you hate to lose more? I’m curious.
I hate to lose more.
I hate to lose more and like to win.
You can learn in those moments, and that was a key moment for me. I got fired up. Ultimately, there was one path forward. What’s the other path? I get super upset and it ends up as a spin zone. You’re comparing yourself to other people and it doesn’t work out.
It never works out comparing yourself. That’s right. I can remember you and I talking there. We went over that because we did the comparison. I remember you and I had a pretty healthy conversation. I was like, “Maybe it comes down to how you interviewed. Maybe it comes down to, “This looks better here.” Maybe it was a better fit.” At the end of the day, that was a healthy conversation. You go to Detroit and start working with another great leader, Dave Baldwin, who’s the President of the Chicago Fire.
Things work out. I got a call from Dave through another connection of mine. Dave got my name and gave me a ring. I’ve had a lot of good moments going to Frisco and Houston, but the move to Detroit changed the trajectory of getting with someone like Dave, the opportunity there, and the leadership team there with some of the other folks up there in Detroit. Some are still there and some are not.
It was that moment in time and the ability to go in and try and resurrect two historic franchises. I was on the Tigers side but we were doing the same thing on the Detroit Red Wings side. We rebuilt the staff. Both teams had had a lot of success with the Tigers being in multiple World Series and the Red Wings making the playoffs for 20 years in a row or 30 years in a row.
We hired a lot of people. We trained them from the ground up. I have a huge role in setting the foundation, seeing that growth, and going through that. COVID put a pretty big damper in all of that when we were there, but we had a lot of success off the bat implementing fundamentals and sales strategy, working hard, and hiring a great leadership team to lead the way. For two years, I was up in Detroit. It was a great experience for me. It changed the opportunities for me down the road too.
Dave moves. Dave gets an opportunity, which is relatively your role at some level or a portion of your role in Washington. He brings part of his leadership team, which is you’re part of that with him there. You entered into the Washington Commanders. You went through a name change. Was the name change pre you?
We were there for the name change. We were there when it was the Washington Football Team.
That is not a tough thing because you have some legacy with the old name. We don’t need to say that. You went nameless, and now, you’re that. You’ve gone through ownership changes and brand changes. You got all kinds of things going on. At this point, you hit four leagues. The only thing I don’t think you have hit is MLS and NHL at this point, right?
Yes.
You got two MLBs.
Minor League Baseball.
We hockey with [00:25:24]. You’re not the trifecta, the quadfecta, or whatever it is. What is the role then when Dave comes over to the Commanders? What does the role look like?
Overseeing The Sales Functions
To start off, I was overseeing all of our sales functions, so new business, group sales, and inside sales. I was overseeing the director of inside sales and the director of groups, and then I was managing the BD team or the season ticket team directly at that point. My sole charge was, “Let’s grow our season ticket member base and start a group sales platform.” They didn’t have a true group sales platform that was brand new. We had to hire a new inside sales team of sixteen people off the bat and then grow a season ticket base that had dropped pretty far down in terms of NFL League rankings with some of the stuff of name change and some of the ownership and play on the field.
You have to grow the team. You have to grow the revenue and grow the ticket base. Dave’s there for two years maybe, and then you get elevated into the position you are in. You waited it out, or not weighted it out but you held the course is probably a better way to say it. It’s interesting. As we start to bring this bird down for the landing, you worked with some pretty strong leaders. The folks at Frisco had a certain methodology. Gretchen’s a strong leader. Dave’s a strong leader. Take an amalgamation of all three of those experiences and you would say your sales leadership philosophy is what?
For me, it comes down to three things. The big theme is the servant leadership style. I’m going to work as hard as everybody else. I’m not going to ask you to do anything that I’ve never had to do before on your level. That’s the servant leadership side. For me too, it’s investing in people. It’s not just saying that but truly impacting people’s lives and going out with them, whether that’s coffee, dinner, lunch, or whatever. It’s really trying to get to know them so that we can grow their careers.
Ultimately too, it comes down to hitting numbers and being somebody who can get the job done no matter what is going on with the outside noise. That adaptability that you spoke about is crucial to leadership. Being able to go through different circumstances, adapting to them, and being flexible are keys to my leadership style.
That is so well said. The servant leadership thing can be cliche if somebody doesn’t define what it means to them. It’s, “I’m going to work hard. I’m not going to ask you to do something I haven’t done myself at some level. I might not even know my job now, but I understand it enough to take care of you. I’m going to invest in you.” The way you said it was pretty granular too because it’s not just investing resources. It was, “I’m going to personally spend some time,” like you did at Frisco and said, “Give me some feedback. I feel like I’m failing.”
