“I want to work in sports.” It’s common aspiration for many students, but unless your last name is Kraft, McCormick, Mayo or Selland, a job in sports might be tough to come by. Or is it? According to Bryan Romsa, coordinator of South Dakota State University’s sport and recreation management program, jobs in sports include more than just being a professional athlete as the number of jobs and opportunities in the sports industry continues to grow. Chandler Gullickson, a recent program graduate, was one of those students who knew he wanted to be involved with sports but wasn’t sure exactly how or where he fit in. “I’ve always loved sports, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Gullickson said. “I originally went into journalism because I thought maybe sports broadcasting or writing, but I decided that wasn’t really for me.” Gullickson’s academic adviser told him about the sport and recreation management program, and while he didn’t have any experience in the field, he figured this might be a way to get involved in sports. “I thought maybe I could work in facilities or even marketing,” Gullickson said. “I learned that there is so many jobs in sports behind the scenes that nobody really understands or realizes. There’s so much more than just coaching or playing.”
The sports and recreation management program is relatively young, compared to other programs at SDSU, but has seen exponential growth in recent years. The undergraduate program has grown by 86% while the graduate program has grown by 367%. A major reason for the program’s growth is the amount of hands-on experience students get. Romsa has worked to build a strong relationship with SDSU’s athletic programs, which have provided students with countless opportunities to get real-world experience in the sports industry. “SDSU Athletics have given our students a wide range of volunteer and internship opportunities. They have also given us access to their facilities and have allowed us behind the scenes of their new facility development,” Romsa said. “Each semester Jackrabbit Athletics provides over 1,000 hours of experiential learning opportunities for our program.”
Sports and recreation management program students at the 2022 Summit League Basketball Tournament in Sioux Falls. Some of the events students have worked on include the men’s and women’s Summit League Basketball Tournament, held each year in early March at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, and the Sanford Invitational, a PGA Champions Tour event held each September at the Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls.
“The biggest event I worked at was the Summit League Tournament,” Gullickson said. “I went with the marketing team and helped out wherever was needed.” The Summit League Tournament is one of the most well-attended postseason basketball tournaments in the country. Last spring, the tournament saw more than 64,000 people come through the Premier Center’s turnstiles—the second most in the tournament’s history. Since 2017, the program has sent around 30 students to help run the tournament’s Fan Fest, a three-day event that regularly hosts over 4,000 fans. There, students get experience in event management, facility management, marketing, promotions, crowd management, customer service and product extensions. “There’s just so many things you don’t realize when you go to a game. You hear the advertisements, you hear the band play, you hear the other band play. You don’t really think how much work goes into making sure everything is planned out,” Gullickson said. “When you go to a game, you don’t see everything that goes on behind the scenes. You just go to enjoy the game.” In fall 2019, ESPN brought College Gameday to SDSU’s campus for the first time. Students from the program were involved in assisting SDSU officials and ESPN for the nationally televised broadcast. “Over 100 sport and recreation management students were involved in a variety of event management functions,” Romsa said. “The broadcast averaged 1.7 million viewers, with 2.07 million viewers during the final hour of the show.” In addition, students in the program have worked countless home athletic events for SDSU, including games against the University of Minnesota, the University of Oregon, Oklahoma State University and the University of Louisville, among many others. “The ability for our students to gain experience at the highest level of collegiate athletics on our own campus is an amazing competitive advantage,” Romsa said. “These opportunities have provided unique and very pertinent learning opportunities for our students.” Romsa has also brought in a number of high-level guest speakers for his students, including Chris Wright, CEO of Minnesota United and former president of the Minnesota Timberwolves; Mike Neely, CEO of the Fiesta Bowl and former president of the Arizona Coyotes; Jim Bathey, vice president of ticket sales for the Milwaukee Brewers; Justin Sell, director of athletics for SDSU; and Slade Larscheid, deputy athletic director for SDSU. “Our partnership was one of the many highlights from this past academic year, while building momentum for this season. When we first collaborated on the idea of the sales program, both athletics and sports and recreation management jumped at the proposal,” Larscheid explained. “It provides real-world sales experience for the students and drives attendance to earmarked games. The Jackrabbit brand has grown significantly over the past decade. We’re hopeful this partnership helps recruit, retain and grow the undergraduate and master’s programs.” Romsa also fostered relationships with area nonprofits to expose his students to community service. Students in the program have worked with the Brookings Regional Humane Society, Brookings County Food Pantry, Brookings Backpack Project, Brookings Area Habitat for Humanity and Special Olympics South Dakota. “These experiences are essential for our students because of how athletic departments and sports teams often partner with various nonprofits to give back to their communities,” Romsa explained.
One of the larger focuses of the program is tickets sales—a key component to successful event management. Each semester, students conduct at least 30 sales calls and gain experience in the Paciolan ticketing software. Further, during one of the courses that Romsa teaches, a “ticket sales” competition is held. For the competition, students are asked to make at least 30 cold calls in an attempt to sell $10 tickets for a few football games. Whoever sells the most tickets wins a prize. “After the first day, I realized I kind of wanted to win this (competition) and I made quite a few calls,” Gullickson said. “I ended up winning.” Afterward, Jordan Boe, assistant athletic director for ticket sales and operations at SDSU, reached out to Gullickson to see if he was interested in working in tickets sales for the athletic department. “So that’s how I got my job on campus,” said Gullickson, who has been working in the ticket sales office since last spring.
Classes taken by students in the program can range from sports marketing to facility management. Gullickson remembers the facility management course as one of the highlights from his undergraduate days. During the class, students were asked to “create” their own facility, detailing everything from the floor plan to the concession stand prices. “My group made a basketball complex in St. Paul, Minnesota—similar to like the Pentagon in Sioux Falls,” Gullickson said. “We had to go through how much tickets were going to be and how many people we were going to have working sales and things like that. That was really fun and exciting.” Other classes, like accounting, were less enjoyable for Gullickson but have still been beneficial for his professional career. “Accounting was tough,” Gullickson said, “but I probably use skills from that class now more than almost any other.” For students who may have an idea what they want to do after college but aren’t exactly sure what that is, Gullickson suggests taking a look at the sport and recreation management program. “There’s a lot of opportunities in the program if you’re willing to put in the work,” Gullickson said. “There’s volunteer work that can get your foot in the door, and there’s also internships and different job opportunities on campus. There’s just so many doors you can open and you can set yourself up for the future.”
Categories: South Dakota, Education