Guest Blogger: Prof. John Francis

Prof. Francis teaches SMBA's International Business course, and led our trip to the Dominican Republic last month. The following is excerpted from his "Featured Professor of the Month" write up for the program e-newsletter, sent to alumni and current students.

SDSU SMBA 2010 with Ozzie Virgil, first Dominican to play in the Major Leagues, at the Mets facility.

“As you all have heard, for MGT 710 this year I had the unique opportunity (thanks to Scott [That's program director Scott Minto -ed]) to take Sports MBA V [class of 2010 - ed] to the Dominican Republic June 29 through July 10, for the purpose of assisting the San Diego Padres in their efforts to provide economic development and assistance to the community of Najayo.

Najayo, on the south coast of the DR, is the location of the Padres recently completed $9 million baseball park. The DR is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere with over 60% of its population living on $2/day and it’s even worse in Najayo with extreme poverty, poor sanitation and a lack of educational opportunities as just some of the prevailing norms.

I envisioned this class as meeting at the cross-section of international business, entrepreneurship and social responsibility. Scott and I wanted the class to be more than just a tour of a developing nation so we put the students in problem solving mode. And as you all know, I’ve always been keen on my classes taking a toolbox approach to developing their MBA skill set. Therefore, we created a field-based experiential class that leveraged the partnership with Padres and used the trip as a means for creating business cases that would provide tangible economic benefits for the community.

Part of the course overviewed the international business environment with an emphasis on understanding how an organization like Major League Baseball interacts with the unique culture, political and legal issues of a developing country. The students participated in a walking cultural and historical tour of Santo Domingo, saw the inner workings of Major League Baseball’s Dominican Republic front office, and met with MLB’s various business and media partners. We also got a visit from the U.S. ambassador to the DR who was an SDSU alum.

The group toured the N.Y. Mets and Detroit Tigers team facilities to get an idea of the different approaches MLB teams take. (Tiger fans should feel embarrassed, by the way.) All of these activities were designed to provide a context to the students for the importance of baseball in the DR, where one in seven major league players originate, and to highlight the various issues that MLB faces as it operates in this region.

The students also observed the business models and operations of several NGO organizations that are involved in MLB’s Dominican Development Alliance. The students walked through the barrios of Boca Chica observing micro-credit interactions with community entrepreneurs, were guided up coffee growing mountains by an alliance of growers, and lastly, saw a successful sustainable community development model created by IDDI and Arturo Fuente’s Cigar Family Foundation.

The final stage of the course centered on the Padres facility and the Najayo region. In teams, the students studied the community and its needs and then developed business ideas that would address the various needs and opportunities that were discovered. After multiple rounds of five minute elevator pitch presentations, the “final four” most feasible and impactful ideas were chosen by a panel of Padre, USAID, and NGO officials. Now the group is back in San Diego working to develop full blown business plans with the intention of implementing them with funds raised by the students and matched by a grant from USAID. On the last night of our trip, it was announced that Sports MBA IV graduate Veronica Nogueira was hired by the Padres to more fully develop community relations in the DR and to assist in the implementation aspects of these projects.

I think we all expect this type of field-based experiential course to become a mainstay of the program in the future. We can all see the benefits to the students for this type of unique “real world” international experience and how it can be used in recruiting and promoting our program. Some very interesting and creative ideas have emerged.”

If you have any questions, or would like to hear more about the projects and plans we put together, let us know in the comments!

Megan Moyer, SMBA 2010

Guest Speaker: SDSU Director for Compliance

A few weeks ago our class was fortunate enough to have Jay Larson, Associate Athletic Director for Compliance at San Diego State, come in to talk to the class about athletic compliance issues as well as the general structure and functions of the athletic department. Jay is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, and a former Division II basketball player. After graduating law school he was the Assistant Compliance Director at Minnesota for nearly four years. Last year he took over as the Associate Athletic Director for Compliance here at SDSU and is now one of the youngest Division I head compliance directors in the country.

The compliance office has become one of the most important and visible offices within major athletic departments in recent years and for a number of reasons. One is that college sports are seen by university administrators as the “front porch” of the university. In this capacity, athletics often serve as a powerful marketing tool for reaching potential students, soliciting donors and bringing visibility to the school at large. Poor monitoring and training of athletes and coaches within the athletic department often result in NCAA infractions which puts a black-eye on both the athletic department and the university for what is perceived as a, “lack of institutional control.” We need only look as far as USC, Florida State, and Alabama to see recent examples of how weak compliance oversight can have adverse affects on institutions, their athletes and coaches, and athletic departments.

