Being an owner isn’t for everyone.
Most people are comfortable settling into their silk-lined-ruts and using the company tickets twice a year. But Tom Garrity and John King had no other options. They both considered themselves unemployable, having reached a point in their careers when they needed to control their own destinies. It was non-negotiable. They’d paid their dues, OWNER is about building something for themselves, for their families, and in their communities. No longer content to be handed the employee sucker, they decided to bite into the ghost pepper.
Tom Garrity
Garrity’s name is synonymous with sports sales, operations, and ownership. Most recently, Garrity successful led the United States Hockey League as commissioner and president from 2017-2021, overseeing the only existing Tier 1 junior hockey league in the United States. During Garrity’s tenure the league had its most successful years financially along with over 200 players drafted into the NHL with 98% of players committing to NCAA schools – Garrity fostered strong relationships with the NHL, USAH and the NAHL and navigated the USHL through the COVID pandemic as the USHL was one of only a few leagues to start and finish the season.
Garrity has operated and been a co-owner of 2 USHL teams (Sioux Falls Stampede and Madison Capitols) along with operating and owning 2 minor league / collegiate baseball teams (Sioux Falls Canaries and Mankato Moondogs) Garrity led the Sioux Falls Stampede to 2 Clarke Cup Championships, 3 organization of the year awards along with winning the executive of the year award making the Stampede the gold standard in the USHL and junior hockey additional experience and expertise comes from ticket sales, sponsorship and team operations as an executive with the NHL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, MLS, AHL, and NLL.
John King
King built his career in advertising, with more than 20 years at Fallon, a full-service advertising agency where he worked on blue chip brands including Cadillac, General Mills, Hotels.com, Brown-Forman, Chrysler, Fanatics, NBCUniversal, and Anheuser-Busch. While at Fallon, King led successful pitches for award winning creative campaigns including Arby’s “We Have the Meats” and “Just the Right Amount of Wrong” for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Before departing, King was responsible for opening Fallon’s New York office, where he served as President.
Beyond his established professional credentials, King is well known for producing viral sports content for brands including the NHL, ESPN, Minnesota Hockey, and White Claw. For over a decade, King has been the mystery man behind the annual Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team, which has garnered millions of views and been featured everywhere from The New Yorker to Today. King most recently created the Minnesota Wild’s new branding campaign, “Not Weird. Wild.”