Dean Mozrall for RBJ: Insights From Sports Management Veterans

As seen in the Rochester Business Journal on February 22, 2022

Insights from sports management industry veterans

It is hard not to have sports and entertainment on our minds this time of year. The Olympics are underway, the Super Bowl was hosted in a new, state-of-the-art stadium, RIT Division I men’s and women’s hockey are in full swing, and our famous Rochester festivals are right around the corner.

To meet, and serve, this growing business need at the intersection of entertainment, sports, hospitality, and technology, RIT has launched a new minor in Sports and Entertainment Management. There is a big demand in these fields for business professionals to create and manage these customer experiences.

Perhaps best known for roles featured in the movie Moneyball, positions are not limited to a finite number of professional sports teams. Sports and entertainment businesses seek analytics skills that span operations, sales, and marketing as much as the on-field decisions. There are many opportunities to maximize ticket or concessions sales, manage a sports arena or stadium, and oversee festivals and events.

I discussed some of these needs and opportunities with a couple of our alumni with exciting careers in sports and entertainment management across business intelligence, analytics, customer experience, and revenue management.

Ken Radzyminski, II
Manager Analytics at Cleveland Cavaliers

Q: How did you get into a sports management career?
Ken: I made some close connections within the Cleveland Cavaliers organization while at RIT. Having prior work experience with another local sports and entertainment facility also gave them the confidence to hire me. The value I was able to drive through that first season, specifically in the areas of business intelligence and data visualization, led to a full-time role.

Q: What are the important skill sets needed?
Ken: For a data role, having a balanced understanding of both sports industry trends and non-industry-based trends is the most important skill needed. While having knowledge of sports and entertainment in general is valuable to success, not limiting oneself to how teams historically innovate and manage themselves is crucial to break-through thinking and solutions. The need for quantitative analysis will only continue to grow.

Q: Where are the biggest needs in this industry?
Ken: Having individuals who are innovative and have an entrepreneurial way of thinking. Learning how the typical customer is changing–whether that is an individual fan attending a game, a corporate partner looking to build their brand awareness through the team’s media channels, or simply individuals around the world looking to keep an eye on their favorite teams or players–will continue to be more important than ever.

Q: What opportunities do you see for those seeking a sports management career?
Ken: One challenge within the industry is to break out of the shell of what teams have done in the past and use data to maximize efficiency for multiple departments. Assisting the ticket sales department has been the primary focus of most business intelligence teams, but growth within the industry has allowed for more expansion across the business.

Q: What prepared you the most for a sports management career?
Ken: There were two main courses. The first course focused on entry-level knowledge of information system design and provided an overall base on business intelligence. The second course was focused on data visualization, including a software program–Tableau. This exposure gave me a great advantage during the interview process and continues to aid me in managing all standardized reporting for the Cavaliers.

Stephen Harrington
SVP Design & Construction, Culinary, Procurement, Retail, Facilities, Sustainability, and Chief Procurement Officer at Delaware North

Q: Can you tell us about what Delaware North does?
Stephen: Located here in western New York, we cover some of the biggest events in the world including the Australian Open, The PGA Championship, a five-star meal at Nick & Stef’s in LA, and seeing the natural wonder of the Grand Canyon. We are working behind the scenes on four continents, serving half a billion guests a year. I work with people like The President of TD Garden (Home of the Boston Bruins) and the CEO of the PGA.

Q: How did you get into the sports management career?
Stephen: Communication skills and networking may be more important in this industry than others. Communication skills, and knowing your topic or function is critical to put you in a scenario to learn about so many different facets of an organization and any sports team. It's just really interesting and fun, right?

Q: What are the important skill sets needed?
Stephen: I’ll call it Moneyball. Data and analytics and insights around absolutely everything is top priority for everybody in this space, for sports teams and every arena/stadium. Understanding the data and analytics on how many consumers there are, what they are buying, what the consumer feedback is from a finance and accounting standpoint. So how can you take all that data and understand what revenue and how much margin you can drive on every decision that's made?

Q: What opportunities do you see for those seeking a sports management career?
Stephen: Dynamic pricing is an important aspect. Who is a team playing against and how much can you charge for a ticket? Which day of the week is the game? Is the weather going to be nice? All of that is data analytics, applied to managing the customer experience and maximizing revenue. So, if it's potentially going to be a rainy game, and you've only sold 30% of the seats, if I do an incentive and draw another 20%, how much will it drive ticket revenue or concessions?

Q: Do you have a specific example?
Stephen: For one of our major clients we’ve been working on an all-inclusive ticket. You will have a wristband, the price of your ticket is much more, but all the non-alcoholic beverages and food that you want is included with your ticket. The data and analytics allow us to put that at a price point where the consumer clearly will accept. On our first test run our client sold out within an hour!

Q: What advice do you have for those looking to enter a sports and entertainment management career?
Stephen: Network to get your foot in the door. Once you get in, moving around becomes easy. Also, get comfortable with presentations, with being able to represent yourself, your organization, your function. Those communications and presentations that are built on your functional knowledge are huge.

It was so interesting to hear about these sports and entertainment industry needs from our alumni. Combining strong foundational business knowledge with skills in technology, analytics, and hospitality to optimize the customer experience–while maximizing revenue–are the keys to success and winning in these dynamic “arenas”!

Jacqueline Mozrall is dean of Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology.