Windy City Sports Extravaganza: A Weeklong Adventure with Chicago’s Finest Teams

January 12, 2024January 16, 2024 hkarl Student Experience

Written By: Carly Alvers

Exploring Chicago’s bustling sports culture for a week was more than just a class assignment. It was an excursion that left an unforgettable impression on my academic career. This class didn’t just allow me to visit a wide range of sports teams in Chicago; it also provided essential insights into the sophisticated business strategies that move the sports industry ahead. Over the course of the week, my class and I networked with 70 contacts, visited 11 offices and attended a Chicago Blackhawks game. It is hard to put into words what I experienced because I am still taking it all in. What I do know is that not only did my sports business career just start- it took off flying!

Monday

Our class headed over to the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center to meet with Mike Gordon, the general manager for Northwestern Sports Properties. Mike set the stage for the week and provided us with valuable guidance for our professional life. His main piece of advice that stood out was, “don’t just send me invitation on LinkedIn; send me a message with it.” At the end of the week, I made sure to send everyone we met with a LinkedIn message so I can always stay connected with them.

That afternoon, we headed to Guaranteed Rate Field to meet with a panel of directors who discussed their experiences with the Chicago White Sox organization.

Students meeting with Chicago White Sox Panelists where they gave us exclusive access to meet with them in the press conference room.

Tuesday

This was the day that I was most excited for. We had the opportunity to meet with Wilson Sporting Goods. We started with a tour of their glamorous office space. Following the tour, we sat down and met with numerous people who work for Wilson. We got to hear their journeys and how they now found Wilson their home.

Jeff Kortenkamp gives the class a thorough tour of Wilsons Global Headquarters.

Shanoli Kumar, a recent college graduate and an engineer at Wilson emphasize “Passion and resiliency.” When Shanoli explained what passion means to her, it made me think about the passion you must have in your job, day in and day out.

Following Wilson, we had the opportunity to visit the Chicago Bears’ Loop office with a discussion panel. When I walked through those office doors, I felt like I was at home.

We all received valuable guidance there that will help us as we transition into our professional lives over the following few years. Corporate Partnerships Account Executive Chris Simms said, “I get to go to work.” You can tell that he loves what he does.

Chicago Bears panel with a special guest President and Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Bears Kevin Warren.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we got to tour and visit one of the coolest offices in Chicago: the offices of Gatorade, with Global Head of Sports Marketing, Jeff Kearney. We were welcomed with open arms; we even got to try some of Gatorade’s new hydrating drink

As an athlete, I consume a Gatorade product almost every day. I wanted to know who is behind one of the most successful companies in the world and how their business strategies influence people to buy their products.

Molly Matson, the director of Gatorade partner services said, “There’s not one path for everyone.” This was really reassuring hearing it come from someone who seems like her path to get to Gatorade had no bumps in the road.

Ultimately, everyone we met had to start somewhere. You may be doing the opposite of what you think you wanted to do. It helped me feel like it’s okay if you do not know what to do.; over time, your day-to-day efforts will set you on a path where you will be successful.

Jeff Kearney gives our class a tour of Gatorades Global Headquarters along with some Gatorade “swag bags.”

Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any better, we headed off tour next destination: Wrigley Field. We were greeted by Vice President of Business Development and Partnership Andy Blackburn, who took us on a tour of the entire stadium. We even walked through the club house where All-American baseball players walk in, day in and day out. We were able to take pictures and see the players’ lockers as well as all the prestigious club levels for these premier spaces including American Airlines 1914 club and Makers Mark Barrel Room. Andy discussed the history of the architectural concepts for those two distinct premier areas.

Following the tour, the class had the opportunity to chat one-on-one with a variety of Cubs managers about their specific areas of work and what they do on a day-to-day basis. Speakers included DePaul alumni across a wide range of fields: Claribel Diaz, a human resources generalist; Megh Babikan, an account executive for group sales; Rachael Landgraf, assistant director of communications; and Elizabeth Endy, a senior accountant.

Andy Blackburn giving students a tour of the iconic Wrigley field premier spaces.

Thursday

We began the day by visiting Chicago’s leading marketing agency, Paragon Marketing Group, in the West Loop. We got to tour their new offices and learn about their client programs and career journeys of key staff members. The leaders of Paragon gave our class a detailed presentation about Paragon’s history and what they are working on right now, finishing with a Q&A.

