Sports all Day

I woke up this morning at 6:30 a.m. to go workout downstairs in the basement.   I was tired as always, but even if you are not a workout warrior, working out in the morning, whether by yourself or with friends, makes you feel better the rest of the day.  After working out in the basement, naturally, I turned on ESPN and found out that Matt Cain, of the San Francisco Giants had thrown not only a no-hitter, but a perfect game.  R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets also threw a 1-hitter where the hit was quite questionable.  To imagine 2 no-hitters in one night, impossible! 

Sports have always been a passion of mine, and this summer I am learning more about a sport that I, and most sports fans, know very little about.  For these 8 weeks, I will be interning at the league office for the National Lacrosse League (NLL), which is the professional indoor lacrosse league.  For me, work starts at 11:00 a.m. each morning, but, as the intern, I walked in at 10:45 a.m. so that I could get an early start.  My work has mainly consisted of doing research for spreadsheets that keep statistical data such as goals per game, penalties per game, and even shots on goal per game.  In fact, my first assignment on my first day on the job was to make a spreadsheet of the home, average home and average attendance for each of the 61 Division I lacrosse teams in order to show that attendance for NLL games are higher than college lacrosse games.

Lacrosse, as a youth sport is soaring, but on the professional level there is very little room for profit.  The NLL started in 1987, with 4 teams (Baltimore Thunder, Washington Wave, Philadelphia Wings, and New Jersey Saints), and currently there are 9.  Overall, there have been 31 different franchises to play at least 1 season in the NLL.  Many franchises have gone in and out of existence even during the past 5 years or so.  Because lacrosse is still a young sport, there is not a lot of money to be made by its players.  In fact, most, if not all of the players hold at least a part-time job in the off-season.

Today was a long day at work.  I left work a little after 6:00 p.m.  Usually I am out by 5:30 p.m. or even 5:00 p.m. some days.  My first assignment was to research the various bobblehead giveaways that teams from the NLL had done over the past 3 years.  There were only five in the whole league over that span and two of the bobbleheads were not even players.  One was a PA announcer and the other was a radio announcer.  I spent the next hour and half doing whatever I felt like.  I broke for lunch at 1:30 p.m. and I went to this Asian place called KyoChon.  It was very modern-looking, so I figured I would give it a shot.  It was not bad, but I don’t think I will be back.  Anyway, when I got back to work, I received another assignment.  Now I had to research 5-10 companies that dealt with email and/or newsletter blasts.  For those who do not know what “blasting” is, it is essentially the action of sending out a mass email or newsletter to potential customers.  After 3 hours of research, I had typed up information and pricing for 9 companies.  Finally, I could leave the office and enjoy a well-deserved night off with the guys and girls from the MSBA program.

After I got back to the New School dorms, a few of us were hungry and decided to head out to Dallas BBQ on 8^th Avenue and 23 Street.  It was very good and we all had a lot of fun.  Hopefully we will go back some time.  We got back just in time for the beginning of Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and the Thunder.  The game started out as a blowout in favor of the Heat, but conversation kept everyone lively and jovial.  The game was action-packed as the final minutes waned, but the Heat kept their lead and made it a series.  As the saying goes, “It becomes a real series when a team loses at home.”  After the game ended, most went off to their rooms to go to bed, as some would be getting up at 6:30 a.m. to workout the following morning.

It was a great day at MSBA, even though there was no evening event.  This just shows how amazing this academy is and how much impact it can have on a student’s future.  With MSBA comes experience, knowledge, friendships, contacts, and best of all, confidence in yourself that you can make a difference in the industry and that you can be successful.  To see and hear from all of these young entrepreneurs, such as Ben Sturner, truly makes all of us aspire to, “Go for the Gold” and reach our loftiest dreams.