My wild week is finally complete. A series of events that began over 10 days ago where I worked Pacers games, the 2011 Women’s Final Four, more Pacers and a quick trip to our nation’s capitol.
After working the Pacers-Wizards game Wednesday evening, I flew into Baltimore Thursday morning with a long day ahead. I was with eight others all a part of the Indiana Sports Marketing Alliance (IUSMA) where we are all about advancing ourselves towards to sports business and meeting with professionals.
This year, IUSMA completed ten networking trips to places like Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, Boston and Los Angeles.
Our first stop was at Camden Yards visiting with the Baltimore Orioles. The meeting went over very well, talking about everything from public relations, player operations and scouting. We met with Director of Public Relations Monica Barlow, Media Relations Manager Jeff Lantz, Director of Baseball Operations Matt Klentak and Baseball Operations assistant Mike Snyder.
There were so many great questions asked with this group who had all kinds of experience. It was a game day for the team so I was thankful that those four took an hour and a half out of their day to talk about whatever we wanted.
First thing I asked to Monica Barlow was her opinion of Mark Cuban’s recent blog about the role of media for sports teams. She had read it and thought presented valid points yet at the same time she couldn’t see things changing anytime soon. While she did value what they write and publish, there is always skepticism when things come directly from the team.
She also said Major League Baseball runs every team’s website. There was actually an interesting case about five years ago when the Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl and generic ads were displayed on their website for Colts championship gear. That didn’t go over well in the town that lost the Baltimore Colts.
Director of Baseball Operations Matt Klentak was the most popular of the group because they wanted to ask baseball questions. While scouting, Klentak said now days, scouts judge a talent 75% based on character and 25% on leadership. Many clubs are money-conscious but he backed up Orioles management saying they will spend the necessary dollars to be competitive. It’s a tough challenge for Baltimore playing in a the same division as the New York Yankees. Yes, he is on their payroll. I was amazed by how many scouts Baltimore has, evaluating prospects even as young as 14. Meeting with the Orioles was by far the most insightful part of the trip. Even the receptionist gave us some t-shirts and souvenirs.
On a tight schedule, we crowded into taxis and headed to the national headquarters for US Lacrosse on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. The day was beautiful, 65 and sunny with many students laying out on campus. The experience was unique in the fact that lacrosse isn’t a very widespread sport and something I along with the others, didn’t know much about.
Turns out that wasn’t a problem. Our IUSMA group met with two representatives, one of which was a recent IU grad and wanted to hear about campus as much as we wanted to hear about his job. This conversation was a lot about what we want to do and what we can do to stand out. Amongst the nine guys, there were interests in finance, marketing, sales and of course broadcasting. The youth are the target audience for US Lacrosse, who makes all their money from membership. They currently recognize 394,000 members, 85% are under 19-years-old.
Overall, I enjoyed the city of Baltimore. We weren’t around town too much but prior to the Orioles-Tigers game, we ate on the beautiful harbor at Uno’s. The lack of attendance at the game was amazing. Announced attendance was about 11,000 but I would highly doubt there were more than 5,000 on hand. The park is one of the better venues I’ve been in. Due to the weak crowd, I moved around, say on the first base line and up in balcony behind home plate. The game was enjoyable but it was a chilly night it I had been up since 4 am after two hours of sleep. It was time to head back to the hotel.
We used all kinds of transportation on the trip. I drove to the airport, flew on a plane, road a light rail, Amtrak and in a cab. And probably walked miles each day.
Friday was a bit disappointing because both the Washington Wizards and Octagon sports agency bailed just a couple days before. Instead, we first headed to the US Capitol building where we took a guided tour. The rain was coming down strong so we took taxis to Nationals Park to take another guided tour.
This was by far the best one I had ever been on because of the information and access provided. We covered all over including the outfield club, suites, press box, clubhouse and dugout. Just a couple years old, this is my favorite baseball venue of the four others I’ve been to. Wow.
Wrapping up the long day, we met with Ross Herosian, the manager of college programs and HR projects at Sirius-XM radio. The day of tours continued here, seeing their over 80 studios, satellites and hearing about their business model. Sirius-XM is finally turning a profit, most notably because they are not launching any new satellites in the next five years. Each satellite costs roughly $300 to $500 million and each network uses its own unique type.
The overall trip was fantastic, enlightening and informing. Getting into the sports industry is no easy task but making trips like these absolutely help. I am doing everything I can do gain an advantage, meet another person and hear a different perspective.