Last week, Harvard Business School Professor Dr. Stephen Greyser spent several days at the Center meeting with students and faculty. Dr. Greyser is a Distinguished Professor in Residence for the Warsaw Center and a consistent contributor and supporter of our mission. In this video, Dr. Greyser discusses what separates the program from traditional business schools and what makes it a program he is proud to be associated with.

Time to take a quick break and update you on the past few weeks here at the Warsaw Center. It’s been busy as we hosted an incredible slate of speakers from the industry, with an alumni event tossed in between, over the past three weeks.

Although they’ve been mentioned already, David Dunn (Agent, Athlete’s First), Jim Noel (VP, ESPN), Andy Dolich (COO, San Francisco 49ers) and Kelly Johnson (ESPN Audience Research) were all in the house for the final week of October. Unfortunately, classes and meetings intruded on my plans for several of the speakers, but I’ve had the pleasure of hearing David and Andy in the past. Last year, David mentioned the potential for a rookie pay scale to be instituted in the NFL and, lo and behold, the Sports Business Daily reported earlier this week that the NFL included one in their first collective bargaining session. Call the man a sage.

Despite competing with the Golf Industry Day in Portland, Kelly Johnson closed October with a bang. She showed us how ESPN has invested heavily in customer and audience research and backed it up with a presentation that highlighted the trends that shape programming and advertising. It was apparent that ESPN truly understands its customers and can communicate that to potential sponsors and advertisers. After hearing Kelly, the importance of analytics in sports becomes even more clear.

The following week, former Oregon star Joey Harrington stopped by to share his experiences in the NFL, and Nike’s Merryn Roberts followed with another great session. The next night, the Warsaw Center hosted about 50 staff, students and alums at an alumni event at the Rose Garden. The Hawks spoiled things for the Blazers, but it was an amazing opportunity to meet former Ducks in the industry.

Tod Leiweke, CEO of the Seattle Seahawks, dropped in later that week. Tod was instrumental in the creation of the First Tee, which teaches life values through the game of golf, and was a major player in the “fan-centric” model of the Seattle Sounders.

Finally, we get to this week where Portland Trail Blazers CMO Sarah Mensah visited on Wednesday, and today we saw Matt Levine of SourceUSA, hailed by ESPN as “the most valuable prophet to sports teams.”

Through all these visits, I learned a lot, but I have to admit I’m all tired out. Time for the weekend! Go Ducks!

Golf Day at Pumpkin Ridge was an amazing day-long event that included Communications Directors, CEOs, Founders, and Marketers from the LPGA, Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, Oregon Golf Association, Nike Golf, and Comcast. The entire day was dedicated to talking about the business of sports and golf, and it was a great experience. I gained a tremendous amount of understanding of the golf industry, as well as general sports marketing practices that can be applied across sports and industries.

The day started with our keynote, David Higdon, the Chief Communications Officer from the LPGA. He talked about the state of the golf industry and the LPGA’s strategies and tactics. After David, we had an excellent lunch preceeding two panels filled with golf industry professionals.

The first panel focused on recreational golf and grassroots developments and included Executive Director of the Children’s Course, Dennis Schrag (MBA Alum); Co-Founder of Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course, Gay Davis; CEO of Oregon Golf Association, Barb Trammell; and Director of Sales for Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course, Dylan Campy. All of these panelists had great stories as well as interesting insights into their work history and current jobs.

The second panel began shortly thereafter and it included Nike Golf Market Apparel Rep, Kim Nelson; Executive Director for Tournament Golf Foundation, Rob Neal; President of Pacific Golf Accessories, Mark Regalado; and Executive Producer for Comcast SportsNet, David Kamens. They focused on the professional game and consumer marketing and got deep into the nuances of selling golf merchandise to each gender.

The entire event was well put together, and I was very impressed. I learned more about the golf industry and the sports industry than I thought possible in one day.

Pumpkin Ridge was a great location for the event, as we were surrounded by a historic golf atmosphere and inspirational golf industry professionals. There were great panel members, great discussions, great networking and great tips and pointers for when we all join the work force relatively soon.

- Keri

Jim Noel from ESPN also came by the Center to meet with students last week. Jim spent many years as a lawyer at ESPN, but is now helping to launch a new venture within the company. Here Jim tells us how sports and sports broadcasting have changed in the last few years:

Last Monday, sports agent David Dunn visited with Warsaw MBA students and gave us the opportunity to learn more about player representation. David’s agency, Athletes First, represents players such as Carson Palmer, Mark Sanchez, Ray Lewis, Brandon Jacobs, Reggie Wayne and over 85 others. After the Q&A session with students, we asked David for his advice to students thinking about entering the sports industry:

This week marked the midpoint of the first term and it was the first truly busy week in the Center. Like other students around the country, we spent a lot of time studying and taking midterms; however, we also got a chance to get out of the classroom and experience one of the benefits that sets Warsaw apart from other programs: access to distinguished industry professionals. Here 49ers COO Andy Dolich discusses our founder, Jim Warsaw, and the legacy he leaves behind at the Warsaw Center:

In addition to Andy’s visit, we also hosted David Dunn, agent for over 90 NFL players; Jim Noel, VP at ESPNDB; Kelly Johnson, Audience Research Manager at ESPN; and a Golf Industry Day at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland.