What was great about his talk was that -- in addition to discussing general compliance issues -- Jay gave those of us interested in other aspects of the athletic department a broad picture of the administrative, marketing, business, academic and counseling functions. After Jay finished he fielded questions from the class and we didn’t disappoint. Jay spent an additional half hour talking with us about pressing issues in college sports today: remaining gender inequities despite Title IX, whether student-athletes should be paid, the disparities in revenues among college sports, whether the NBA age requirement is hurting college basketball, the prospects of a having a football playoff system, the APR and more. Since his talk to the class, Jay has brought two of us on board in the compliance office and another classmate has been brought on to help in the Athletic Business Department.

Matt Hiler
SMBA '10

SMBA DR Trip Blog Series: Meet Our New Friends

I am sure all of you loyal SMBA blog followers have had a chance to read our Dominican Republic trip's press release by now. So naturally all of you are aware the trip presented SMBA students with an amazing opportunity to enlarge their professional networks and their perspectives of the World as a whole. What the press release did not tell you is that the trip presented students with the opportunity to enlarge their Facebook networks as well.

During the 10-day trip, SMBA students shared the 15-ace San Diego Padres facility with 36 Padres ballplayers from all parts of Latin America. By the end of the experience, friendships were formed, dozens (and dozens) of Ping-Pong games were played, and Facebook friend requests were initiated in order to keep in touch with our new friends.

Below are some pictures and stories of players who shared the facility with us. SMBA is looking forward to tracking all of the players we met as they ascend through the Padres’ minor league system and, hopefully someday, to Petco Park.





The above picture is of yours truly and 17-year-old free agent pitcher Juan Batiste who was at the facility for a 30-day tryout with the Padres. Sadly, to say Batiste comes from a poor Haitian family is redundant. Haiti is the least developed country in the Western Hemisphere; approximately 80% of its citizens live below the poverty line. However, Batiste has conquered all economic barriers he may have faced growing up and is now a big-time baseball prospect (SMBA students bared witness to Batiste’s 97 MPH fastball.) The only reason Batiste hasn’t already signed with a Major League club is because of another disadvantage of growing up in Haiti: no birth certificate. Because his family did not register his birth at a local registry office in Haiti, there is no paperwork that can prove or disprove Batiste’s stated age of 17. And while Batiste’s word is good enough for me, it is not good enough for MLB teams who are more wary than ever of age falsification. The lack of a birth certificate will likely cost Batiste some serious money whenever he does sign with a team. The signing bonus for a 97-MPH-throwing 17-year-old with paperwork can be as much as $2.5 million. But without the paperwork? It’s tough to say and is case specific, but my educated guess is it is no more than $1 million. Especially in this context, a birth certificate is a valuable slip of paper. I no longer take mine for granted. All of SMBA sincerely wishes Batiste the best of luck and hopes he signs with a team soon (and for lots and lots of money).

Above are two pictures from the Padres DR facility’s World Series of Ping-Pong. I represented the USA, and 17-year-old Padres catcher Fernando Escarra represented Venezuela. I’ll admit that Fernando beat me more times than I beat him, but I do think it is noteworthy that, after playing nearly 50 games over the first two nights, Fernando hurt his shoulder and was ordered by his coaches to not play against me anymore. I consider this to be some form of “tapping out,” and thus, I claim victory in the overall series.


Tyler Griggs
SMBA '10

SMBA and The LeBron James King's Academy

“90% of life is just showing up.” -- Woody Allen

The most difficult part of SMBA thus far? Explaining to my family and friends back in Boston how I have managed to live in San Diego for 7 months without learning how to surf. For my family, friends, and most other people unfamiliar with the sports industry, the SMBA culture is a difficult one to understand. Yes, we have class only three days a week. But no, that doesn’t mean we are at the beach the other four. If you are a loyal follower of this blog, you already know that SMBA students spend their free days volunteering for any sports related job they can get their hands on. The payoff? Valuable industry experience, the opportunity to enlarge our personal networks, and, usually, lots of fun. There is also the small chance attached to every volunteer job that it will completely surprise and a seemingly ordinary volunteer job will turn into an experience so great – so inimitable – that it becomes an unforgettable memory. Only in sports.

