McCormack Year in Review 2021

2021

MARK H. MCCORMACK DEPARTMENT OF SPORT MANAGEMENT

A YEAR IN REVIEW

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

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A MESSAGE FROM THE DEPARTMENT CHAIR DEAR MCCORMACK COMMUNITY, On behalf of the entire McCormack Department of Sport Management faculty and staff, we hope this finds you and your family healthy and in good spirits as we all slowly emerge from the global pandemic that so altered our lives and challenged us to adapt.

Legendary basketball coach John Wooden once stated that “if we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward.”

Well, it’s safe to say that, after successfully adapting since March 2020, we are now powering forward!

As you read this, we are well into the fall semester and a return to a new normalcy with students back on campus and the hallways of Isenberg abuzz. Our vibrant sport management student clubs—all four of them!—are back in business, planning their usual roster of events including the ADS Career Fair in November, the Pioneer Valley Tip-off Classic in December, the McCormack Sport Leaders Forum’s return to New York City in March, and the list goes on. After a one-year hiatus, our McCormack Executive-in-Residence program also returned in October, featuring International Olympic Committee member Anita DeFrantz.

Given the “year in review” nature of this annual newsletter, I wanted to reflect on a few of the highlights of the past academic year, which must start with a heartfelt shout-out to the McCormack faculty and staff who adapted so incredibly well to an entire year of remote teaching, mentoring, advising, and doing! The pages that follow illustrate just a sprinkling of what our faculty, staff, and students were able to achieve throughout COVID times … events like the

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virtual Career Fair, McCormack Awards “banquet,” and McCormack Sport Leaders Forum, presented by Scout Sports and Entertainment, that attracted over 250 students from our program, to name a few.

Another highlight was the highly publicized launch of our ground-breaking Women in Sport Business course, first proposed by alumna Zaileen Janmohamed and co-taught by Professors Nicole Melton and Nefertiti Walker.

Last fall we welcomed to our stellar faculty Dr. David Tyler, an alum of our MBA/MS and PhD programs, who brought with him his groundbreaking Know Rivalry Project, a source for team rivalry data and analysis that will provide the department and our students with yet another intriguing lens through which to view fan behavior, and management implications therein. Dr. Tyler and Dr. Liz Delia were also granted tenure last spring.

The McCormack Center for Sport Research & Education, under the direction of Professor Will Norton, also deftly adapted and carried on its initiatives—many of them global in nature—without skipping a beat. In addition to continuing to build our McCormack Case Study Collection (now utilized by more than 150 professors, representing more than 200 different colleges and universities globally), our faculty delivered virtual educational content via Zoom to our global partners, India on Track’s Global Institute for Sports Business and Japanese baseball agency Pacific League Marketing. As the Olympics kicked off in Tokyo, the McCormack Center taught modules on sport sponsorship, fan networks, and sport consumer behavior from Isenberg, at 11 p.m., to an audience of more than 250 Pacific League executives! Last

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I wanted to reflect on a few of the highlights of the past academic year, which must start with a heartfelt shout-out to the McCormack faculty and staff who adapted so incredibly well to an entire year of remote teaching, mentoring, advising, and doing!”

STEVE MCKELVEY, Department Chair

but not least, despite again being entirely remote, our McCormack Sport Leadership Academy saw continued growth in its mission to educate high school students interested in sport management, with more than 100 students from 8 different countries and 15 states engaging with our faculty throughout July and August.

In September we welcomed one of the largestever classes of first-year students and, through our McCormack Diversity Fund, were able to continue to increase the diversity of our student body. At the graduate level, we achieved unprecedented diversity thanks in large part to our partnerships with Women in Sports & Events (WISE) and the Sport and Entertainment Equity Network (SEEN). This year’s incoming graduate students feature 55 percent women and 32 percent students of color.

Finally, plans are well underway to celebrate our department’s 50 years of excellence! One of the cornerstones of the celebration is an eight-page special insert in the December 6 issue of Sports Business Journal (not to worry if you’re not a subscriber, this piece will be available on our website). Save the date for our culminating on-campus grand reunion the weekend of June 11-12, 2022!

IN THIS ISSUE Message from the Department Chair

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Points of Pride

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Student Engagement

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Grad Updates

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McCormack Updates

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Alumni Award Winners

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Faculty Research

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Stay Connected

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Cover: UMass Hockey Head Coach Greg Carvel ‘98 MS

All the best!

