Visitors

We've had a number of guest speakers visit the SMBA V (class of 2010) classroom over the past weeks. Many thanks to all of them for taking the time to come out!


Kari Logan of the Competitor Group came to talk to us about the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, in San Diego for the 11th year this weekend. Competitor group runs 16 road races annually, and it all started with the marathon in San Diego, which set a record as the largest first-time marathon in 1998. The race teams with Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Kari talked to us about what goes in to putting on the race, and solicited volunteers for this weekend's event. A couple of our classmates have been working with the marathon for quite a while now, and several more are volunteering on race day.

Alex Kotler, founder Football Partnerships came to speak about his organization. Alex, a relatively recent MBA, founded Football Partnerships, a soccer networking and information site, in 2008 to promote knowledge sharing and relationship building among soccer professionals. The site, run by Alex, provides original soccer content, as well as a premium networking events and a members-only directory. Alex also works as a consultant for soccer-related projects. Alex spoke about his experience in and since his MBA, and what he is doing to set up his own business, following his passion.


Sandi Hill, Executive Director of the Cal State Games came to talk to us at volunteer opportunities with the games in July. Cal State games are part of a US Olympic Committee grass-roots campaign to encourage athletic participation and competition in the Olympic spirit. The Games take place in the summer, and in the winter. The summer games are considerably bigger, with 10,000 athletes. The winter games host 1300 athletes, some of whom come from surrounding states. Sandi talked to us about ways in which our class can get involved in the games, from serving as site supervisors for various events to working logistics with the games. Many of us will be out there the weekend of July 16th -- should be a good time!

Finally, thanks to our Leadership instructor, Steve Gera, we were visited by Duncan Hunter, Congressional Representative for California's 52nd district. Hunter is the second youngest member of congress and, as a former Marine, the only combat veteran currently serving as a representative. Hunter spoke with us about his leadership experience and advice, as well as his current experience in congress. Many, many thanks to Rep. Hunter for taking the time to come speak to us, and to Steve Gera for setting it up!

Megan Moyer, SMBA 2010

SOCAL Beach Soccer Championships

This past weekend members of the SMBA V class were fortunate enough to work at the Southern California Beach Soccer Championships which were being held in Oceanside. It was a 2 day event with over 15,000 spectators and around 300 teams. The tournament had both men’s and women’s divisions, with kids as young as 7 competing, as well as an open division which contained teams from all over California, as well as Hawaii, Virginia Beach, and even Senegal! The tournament was set up with 30 beach soccer fields stretching out over the sand, and there was still plenty of space to barbecue, relax in the sun, and many athletes were seen taking a dip in the ocean to cool off. Prior to the start of the competition there was a free clinic on Friday night held by Eddie Soto, the new coach of the U.S. Beach Soccer National Team.

Our group was in charge of some of the set up of the event, as well as collecting surveys to help research the economic impact the tournament had on Oceanside. Other questions helped us find out the overall opinion of the tournament from the spectator’s perspective. Needless to say the tournament was a great success, and the people we spoke to were very happy with the organization of the event, and many said that they were surprised that a tournament this big could be run so well. Hopefully the next SMBA class will be able to pick up where we left off and be even more involved in next year’s tournament.

Thank you to all who worked the event: Dev, Diego, Eric, Jon, Kaiser and Megan

http://www.beachsoccerusa.org/beachSoccer/

Sold!

Last Friday, the SMBA V class (class of 2010) held a silent auction at the Aztec Baseball game to support our charitable efforts in the Dominican Republic. Our class will be taking a trip to the DR in July, where we will hold International Business classes, spend time at the Padres development facility, and work to establish a micro-finance presence in the surrounding community (and, of course, enjoy the sights, culture and people of the DR).

The auction coincided with the final home start of future MLB star Steven Strasburg and saw a record sellout crowd at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The class was lucky enough to get donations from a number of local companies, The San Diego Padres and Tony Gwynn! The most popular items at auction were use of a suite at an Anaheim Angels game, a San Diego Padres game day experience (4 tickets and a VIP tour of Petco Park), and a number of Tony Gwynn signed items. Needless to say, Tony Gwynn has a special place in the San Diego sports landscape and we really appreciate his contribution to the auction. Thanks also goes to the Padres and SDSU athletics for their tremendous help in putting on the event.

A nice benefit to holding the auction at the Aztec game was the chance to witness Strasburg in action. This future top pick in the MLB draft put on a real display, throwing a 17 strikeout no-hitter in front of the home crowd at SDSU. This kid is the real deal and will be a great MLB star for whoever picks him in the 2010 draft.

Overall the auction was a great success, raising $3,000 for our DR efforts. This sum will be matched by USAID, so the class is well on its way to meeting our goal of raising $10,000 for the trip. We hope to keep this momentum going in our next fundraising efforts!

