Executive Q&A: Oklahoma City RedHawks executive continues lifelong interest in sports

“You learn early on that sports, it's still a business. We have 32 people here and we're a small business, it just so happens our product is something pretty fun and entertaining,” he said.

His wife, Jenna, also works for the team as vice president of ticket sales. So often nights, weekends and even vacations are spent with an emphasis on baseball. Byrnes sat down with The Oklahoman last week to talk about his life and career. This is an edited transcript:

Q: What's a typical day like for you?

A: There's an offseason day and an in-season day. This time of year, in the offseason, we're putting a lot of effort into sales. Our ticket sales staff is working hard to meet with small businesses and sell ticket packages and make community partnerships. We've been doing some hiring. The offseason is build the plan; in season is work the plan. During the season, we're in at 8, we work through the end of the day, then it turns into a game night. We open our gates and welcome 8,500 people out to the ballpark. Those can be pretty long days. But it's fun. When you finally get the fans in the ballpark, that's when it's fun.

Q: Did you play baseball as a child?

A: I played baseball up through high school. I'm one of four boys, so there were a lot of sports in my house. Now, three out of four of us work in sports. The Thanksgiving dinner table gets kind of interesting.

Q: Do you get together for the holidays?

A: We do. We'll get together here for Christmas. All the brothers and my dad will come up so we'll get to spend some time here in Oklahoma City, then we'll scatter a little bit. My wife and I will go to Ohio, where her family is from.

Q: How did you get here? Did you plan to have a career in sports?

A: My first job in sports was selling parking when the Dallas Stars hockey team moved to a new arena, the American Airlines Center. That was my intro to how the sales process works. That rolled into an opportunity with the Big 12 Conference tournament in Arlington (Texas) in 2002. Then the Frisco Roughriders got into hiring mode and I spent some time in sales, ticket operations, partnerships. Over the course of eight years, I had an indirect path to learning the business. It was a neat step to be able to come here to work for the same company, Mandalay (Entertainment Group), but it was a new team and new product and new challenges. It was a good shot in the arm.