Of course absolutely none of this was going through my mind when I showed up to the LeBron James King’s Academy volunteer orientation last Thursday. The 500-kid camp was held from July 24th to July 28th on the UC San Diego campus in La Jolla. I knew the camp needed bodies, and I had figured a day or two of volunteering would net me a couple glimpses of LeBron and a free t-shirt. My expectations for receiving any responsibilities of significance were realistic (that is, they were low). After all, the LeBron James King’s Academy is one of the premiere youth basketball camps in the world and featured nationally renowned high school coach Dru Joyce II, 15-year NBA veteran Olden Polynice, and NBA All-Star Mo Williams. Oh yeah. The reigning NBA MVP LeBron James was also kicking around all week.

However, my modest expectations of being important were fully reversed at the volunteer orientation when the camp’s Executive Director Damon Haley gave me the position of Overnight Administrator (yes, I named the position myself). The camp had 192 overnight campers and I was put in charge of three important daily tasks. One: get the kids to bed. Two: get the kids to breakfast. Three: keep the kids safe in between task one and task two. Task three sounds simple enough in relatively quiet La Jolla, but there are few jobs as heavy or as tense as taking care of someone else’s children, and, while I know I was nowhere near the most important person at the camp, I’m sure plenty of mothers would have put me pretty highly on their lists. I took my responsibilities extremely seriously.

The broad message of my LeBron James King’s Academy experience? Just show up. The sports industry is incredibly unpredictable, especially for those of us starting at the bottom. SMBA students never know when we might luck into that next valuable professional opportunity so we just show up. I began my King’s Academy experience thinking it wouldn’t even make it onto my résumé; now, I expect it to be a focal point of my next interview. I received incredible experience working directly with the Academy’s Directors, who leaned on me heavily to make the hours of 11 pm to 7 am pass by as smoothly as possible each night. And, when the camp was outside of those hours, I was able to sit courtside for some awesome basketball, nightly scrimmages between a team of counselors led by LeBron and Mo Williams, against a team of elite college players. In all, the LeBron James King’s Academy will be truly an unforgettable memory.

Below are some pictures of other SMBA students who also volunteered at the camp! Enjoy!

- Tyler Griggs
SMBA '10

Group photo shot of Lebron and volunteers. Please note that I am not in this photo as it was taken during the daytime and I was surely off somewhere taking a nap (yes, I'm jealous).
Front row (L-R): SMBA '10 Erika, SDSU student Emily, Best Basketball Player in The World, SMBA '10 Erin, SMBA '10 Christin, SMBA '09 Kristen.
Back Row (L-R): SMBA '09 David, SMBA '10 Sam, SDSU student Ben, SMBA '10 Taylor, SMBA '10 Steve, SMBA '10 Alex.


An awesome shot of the 500 campers imitating Lebron's "Chalk Clap."

More of the SMBA '10 gang. From left to right: Sam, Kaiser, Erin, Erika, and Taylor.

Lebron taking questions from the campers. In case you were wondering, turns out he owns 14 cars.

Cal State Games!!

www.calstategames.org

Over the course of 4 days from July 16th – July 19th, a number of SMBA students worked various positions for the California State Games, which is a statewide amateur sports festival that is a grass roots program of the United States Olympic Committee. The mission of the Games is to promote and nurture the health, education, and well being of residents by managing a high quality amateur sports event that encourages community participation and provides an Olympic experience.

Students worked in a variety of positions, including as directors for Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, and Softball, as well as Junior Lifeguards and Logistics. As directors, the students were given the great responsibility of managing their respective locations. This included setup, coordination of events, managing volunteers, and communication with competitors/spectators. The students also distributed the prizes to the competitors, which included medals (Gold, Silver & Bronze) and Championship Banners to Team Competitors.

Despite the long days, the event was incredibly rewarding. Not only were we able to learn what it takes to run a huge multi-location event, we got to watch kids doing what they love most. Seeing the emotion on the kids’ faces as they played was just awesome. Not only were they focused, you could also see the excitement and enjoyment.

We would like to thank Sandi Hill and the rest of the California State Games staff for giving us the great opportunity to get some great hands-on experience, and for being incredibly nice, professional and helpful throughout the weekend. You guys rock!

Sam Batarseh, SMBA ‘10

FIGHT NIGHT

Coach Gina Reyes, Coach Dave Nielsen, & Irene Patricia Estrada (SMBA class of 2010)

The ring at 4th & B Downtown San Diego

Since I am one of the few individuals in SMBA V who is interested in getting into the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) industry, I thought I would shed some light on this particularly rapid growing sport. In terms of its popularity in San Diego, there has been an increasing number of gyms that are competing against one another with each gym's main focus being that of Mixed Martial Arts.Some disciplines in MMA include Brazilian Ju jit su, Muay Thai, Judo, and Greco Roman wrestling... just to name a few.