Adam Fritz (SMBA '10)

SDSU SMBA meets Wharton

Last week we started our first of two weekly sessions with Scott Rosner. Professor Rosner has a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (and his undergrad from Michigan -- Go Blue!) and is currently a lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is the Associate Director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative. Professor Rosner also has an extensive background in the sports industry working as a consultant for many different organizations within the industry.

During our first week we discussed the foundations and league structures of Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NHL, Major League Soccer, Action Sports, and the English Premier League. Professor Rosner has also provided us with several groundbreaking legal cases that helped shape many of the current rules (arbitration, free agency, reserve clauses, etc.) that exist in sports today. For people like me, and I’m sure many of my classmates who aspire to work in professional sports, Professor Rosner’s class has been a great insight into what lies beneath the surface in professional sports.

This week my fellow classmates and I will submit the results of a mock contract negotiation. Each student in the class was assigned to represent either a fictional team (The Parsippany Platypuses) or the fictional player (Colby Stevens). The assignment is designed to expose us to negotiating and hone our oral and written communication skills. As someone who dreams of being a GM, this assignment has given us a small insight into what goes into evaluating a player and determining his value to a franchise.

We're all looking forward to some more time with Professor Rosner next week and appreciate him sharing his experiences and knowledge of the sports industry with us.

Steven Weingarten, Sports MBA '10

A Visit from George Stieren of The Padres!

George Stieren was kind enough to come by our class today and speak to us about his position as the Director of Business Public Relations with the San Diego Padres. As you might guess, George has a job that has gone through some serious transformations during recent history. I learned today (from George) that MLB teams did not even have PR departments until the mid-1970’s. I cannot fathom how Mickey Mantle survived through his entire career without someone like George frequently doing some major damage control. In today’s MLB, considering the popularity explosions of blogs, Twitter, and camera-phones, George is a VERY busy guy.

In addition to touching on how the technology boom has impacted his job, George shared stories about his experiences while working in Minor League Baseball with the Lake Elsinore Storm, his role in the production of Tony Gwynn’s retirement ceremony at Qualcomm Stadium in 2001, and his headaches caused by some very recent (but minor) Padres PR hiccups that he has had to address.

Needless to say, George has a job that many of us students in SMBA '10 (myself included) would love to have in the future. A big thanks to him for taking the time to talk with us!

Tyler Griggs, SMBA ‘10

US Canoe/Kayak at the Olympic Training Center

Hi SMBA V Blog Reader, 

As you are probably aware, one of the reasons that San Diego is such a spectacular place to get your Sports MBA is that there are about a bazillion-and-a-half sports organizations based in the area.  As you may not be aware, among these bazillion-and-a-half organizations is the ARCO Olympic Training Center (http://www.usoc.org/content/index/1375), located in just to the southeast of San Diego proper in Chula Vista. 

The OTC is just what it sounds like—a training center used by many United States Olympic sports’ national governing bodies as either a permanent home base or temporary training camp site for their athletes.  It’s even cooler than it sounds—with about 100 full-time athlete residents in nine Olympic sports; a complete physical therapy, sports psychology, and strength and conditioning staff; the AT&T athlete lounge; a full-service dining hall serving three squares a day; and an absolutely beautiful campus including practice facilities for sports that I didn’t even know were a part of the Olympics (BMX?!?  Field Hockey?!?), it is, essentially, summer camp for aspiring Olympic athletes. 

Early on during the semester, USA Canoe/Kayak’s head sprint kayak coach, Nathan Luce, came and talked to us before class one morning about some internship opportunities available with USACK out at the OTC.  I have a pretty substantial interest in Olympic sports, so I took Coach Luce up on his offer.  Since then I’ve been heading out to the OTC every Friday to sit in on some meetings, do some administrative work like creating payment schedules for their upcoming World Cup trip, and to just generally be the Lewis Black (picking up things when they fall through the cracks) to Nathan’s Jon Stewart. 

The last weekend in April was a big weekend for Nathan and all his paddlers, as it was the weekend of their Sprint World Cup Team Trials.  It was also a big weekend for me, as not only was I out at the OTC pretty much all day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday assisting with the volunteer coordinating, liaising with USADA to make sure that they had the necessary volunteers at the times the needed them, and filling my traditional Lewis Black role, but I also had the finals and final papers for our first round of classes due Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week.

Overall, the weekend was a huge success.  The weather was beautiful (as it usually is in these parts), the Trials ran smoothly (the highlight of the weekend was definitely OTC resident athlete and all-around good guy Morgan House’s four [!!!] victories), and I met some really great people from the national USACK office and USADA as well as a bunch of former Canoe/Kayak Olympians who are still involved in the sport in various capacities.  (And, somehow, I still managed to get all my finals done on and turned-in on time—success, indeed!)

Okay, future SMBA 2011 members, that’s all I’ve got for you now.  See you out here next January! 

Best,

Eli Asch, SMBA 2010