What you didn’t miss, which is interesting, is all leaders depending on the role need to get results. The only problem with sales leadership is the results are very measurable. Chances are, your goals are going to go up in double digits every year, and chances are, you’re not going to the amount of resources that are equivalent to what your goals have to do. You have to do things faster and better with less, and that only comes through people. That’s that loop that comes back. You then brought it right back to the center like, “We got new ownership. We’re not going to be the problem. We’re going to get it done.”
That’s the job. We’re going to get it done. Gretchen gave me that advice. I leaned on her. We missed this along the way, but Houston was also sold during my time there. It went through an ownership change too.
There’s your third.
That’s the third. I called her the power of the network and the power of people. I don’t know what I don’t know. It was calling somebody who has gone through that at her level, which was a similar role to where I was at the time, and being able to lean on her expertise. She told me, “Don’t be the problem. Be the people that get it done and you’re good.” I was like, “That’s so simple.”
Investing In People: Don't be the problem. Be the people that get it done.
She is the greatest example of that. She has been there for a long time and she always got it done no matter what. I love that. There are the last three questions. Are you ready? This is a speed round.
Let’s do it.
You have three children. Their age is very young, about 6 or 7. Think of a niece or nephew at 7 or 8 years old. They say, “Uncle Andrew, what does success mean to you?” Give success in the words of a 7 or 8-year-old. Go.
It’s having high integrity, being someone people can trust and come to while producing high results for whatever job that you’re in. Ultimately, whatever job you have, it’s not about moving up as quickly as possible. It’s about being the best at the job that you have, whether that’s a sales role, finance, a lawyer, or you’re picking up garbage. Be the best custodian that you can be. That’s super important. Also, do it with high integrity because without that, there’s no respect and there’s no trust. You can’t grow your career without those things.
Mission-oriented. I love it. Hype song sales-wise. You’re going into knocking a big deal or you’re recruiting somebody. What’s the song you’re playing in your head?
I’m a little bit of an old soul when it comes to music. We grew up with my dad listening to Frank Sinatra all the time on Sundays when he was home in the morning because he worked Monday through Saturday. On Sunday morning, there was always Frank coming through our speaker system. It’s My Way. Do it your way. I’ll do it my way.
You have your way. I love it. It’s a great song. It’s on my playlist. If you were going to gift a book, what book would you gift to somebody?
This one’s tough for me. How to Win Friends and Influence People is a good one. I’ll reread this book when I go through challenging times or have circumstances where I start leaning towards, “This isn’t my fault,” or, “Somebody let me down here.” It’s Extreme Ownership. You can go back and pick up so many lessons. It directly relates to what I do. It’s so easy to blame others or blame your circumstances, but how can you own it to make it better? That one has so many examples. That’s the one I’m giving up.
It's easy to blame others or your circumstances, but how can you own it to make it better?
I love it. Jocko Willink, right?
That’s a Jocko book.
Amazing guy. No doubt. It’s great having you here. I loved the interview. Thank you so much for spending time with us. There are some great lessons here. Simple is genius. You keep it very focused and get the job done. I love it. Thanks.
I appreciate it. Thanks so much.
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About Andrew Sidney
Andrew Sidney joined the Washington Commanders in July of 2021. Now in his 4th season, as SVP of Sales and Service, Andrew currently oversees all ticketing and premium sales for the Commanders.
Andrew began his career with the Frisco RoughRiders, Double- A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, in an entry - level ticket sales role. He spent the next three seasons selling season tickets, groups, and premium hospitality for the RoughRiders before making the transition into leadership as the Director of Ticket Sales & Service overseeing a team of 25 sales & service reps.
Following his time with the RoughRiders, Andrew made the jump the NBA and spent the next four years as the Director of Group and Inside Sales with the Houston Rockets as key member of a leadership team that set record-breaking revenue numbers in ticketing.
Andrew was then recruited to help rebuild the ticketing department of the Detroit Tigers as Director of Ticket sales and spent the next two years in Detroit leading season ticket revenue growth and contributing to an MLB leading suite sales team.
Originally from New York, Andrew graduated from Ithaca College in 2010 with a Sport Management degree and obtained his MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington while in Frisco. Andrew is married to his wife, Lexie, has three daughters, Lilah, Sloane, Kendall, and a dog, Tex.
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