Graham Rossini is in his 13th season with the D-backs and serves as the Club’s Vice President, Special Projects & Fan Experience. In this business development capacity, Rossini manages the relationships between the D-backs and several key business partners, including E15 Analytics Group, Levy Restaurants and Rank + Rally Retail. He also oversees the club’s stadium branding, uniform development, sustainability efforts, Spring Training business operations, D-backs Authentication program, Alumni Association, baseball outreach efforts and serves as the club contact for all MLB special and international events.
During the 2018-19 offseason, Rossini led a project team tasked with transforming Chase Field and several fields at Salt River Fields to new high-performance synthetic grass. The new Shaw Sports Turf B1K playing surface is the first installation of its kind in Major League Baseball and will be followed in 2020 as Marlins Park and the new Globe Life Field install similar playing fields. Among its many benefits, the new surface allowed the D-backs to save 4.7 million gallons of water last season and increased fan comfort at Chase Field. The D-backs’ sustainability efforts have also grown significantly under Rossini’s watch as MLB awarded the D-backs as the Most Improved National League Club for diversion and sustainability in 2017.
Rossini is currently leading the club’s efforts to build a new player development and education academy in the Dominican Republic, scheduled to open in 2020. Rossini also oversaw the design, construction and business planning of Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, the D-backs’ award-winning and LEED-Gold certified Spring Training complex. After the facility opened in 2011, the complex was a finalist for Sports Facility of the Year from the Sports Business Journal and has received over 40 “best of” awards from various local and national publications including USA Today and Architectural Record, while Ballpark Digest recently named the facility “Spring Training Ballpark of the Decade.” The complex holds the top 9 all-time Spring Training attendance records and has led all of baseball in total and average attendance each season.
Rossini and his team have worked with Levy Restaurants and Rank + Rally Retail on many enhancements to the D-backs’ decorated fan experience. Media outlets including Forbes, ESPN and Sports Illustrated have all covered the D-backs’ efforts to set apart the Chase Field dining experience from typical ballpark fare with innovative food and beverage concepts and the presence of several popular Valley restaurant brands. A redesigned retail footprint and the introduction of Rank + Rally Retail prior to the 2015 season culminated with the D-backs being awarded as the MLB Hard Goods Retailer of the Year in 2017.
Rossini helped lead the D-backs’ successful efforts to host the 2011 All-Star Game and 2013 and ‘21 World Baseball Classic. He is coordinating the D-backs’ 2020 series in Mexico City and also coordinated the 2014 MLB Opening Series in Sydney, Australia and exhibition games in Mexico, Hermosillo (2015) and Monterrey (‘19).
The Mobile, Ala., native also oversees the D-backs Baseball Academy, helped create the D-backs Youth Jersey Program, which outfits nearly 70,000 youth baseball and softball players in free D-backs jerseys and caps, and oversees the club’s Alumni Association and D-backs Fantasy Camp.
Prior to joining the D-backs in February 2008, Rossini spent 6 years as the Director of Baseball Operations at Arizona State University. While at ASU, he was involved in 2 College World Series teams (2005, ‘07) and the recruitment of 5 Top-5 signing classes, which included Major Leaguers Dustin Pedroia, Andre Ethier, Tuffy Gosewisch, Eric Sogard, Jason Kipnis, Travis Snider, Eric Hosmer and current D-backs pitcher Mike Leake.
Rossini graduated cum laude from ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business with a degree in Business Management in 2002 and a Masters of Business Administration with an emphasis on leadership in 2011. He was named to the 2015 class of _Phoenix Business Journal_’s 40 Under 40 and is an active board or council member of several organizations, including Downtown Phoenix Partnership, TGen Ambassadors, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s ‘The Vinnies,’ Downtown Phoenix Warehouse District, ASU National Alumni Council and Green Sports Alliance.
Graham and his wife, Alison, reside in Phoenix with their son, Rhett.