Petco Park Perspective Part II

In the preceding post my classmate Tyler Griggs eloquently captured our evening last Monday at Petco Park, but I want to provide some of my own impressions. Coming into the program I knew we would have great exposure to many sports industry leaders as well as have excellent access to the Padres organization. But, to have a class taught by Richard Anderson (Executive VP of Ballpark Operations) at PetCo Field? Or, to have the Western Metal suite reserved for the class and fully catered? And, then to top things off have Tom Garfinkel (President and C.O.O. of the Padres), Mark Guglielmo (VP of Ballpark Ops) and Ken Kawachi (Director of Security and Transportation) drop by the suite for over a half hour and talk with us as a group and 1-on-1? Well, the evening and overall opportunities I have been presented with thus far have exceeded already high expectations. Wow!

What was particularly great about our evening was listening to Garfinkel who is one of the youngest executives in Major League Baseball—not to mention one of the nicest, funniest and most personable guys you will ever meet. I thought he would drop by for a minute or two, give the Padres company pitch and leave without saying as much as hello. My assumption couldn’t have been further from the truth. He came in, first asked us questions, told us his personal story, gave us trivia questions (10 or so lucky winners got 2nd-5th row tickets behind home plate), talked about the organization and provided the class with invaluable insights on breaking into the sports industry. One piece of advice he gave us: sports is all about relationships so start making them!

Despite the fact that I wasn’t one of the lucky few to win trivia, one of my classmates gave me his 5th row ticket (thanks Eddy!). So, I walked down to my seat with some classmates and immediately ran into Steve Becvar who is the Associate Athletic Director for Marketing and Sponsorships at the University of San Diego. Well, I happened to know Steve because he was a guest class speaker about a month ago and I had also previously met him during a class project in which we analyzed the organizational structure and behavioral patterns of the USD Athletic Department. He then pointed out a number of his friends sitting next to him, one of which was the Athletic Director at the University of Oregon. For me this was particularly great because college athletics is one of the fields I would like to break into, and I was trying to develop as many connections to those in the field. Steven and I ended up talking for about 20 minutes after the game, and amidst our conversation I remember thinking two things: 1) the SDSU Sports MBA has exceeded my wildest expectations when it comes to connecting me with sports executives and industry leaders, and 2) breaking into sports is all about relationships.

Oh, and some pictures from the night: