Scott Schwinger, the president of the McNair Group and Chief Financial Officer of the Houston Texans, came to speak with Sport Finance class on February 17th. He offered great insight about working in finance for a professional sports team, and talked about what factors affect the valuation of a team.
Schwinger began working for Bob McNair, the owner of the Texans, as an analyst in one of his energy companies. He was a strong performer from the beginning, and steadily rose through the ranks. When the NFL was looking to add an expansion team at the start of the millennium, McNair was immediately interested. He was not happy when the Oilers left town, and felt the city of Houston needed a team. McNair chose Schwinger to work side-by-side with him in creating the intensive bid proposal required by the NFL. Their bid was successful, and the Houston Texans were added to McNair’s umbrella of companies.
Upon receiving word that their bid was approved, Schwinger was named CFO of the team, and spent much of his time in the first few years establishing the finance team. Over the past few years, however, he has been focusing more effort on the many other functions he serves for other businesses owned by Bob McNair. These responsibilities include being CEO of Palmeto Partners Ltd., president of RCM Management Services L.P., vice president for Cogen Technologies, and managing director of EMC Holdings, L.L.C. to name a few.
When asked about his favorite part about working in sports, Schwinger replied, “I can apply my business training and experience to a field that I loved as a boy in my own hometown. I also appreciate that hard core business principles are applied in a business with so much on-field passion, effort and emotion that hundreds of million people can watch and be a part of every weekend through modern multi-media.”
Ben Kohl, a senior from Los Altos, California, is majoring in Mathematical Economic Analysis and Sport Management.