Steve McKelvey Department Chair

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

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POINTS OF PRIDE SCARDINO IS FIRST MCCORMACK STUDENT TO RECEIVE 21ST CENTURY LEADERS AWARD Alannah Scardino ’21 of Rochester, N.Y., was a Commonwealth Honors College double major in sport management and social thought and political economy. Scardino was the first student in department history to receive the 21st Century Leaders Award, the university’s highest undergraduate honor. As an intern for Minor League Baseball’s Rochester Red Wings, Scardino originated and planned the team’s first-ever Women in Sports Night. Similarly, she structured an independent study to write a children’s book, All I Can Be from A to Z, which challenges gender stereotypes and encourages children to be their authentic selves. This year, Scardino conducted research on the juvenile justice system, violence against girls and women, and sport for development. She used her honors thesis as a springboard to launch a sport-fordevelopment organization called Rising Phoenix Sports Program, with a mission to support the health and well-being of girls in the juvenile justice system through sport. Scardino also served as deputy chief of Amherst Fire Department’s Student Force.

RUFFIN RECEIVES FORBES 30 UNDER 30 RECOGNITION Melcolm Ruffin ’13 was named to the Forbes Magazine annual “30 under 30” roster in the sports category. Ruffin is the head of athlete content strategy at Creative Artists Agency, and the co-founder of SEEN (Sports and Entertainment Equity Network), which was established in 2015. Ruffin spearheaded the creation of the SEEN/McCormack Graduate Fellowship program that launched in October 2020. After graduating from UMass in 2013, Ruffin joined the NBA in managerial positions for the D and G Leagues and subsequently earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2019.

MULLIN AWARD HONORS MCCORMACK PARTNERSHIP WITH OCTAGON In recognition of the “Octagon Bowl” experiential-learning partnership between the McCormack Department and Octagon—a linchpin of the graduate sport management curriculum—the Sport Marketing Association (SMA) named Octagon the winner of its Mullin Award. The award, presented in a virtual ceremony hosted by the SMA last November, is named after Bernie Mullin, a former UMass sport marketing professor. The Octagon Bowl began in 2007 and has remained a jewel in the department’s portfolio of experiential-learning projects. Fittingly, representing Octagon in the award ceremony was UMass sport management alum Christine Franklin, executive vice president of Octagon, who spearheaded the creation of the “Octagon Bowl” and continues to serve as point person on the partnership.

GLEESON NAMED TO AD AGE’S LEADING WOMEN OF 2021 Amy Gleeson ’98 MS was honored as one of Ad Age’s Leading Women of 2021. (The Leading Women started in 1997 as Women to Watch.) The women who are highlighted on this list are those who are sparking innovation across agencies and brands in automotive, food, gaming, and media. Gleeson currently serves as the chief marketing officer for LA 2028. Prior to joining LA 2028, Gleeson served as senior director of global client innovation marketing at Visa.

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TYLER RECEIVES NASSM RESEARCH FELLOW AWARD Dr. David Tyler was recognized by the North American Society for Sport Management with the Research Fellow Award this past May (2021). The award recognizes faculty with exceptional research records; Dr. Tyler becomes the seventh McCormack faculty member to be named a prestigious NASSM Research Fellow. The others are Drs. Elizabeth Delia, Janet Fink, Matthew Katz, Mark McDonald, Nicole Melton, and Nefertiti Walker.

#1 RANKING IN STUDENT SATISFACTION The Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management ranked #1 in student satisfaction at the UMass Amherst campus across all undergraduate majors.

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VOTED #1 IN STUDENT SATISFACTION OUT OF ALL UMASS AMHERST UNDERGRAD PROGRAMS

GRADUATE PROGRAM RETAINS TOP INTERNATIONAL RANKING For the fifth time in the past six years, the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management has been judged by its academic peers as the number one sport management program in the world, according to SportBusiness magazine’s 2021 global rankings. In addition to its top global ranking in the “Professors’ Choice” category, the McCormack program, consisting of the MBA/MS and MS in Sport Management cohorts, ranked #2 overall in the world for the second year in a row.

MS ALUM CARVEL LEADS UMASS HOCKEY TO NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP For the first time in program history, Coach Greg Carvel ’98 MS led the UMass Hockey team to win the NCAA Championship. In his five years as head coach, Carvel has been a change agent extraordinaire. Taking over a program with a losing record in 2016, the team posted a 12-win improvement in his second season and reached the national championship game a year later in the 2018-2019 season. Carvel served as the university’s commencement speaker this past May and signed a five-year extension deal with UMass this June.

ERWIN PROMOTED TO GENERAL MANAGER OF BARCLAYS CENTER In May, Adina Erwin ’95 MS graced the cover of Sports Business Journal in a story that announced her promotion to general manager of Barclays Center. Erwin joined the Barclays Center in 2020 and brings 25 years of experience in the sports and entertainment industry.

Prior to joining Barclays Center, Erwin served as the senior vice president of business operations for TD Garden and the vice president and chief operating officer for the Fox Theatre. Erwin is one of seven women running NBA arenas and one of two Black women in that position.

