Fin.

La'Roi Glover - Aztec Hall of Famer

By Oumar Ganame (SMBA '11)

This weekend saw a very proud moment for the Sports MBA Program, as well as San Diego State University Athletics. Six members were inducted into the Aztec Hall of Fame, including our own La’Roi Glover. Inducted along with La’Roi were Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Doug Harvey, Tonette Dyer, John Hyden, and Fred Miller.

A product of Point Loma High School in San Diego, La’Roi was a star player at SDSU before moving on to a successful 13-year career in the NFL. That career included six Pro-Bowls and an All-Pro selection after leading the NFL in sacks in 2000. While attending classes in the Sports MBA program, La’Roi was given the opportunity to become the Director of Player Programs with the St. Louis Rams.

LA'ROI INTERVIEW

Despite his departure, La’Roi will always be a member of the 2011 Sports MBA class. We are beyond proud of his achievements and his current position with the Rams. La’Roi will certainly be a big player within the National Football League for years to come.

Collective Bargaining Negotiations

As part of the Sports MBA, the SMBA ’11 class participated in a Collective Bargaining Simulation over the past two days. The simulation has been a part of the Sports MBA program every year, but this was the first time a class has tackled a current sports business issue: the NFL.

The simulation was part of the overall Operations Management course and included briefings and materials from Dr. Singh, who has a considerable amount of collective bargaining experience, and Jim Steeg, who owns a great deal of football business knowledge.

Thursday, which was a full day of negotiations, contained a number of highlights. They included storm-outs, a lot of yelling, stubbornness, press conferences, and a host of other strategic moves. In the end, 4 of the 6 groups reached a compromise, while 2 groups had to go to arbitration.

It was a great learning experience and, hopefully, next year’s class enjoys the process just as much.

Guest Speaker: Greg Byrne – Arizona’s Athletic Director

Yesterday, the SMBA ’11 class had the pleasure of welcoming Greg Byrne, the University of Arizona’s Director of Athletics, to the classroom. Byrne, in town for the Wildcats football game against UCLA, talked about his time as Mississippi State’s AD and the type of culture he is trying to create in Arizona.

He said, “Passion, enthusiasm, and interest are the best things about college athletics, but they are also the worst things too.”

Byrne loves the fact that U of A is—really—the only game in Tucson and, therefore, has competitive advantage. But, still, he emphasized Arizona’s commitment to customer satisfaction and academic performance. He also discussed how he’s changing the atmosphere for athletics, which includes installing a large video board and implementing the Wildcat Walk to enhance the fan experience.

Byrne also discussed the popularity of women’s softball, the 1-and-done rule for basketball, conference realignment, how he deals with agents, advantages and disadvantages of social media, enforcing academic integrity, and paying student-athletes, and having his father as AD of Texas A&M.

SMBA ’11 thanks Byrne for visiting the classroom!

Guest Speaker: Michael Catanzaro – Vitro Agency

The SMBA ’11 class hosted Michael Catanzaro, a Group Account Director for Vitro Agency, today. One of Catanzaro’s clients is Asics, an account he has personally worked on for four years. He took us through an impressive Powerpoint that highlighted the global brand campaign and four pillars that Vitro Agency focuses on for all of its clients: awareness, familiarity, consideration, and purchase.

Catanzaro led us through Asics’ goals and the campaigns that his agency pitched to Asics, including the successful "Sound mind, sound body" campaign. He discussed the difficulties facing an agency, Asics future plans (including sponsoring the November 7th New York City marathon), how to get the most out of brand, television commercial production, and the future advertising campaigns for Asics.

It was great to have Catanzaro in the classroom and his first-hand experience helped the SMBA ’11 class better understand another side of the IMC process.

Jimmy Plays Games

As part of Marketing 729, the SMBA ’11 class is reading Digital Korea by Tomi T Ahonen and Jim O’Reilly. The book details how South Korea has become the world’s most connected country. And, since classmate Jimyong Moon (SMBA ’11) is originally from South Korea, he was more than happy to show us two of the book’s main examples of technological advancement: CyWorld and Kart Rider.

Guest Speaker: Laura Broderick

Today, Laura Broderick, Senior Vice President of Brand Development for the San Diego Padres, visited with the SMBA ’11 class. Broderick talked about her impressive background, which includes a Harvard MBA and hiring current Padres’ President Tom Garfinkel as an intern when she worked at DELL.

Broderick detailed how the Padres have changed their logo eight times in their 40-year history and, as a result, have had no unity behind the brand. To that end, when Broderick was hired last October, she put an emphasis on the “SD” because it unfies the city around the Padres. She also focused on all of the touchpoints the Padres weren’t taking advantage of, such as the promotional giveaway packaging.

Broderick also went through the Padres’ community outreach initiatives, which include Military Appreciation games and Stand-Up to Cancer. She also discussed measuring ROI on certain events, how other MLB teams operate their brand, the Padres relationship with BAM, dealing with current hurdles, and transitioning from a non-sports career. The class thanks Laura for stopping by the classroom.