For most young athletes their dream is to play professionally when they grow up. As a kid you always think you’re going to be that 0.1% that’s going to beat the odds and make it to college and then on to the pros. I was that kid. Many of you were that kid too. For nearly all of us, that dream never happens and we realize we’ll need to find another career path. For me I couldn’t, and never will, get sports out of my system so I ended up working in the front office of professional sports teams. Little did I know when I got into this career that it would end up being a lot more complicated and involved than just selling tickets or advertising for a baseball game and hopefully watching the game.
When you go to a sporting event you always want the best seats you can get closest to the field or court right? I know I do, but a majority of fans don’t actually think that way. They want aisle seats. They might want seats in the middle of the row so they don’t have to stand up when people walk past them. They want to sit on the home side of the field. The want handicapped row seats for more leg room. A fan wants the seats with the best view of the video board. They want seats on the side of the field with the most shade. Someone else wants seats in the sun. Fans want seats under an overhang in case it rains. HUH? Really? Yep, that’s why I chuckle when someone tells me to give them the best seats available.
Getting into this field I didn’t think I’d need to know the difference between Dibond, Max-Metal, Alumilite, Coroplast, Sintra and Polystyrene. What the hell are those you ask? Types of materials used to make outdoor signs. Want more? Too bad…vinyl, mesh banner, adhesive vinyl, backlit vinyl, and 3M reusable sticker material. More sign materials with different purposes.
Also, I could probably work for a printing company now too. Do you know the difference between a 80# uncoated text, 80# gloss text, 80# matte text or #80 cover when it comes to types of paper? I do. How does it help me sell more sponsorships, it doesn’t, but I know what kind of paper to use for different projects we do during the season.
There are a ton of examples of stuff like this that no class at Baldwin-Wallace College (soon to be Baldwin Wallace University) would have ever taught me or would have even thought about teaching when it comes to working in sports. Again, do these things make me a better salesman? No. But once I make a sale and need to make sure everything involved in that sale happens and turns out correctly it helps tremendously to be able to speak these second, third and fourth languages.
Inside Out Sports 