One of their clients is UC Health, which is based out of Denver Co. I thought this was interesting; why is UC Health one of their main clients when Paragon is based out of Chicago? The answer to that is connections. Senior Vice President Matt Waitz explained how someone who worked at another company before UC Health recommended Paragon to the company. Making connections with people can lead to bigger and better opportunities. To cap off our visit, students got tips on how to build your resume and cover letter, while also getting encouraged to apply for their road warrior internship position.

Following Paragon Marketing Group, we headed over to the United Center where we met with the Chicago Bulls and their offices. Our class had a great discussion panel with current employees from the Bulls.

We had a special guest pop by our class on Thursday. The President and CEO if the Chicago Bulls. Michael Reinsdorf, said, “Work for the people, not the logo.” I really liked how he said this because you want to make good connections with the people who you work with. I learned that many of the things that they do with their jobs involved working closely with other departments. For example, marketing could be working with accounting. They all want to have good connections so they can work well with each other.

After a great discussion panel students got a tour of the Chicago Bulls Offices.

After getting to experience what it is like to work for the Bulls, we headed downstairs to meet with the Chicago Blackhawks.

After our discussions with Blackhawks staff, we had the opportunity to take a full–on tour and visit premier lounge spaces as well as attend a Blackhawks game vs the Anaheim Ducks that night. We got to explore the new features the United Center has to offer like the brand–new Fan Duel Lounge that allows customers to get their hands on sports betting and full–on bar/food service menu.

Danny Wirtz CEO of Chicago Blackhawks giving career advice to students.

Getting a surprise visit from the CEO of the Blackhawks was the cherry on top of the night. Hearing his story and how his family has built such a legacy with the Blackhawks was truly inspiring.

Friday

Friday was the big finale where we started off the day meeting with the Chicago Sky and DePaul Athletics at Wintrust Arena home of Blue Demon basketball. We first received a tour of the arena from the arena manager David Kennedy. It was fascinating learning about the management side of what goes behind the scenes of putting on basketball games as well as other events like concerts.

Later, we toured the DePaul Athletics facilities at Wintrust, encompassing visits to the men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms, the film room and their brand-new weight room and training facilities. We met with Associate Athletics Director for Merchandise and Licensing Lindsay Martin, who talked about the DePaul brand and how the new logo is changing the face of DePaul. She said, “We want DePaul gear to be in every Target across the Chicagoland area.”

Our time at Wintrust came to an end with a Q&A session with Alex Teodosi, a DePaul alumnus and Vice President of Sponsorship for the Chicago Sky and Vice President of Ticket Sales Anthony Whaley. Alex discussed the importance of spotlighting women’s athletics, the WNBA’s transformational journey, and his crucial role within the organization.

General Manager David Kennedy giving students a tour of Wintrust Arena.

Our last stop was rEvolution, an integrated sports marketing agency where we learned how the company is so successful and what makes them different from other sports agencies. rEvolution has partnerships with many worldwide companies such as Chipotle, American Family Insurance, and the Chicago White Sox – and the list goes on. It was interesting to learn all the planning and hard work that goes on to make their clients’ products stand out from other companies’.

Some great advice partner Larry Mann offered: “The first five years after college, try everything so you know what you don’t want to do.” This was inspiring to hear because I know many people including myself who don’t know what they want to do after college. But by trying everything you will find out what you have a passion for and what you don’t have a passion for.

We ended the night with a DePaul Sports Business and Alumni Roundtable. We got to experience career perspectives and network with recent DePaul graduates working in the sports business industry including UIC Athletics, DePaul Athletics, the Chicago Wolves, the New York Islanders, the Chicago Bears, and NBC.

Pictured are DePaul alumni Wahaj Tariq, Nina Goodhue, Olivia Homan, Celine Soto, Rachel Chessky, and Anissa Patterson.

Finale

To wrap up this class, we came back Monday and presented our key takeaways from this class as our final group project. It was clear that everyone who took this class took something away from every single organization and company we visited along the way. There were many creative and unique ideas to show what we took away from the class and how it impacted our academic and professional careers.

The behind-the-scenes tours and discussions provided access to a realm rarely seen by the typical spectator. Walking around renowned stadiums, meeting experienced sports executives, and witnessing the planning that goes into each game day made an incredible impact on me.

It wasn’t only about the athletes playing the sports: it was also about the difficult planning, sponsorships, and marketing efforts that boost the sports industry to unparalleled heights. What I gained from this experience will last a lifetime.