VenuesNow Magazine recognized Erwin as a “Woman of Influence” in the music and entertainment venues industry and she was selected as one of the 2017 “Women Who Mean Business” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. She has served as chair of the board of trustees for the IAVM Foundation and is currently 2nd chair elect for the board of directors of IAVM.

WALKER SPEAKS ON SPORT INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR RESPECT FOR BLACK WOMEN Dr. Nefertiti Walker has recently been a much sought-after authority on the role of Black women in sport institutions. In an opinion piece authored for the Washington Post in July, Walker discussed the recent treatment of Maria Taylor at ESPN, using the incident to shed light on the systemic racism and sexism in the sport industry. “Black women are accepted, so long as they fit into long-standing standards and norms that were created without their input or consideration,” she wrote. “This is diversity, without equity and inclusion.”She was also a featured guest on MSNBC’s telecast that examined the culture at ESPN for women broadcasters.

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

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STUDENT ENGAGEMENT from California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington all in attendance.

ASSOCIATION OF DIVERSITY IN SPORT (ADS) CAREER FAIR The 2021 Mark H. McCormack Career Fair was significantly different from any previous iteration. Due to the pandemic, the 11th annual Career Fair was held virtually. Nonetheless, what made this career fair successful, despite the additional challenges posed by the new format, was the months of planning and preparation done by the Association of Diversity in Sport (ADS), a student-run campus organization that focuses on improving the diversity and inclusion landscape within the sport industry and having thoughtprovoking D&I conversations that inspire action while creating industry experience opportunities for its various members. This year’s event could not have been put on successfully without the leadership of ADS President Alyssa Gross ‘21, as well as the guidance of McCormack staff and faculty throughout the planning process in the lead-up to the event.

With the event being held virtually for the first time, ADS worked closely with the leaders of the McCormack Sport Leaders Forum, Emma Dennis and Madeline Ellnor, to provide a whole week dedicated to professional development for students the week of March 21st. In conjunction with the Sport Leaders Forum, ADS held the Career Fair on Airmeet, a platform that replicated the inperson career fair experience by ensuring each attending organization had its own virtual table and allowing each table to choose whether they would like to meet with students individually or in a group setting. Overall, more than 35 organizations and almost 200 students attended the two-day event. ADS was successful in recruiting companies from all over the country with companies UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

With the 2021 McCormack Career Fair past us, ADS looks forward to beginning preparations for the 2022 event. Whether the format is in-person or online, the hardworking and committed club members as well as the guidance of McCormack faculty will ensure the 2022 Career Fair will once again be an event to look forward to.

By Abdullah Khanzada ‘22

McCormack Sport Leaders Forum Learn. Connect. Lead.

MCCORMACK SPORT LEADERS FORUM This year has been one of firsts for many, and the McCormack Sport Leaders Forum (MSLF) is just another example. The signature event for the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management looks to connect students with industry professionals through keynote addresses, panels, and networking opportunities.

Although typically held over a weekend in New York City, the MSLF committee quickly adapted to the need for a virtual event. Instead of allowing the complexity of creating a new event to hold them back, the group of eight students—Emma Dennis, Maddie Ellnor, Brendan Clark, Tia Dawson, Morgan Price, Noah Kramer, Jahaan Bharucha, and Damahya Mongroo—decided to face the challenge head-on.

With the guidance of department advisors, the committee mastered Airmeet, a brand-new platform,

which they used in tandem with Zoom to host the forum. Over three days, conversation focused on the themes of Sport for Change, Sport Innovation, and Company Culture. It featured keynote addresses from former Olympian and founder of Right to Play Johann Olav Koss, CEO of Kraft Analytics Group Jessica Gelman, and Co-Head of Creative Arts Agency Sports (CAA Sports) Howie Nuchow. They also ran simultaneous panels featuring more than 25 speakers and covering topics such as Athlete Activism, Sustainability in Sport, New Media, and Emerging Leagues. The event wrapped up with an entire day discussing Company Culture and Hot Topics. Students also got to hear from recent alumni including Scott Savran ‘14, Zack Deckler ‘15, and Abby Rice ‘17.

The forum also provided the opportunity to compete in a case study competition organized with title sponsor Scout Sports & Entertainment (Scout S&E). The winning team received a year of mentorship from members of Scout S&E. The committee worked for months to create a unique and accessible experience for both students and professionals. Even though the forum was never online before, this past year saw event highs in registered students and recorded the highest number of speakers in event history.

The 2021 MSLF would not have been possible without its title sponsor, Scout Sports & Entertainment, as well as the support from Front Office Sports, Jeff Ianello from SeatGeek, Oak View Group (OVG), PointsBet, and ’47 Brand.

