Harry Baker-Connick

348083

Sport Management

Section 1: Week One

 The first day was a very exciting day for me and I did not know what to
expect from assignments, to attitudes, and getting accustomed to the office.
I joined the morning meeting where the general manager Geoffrey Lacuessa
briefed the group of about 10 to 15 people. He delivered a short but sweet
message relaying to the team that the regular season was less then 13
weeks away and that they still had a lot of work to do to make sure 2017 is a
successful season. This was a good experience for me right off the bat as I
got to see how the expectations were and how the manager provides
motivation and leadership for the rest of the office. After the quick meeting
concluded I was introduced to the staff and people came over one by one to
meet me which made me very comfortable quickly. The office, which is
located inside of the stadium, was divided into two sections. The upstairs had
the General Manager, Vice President, Director of Ticket Sales, Account
Executive, Director of Corporate Sales and more, as well as with the kitchen.
The downstairs, which is on the ground floor was the Ticket Office. The Ticket
office had 9 windows because it was also the box office during the season. I
was then given a quick tour of the ticket office, where I would be spending
most of my time during my internship. The office attitude was exciting and
the quickly shifting balance between sports banter and focused work was
something I enjoyed. I sat down with my supervisor Bryan, who is the ticket
office manager, and he started to give me a quick tutorial of the ticketing
operating system Ticket Return. He showed me how he put together the back
end of the system and all of the information that makes the ticketing
operating system work. Throughout the Day he had me working on the
ticketing system to get accustomed to it and get a feel for the location of
specific information. The first day was great for me as I got to meet many
people in the office and start to get a feel for how this specific office
functions as well as learning valuable computer skills. My first impression of
the office made me immediately feel comfortable because the staff was
friendly, the responsibilities were clear, and my supervisor was enthusiastic
and understanding. I was very excited for the rest of my internship.
 The Portland Sea Dogs are a Double AA Minor League Baseball
organization that provides 70 regular season home games, including
birthday parties, picnics, fireworks, bobbleheads, sponsorship opportunities,
official merchandise, and more. The Portland Sea Dogs have tons of different
events and opportunities that they provide for families, companys and kids.
They offer sky boxes which is a great way to take in the game as well as
impress clients or just have a good time at the game. They also offer a kids
club which is free for parents to sign their kids up for and it includes 5 free
tickets to games, several kids club events, a voucher for food, and more. The
department that I am starting in is the ticketing department, which means
selling season tickets, mini plans, sky boxes, individual game tickets, gift
cards, and more. They also offer single game sponsorships and sponsorship
packages which are sold either through the ticket office, when it is not a
corporate partner or admin account. In the case of a corporate sponsor or
admin account dealing with the organization either to renew a package or
alter their sponsorship contract then that will be for the people who work
upstairs and more specifically the director of corporate sales.

The workspace here at the ball park is nice, and is very organized as
an office. The two-level split adds for a good space because it allows the
ticket office to make phone calls undisturbed. There is plenty of space
however it is not the biggest office. My supervisor was telling me that during
the off season it gets very crammed in the ticket office because there is
about 15 people working in there compared to the 4 that are working here
now. The office looks out on the road and provides plenty of sunlight during
the day which is very nice because it keeps people going when the office is
very bright. The furnishings describe a lot about the environment and the
organization as they are fairly new and up to date, but also are not the
fanciest materials around. This relates to the overall feeling of the office
which is filled with hard workers who are ready to take the challenge at hand
but also have a very relaxed and personable side to them as well. The office
also mimics the organizational chart with the higher up people in the
organization upstairs and the lower people, aka the ticket office staff below
on the main floor. It is a interesting hierarchy that is visible in the office. The
office is geared toward making money and getting as many people as
possible sending out calls about birthday parties, season tickets, and picnics
constantly throughout the day, and with the upstairs workers trying to create
leads and relationships with their sponsors

Bill Burke
Chairman

Sally
McNamar
a
Treasurer

Charlie
Eshbach
President

Geoff
Lacuessa
General
Manager

John Jim Chris Dennis Mike

Kameisha
Senior Vice
HeffleyVice Cameron VP Meehan
Ast General
Scorza
Director of
Communicatio
President President ns
Manager Food Service

Mike Bryan Justin John Greg

Tim Jorn
Antonellis
Account
Pahigian
Ticket Office
Phillips
Director of MuzzySales Community
Moyes
Assistant
Corporate Director of
Executive Manager
sales Executive Relations
food Service

