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
CAREERS OFF THE FIELD Sports Arena Event Management Words to Understand shootarounds light informal practices on the day of a basketball game shot clocks the clocks that count down how much time a basketball team has to shoot when it is in possession of the ball in college teams have 35 seconds to shoot after they get the ball Introduction
A fan walks into the Thunderdome the Events Center on the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara UCSB and sees a beautiful college sports arena The court gleams the lights shine brightly and crews of smiling security and concessions workers abound Some fans head to the hospitality rooms for special guests while others seek help from ushers to find seats Officials find their places set up and ready to go The anticipation is in the air for another men’s basketball game the most popular attraction at a campus centerpiece that is busy almost 365 days a year Behind all the action that fans see however are hours of hard work by the sports arena and event management staff Donnell Dixon the public events manager at the Thunderdome at left is in charge at this game Dixon is a former college basketball player who has been with UCSB for 30 years including making the Thunderdome hum since 1990 He turns back the clock to go step-by-step through the process of making this game happen for fans and players alike Most games start at seven but we have many hours of work before that game begins he says For a seven o’clock game we have shootarounds here in the gym from eleven o’clock to two 9 INTRODUCTION