CLUB UPDATES We are excited to announce the new president and vice president of each club:

Association of Diversity in Sport (ADS) President: Abdullah Khanzada Vice President: Will Kharfen

McCormack Student Leaders President: Ari Kwitkin-Close Vice President: Sam Safferstein

McCormack Strategy and Analytics President: Natan Cristol-Deman Vice President: Matt Kimball

Women in Sport Management (WISM) President: Brianna Fevrier Vice President: Maddie Witte

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

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GRAD UPDATES MASTER’S STUDENTS CONSULT WITH USOPC AND CONCACAF The Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management secured two highprofile sport industry clients to participate in the 2021 MBA Practicum, a capstone six-credit course culminating the two-year dual-degree MBA/MS graduate program.

Building on a successful 2020 partnership that saw McCormack MBAs present management recommendations to CEO Sarah Hirshland, one of the 2021 projects was again with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC). The USOPC asked McCormack students to help analyze best practices, audit internal processes, and prescribe new strategies for the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Students reported to Director of DE&I Nitra Tucker, as well as Senior Business Strategy Consultant Brett Arias.

The project challenged students to assess the USOPC’s internal ecosystem and examine barriers to creating positive culture, while considering factors of influence in the fast-changing and increasingly dynamic area of DE&I. The team of UMass students—Jaclyn Lam, Dominic Percia, Jahaan Bharucha, and Sara Moores—provided a thorough research foundation consisting of insights from other Olympic and Paralympic Committees, as well as industry sectors such as government, professional sport leagues, non-profits, and for-profit/corporate. The students also gleaned insights from internal thought leaders and McCormack faculty—Dr. Nicole Melton and Dr. Nefertiti Walker—while working with the department’s Laboratory of Inclusion and Diversity in Sport. The final recommendations spanned management areas such as mentorship, recruitment, ideation management, and continuous improvement.

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“The capstone practicum serves as the culmination of our dual-degree, master’s-level educational experience at UMass,” noted McCormack faculty member and practicum project advisor Will Norton. “These projects are highly experiential in nature, and enable students to creatively apply their sophisticated understanding of the sport management industry to invested industry partners.

The projects are meant to be complex, spanning multiple areas of the clients’ business. Often times, and especially in the case of our work with the USOPC, McCormack students are being challenged to build new pathways forward, and create systems from the ground up, which is always exciting.”

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The capstone practicum serves as the culmination of our dualdegree, master’s-level educational experience at UMass.”

— WILL NORTON, Director of Graduate Programs

The second consulting project was secured with CONCACAF—one of FIFA’s six continental governing bodies for association football—and program alumna Heidi Pellerano ‘98 MS (pictured top left), who currently serves as the entity’s chief commercial officer.

The project tasked another student team of four— Connor Ross, Dhruv Mahajan, Doo Kim, and Francesco Palumbo—with the development and financial buildout of a revamped licensing and retail merchandising strategy for CONCACAF and its 41 member associations. For the students involved, this project served as a ‘master class’ in an important segment of the commercial sports industry.

2021 CLIENTS FOLLOW A DISTINGUISHED LIST OF PAST PRACTICUM CONSULTING CLIENTS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

Licensing and retail merchandising functions serve as important revenue sources and powerful brand marketing tools to engage with both avid and casual fans. Pellerano identified growth potential for CONCACAF in this commercial segment and tasked students with creating a holistic strategy that could be applied during a signature event, such as the Gold Cup, as well as other peak windows in the international soccer calendar. Students debriefed with a variety of stakeholders connected to CONCACAF’s business operations, the business of soccer, or licensing/merchandising as a discipline in order to glean insights. Interviews with US Soccer, Fanatics, the NHL, Wasserman, and prominent licensing vendors helped round out the research phase of the project.

The project’s implementation phase helped educate CONCACAF on all business, legal, and operational considerations needed to accomplish the objective of the brief, while providing insights on both the state of global soccer fashion trends and the profile of U.S.based member nation fan groups.

“I was very impressed with the thoroughness of the analysis, the creativity of the ideas, and how quickly the student team wrapped their arms around such a complicated subject,” said Pellerano. “I knew from the beginning this was going to be a difficult project, and the more I saw of the team’s work, the more impressed I was with the thought process and detail.

The program should be very proud, as the students did a phenomenal job.”

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

2020 – United States Olympic & Paralympic

Committee, OOFOS 2019 – The Oak View Group, Farmers Insurance,

Major League Rugby 2018 – Madison Square Garden Company,

CounterLogic Gaming, New York Red Bulls 2017 – ’47 Brand, Boston Cannons, UMass Athletics 2016 – Bank of America, Under Armour,

Right to Play USA

MARKETING MENTORSHIPS MarketCast – Danielle Byrd ’16, Senior Vice President of Brands & Partnerships Students working with MarketCast conducted research to identify changes in sport viewership, with a particular focus on trends in viewership influenced by social media, and the impact of Covid-19.