Harry
Allison Alan
Baker-
Casiles
Assistant Barker
Assistant
Ticket Office Ticker Office Connick
Intern
Manager Manager
Section 2: Informational Interview

For my Information Interview, I conducted an Interview with the General

Manager on Thursday the 12th. This was a great opportunity for me to take in
as much knowledge that I could from someone who was doing very well in the
industry and who understands what it takes to be successful. This was also an
opportunity for me to create a relationship with him as well which could be
very beneficial in the future. I began the interview by asking him what his
background is and why he chose to work in this field, Which I believe is a very
important thing to understand about yourself. He answered much like I would
have if someone were to ask me that question. He told me that he had always
played sports growing up and before college realized he could not play much
longer so he decided to go into the business of sport because he was always
interested in business as well. This was great for me to hear because this is
almost exactly my thinking about entering the sport industry. For my second
question, I asked him what degrees and skills are most helpful to someone in
this field. He told me that as for degree he said that obviously, a degree in
sport management or business is extremely helpful but he believes that hard
work and personality are most important to him when looking for employees
because you can always be taught something and that those are the two most
components for people he wants representing his organization. This was not
the answer that I was expecting because I would have thought people who are
that high up in an organization would expect high GPAs and a degree in a
tough degree from a rigorous school but it was completely the opposite which
was refreshing to hear. When I asked him what he liked and disliked about his
job he immediately answered with the weather as for something that he
dislikes most about the job because being a sport that is played outside and
especially here in Maine, you never know what you are going to get for
weather which makes it hard during the season. He makes the decisions as to
cancel the game, postpone it, bring out the tarp, rescheduling and more which
can be a major headache to deal with on top of everything else. Weather can
also be a killer to the organization financially because ticket and concession
sales are a bulk of the revenue so when people dont come to the games for
the weather it can hurt the pocket of the organization. As for what he likes
most about the job, it is the constant challenges on a day to day basis that
comes with managing a staff and the business. He said that there is always
something new every day and he never knows how that day is going to go
which he likes because it makes the job more exciting.

One question that I wanted to know what he thought about it was the
option to go to graduate school or to try and find a job and start getting
experience right out of college. He said that it depends and that If you have a
great job opportunity lined up after graduation you cant pass up on it, but in
the case where there is nothing lined up than you should explore the
possibility of going to graduate school to learn as much as possible and to
create a network. He said that he has never hired someone who had a higher
degree over someone else simply because of that and going back to his idea
that work ethic and personality matter more then all else. One thing that he
said that stuck out to me during the interview was its not what you know, its
who you know. This statement resonated with me because it seems like in
todays world it is all about building connections and creating a network of
people who can provide opportunities for each other. I have heard many
stories of how people have gotten jobs or internships strictly by either them or
their parents knowing somebody in a position of power and influence, which
then provides them with the opportunity to offer a position to these people. I
will use my time at Endicott and beyond to create lasting relationships and a
network using every event and tool possible. The interview was a great
experience for me to sit down and get to have a constant dialogue with
someone who has gotten to a position in which I am striving for.

Section 3: Week Three

My supervisor has a management style that I can appreciate and other

members in the office appreciate as well. He manages by presenting reports
and objectives that need to be finished by a certain deadline that is given as
well, but then gives the workers the opportunity to work individually and
without pressure by trusting them to do the job and do it well. He offers
encouragement and a down to earth management style by not breathing
down the neck of his employees. However, it may be beneficial to be a little
stricter as he is not as demanding as he possibly could be but he does a great
job nonetheless. Decisions are mostly made upstairs, but there is always a
conversation which is a great office environment because it makes people feel
as though they are involved. I have noticed that most people have very
defined departments that they cover for the organization which makes it very
clear and defined who is making the final decision. I think they do a great job
of handling decisions throughout the office. Most workers in the ticket office
are constantly on their computers or making phone calls throughout the day
with slight pauses for lunch and near the end of the day when efficiency
drops. When I have gone upstairs it is a completely different environment with
people walking around talking and seemingly there is always somebody
hanging out talking about sports or something current. Because I do not spend
much time up there I cannot truly tell how efficient these people are working
but I know they are getting their jobs done because I hear a lot about new
sponsors or leads that are being created every day.

