There has never been a more important time for the group Russo leads. In addition to 30 domestic arenas \u2014 and potentially two more, soon, once the NBA expands to 32 teams \u2014 buildings are being designed and built in Oklahoma City<\/a>, Philadelphia<\/a>, San Antonio<\/a> and Dallas<\/a>. Many more teams are renovating. And the creation of NBA Europe will bring more venues \u2014 most of which already exist and will need to be brought up to NBA standards \u2014 into the league\u2019s fold.<\/p>\n The vetting effort will be led by the humble, calm, soft-spoken Russo, who\u2019s worked on more than 200 NBA arena projects of varying sizes. <\/p>\n \u201cFor a league to have a venues group that can advise and focus on the design and construction of venues,\u201d he said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any more critical time to have that available.\u201d<\/p>\n The arc of Russo\u2019s three decades with the NBA mirrors the league\u2019s changing thinking about its \u2014 and its teams\u2019 \u2014 real estate. <\/p>\n Russo\u2019s professional career began at Turner Construction in the early 1990s, and he later created the Department of Design and Construction for New York City\u2019s then-mayor, Rudy Giuliani. <\/p>\n In that role, Russo met NBA Commissioner David Stern, who later hired him in 1996 to help design, build and open the first NBA Store in Manhattan. The league then teamed with Hard Rock on an NBA restaurant that fizzled out but was indicative of its pioneering inclination to project its brand through real estate.<\/p>\n \u201cI always said for years, David was a closet real estate and construction nerd,\u201d said Russo.<\/p>\n Russo\u2019s focus shifted toward the NBA\u2019s arenas around the turn of the century. The venue standards were created during a wave of new NBA arena openings, establishing the league\u2019s basic requirements for every aspect of buildings where NBA games were played, ensuring competitive balance and the highest-quality TV and in-person product. The arena standards were later applied in China as part of the NBA\u2019s attempts to expand into the country in conjunction with the 2008 Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n By the 2010s, the NBA venues group had subtly shifted toward a more consultative role.<\/p>\n Teams sought its help studying contracts, evaluating vendors and even sitting in on architects\u2019 final presentations. Recently, Russo and Erin Schnieders \u2014 who joined as Russo\u2019s right-hand woman in 2008 and is now the league\u2019s senior vice president and head of venues \u2014 vetted the LA Clippers\u2019 ambitious Intuit Dome plans, including the first-of-its-kind Halo Board. Once convinced, Russo and Schnieders advocated for it inside the league office.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are starting to see and realize the value of our group,\u201d Schnieders said, \u201cand I think Chris had a lot to do with that.\u201d <\/p>\n Spurring development<\/p>\n In Year 30 at the NBA, Russo sits seamlessly between the league\u2019s business and the venue development world. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just a guy that speaks the language they speak over at 645 5th Ave., which is high-level global brand strategy,\u201d said venue development expert David Carlock, who worked with Russo in China. \u201cBut he also knows how to get his hands dirty and knows how the development process works.\u201d<\/p>\n Russo\u2019s even keel is valuable during venue project roller coasters and has made him a reliable sounding board for Schnieders. After nearly 20 years together, she can alternately speak to him as her boss, mentor or friend. <\/p>\n \u201cThat somebody can be all three of those is a difficult thing to comprehend, and to be,\u201d Schnieders said.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s responsibilities continue to expand. It oversees 18 global NBA offices and convenes regular note-swapping meetings for arena GMs. While their work happens behind the scenes, Russo and company are centrally involved in examining the arena proposals of groups bidding for North American expansion teams and NBA Europe franchises. <\/p>\n It seems likely that NBA Europe will place more importance on a franchise\u2019s market than the state of its arena. That means many of the arenas that will be used already exist and will need upgrading to NBA standards.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the long run, you\u2019ll see that both the expansion of the game and the elevation of that level of experience is going to spur some development in particular markets,\u201d Russo said, without saying the word \u201cEurope.\u201d \u201cSome will be harder than others to get that development done. But we\u2019re very optimistic about it.\u201d <\/p>\n 3 questions with Chris Russo<\/p>\n Favorite non-NBA venue<\/p>\n Co-op Live in Manchester, England. \u201cThe execution of what they did there \u2014 integrating premium spaces and the thought process they put into everything an artist would need \u2014 was pretty impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n Favorite NBA venue<\/p>\n The next one.<\/p>\n Influences?<\/p>\n Russo\u2019s dad was a gym teacher for four decades, but good with his hands and taught Russo how to build or fix things. One grandfather was an airplane mechanic, while the other went into facilities management after a long NYPD career. <\/p>\n In his teenage years, Russo pushed brooms around New York City construction sites, \u201cjust fascinated by how buildings were built,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Russo is the NBA\u2019s chief real estate and facilities officer, a title found in no other major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-804053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GTNLBUSCPJGWVKPQ2E574G7TTQ.jpg\")
Chris Russo was central to the 1998 completion of the first NBA Store. Standing (left to right): Russo, Russ Granik, Rick Welts, David Stern, Adam Silver and Bill Daugherty. Seated: Richard Altuna (the store designer) and Harvey Benjamin. Chris Russo, NBA Focus shift<\/p>\n