UMass Athletics – Alan Pandiani, Associate Athletic Director, External Operations Students led a project investigating philanthropic motivations of UMass Athletics donors, as well as identifying tactics to best communicate and engage with donors.

Women’s Football Alliance – Lisa King, Commissioner Students working with the Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) engaged in branding research to assess consumer perceptions of the WFA brand, as well as perceptions of competitor brands.

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GRAD UPDATES GRAD MENTORS

NATIONAL SPORTS FORUM

A special thank you to our 2021 Grad Mentors!

This spring, the McCormack team of graduate students Sara Moores ’21 MBA/MS, Cyril Penn ’21 MS, Jack Davis ’22 MBA/MS, and Robert Simpson ’22 MBA/ MS, with Steven Liao ’22 MBA/MS serving as alternate, competed in the annual National Sports Forum Case Study Competition. The competition was held virtually, and it featured teams from universities all over the United States. The case focused on developing an integrated gaming/esports strategy that delivered on key goal metrics and established a platform for a client to expand its gaming/esports presence.

Paul Anderson, US Soccer Pam Batalis, Wells Fargo Thorr Bjorn, University of Rhode Island Alex Burakoff, MLB Ted Dalton, Boston Celtics Chris Culmer, Arizona Cardinals Casey Dellapenna, Miami Heat Michelle Duff, Wasserman Seth Flateland, Pepsi John Halas, NY Knicks Rachel Krasnow, Fenway Sports Management Justin Licker, Detroit Lions Dave Littlefield, Detroit Tigers Mike Lunardelli, Spartan Races Jeff Mann, Live Nation

MCCORMACK MS ALUMNI AT THE TOKYO OLYMPICS Three graduate alumni who attended the Olympics this summer shared their stories with us.

Lindsay Milne, Brand Marketing Executive Noreen Morris, Northeast Conference Rick Nadeau, NY Knicks Takehiko Nakamura, Blue United Corporation Jim Paquette, College Administrative Executive Jeff Price, PGA of America Dennis Robinson, Envorso Jeremy Rogalski, Boston Bruins Manny Rohan, Minnesota Timberwolves Marc Ross, NFL Network Analyst Ian Rubel, Premier Sports Agency Mark Schultz, NHL Canada Mark Scialabba, Washington Nationals Andrew Sherwin, Boston Celtics John & Maricela Shukie, Forward Progress Mike Tannenbaum, Former NFL GM Jon Tosches, Washington Nationals

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U.S. Women’s Soccer in Japan, ©️ISI Photos/U.S. Soccer

Takehiko Nakamura, ’04 MS Takehiko Nakamura’s company Blue United was contracted to help the U.S. Soccer Federation set up its pre-camp in Japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Nakamura’s team researched locations to find the right venue—in Miyazaki prefecture—and negotiated the needs, including meals, fields, rooms, transportation, equipment, legal check, and all the necessary items a team needs for its camps.

LtoR: Takehiko Nakamura, Troy Engle, and Nancy Gonsalves

When the Games were postponed for the pandemic, Nakamura’s team kept organizing, and in December of 2020, the Miyazaki government and the hotel asked them to manage national boxing teams from six different countries (Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, and the USA) to conduct joint training at the same venue.

Because athletes’ movements were restricted to only their rooms, dining areas, and training facilities, Nakamura’s team coordinated with the hotel and local government to have onsite barbecue activities, local food, and natural springs; they also brought cultural ceremonies, such as the Miyazaki Shinto Shrine, to the venue so that the players could experience Japan. The company’s mission was to make sure the camp went smoothly; once the teams moved to Tokyo, they were in Japan Olympic Committee’s hands.

Troy Engle, ’85 MS “I attended UMass in the fall of 1984 after a year chasing my own Olympic dream as a permanent resident of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado. Then I was lucky enough to serve as the head coach of the U.S. Paralympic track and field team in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing and was an assistant coach of the U.S. men’s track and field team at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

“This past summer, I found myself in Tokyo for my third major Games experience. I was recently appointed Chair of World Para Athletics and found myself back at the Paralympics in Tokyo as a technical official with the International Paralympic Committee. My career has taken me from “Olympic hopeful” to Olympic and Paralympic coach and now on the administrative side of running a Games—it’s been quite a journey!

“The Tokyo experience was like no other in my career.