Carly Alvers is a junior softball student-athlete majoring in Sports Business

Where the Classroom and Careers Meet

December 21, 2023 hkarl Sports Business Program News

To take a class with Andy Clark (MBA ’87) is to get a “master class” in networking – one that launches you straight into your career.

Director of Sports Business program and Senior Instructor Andy Clark.

Andy Clark is the director of the sports business program at DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business. In 2023, he was one of two faculty selected by graduating seniors in business to win the Lawrence W. Ryan Distinguished Teaching Award at Driehaus.

When he was his students’ age, he didn’t know a career like this existed.

He recalls one moment when it all came together.

It was a basketball game: DePaul vs. Northwestern. It was the early ’80s: the height of Ray Meyer’s tenure as DePaul men’s basketball head coach. The stadium was packed: a sea of blue on one side and purple on the other, Clark recalls.

“DePaul won on a last-second shot,” Clark says. “To be there for that — to be a small part of that — was amazing.”

At the time, Clark was an intern for DePaul Athletics, after graduating from Fordham University. It was a position he’d heard about through a friend from Fordham.

“A hundred bucks a week, a room in McCabe,” he recalls of the arrangement. The flight to Chicago, he says, was his first time on a plane.

The internship gave him a glimpse into what was possible at the nexus of management, marketing and the sports world he loved so much. After his internship, he got hired as the manager of DePaul Athletics ticket sales. Eventually, he decided to earn his MBA from DePaul.

Forty years and an extensive career in sports management and marketing later, Clark has returned to where he started.

“Making relationships and keeping them”

Getting work done, Clark says, is all about “making relationships and keeping them.” This is the central message he hopes to impart to his students.

Gridiron in the Classroom: Referee Tony Michalek helps Clark’s class make the right calls.

Clark has cultivated connections with an impressive roster of guest speakers. There’s an NFL referee and an NHL player agent. There’s an Olympic silver medalist who started a nonprofit to empower girls in swimming. There are DePaul alumni, many of them Clark’s former students, hailing from every corner of the sports world.

Clark has also forged partnerships with Chicago’s top sports organizations. He’s worked especially closely with the Chicago Cubs, where a number of alumni hold posts in senior leadership. Every so often, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts makes an appearance to speak to Clark’s students.

Clark has two criteria for each guest speaker he invites: Can they keep students — and Clark — engaged? (He “never gets bored” of site visits, he says.) And can they discuss their career in a way that imparts lessons relevant to any field, not just sports business?

“What I like about teaching,” reflects Clark, “is being a connector: connecting experts to our students, so they can learn how their skills apply to the workplace.”

In this regard, taking a class with Andy Clark is like getting a master class in networking. He schools students in crafting thoughtful, well-researched questions for speakers. He teaches them how to dress for site visits (a suit and tie are no longer required). And as part of his final exam, he tasks each student with writing thank-you notes to three guest speakers — by hand.

From classroom to career

In Clark’s courses, students aren’t only learning from the sports business world, they’re also contributing to it by partnering with leading sports organizations to carry out real-world research.

Andy Clark’s classes visit where the action all happens.

Projects for the Chicago Cubs have included an analysis of their customer service and a study on their rollout of a mobile ordering platform.

“Knowing that the work we were doing was going to be useful right away was highly motivating,” says Kenzie Mocogni (BUS ’19), who worked on the Cubs customer service study. “Working with a real client reminded us that what we are learning in the classroom at DePaul is preparing us for the business world.”

The Cubs aren’t the only team with close ties to Clark and to DePaul.

“It’s been incredibly inspiring to see DePaul students come up with innovative, impactful ideas,” says Tony Rokita, a onetime DePaul student and the former director of alumni relations for the Chicago Bulls, regarding a project that worked on a Bulls community partnership in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood.

For Clark and his students, there’s a direct line between theory and practice and between classroom and career.

“I’m not a teacher by training,” he’s quick to say. “With most of the stuff I do, no one told me I had to do it this way. For me, teaching feels like an evolution of what I was doing before [in the business field].”

As Clark reflects on teaching, he says the best part has been seeing how students’ careers unfold, outside sports as much as within it.

“It’s almost more gratifying,” he says, “when I hear from former students who don’t work in sports that they apply things from my class to their jobs now. That’s what this is all about: helping students apply what they learn.”

Teaching has taught Clark a lot, too.

“Every day,” he says, “is an education in empathy.”

—

On the first day of his Introduction to Sports Management course, Clark has one question for his students. It’s perhaps the best summary of what Clark accomplishes in his courses — and how Driehaus overall approaches preparing students for their careers.

