How 'innovator' Grant Harrison helped change the 'show' surrounding the Utah Jazz experience

SALT LAKE CITY — Welcome to the Delta Center, where Utah Jazz fans pay good money for everything that comes with today's NBA experience.

A much different experience from that first season at the Salt Palace back in 1979.

"The Jazz weren't good," Grant Harrison said.

Harrison, whose first job was selling season tickets for the Utah Stars, joined the Jazz that first year. For several years, he and the team's small staff had the tough task of getting fans in the seats.

"I think there were like 11 people in the front office," said David Allred, the former Jazz vice president of public relations. "And then we had the players and the coaching staff, and that was it. And so it was a really small group of people, and we had to do everything."

Harrison said those early days were "very tight times" and the organization didn't know "whether we were going to open up the doors the next year or not." But a charismatic coach and a pursuit to make revenue by becoming an innovator of the game changed how we look at the game.

To hear how Harrison and that small staff turned everything around for the Jazz, watch the video above.

Check out more Beyond The Game videos, including one about how Jay and Sara Hill's commitment to each other has helped them through life's complications, or about how longtime former BYU coach a Runnin' Utes star Jeff Judkins is spending his retirement, among many more.

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