I have been involved in several of the legacy projects of the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the last three years—assisting developing nations’ coaches and administrators in their Games preparation. Covid put the Games on hold but it never slowed down Tokyo from working to promote sport through their Games efforts. No spectators, daily testing, and contact tracing must have put a different level of stress on the athletes and I cannot imagine competing in a giant empty stadium. But my friends who have coached the U.S. teams at both Games tell me that the teams bonded like no Games before. “To say that Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

‘there will never been a Games like Tokyo’ is both an understatement and a wish—it was a unique and magical (at times surreal) experience and a testament to both the competing athletes and the organizers!”

Nancy Gonsalves, ’92 MS “As I write this, I am just back from spending 47 days in Tokyo supporting Team USA as a staff member with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

I work in the Events & Logistics department and we have oversight over accommodations, ground transport, shipping and freight, hospitality, team kit distribution, air travel, and event tickets. When the Games were officially postponed in March 2020, we were just three months away from executing our Game plans. So, the first step for us was to “undo.”

Flights had to be cancelled and refunded, hotel contracts broken, and freight containers rerouted.

Then there was a bit of limbo until the new dates of the Games were announced by the IOC and the Tokyo Organizing Committee.

“With new dates announced for 2021 almost all processes and areas were re-examined. The best word to describe the work environment was pivot. We pride ourselves on being proactive planners and had to pivot and accept that many things were completely out of our control. Our only goal became simple—get healthy teams to Tokyo and back and allow them to compete. “‘Period of Stay’ guidelines were released that stated an athlete could not arrive until five days before their sport’s competition and had to depart within 48 hours of their competition end, or being eliminated, which made for many airline changes daily. Everyone entering Japan had to have two negative Covid tests plus file an activity plan stating all the locations they anticipated visiting while in Tokyo. All in all, I was pretty fortunate that my housing and work location at our outside operations center was at a nice hotel, considering the only other place I was allowed to go in six weeks were the airports and Athletes Village.

Ultimately, we did meet our organizational goals and finishing atop the medal chart for the Olympic Games, and a Top-5 Paralympic Games finish was the perfect ending to a long two years!”

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MCCORMACK UPDATES

SEEN/MCCORMACK GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP Sports & Entertainment Equity Network (SEEN) and the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at UMass Amherst join to announce their three-year partnership and the creation of the SEEN-McCormack Graduate Fellowship. The SEENMcCormack Graduate Fellowship will provide two SEEN community members with an opportunity to further their education by receiving tuition-free and graduate assistantship-funded entry into the MS or dual MBA/MS sport management program. The inaugural recipients of the SEEN/McCormack Graduate Fellowship are Diana Camarillo and Walter Tchougoue. Camarillo (above right) and Tchougoue (above left) began the program this fall semester.

Camarillo graduated from Concordia University Chicago (River Forest, Ill.) with a bachelor of arts degree in political science and Spanish. Having spent most of her life in Chicago, Camarillo joins the program with eight years of experience. In her most recent experience, she served as the teen programs manager for the Chicago and Texas markets at Girls in the Game, an organization committed to helping every girl find their voice, discover their strength, and lead with confidence. Prior to that, Camarillo was the event production assistant at Hometeam, where she designed, planned, and executed brand experiences and campaigns for notable brands such as Champs Sports and Nike.

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Tchougoue, a recent graduate of Towson University with a bachelor of science in international business, currently serves as a brands and properties intern at Wasserman Media Group. Tchougoue is also the boardroom brand ambassador at Thirty Five Ventures and is a part of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Future Sales Stars Program, a program designed to promote diversity in the ticket sales and corporate partnerships fields by providing participants with access to mentorship, networking, and development opportunities and real-world insights.

WISE/MCCORMACK GRADUATE PROGRAM AWARD The recipients, Ishita Tibrewal and Patsy Kealey, will each receive free tuition and graduate assistantship funding for both years in the McCormack MBA/MS in sport management program. Tibrewal and Kealey were selected from a field of members of Women in Sports and Events (WISE) who applied for fall 2021 admission to the McCormack program.

Kealey graduated from Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisc.) with a bachelor of arts in mathematics. The New Rochelle, N.Y.–native joins the UMass program after working for the Minnesota United Football Club (FC) where she led on-field broadcasting operations and coordinated vendor and inventory management for the professional soccer games at Allianz Field.

In addition, Kealey (below left) served as a logistics data analyst at Medtronic (Columbia Heights, Minn.) where she led the implementation of new freight allocation logic and created global best practices for freight invoicing and carrier rate management of over 50 freight providers.

Tibrewal (below right) graduated from Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, Mass.) with bachelor of arts degrees in economics and sport management and a minor in global business.

During her senior year, she served as the singles and doubles captain for the Lyons varsity tennis team. Originally from Kolkata, India, her most recent sport industry experience includes time at Minor League Baseball (MiLB) where she served as the digital media coordinator, supporting 160 MiLB teams and 14 leagues to track, analyze, and optimize their digital traffic and provide creative digital solutions to improve fan engagement.