“When do you think your career in sports is going to start?” Clark asks.

Clark’s answer? “If you’re in this class, it already started.”

Originally Posted by Meredith Carrol on the DePaul Business Exchange Website

DePaul Sports Business Meets Chicago Sports Summit

October 31, 2023 hkarl Student Experience

On October 17, 2023, DePaul Sports Business student Rachel Bradshaw had the opportunity to attend the 7^th annual Chicago Sports Summit. The Chicago Sports Summit brings together various local and national sports leaders to discuss important topics such as emerging sports, Chicago team updates, NIL, and athlete mental health. Some of the organizations that attended and had representatives speaking at the event were the Chicago Bulls, NASCAR, Chicago Red Stars, Chicago Sky, Chicago White Sox, and Northwestern University. Rachel shared more details regarding this fantastic opportunity:

“In the morning we checked in, got our lanyards with our assigned tables for when we enter into the ballroom. Once we sat down at our table, they served us a breakfast platter to enjoy during the panels. At the tables were little thank-you items which included a bag of whiffle balls for pickleball and a variety of things from Rush University since they were a sponsor. Each panel lasted about 30 minutes and they were all very informative. The first panel was about emerging sports in Chicago which included speakers involved with NASCAR and Pickleball. That was pretty interesting because I don’t know much about pickleball, and I know that it is becoming a very popular sport. The second panel was Chicago Team Leaders from the Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks, Red Stars and Sky who talked about what they’ve been doing with their seasons and the big accomplishments. After that was the third panel, which went in depth about NIL and where they are now. One of the panelists, Megumi Oishi, is a student-athlete at Northwestern University, but not one of the typical sports she’s a fencer, so it was intriguing to hear her point of view with the NIL contracts. Then finally the last panel was focused on the medical field and all the procedures that doctors need to follow to care for that athlete.”

When asked about her favorite part of the Summit, Rachel shared that she enjoyed the second panel of the event, which featured “Ram Padmanabhan, COO and General Counsel at the Chicago Bulls; Danny Wirtz, CEO at the Chicago Blackhawks; Rachel Parrish, Director of Brand Marketing & Communication at the Chicago Red Stars; Michael Alter, Principal Owner at the Chicago Sky.” She enjoyed hearing from Danny Wirtz, who shared about “receiving the first draft pick, Connor Bedard, and the impact that it is having on the new era of the Blackhawks.” In addition, Rachel especially liked what Rachel Parrish had to say, because [she] looks up to [Parrish], having a higher-up role in this industry and her push of making women’s sports just as marketable as the other sports in Chicago.”

Speaking of women in sports, one main takeaway Rachel had from the event was that “there are becoming more women in leadership roles, which is inspiring to see. Looking at Rachel Parrish and all she has done for the Chicago Red Stars on the marketing side of things is something [she] looks up to. [She] knows women can be in these higher-up positions that are held by most men, so being able to connect with them on a personal level is motivating to want to be like them.”

Just Bet On It: A Look into the World of Sports Betting with Kate Constable

October 19, 2023October 19, 2023 hkarl Industry Speakers

The NFL is in full force, fantasy teams are causing stress, and the bets are flowing. Not only is the NFL one of America’s favorite sports to watch, it is also one of America’s favorite sports to bet on too. The American Gaming Association released the results of a survey that indicated that over 73 million Americans will bet money on the NFL in one way or another in 2023. But, most Americans will use the help of gambling services in order to make the most informed bet. This past Spring in Professor Andy Clark’s Introduction to Sports Management Class, they had a visitor from one of those services, Kate Constable from BetQL.

Kate Constable is a Sports Betting Personality for BetQL Network. BetQL network is a betting service that uses data and technology to analyze team and player performance, weekly matchups, injury reports, and the weather in order to set the most accurate betting line. It is then compared to those in Las Vegas in order to assign a star rating to them, which will allow the user to see the strength of the bet.

In class, Kate shared her unique path into the sports betting industry and how it has grown tremendously over the past few years. Kate spends most of her time researching odds and predicting outcomes in order to provide her viewers the most informed bet. As one of the few women on-air in the sports betting industry, Kate shared with the class some of the difficulties she faced when trying to pave her way into a male-dominated field. Nonetheless, she is now the face of Bet QL sharing her insight about a wide range of sports.

It was very enlightening to hear from Kate amidst the ever-changing betting landscape, and if you’re looking to find some quality bets for the NFL this year, look no further than Bet QL!