The employees take pride in their work constantly talking about possible
clients and opportunities for the organization. Some worker interactions that
have made an impact on me is a meeting in which I went with the director of
corporate sales to a sponsorship meeting with cannon, he was very organized
and understood what he wanted to deliver to them, bringing the
representative to the presidents sky box offering a great view of the stadium.
He was very personable creating great conversation while also staying on
track and getting a possible partnership underway. This gave me quite the
interest in marketing because I love talking to people and it also brings a new
creative side to the job that I enjoy. Everyone at the office seems to do a great
job and has a good personality. I do not see anyone with a negative effect on
the office or anything like that at all. I learned throughout my time here that
the job is what you make of it, you can be constantly busy and doing things or
slack off. It is up to the individual employees to make sure they are working
hard and working well which is why the general manager preaches work ethic.
Section 4: Post Internship

There are many things that helped me be successful during my

internship at the Portland Sea Dogs including classes and assignments during
my first semester at college. The principle of sport management class
showed me the type of attitude it takes to be successful including the
preparation of a professional. I was timely and ready to work each and every
day, and very excited for the opportunity to be a intern for an organization
such as the sea dogs. The internship class specifically significantly prepared
me for this class using exercises such as the interview day, resume building
because it helped me attain this internship in the first place as well as prep
me for the internship itself. I gained significant information about ticketing
offices and marketing schemes and techniques that I otherwise would not
have learned unless on the job. I have learned that I enjoy marketing
sponsorships and meeting with people to discuss opportunities because it
involves interaction, professionalism, and creativity. I would love to pursue an
internship or career in marketing for my next internship and see how that
goes as well. I have learned that I am very motivated to be successful and to
work in a place that makes me feel good about myself as a professional. I
worked a lot in excel and on computers for the first time in a professional
setting and I was very efficient and a quick learner. I will apply all my
knowledge from top to bottom of getting the internship, to being a good
dedicated worker, and to learning and holding the information processed
throughout my time there. I now have a better understanding of what it
takes to be successful in the sport management field and know what a
typical office environment looks and feels like. I am much more comfortable
discussing with professionals and reporting to a supervisor which a huge skill
in todays world also. After this internship, I know what type of internship I
would like for my Internship 200 and it would be something in a sports
marketing department or the front office of a organization, engaged with
people and creativity which are things that I very much enjoy. I know to
challenge myself and to try as hard as possible to get the best experience to
grow. I want to continue my development as a professional in the sports
industry, creating a network of successful hard working individuals.

Part 5: Post Internship

To be able to navigate the ticketing operating system efficiently as well as

understand how ticket sales work from season tickets, ticket packages, and
individual game tickets.

I believe that I have attained this goal as I have been working with the
system periodically throughout my time at the sea dogs, and am now able to
make all the different types of sales. I did not spend more than 10 hours in
the operating system but I still have a great understanding now of how it
works and which each element is located where it is. I spent time analyzing
and comparing data in excel and Ticket Return getting comfortable working
on a pc and switching between two pieces of information. Spending time in
the system helped me develop an understanding of the information,
including where it is located, what type of information falls under each
category and more. This objective did not change throughout the internship
but instead I wanted to dive deeper, understanding the customer base and
different elements of the operating system. This objective at the beginning of
my internship seemed like it would be a challenging task as it was a lot to
take in and I had never dealt with such a system in the past, however, this
objective was a bit too easy and I will know to challenge myself a little
further in the future. A possible learning objective could have been, to be
fluent in the functions of the entire operating system and can make sales
without any help.

To understand how a sports oriented organizational office works including

how the office departments are assigned and flow within each other, and get
used to reporting to a supervisor and learning the chain of command in the
office.

I have learned a lot about a sports oriented organization and how exactly
this office functions from top to bottom. I see the order in which people
report to each other and how each employee clearly knows their
responsibilities and assignments. Just being around the office for three weeks
I was able to see what happens on a day to day basis to achieve these goals
and how the supervisor relationships are formed and maintained. This
learning objective certainly did not change throughout my time here as I
thought it was very relatable and significant to understand and learn. I have
never worked in an office before and specifically a sports industry office, so
this was a great learning experience for me to take in everything around me
and get used to this type of setting for the future. I think that this internship
has done wonders for me teaching me about how important the details and
little things are in a office, and even a small market like double A baseball is
dealing with large amounts of money, sponsorships, marketing strategies,
demographics, merchandise sales, season tickets, and so much more. It was
a truly incredible experience and I am very excited to have gotten this
experience under my belt and am ready to learn and work hard to get to
where I want.