Prior to the MiLB, Tibrewal served as the event management and sports promotion coordinator at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

she spearheaded diversity and inclusion initiatives and enhanced social media engagement by 200 percent.

This is the second year of a three-year partnership between the McCormack Department of Sport Management and WISE, providing WISE members nationally the opportunity to receive a fully funded graduate sport management education.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS COURSE This spring, Drs. Nicole Melton and Nefertiti Walker launched a first-of-its-kind course, Women in Business. The course, which was featured on Front Office Sports, provided students with a broad introduction to experiences, opportunities, and networking for women in sport business.

During the semester, students worked through case studies and learned from some of the most innovative women in the industry, including Zaileen Janmohamed (LA28), Karina Herold (LA Sports and Entertainment Commission), Jessica Gelman (Kraft Analytics Group), Angela Ruggiero (Sports Innovation Lab), and Kate Johnson (Google).

Each guest speaker covered a unique aspect of the commercial sports landscape, discussed how they succeeded in industry, and shared strategies they used to break into roles that have long been dominated by men. The course aligns with Isenberg’s DEI initiatives and came to fruition thanks to several women who have graduated from UMass and gone on to success in the sports industry, in particular Zaileen Janmohamed, Karina Herold, Karen Peters, and Gloria Nevarez. As a culminating project, students were tasked with creating a video that summarized what they learned during their time in McCormack and the Women in Business class. Please take a moment to watch the video submitted by Jaclyn Lam, which can be found on our YouTube page. .

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MCCORMACK UPDATES WASSERMAN COLLECTIVE The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a launch partner for The Collective Think Tank, a global consortium of some of today’s greatest academic minds and industry leaders focused on gender parity and improving diversity. A first of its kind, this group will share data, insights, and information to promote more opportunities for women to succeed in sports. The Think Tank, operated by sports and entertainment marketing agency Wasserman’s women-focused division, The Collective, will cultivate partnerships between universities and researchers, as well as brands, properties, and media companies to educate and create solution-based strategies for industry-changing activations, campaigns, and platforms.

The Think Tank will research the inequities of women in sports to garner insights that inform action. The group will publish ongoing thought leadership across a multitude of topics that affect women in sports to raise awareness of issues among fans, consumers, and participants.

UMass Amherst is on track to lead new ideas around gender equity and inclusion which will be amplified and supported by the group.

The Collective Think Tank launched this fall with ten research projects focused on the many facets of a woman’s fandom (consumption, purchasing power, effects of social justice) and how women who work in the business of sport are represented (sexism, lived experiences of underrepresented women). Several of those projects will be led by students, the future generation of sports marketers, while the balance will be led by the expertise of faculty academics.

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

50TH ANNIVERSARY Join us in celebrating fifty years of excellence.

SAVE THE DATES! McCormack Alumni Networking Night New York City

MARCH 2022 McCormack 50th Reunion Alumni Weekend UMass Amherst

JUNE 11-12, 2022

We would love to share photo memories at the 50th anniversary celebration. If you have pictures to share, please email them to sportmgt@umass.edu!

TOKIO MARINE HCC INTERNSHIP AWARD Sport management alumnus Bill Hubbard ’87, ’89 MBA, in conjunction with Tokio Marine HCC, has established an endowed fund with a $1 million gift that will provide financial support to Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management students who participate in internships within the sport and entertainment industry. In addition to supporting students on internships, the award program seeks to make students more aware of the significance and impact of risk management, risk transfer, and promotion insurance within the sport and entertainment industry, as well as of the career opportunities within this critical and growing segment. The 2021 winners include Jack Davis ’22 MBA/MS, who interned last summer with the University of Rhode Island Athletic Department, Yuki Chiang ’22, Alex DaSilva ’21, Kamraan Moore ’22, and Stefano Pacella ’22 MBA/MS.

NEW MCCORMACK YOUNG ALUMNI ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBER

Jack Davis ‘22 MBA/MS

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

The McCormack Young Alumni Advisory Council welcomes Trinity Monteiro ’21 as its newest member. Monteiro, a recent graduate, applied for the MYAAC Award this past May. As the recipient of the MYAAC award, she joins the alumni board to start her 2-year term.

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ALUMNI AWARD WINNERS Although the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management’s annual awards banquet could not be held, eight alumni and thirty students received honors and scholarships this spring.

Scott Savran (BS 2013) Senior Manager, Scout 360, Property Consulting & Analytics, Scout Sports and Entertainment

Alumni award recipients exemplify the broad footprint of our graduates in the sport industry and have all diligently given back to the department.

Student award winners represent the best and brightest.

