Behind The Banner November 2023

BEHIND THE BANNER NOV EDITION

Rangers deliver FIRST WORLD SERIES IN FRANCHISE HISTORY FOR THE METROPLEX

By John Tranchina

For long-suffering Texas Rangers fans, the 2023 MLB Postseason & World Series championship, the first in franchise history, still feels like a dream. For the estimated 500,000 to 700,000 fans that showed up for the parade and celebration outside Globe Life Field in Arlington on Nov. 3, it was the culmination of many years of frustration and o en misery, and even soothed some of the lingering pain that has haunted so many since the near-win in 2011 and to a lesser extent, other post-season appearances in 2010, 2014 and ‘15.

Two days a er the Rangers clinched the title with a 5-0 win in Game 5 of the World Series in Arizona, the Metroplex celebrated the DFW area’s first major four championship since 2011, although the NHL Stars came close to capturing a Stanley Cup title in 2020, it has been a while for Dallas Sports fans to rejoice over a Championship.

The fact that just about everyone who took the stage to speak at the pep rally mentioned the fan support shows just how much team

6 (twice!) before the St. Louis Cardinals rallied to win in Game 7. A er reaching post-season play again in 2012 (losing in the Wild Card game) and 2013 (losing a tie-breaker to play in the Wild Card game), and falling in the American League Division Series in both 2015 and ’16, the Rangers didn’t reach the playoffs again until this year.

“It feels like we are healing the trauma of losing and today can finally celebrate,” one fan said at the parade.

management and the players understood the connection that the Metroplex had with this team.

“I just want to thank all the fans for showing up. Continue to bring that energy,” Rangers second baseman and leadoff hi er Marcus Semien, who led the American League with 122 runs scored this season and finished third in the AL MVP voting, said at the celebration.

“This is the standard now. Keep bringing that energy. Everybody on this stage, we’re going to keep working for you guys.”

This is a fan base that endured the longest drought in Major League Baseball history from the inception of a franchise to a World Series victory, 63 years, although the first 11 of those seasons came while the team was the Washington Senators. And a er reaching the World Series for the first time in their history in 2010, the Rangers fell in five games to Bruce Bochy’s San Francisco Giants. Then they made it back to the Series in 2011 and were one out away from winning it all in Game

The Rangers went 60-102 just two years ago and 68-94 in 2022. This season was a roller coaster of momentum swings that saw the team put together four different winning streaks of at least six games, but also endure stretches where they went 2-7, 12-19 and 4-16, including an eight-game losing streak in August, so it all seemed just a li le surreal to experience that parade with the players holding the Commissioner’s Trophy alo . Texas finished 90-72, with a loss on the last day of the regular season dropping them out of the AL West Division title (losing the tie-breaker to Houston) and into a Wild Card slot. They rallied to sweep Tampa Bay 2-0 in the Wild Card series, then swept Baltimore 3-0 in the ALDS. In the ALCS against the rival Astros, the Rangers won the first two games in Houston, lost the next three in Arlington, and just when it looked like it was going to be over, the Rangers rallied to win the last two on the road again to take the pennant. Then they pulled out a 6-5 win in 11 innings over the Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the World Series before ge ing hammered 9-1 in Game 2. But once again, they rallied to win the next three, all in Arizona.

Rangers executive vice president and general manager Chris Young, who grew up in Dallas

and played 14 Major League seasons from 2004-17, including the first two for the Rangers, touched upon the struggle it took to get there when he addressed the crowd in Arlington.

“This is a dream come true to look out and see so many people here celebrating the team that I grew up rooting for,” said Young, who took over the Rangers’ front office reins in Dec. 2020. “As I think about this team, I think about all the adversity they faced this year, the ups and downs, the hard times, the times when things felt impossible. And I hope for each of you, when you’re going through hard times, that this team can inspire you to keep fighting and

Heim, starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi and reliever Will Smith, followed by mid-season trades for pitchers Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery, were crucial to the Rangers’ success.

Perhaps Young’s best move was to hire Bochy, a three-time World Series winner, as manager.

keep believing. Because that’s what this team did and they brought home a World Championship because of it.

talented players, to make this dream become a reality, I can’t thank him enough.”

Bochy also praised the crowd, claiming that the fans had an impact on his team’s performance through the playoffs.

“But fans, today is about you. You fans deserve this, you fans have waited a long time. That wait is over, congratulations. You are champions!”

It was Young who made the key moves to put this team over the top. His acquisitions over the past two off-seasons of Semien, World Series MVP Corey Seager, catcher Jonah

“I can’t thank him enough for picking up the phone around this time last year and giving me a call,” Bochy said of Young. “Never in my wildest dream did I think I’d be here, but here I am. With CY’s leadership, his vision, his commitment to ge ing these world-class,

“Don’t ever think you don’t play a role in this.

You do, trust me, these guys feed off you,” he said to the crowd. “We heard you in Tampa, we heard you in Baltimore, we heard you in Houston and we could feel you in Arizona. We play for you guys, you’re the reason we do this, so thank you very much.”

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NOVEMBER 2023 EDITION

end up in the sports industry, but they still carry the business management experience that can be applied in just about any industry. Heere is particularly proud of the high placement rates for minority and female students.

“We spend incredible amounts of time and resources to make sure our students are on the front row, and the first ones who come to mind, so every sport-concentration course we offer, we offer it with an industry partner,” Heere says. “If I just look at this semester, we’re teaching international brand strategies at the NBA level working with the Dallas Cowboys on a leadership training program for young executives.”

