CAREERS OFF THE FIELD Sports Arena Event Management By Jim Gigliotti
CAREERS OFF THE FIELD Sports Arena Event Management Foreword By Al Ferrer So you want to work in sports Good luck You’ve taken a great first step by picking up this volume of CAREERS OFF THE FIELD I’ve been around sports professionally on and off the field in the front office and in the classroom for more than 35 years My students have gone on to work in all the major sports leagues and for university athletic programs They’ve become agents writers coaches and broadcasters They were just where you are now and the lessons they learned can help you succeed One of the most important things to remember when looking for a job in sports is that being a sports fan is not enough If you get an interview with a team and your first sentence is I’m your biggest fan that’s a kiss of death They don’t want fans they want pros Show your experience show what you know show how you can contribute Another big no-no is to say I’ll do anything That makes you a non professional or a wanna-be You have to do the research and find out what area is best for your personality and your skills This book series will be a vital tool for you to do that research to find out what areas in sports are out there what kind of people work in them and where you would best fit in
7 FOREWORD Series consultant Al Ferrer founded the sports management program at the University of California Santa Barbara after an award-winning career as a Division I baseball coach Along with his work as a professor Ferrer is an advisor to pro and college teams athletes and sports businesses That leads to my third point Know yourself Look carefully at your interests and skills You need to understand what you’re good at and how you like to work If you get energy from being around people then you don’t want to be in a room with a computer because you’ll go nuts You want to be in the action around people so you might look at sales or marketing or media relations or being an agent If you’re more comfortable being by yourself then you look at analysis research perhaps the numbers side of scouting or recruiting You have to know yourself You also have to manage your expectations There is a lot of money in sports but unless you are a star athlete you probably won’t be making much in your early years I’m not trying to be negative but I want to be realistic I’ve loved every minute of my life in sports If you have a passion for sports and you can bring professionalism and quality work and you understand your expectations you can have a great career Just like the athletes we admire though you have to prepare you have to work hard and you have to never ever quit
