Sports MBA does the NHL Draft

Here's a few photos I took at the NHL draft in Ottawa this past weekend...  Once we're done with our exams I'll make sure to post some of the details from my trip.

Crunch Time

Not much time for any of us to post right now, as we're currently finishing up both Financial Management and Sports Marketing this week before a much-needed break the week of July 4. Group presentations, final case study projects and a take home final to do in the next few days.

We'll be back with more updates over the break next week!

Viva Mexico!

On Wednesday, June 4th the Mexican National Team hosted Argentina in a friendly international football (soccer) match at Qualcomm Stadium. How is it that Mexico can "host" a game on American soil? Of the 68,000+ in attendance, I'd say 65,000 were loyal fans of Mexico. Red, white, and green blanketed both the lower stands and upper deck. I had witnessed football crowds of this magnitude bef0re (90,000+ for a Real Madrid Champion's League match at Santiago Bernabeu), but in the United States? This was not Italy-Brazil in the 1994 World Cup Final. It was a friendly match that meant nothing more than pure pride. With the recent culmination of the Champion's League, both sides were able to stack their squads. But Messi, Aguero, Julio Cruz, and Maxi Rodriguez proved too much for Mexico as Argentina coasted to an emphatic 4-1 victory, much to the dismay of the raucous crowd.

So how was the SDSU Sports MBA program involved? Several students of SMBA '09 including myself assisted Soccer United Marketing (SUM) with running the event. SUM is the North American soccer organization that owns the rights to the MLS, USSF and all Mexican National Team games played in the United States. CEO Don Garber is also the Commissioner of the MLS. So, to quote Ron Burgandy, SUM is kind of a big deal.

The day before the match, we helped the crew set up Futbol Fiesta, a massive outdoor marketing operation that takes place before every game. Major sponsors of the event such as McDonald's, Home Depot, AT&T and Budweiser set up stages and platforms in the parking lot to perform various promotional activities for the fans. Two 45-minute halves don't leave much room for television advertising so this is an interactive way for corporations to market their products and expose their company's services directly to consumers. We spent the late afternoon placing programs on seats throughout the stadium, not the most glamorous job but somebody's got to do it.

On game day, the eight of us spent our time managing Futbol Fiesta for the corporate sponsors and vendors before being summoned into the stadium for various operational and PR responsibilities. Juan Carlos assisted the main videographer, Judith led a Budweiser parade around the stadium while Drew and I escorted retired Mexican National players to their suites prior to kickoff. A select few of the SMBAers got to watch the entire 2nd half on the field right behind the photographers. Drew and I kept getting pelted with cups and programs from rowdy Mexico fans aiming for the Argentinian keeper. For someone who loves the game of football as much as I do, it was an awesome experience.

The day ended with a post-game celebration at Seau's (that's former Charger Junior Seau's restaurant) with the entire SUM staff who put on the event. It was a long day that ended with food, drinks, and fun stories to tell.

Brendan Wells
SMBA '09

US Open

Here are a couple photos from the US Open going on right now in San Diego. There are about a dozen of us working the event and we'll have more stories to share as the weekend progresses.

Donaghy Rant

I've been busy working up at the US Open so I'm upset that I couldn't be the first person to make the joke: Game Six of the 2002 Western Conference Finals was rigged, tell me something I don't know Tim. Really, is there anybody out there that doesn't already know this? The only time that I followed the NBA for the past ten years was for a few months in 2001 when the Sixers made that finals run and I even know about this game. Ralph Nader wrote a consumer advocate letter requesting league investigation. I mean Nader is a little off, but he has a pretty good track record with these types of things (seat belts,etc.). The Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter! Come on 27 free throws, are you kidding me? I bet Donaghy doesn't even have any specific evidence and he is just using this as a legal strategy to force someone to investigate that game and other incidents. He hopes that the league settles with him and stops asking for restitution because they don't want to have to investigate this and other games. Something is bound to turn up with crooked refs and maybe somebody implicates the league? Stern is too smart to have any trail to him and league execs, but somebody else in the commissioner's or league office? That's possible. Maybe I'm crazy and it's just a rant, thoughts?
Zazo

Busy Times

The summer is almost in full swing and our class is gearing up for a busy season. The U.S. Open golf tournament is about to take place in San Diego at Torrey Pines and a dozen classmates are working with the USGA in support of the event. The majority of the class is currently involved with a marketing project with Sony relating to Sony's role as a chief sponsor of the 2010 World Cup. A group of students are also involved with a consulting projects for the local companies Upper Deck and the San Diego Hall of Champions. Add this to the Rock N Roll Marathon and the Mexico v. Argentina soccer match that our class was involved in this past week, it is safe to say these are busy times around here. No one seems to mind, because these are all great opportunities to network for our future careers. Loving it in San Diego!!

USA Sevens 2008

USA Sevens 2008 took place on February 9 and February 10 at PETCO Park!

While all the classmates were also volunteering this tournament, I and Corey were given a role of marketing and sales, and had opportunities to have lots of conversations with VIP Guests, Sponsors, and Vendors to directly hear their satisfactions and expectations about the tournament. My first time to volunteer in this country!


I had chances to talk with general people, private companies, some members from consulate general and Ambassadors. Here I’d like to share some comments I got from them.