WHERE SPORTS MEANS BUSINESS HOW DFW is GROWING THE NEXT GENeration OF SPORTS BUSINESS LEADERS By: David Lee

With Dallas being named the No. 1 Sports Business City in the country by Sports Business Journal this past spring, opportunities are abound in Big D. But taking advantage of those opportunities requires a fresh generation of skilled and passionate professionals driving the area’s unmatched sports business landscape well into the future.

Two comprehensive sports management programs stand out at the University of North Texas (UNT) and Southern Methodist University (SMU), cultivating students with hands-on experiences and essential skills that position them at the forefront of the vibrant and competitive sports business landscape.

UNT offers a Bachelor of Business Administration in Sports Entertainment Management and an MBA program with core courses focused on accounting and finance, marketing, organizational behavior, fan engagement, plus sport-specific courses. The hands-on program was founded in 2018 and has grown to include more than 300 students. Today, it has

graduates working with nearly every significant sports team and league in the Dallas area.

“We’re very much focused on offering and exposing our students to competencies that they need to enter the marketplace, and that separates us from a lot of programs because many programs are not actually in the business school,” says Bob Heere Director of Sports Entertainment Management at UNT who helped launch the program.

“Collectively, our philosophy is to maximize the opportunities to engage with the industry, maximize the interaction, and get our students in front of these executives.”

The program is based at UNT’s Frisco campus with so many career opportunities in the area. Heere says students don’t focus on any particular sport and instead build the fundamental skills and experiences that can be applied no ma er where their career takes them. About 70 percent of graduates actually

Many undergraduate and graduate students from outside of Dallas or from smaller markets come to study sports entertainment management and to build out their résumé in the deep sports market in the Dallas area. With more than 30,000 people moving to the Dallas area annually, opportunities increase, but so does the competition. “I’ve been a sports management professional for more than 20 years and at great universities… but I’ve never felt the energy and momentum that the Dallas sports market has,” Heere says.

Athletics department. These include teams, leagues, agencies, conferences, research, E-sports, media, facilities, and live events at all levels.

The SMU Sport Management program offers a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physiology and Sport Management, and a Master of Science in Sport Management. The graduate program was ranked No. 1 in Texas and No. 14 in the U.S. by London-based intelligence service SportBusiness. Courses focus on sports marketing and public relations, representation of professional athletes, facility and event management, professional, collegiate or amateur sport organizations, and more.

“Our Sport Management program is not based on the traditional model found at most schools," says Peter Carton, Director and Clinical Assistant Professor for the sport management program. “The biggest difference is the majority of our faculty are all former executives from a wide range of sports industry segments. They all have advanced degrees and significant teaching experience. Most importantly however, is that they each have significant years of sports business experience, which provides them with a level of insight and personal connections that they are able to share with the students.”

The students participate in many different experiential opportunities such as internships with the more than 175 North Texas-based sports and allied-sport enterprises as well as with SMU’s

“SMU draws extensively on the fact that North Texas is home to some of the biggest names in the sports industry, ranging from professional sports teams to marketing and sponsorship agencies,” Carton adds. “Through guest speaker appearances, symposia, field trips, consulting projects, student mentoring and internships, students have access to major professional sports teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks, Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, FC Dallas and the Dallas Wings. The DFW Metroplex boasts multiple Division I colleges, several minor league franchises, two PGA and LPGA Tour stops, and world-class facilities such as the American Airlines Center, AT&T Stadium and one of the country’s top NASCAR tracks in Texas Motor Speedway.”

Along with faculty members’ longstanding relationships with local and national sports industry leaders, the program offers students the real-world skills they need to become leaders and executives.

“One of the advantages of our approach is that we are one of the few programs with relationships that provide students with direct access to internships and jobs in their area of interest,” Carton says. He regularly fields phone calls from sports industry executives around the country looking for good candidates for internships and full-time jobs within the industry.

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Founded by Tyler Patmon, former Dallas Cowboy, Camp Exposure takes a holistic approach to developing athletes to ensure their members have the ability to build and grow from a solid foundation. Their focus is helping athletes discover their gi s and talents so that they can use them to develop healthy, well-rounded, and successful lives within their homes and professional careers.

A key highlight of Camp Exposure is the professional training offered to the members.

Throughout the camp, high-level executives, and industry experts lead workshops and round table discussions centered around their seven core pillars which include identity, mental health, spiritual health, nutrition, relationship building, professional development, & financial literacy. Along with their off-the-field development, the organization brings in NFL veterans and trainers, as well as college and high school coaches to provide valuable insights and professional techniques to help the athletes elevate their game to the next level.

CAMP EXPOSURE identity, purpose, and worth

By Ben Harbuck

With over sixty thousand high school student-athletes in the state of Texas, many players are overlooked and constantly searching for avenues to help them reach their full life’s potential.

A certain faith-based organization is commi ed to empowering athletes to discover their identity, purpose, and worth beyond sports. Insert Camp Exposure, a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities for

male and female athletes to learn, grow, and accumulate the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in life.

Located in Dallas, Camp Exposure’s flagship program goes beyond traditional sports camps by providing an elite 3-day experience that includes top-level coaching and mentorship, addressing all aspects of life. In this article, we will explore their mission, upcoming opportunities, and exciting plans for the future.

In 2023, Camp Exposure introduced their monthly mentorship program, Camp Exposure Academy (CEA). CEA is a 1-to-3-year program for high school athletes that offers a series of monthly workshops enabling athletes to discover, outline, and develop a plan for their future endeavors. This long-term commitment to the athletes reflects the organization’s dedication to making a lasting difference in their lives and the community in which it serves.

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The future looks bright for Camp Exposure and the aspiring athletes it serves. If you're a high school athlete in the Dallas area, make sure to apply for their 2024 Academy at www.thecampexposure.com! Registration opens December 1st, 2023!

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