And now that we’re through with the work and the experience portion of the week, it’s time to have fun. We have a Halloween event tomorrow and then College Gameday and USC on Saturday. It’s going to be a great weekend!

Hopefully, next week the blog will feature even more information (and video) about all these events, but it’ll be a tough game of catchup; next week promises to be another busy one - Joey Harrington, Merryn Roberts (Nike), an Alumni Night at the Trail Blazers and Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke…oh my!

I know I signed off for the weekend in my last post, but one more thing…

I wanted to share this video from an interview earlier in the week. It’s two class of 2005 Warsaw MBA alums, Erika and Heather, discussing the Warsaw program. Enjoy!

With midterms this week, it was pretty slow at the center; however, next week couldn’t be busier. We have visitors coming from media, player representation, teams and the Warsaw family. Expect content from those events upcoming (as well as some stuff from a few alums who stopped by the center this week), but before the weekend hits, we wanted to share this note from Warsaw undergrad alum Kristi Lee Fowlks, who recently worked at the President’s Cup. Have a great weekend! 

Approximately two hundred hours of work in just two weeks, my thoughts in three words: “I am exhausted.” The Presidents Cup 2009 has officially come to an end and my last day with the TOUR was this past Friday.

Partaking in the logistics and event planning of this event with the top 24 golfers in the world is such an incredible experience.  Working with corporate clients is mentally and physically challenging but I definitely enjoyed it. I learned you need a lot of patience and the primary goal is to satisfy your client making sure the client and the guests are having a pleasurable time at your event. I also learned be prepared for the craziest requests and find the answer or make it happen.

The tournament was a great success: it sold out (41st President Bush, President Clinton, Condoleeza Rice, Michael Jordan, John Madden, Barry Bonds and Willie McCovey were all present), the Opening and Closing Ceremony went smoothly, the volunteer party was great and the USA took home the trophy and pride.

Speaking of The Presidents Cup trophy, I was solely in charge of the location and presence of the trophy, so if you saw it on TV that was me…haha. The PGA TOUR staff called me the Trophy Girl, it’s not lightweight and they picked the smallest person. To think of it, I actually was in charge of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship trophy last year…hmm…

Overall, the experience has been wonderful and I am honored to have been given this opportunity again. Life is too short to not take good unique opportunities and take away valuable experience and memories. My understanding of golf tournaments has amplified, as well as my communication and customer relations skills.

The Warsaw Sports Marketing Center is not only a prestigious MBA program, it also proudly serves the UO undergraduate population. In addition to several sports course offerings, the center also boasts the Warsaw Sports Business Club -the college’s largest undergraduate business club.  

 

The WSBC recently held its first meeting of the
2009-2010 school year (to an overflow crowd!) led by Faculty Advisor Whitney Wagoner, club president Jenna Barnes and the rest of the leadership team.

 

This year they have brainstormed several new ideas for the club and raised expectations for professionalism from its members. At the first meeting, the club executives stressed the importance of networking with guests and each other -citing that 80% of sports jobs are awarded because of in-house connections.

To encourage intra-club socializing, the executives decided to set aside 20 minutes each meeting for people to break into groups for a “Current Events Quick Fire.”  Also new this year, all meetings willl end with time for members to mingle, meet new people and enjoy an almost-endless bounty of cookies.

Beyond opportunities to meet each other, the WSBC also setup an impressive list of visitors: Oregon alums Kristin Harrer and Philip Kirsch from Wieden + Kennedy, executives from the Spokane Hoopfest and Gentry Humphrey, president of Brand Jordan.

Add to those visitors a golf seminar at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course, the UO World Cup and the Warsaw Classic and it sure to be an exciting year to be a member of the WSBC!

On Tuesday, Warsaw Center Managing Director Paul Swangard appeared on Bloomberg News to discuss Yankees ticket prices and the general climate around sports expenditures given the current economy. Paul resurrected his old sportscaster-diva routine of yelling at the hair and makeup staff, but then was able to pull it together for some insightful commentary. The blog caught up with him after the interview:

“Always enjoy the ‘return to television’ media opportunities. Based on a very good story from ESPN, I think the topic has a very important role to play in the current state of the industry. As Rich Luker suggests…maybe there has been too much “harvesting” in sports and the new crop of fans will have a hard time growing at the pricepoint now being commanded in the stadia around the globe.”

To view the interview in its entirety, click here.