Jazz overhaul training staff with two new hires; choose Ticketmaster at renovated arena


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SALT LAKE CITY — After a season in which they lost more value to injuries than any other team in the league, the Utah Jazz are making changes to try to prevent it from happening again.

In order to do that, they're revamping their training staff with two new hires that they hope will provide some much needed health.

Mike Elliott has been named "Vice President of Performance Health Care" for the Jazz, a new position they created for him. Elliott was on the Phoenix Suns training staff that lost the fewest number of win shares due to injury in the 2016-17 season. The Jazz lost the highest number of win shares thanks to important injuries to George Hill, Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward, among others.

NBA 2016-17 season injury plot: # of injuries vs # of wins. Player quality lost is bubble size (Lost-ws metric) https://t.co/dVDXOQa2ELpic.twitter.com/TrtrVp86r0 — Man Games Lost NBA (@ManGamesLostNBA) April 14, 2017

The Jazz also hired Eric Waters as head athletic trainer for the team. Waters will report to Elliott, and was the head athletic trainer for the Washington Wizards until 2016. In the 2015-16 season, the Wizards finished with the [third most missed games due to injury](https://twitter.com/ManGamesLostNBA/status/721121153750851584), leading to Waters' departure, but the team impact was about average (15th in the NBA).

Former Jazz head athletic trainer Brian Zettler is no longer with the team, having resigned from his post after the playoffs to pursue other interests, according to team PR.

Waters was named the NBA’s Athletic Trainer of the Year by the National Basketball Athletic Trainers Association following the 2009-10 season, so there's significant upside on his record. The Jazz will hope that their current strength and conditioning staff, plus the addition of Elliott and Waters, will be able to prevent the injury worries that have hurt the Jazz over the last few seasons.

Ticketing changes

The Jazz also announced that they'll be contracting with Ticketmaster to provide ticketing services for Utah Jazz games and all Vivint Arena events moving forward. Salt Lake Bees games and Smith's Ballpark events will also be moved to Ticketmaster under the "exclusive, multi-year agreement," according to a press release.

The Jazz previously used Veritix, the ticketing solution co-owned by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. That was most visible to fans through the Flash Seats app and website, which allowed ticket holders to buy, sell and transfer tickets.

But the Jazz and Ticketmaster will replace Flash Seats with ticket functionality directly through the Utah Jazz app. "The ability to integrate Ticketmaster’s capabilities directly into our mobile app will be a game changer for all our fans, especially season ticket holders," Jazz president Steve Starks said in the press release.

Fans will also be able to buy, sell or transfer tickets on the Ticketmaster website and app. Any sold tickets for future events are being moved over to the Ticketmaster platform, so for physical ticket holders, it should work pretty seamlessly.

More information about the Ticketmaster switch and how fans and ticketholders will be impacted will be released by the Jazz at a later date.

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