• “Since many people from other states and countries come to the tournament, we want you to promote more with tour packages including of watching the USA 7, San Diego Zoo / Sea World etc. “
• “This is the sport tournament driven by a private organization, so it is important to focus on promoting to local companies and local people. Making a relationship with the local foreign communities (ex. Africans), and making them promote to join the tournament will probably be important.
• “Awesome time! Trying to increase our awareness, especially among the Africans. This is our second year and I’m sure we’ll be back next year.”
• “Need more promotion to youth to join the event and make them aware that Rugby is a great sport. “
• “I want to get margin if I invite more people to VIP Suite Room. “

I personally had a great chance to meet with Japanese who works in marketing department in Sony. Not only I got a relationship with him but he taught me some marketing perspectives that I learned directly from him.

While this tournament is driven by a private organization, it seems it is important to have relationship with local people and communities constantly and promote them to join the tournament and cheer their home country. How important to take care of relationship with people and have network for our lives and business!

Anyway, the team Kenya and its supporters were so passionate! We could feel their patriotism that there were over 1,000 Kenyan people who live in the US. I wish it will happen for other supporters from other countries for the next tournament.

This is the moment when team USA won against team France!

Nari

SDSU SMBA IV 'Year to Date'

Hey everyone!  Thanks for reading the new SDSU Sports MBA blog.  We've put this together in order to keep prospective applicants up to date with what's happening in the program as well as to share our experiences with our families and friend.  Briefly, to introduce myself, my name is Josh and, I'm a member of the current class of SDSU Sports MBA-ers.  Born and raised outside of Boston, I came to San Diego in January to take part in the program.  As a former college hockey player, I have a passion for the sports industry - and particularly the hockey industry.  Following the completion of our coursework in January, I hope to pursue a career in the hockey industry (in which capacity, I'm still deciding).  

I'll try, briefly, recap my past five months (has it really been that long?) here in Southern California as a student in the program.  I first arrived in San Diego during the middle of January to take part in the SDSU Sports MBA orientation.  At orientation, I was first introduced to the 41 other students with whom I would share my experience.  I first noticed the variety of ethnic, religious, educational, and geographic backgrounds that were represented by the current cohort of students. During the first few hours of orientation, I met students from Connecticut, Kansas, DC, Virginia, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Oregon, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Brazil, India, Japan, and Germany.  While we are certainly a diverse group, as a group we possess a common passion for spo

rts and the sports industry. 

Over the course of the past five months, our class has been fortunate enough to participate in numerous events.  In such a short time, members our class has be en heavily involved in the Rugby 7's Tournament, the Cal. State Games, the ITF Fed Cup, ESPN Moto X World Championships, San Diego Hall of Champions, USGA US Open at Torrey Pines, Athlete's First Charity Gala,  ESPN X-Games, and the Rock n'  Roll Marathon, the Buick Invitational, Action Sports Networking,  - just to name a few of the events.  

We've also had the opportunity to meet many esteemed guests who have visited our class, including (the abbreviated list) Dennis Green, former head coach of the Minnesota Vikings; Anthony Dittman of the ESPN X-Games; Yuki Zeigler of Soccer United Marketing; Jeff Schemmel, Athletic Director at SDSU; and Troy Morrison of US Bank.  

Our class has also had the privilege of studying under visiting professors Scott Rosner of The Wharton School, and Rodney Fort of The University of Michigan.  Classes with professor Rosner, one the preeminent scholars of sports law and sports business, and Professor Fort, the "rock-star" (as dubbed by Professor Rosner) of the sports economics field, provided my classmates and I with the incredible opportunity to study under two of biggest names in the 

field.  

While a few paragraphs hardly does the past five months justice, hopefully I've been able to highlight a few of the exciting things happening in and around the SDSU Sports MBA program. Our current class-load includes a core Finance class that utilizes sports-themed cases to develop and hone our understanding of basic Financial principles and a Sports Marketing class, taught by Professor Nelson Gayton of UCLA's Anderson School of Business and the Wharton School at UPenn (and the founder of the Sports and Entertainment Media Management Institute).  

I hope to make at least one entry per week here to keep everyone informed of the latest SDSU Sports MBA happenings.  I've got to finish a PowerPoint for a case we're presenting tomorrow on the AMF Bowling Company in Finance.   I'll leave you with a few photos of me and my classmates.

Josh Green

SDSU Sports MBA IV

green5@rohan.sdsu.edu

Dennis Green coming back for more!

A few weeks ago we had Dennis Green in for a couple hours to talk about some of his recent consulting work. His energy and humor made for a very enjoyable lecture. He has agreed to come back for a series of lectures to give us further insight on issues in the sports industry, especially the challenges facing the Chargers' effort for a new stadium. I'm looking forward to it. You can see what Dennis is up to on his webpage (http://www.dennisgreen.com/).

America's Finest City Half-Marathon

Training has begun for several SMBA '09 students to run in the America's Finest City Half-Marathon (http://www.afchalf.com/). This starts at the top of Point Loma and snakes down the hill, through downtown, and finishes in Balboa Park. This is a perfect race for a beginner and we're going to have a few rookies giving it a go on August 17! It should be fun, come join us! If you don't think you're up for a half-marathon, there is a 5-K in Balboa park that day which will allow you to cheer on the half-marathon runners as they cross the finish line!

Junior finally hits 600!

I wish he would have done it when Nari and I were watching a couple Sundays ago!!! He only had 18 innings that day to jack number 600 so I could enjoy the moment personally. Instead he waits to do it on a Monday night in Miami. MIAMI!?!?! There was hardly anyone there to see it! Unfortunate! Congrats, Junior..........you're the best! See you and the Reds in the postseason!

JP

New Blog

Hey Everyone,

This blog was created to provide a dialogue about the current events of the San Diego State University Sports MBA Class of 2009. We will regularly update this site with discussions about our classwork, experiences working in the extensive San Diego sports community, student life and of course...........sports! Please check back often to see who we are and what we are doing!