One of the more popular disciplines that I will focus on is Muay Thai.

What is Muay Thai? Literal translation- “Boxing Thai” Muay Thai serves as an essential part of the history of Thailand. For centuries the Thais were forced to defend their country and themselves from threatening powers trying to capture their land. They adopted and soon mastered a form of hand-to-hand combat, which today is known as Muay Thai. Over a period of time, it became custom for Thai males to train in this martial art as a right of passage into manhood. It was also adopted into military training and went on to become the national sport of the country. Muay Thai to some is considered one of the most devastating martial arts disciplines. It is often referred to as the “science of eight limbs” because it concentrates on eight points of contact which includes elbows, knees, hands, kicks, and shins.

On Saturday July 25, 2009 Battle of Comicon was held at 4th and B in Downtown San Diego. On this night,five Muay Thai fights took place with the last fight being the Main Event for the California IKF (International Kickboxing Federation) cruiserweight title.

It was a huge night for American Boxing Gym because head coach Dave Nielsen was going up against the current cruiserweight champion Derek "the Tornado" Galanis. For those of you who have never experience these events, fight night atmosphere is always exciting and most fights leading up to the main event are filled with some good and aggressive technique. It is also amazing to see the diversity of fight fans and the increasing numbers of attendees.There were different representatives from gyms around San Diego and not to mention some of those who traveled from different states to attend this event.

It was no surprise that there was a good amount of American Boxing supporters at the fight, myself being one of them. As a person who trains and has stepped into the ring as a contender, I felt a roller coaster of emotions that would have probably been intensified if I myself would have stepped into the ring that night. But I had the utmost confidence, that Dave Nielsen was going to take the title away from Derek “the Tornado” Galanis.It was only a minute or two in the first round when Dave Nielsen saw an opening and landed a left hook on Galanis not only once but twice, which made "the Tornado" immediately fall to the ground.

The referee called it and the results- Dave Nielsen won by TKO (Technical Knock Out)!

This was a definite victory for American Boxing MMA and Fitness center (ABF)! I’ve been training at ABF for the past three years and in my opinion, it is one of the few gyms here in San Diego where the trainers take their time to help develop not only a fighter but also their members.If you have aspirations to start training in Mixed Martial Arts and/or compete you should check out their website http://www.americanboxing.net/ and get trained by the new IKF cruiserweight champion Dave Nielsen.

As an added bonus for ALL YOU LADIES, who want to train...Learn from the reality TV Show FIGHT GIRLS star: Head female Muay Thai Coach Gina Reyes. She is one of the fiercest female Muay Thai fighters out there in the industry! I’ve had the pleasure to know and train beside her for the past couple of years... she is definitely a Wonder Woman!

Once again congratulations to AMERICAN BOXING!

I'll have more fight night stories to come...

~Irene Patricia Estrada, SMBA Class of 2010

SMBA and Soccer United Marketing

Recently,  Jon Bamel and I had the opportunity to work with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) at the Mexico - Guatemala friendly match at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. SUM holds the exclusive rights to Major League Soccer, US Soccer Federation, Mexican National Team, Chivas Guadalajara and FC Barcelona games in the USA. The company is a first rate sports marketing firm in the US and working with them has been a tremendous experience for both of us. 

The friday before the game, Jon and I took part in a SUM staff soccer game, which included former Mexican star Luis "el matador" Hernandez. He may be a little past his prime, but he was amazing! Playing with him really gave us some insight on how good these guys really are.

 Jon and I were in charge of the Football Fietsa fan festival, handling the set up, operations and take down for all sponsors. Acting as liasons between Qualcomm Stadium employees, SUM staff and Mexican National Team tour sponsors (such as Home Depot, All State, McDonalds, Coke and AT&T), we really gained an appreciation for what it takes to run  successful experiential marketing campaign. 

We had a number of other duties at the event, most notably escorting former Mexican National Team stars Zague and Alberto Garcia Aspe to their sponsor suites. I can't even explain how nuts the Mexican fans went as we went by, it was really something to behold! After the festival was over, we got to watch the second half of the game from field level, an experience we will never forget. Check out the pictures above!

We're headed to San Francisco for the FC Barcelona - Chivas Guadalajara game on August 8, so expect another blog post!

-Adam Fritz, SMBA 2010