This summer I have had a wonderful opportunity and experience to be able to work within the Chicago Fire Soccer Club organization as a marketing and events intern. Specifically, I spend most of my time focuses on a specific department within the organization, the club ran recreational soccer league. This department is not only one of the mo st successful areas of the clubs business, but it also is the department that interacts the most with the organizations target market. The interaction on a daily basis outside a conventional has been a great learning experience and has given me insight on numerous strategies for the sports industry. As usual for a professional team, the Fire organization is large which can sometimes be overwhelming and prove to be a challenging place to learn as just a small fish in a large pond. However, working closely on a team of about ten people within a specific department has been extremely beneficial.

In realm of an events intern, day-to-day activities for this internship have remained fairly constant with exception of specific events such as Team USA game watches, tournaments, Fire matches, and other events. The main aspect of this area of the internship is to be at the events and make sure everything runs smoothly giving the fans and recreational players the best experience as possible. However, as a marketing intern my duties and projects fluctuate on a daily basis. Once a week the team sits down to go over the game plan for the day and week, communicate issues and opportunities, and to also brainstorm innovative ideas that would benefit not only the recreational soccer department, but also the organization as a whole. Recently I have brought many ideas to the table regarding the issues I set forth in my marketing plan. My hope is that these ideas and the plan that brought to the table will translate to a greater connection with the team and our specific department of recreational soccer. Additionally, there are some days and nights that I work intensively with the digital and social media specialist. Digital and social media is continuing to grow as a dominant marketing strategy which will prove to be crucial in my overall experience of learning the in’s and out’s of marketing. This aspect of the internship has also allowed me to be extremely creative and innovative which will become a key asset of mine in the future due to this experience. Furthermore, as in all areas of business, including marketing, there is definitely a sales aspect to the internship. Throughout the events and recreational league matches I am charged with the duty to collect payments from teams. Having to promote and sell has definitely gone a long way in developing me not only as a sales person, but also as a speaker to complete strangers, which has shifted from a personal weakness to strength due to this internship.

Overall, I believe this has been a great experience because I have been exposed to many areas of working with a professional sports team rather than just solely marketing. At first there was definitely more of a focus of the events portion of the internship but being proactive I reached out to my supervisor and sought more responsibilities within the marketing space. This led me to being much more involved with social and digital media which I believe has been the most beneficial aspect of the internship because it has allowed me to analyze consumer trends, and implement creative ideas based on my findings. In the end this internship will help me in the future because it has given me a diverse and broad learning experience.