Sports Management students at Wintrust Arena Women’s Basketball locker room, with Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Doug Bruno.
When we started planning our 8th annual Behind the Scenes with Chicago Sports Organizations course back in September, we didn’t know if visiting sports organizations this year would work…well it did.
Throughout the weeklong course students received an inside look to the business side of Chicago’s professional sports teams, college athletic programs, sports agencies and companies. Undergraduate and graduate students participated in tours of sports organizations and venues to gain first–hand insight into Chicago’s sports business landscape.
Participating organizations included the Chicago Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, Fire, Sky, rEvolution, 4Front, Gatorade, Chicago Sports Commission and DePaul Athletics.
Students met with leaders and DePaul graduates at these organizations to explore sports business disciplines like sales, marketing, sponsorship, event management, hospitality, philanthropy, communications and business analytics.
Not every college student gets to gain the experience of the real world before graduating college. I learned plenty about what will make me competitive in the market, the different ways to break into the sports industry, and how I will be successful in my summer internship. The amount of knowledge I gained on the business side of sports from one week is quite impressive and something I will not be taking for granted as I enter the workforce. – Andrew Gambino (BUS ’22)
Sports Business student Olivia Solimene (BUS ’23) presenting with her team.
Highlights of the experience included:
- A visit to the United Center with Chicago Bulls legend and 2021 Hall of Fame inductee Toni Kukoc, and attending the Bulls – Hornets game as guests of the Bulls.
- An exclusive behind the scenes tour of the Wrigley Field premier club spaces with Cubs VP’s Colin Faulkner and Andy Blackburn.
- Lunch at the Chicago Fire’s Loop office with new Fire president, Ishwara Glassman Chrein.
- A “master-class” talk from Chicago Dogs owner Shawn Hunter.
- A Wintrust Arena tour with insights from Arena GM David Kennedy, DePaul Athletics leaders and Chicago Sky VP of Sponsorship Alex Teodosi (BUS ’16), who was a student in this same course as an undergraduate.
- A networking session with seven DePaul sports business alumni led by Northwestern Sports Properties Mike Gordon (MBA ’95).
The course featured an action packed itinerary. The following is a look at the numbers:
- 26 undergraduate and graduate students
- 58 sports business contacts
- 12 DePaul alums
- 22 organizations
- 8 venues/headquarters
- 5 Days
- 3 Hall of Famers – Toni Kukoc, Doug Bruno, Jill Hollembeak
- 2 Basketball Games
- 1 Awesome Service Dog – Mr. Kim
- A lot of pizza!
Bulls Legend and NBA Hall of Famer Toni Kukoc speaking with the class.
The course concluded with six student team presentations reflecting on their insights from the experience. One of the teams even wrote and performed their own song, “The Five Days of Sports Class” sung to the tune of the “12 Days of Christmas”.
Since 2015, this class has had a career changing impact on over 200 students. MBA student, Jake Mangerson summed up the impact of the course in this manner –
“Sports is a business and if you are going to make a living in sports, you have to treat it like a business, but you will also have the power to create memories and change lives.”
To learn more about DePaul’s Sports Business undergraduate degrees contact program director Andy Clark at aclark32@depaul.edu.