David Young enters his 20th NFL season and 15th overall with the Seahawks in 2023. As Chief Operating Officer for the Seahawks, Young is responsible for the leadership of several lines of business including Marketing, Retail Operations, Community Engagement, Production & Game Entertainment and the operation of Lumen Field, Lumen Field Event Center and the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
The Seahawks brand continues to be among the strongest in professional sports and Young oversees a marketing team that is responsible for growing and evolving the Seahawks brand both locally and nationally. The Seahawks rank toward the top of the NFL in total fanbase, with 7.4 million fans nationally and 3.4 million fans in the state of Washington.
Continually enhancing the guest experience has also been a focus for Young throughout his career. Young guided the development and implementation of the fan-focused innovation program, Fanovation which launched in 2022. Fanovation is a process of continual improvement utilizing fan feedback and other data to deliver innovative improvements to the fan experience. In 2022, Fanovation delivered new video boards, the Cityside bar area open to all fans and the first Amazon Just Walk Out powered concessions locations in the NFL. In the first year of the Fanovation program, overall gameday satisfaction improved 14% as measured by the NFL Voice of the Fan Survey and net promoter score improved 91%.
Already one of the busiest event venues in the nation, the variety and number of events have also grown in each year at Lumen Field and Event Center during Young's tenure, including a threefold increase in concerts held each year in the Washington Music Theater. In total, the Lumen Field event complex manages more than 300 event days and 2.4 million attendees annually. Lumen Field has also continued to set high standards for sustainability becoming the first Smart Catch certified stadium and maintaining an average waste diversion rate greater than 96% over the last several years. Lumen Field has earned a variety of recognition, including "Seattle Business Magazine Community Impact Award for Sustainability" in 2019 and "Environment Protection Agency Very Large Business Partner of the Year Award" in 2020.
In light of COVID-19's impact on the community, Young led the efforts to support numerous community programs in 2020 including utilizing the vast stadium and event center space to host an army field hospital, blood donation center, and make more than 120,000 emergency meals that were distributed throughout the Seattle area. He also oversaw the stadium's partnership with King County Elections to host a voter resource center, as well as the opening of the country's largest civilian-led COVID-19 community vaccination site at the Lumen Field Event Center in partnership with the City of Seattle, which opened in March 2021.
Young rejoined the organization after working as the Vice President of Stadium Operations with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2010-14. Prior to his time with the Chiefs, he spent six years with the Seattle Seahawks and First & Goal Inc. (2004-10) as the Assistant General Manager and Director of Guest Services. Young began his career at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida as an Operations Manager. The Woodland, Wash. native earned a degree in Communications from the University of Washington. He and his wife, Ali, live in Snoqualmie, Wash. with their children, Ella and Owen.
