GENEVA, Ohio — SPIRE Institute and Academy is adding a heavy-hitter in the world of sports.
Jerry Solomon, a world-renowned sports agent, manager and event producer, will join SPIRE’s staff as a consultant and Senior Vice President of Business Development.
Solomon’s career includes serving as President of ProServ, where he represented iconic athletes such as Ivan Lendl, Janet Evans, Shannon Miller, Karch Kiraly and Nancy Kerrigan. Solomon is also the founder of StarGames, an event production company responsible for the creation and production of more than 100 events including Halloween on Ice, the Caesars Tennis Classic, A Salute to the Golden Age of American Skating, the King of the Beach Invitational and the BNP Paribas Showdown, which annually showcased some of the greatest names in tennis competing at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden.
“I’m looking at this for a potential location for world-class events, to bring in the best athletes in the world. This should become in my view, the home for big-time sports and people from all over the world are looking to come here and be a part of it,” Solomon told WKYC Sports at SPIRE Academy and Institute in Geneva.
Solomon said he has started the process of looking at what is realistic for future sporting events. He added, “The facility is such where we bring in a tennis event with the top-ranked players in the world, we can do soccer and indoor events. Everything is on the table. The first step is to look at how we can bring in the fans and how many we can bring in.”
There is no timetable in place for any major announcements. Solomon admitted to one of the most immediate challenges with this project: “The biggest challenge we face at the moment is people don’t know about SPIRE. That outside of the region, SPIRE is not a well-known entity. So, we need to put it on the map. We have to get to a certain level of recognition among elite athletes, coaches and teams. We have done events at Madison Square Garden and other big arenas, I want SPIRE to be that for world-class events.”
You can watch all of Jerry Solomon’s comments about his new position at SPIRE Academy and Institute in the video player above.