With impressive professional experience, extracurricular activities, and community service, this group maintains an average GPA of 3.88:

The Harold J. VanderZwaag Distinguished Alumnus Award is given for professional excellence and outstanding achievement in the sports industry:

Joan & Ed Barr Memorial Scholarship Brendan Clark ‘21, Kiara Killelea ‘21, and Ethan Ortyl ‘23

Joe Fitzgerald (BS 1990) Vice President, Events, National Hockey League Nancy Gonsalves (MS 1992) Associate Director, Events & Logistics, USOPC

Steve Herbst (BS 1988) Chief Executive Officer, Fansmit

Pamela Levine (BS 1994; MS 2000) Senior Vice President, Marquee Brands The Alumni-on-the-Rise Award is given to alumni who have graduated within 5 to 10 years and have demonstrated exceptional achievement: David Haynes (BS 2011) Director, Player Procurement, LA Angels Laurel Hosmer (MS 2013) Director of Athletics Development, St. Joseph’s University Melcolm Ruffin (BS 2013) Head of Athlete Content Strategy, CAA Sports UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Kristian J. Rose, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Freeman Alfano ’21 Erik K.M. Kjeldsen Scholarship Isabelle Oppenheim ’21 Marilyn & Richie Tannenbaum Scholarship Kamraan Moore ’22 47 Brand Scholarship Natan Cristol-Deman ’22 Harold J. VanderZwaag Scholarship Nicole Keeley ’21 Glenn Wong Sport Law Scholarship Christopher Spalding ’22 Alumni Scholarship Alyssa Gross ’21 and Joseph Noone ’23 McCormack Center Scholarship Madeline Ellnor ’21 and Abdullah Khanzada ’22 Sport for Social Change Award Solomon Siskind ’21 Tokio-Marine HCC Internship Awards Program Jack Davis ‘22 MBA/MS Senior Leadership Award Brian Krentzman ’21 and Alannah Scardino ’21 Top Seniors Brendan Clark, Cynthia (Tia) Dawson, Alyssa Gross, Nicholas Kennedy, Kiara Killelea, Brian Krentzman, Hallie Martin, Trinity Monteiro, Carla Pelton, Solomon Siskind, Alannah Scardino, Neal Wood

FACULTY RESEARCH Dr. Liz Delia received the 2021 Isenberg Research Excellence Award. Currently, she is involved in several projects related to sport fandom and identity. Dr. Delia is also working on an article addressing the lack of diversity in research on sport consumers, to be published in the Journal of Sport Management.

Steve McKelvey continued his decades-long research in the area of ambush marketing by co-authoring “Ambush Marketing and Rule 40 for Tokyo 2020: A Shifting Landscape for Olympic Athletes and their Sponsors,” which appeared in the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport. This article examined potential legal challenges to the USOPC’s enforcement of its latest Rule 40 regulations. McKelvey was also presented the Herb Appenzeller Sport and Recreation Law Honor Award for outstanding service to the organization.

Dr. Nicole Melton published in two of the top sport management journals (Journal of Sport Management and Sport Management Review) and had two op-eds featured in Sports Business Journal—one for her work discussing racial disparities in media coverage in the WNBA and one on how men’s sport can be more inclusive for LGBTQ+ fans.

In addition, she and Dr. Nefertiti Walker were excited to launch the Laboratory for Inclusion and Diversity in Sport (LIDS)—McCormack’s home for research that provides decision-makers with data-based solutions to help make the sports industry more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. Dr. Melton has also been featured on many podcasts and media outlets discussing women in the sport business, creating a more inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ athletes in men’s sport, and more. She also has a new book coming out in August, titled The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Sustainable Development, which examines how sport can aid and accelerate the United Nations’ global efforts to support people, the planet, prosperity, and peace.

Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

Dr. David Tyler’s first year with the McCormack faculty was dedicated to establishing the Know Rivalry Lab, which studies rivalry among fans of 50+ sport leagues on six continents. The crossdisciplinary research lab prioritizes student involvement in scholarly and industry-focused research projects.

Tyler was also named a NASSM Research Fellow in June 2020.

RESEARCH PROJECTS BY PHD CANDIDATES Risa Isard: Isard’s research focuses on how to advance equity in and through sport for girls and women, LGBTQ+ people, BIPOC folks, and others. Most recently, she led a team from UMass’s Laboratory on Inclusion and Diversity in Sport on a project about racial disparities in WNBA media coverage, how we can end discriminatory coverage, and why it matters.

The work was featured by Sports Business Journal, ESPN, and other outlets.

Se Jin Kim: Kim’s research interests are on sport consumer behavior, and he is interested in how the digitalized era can be applied to current sport marketing strategies, depending on culture and demographics.

He is currently interested in how eSport consumers are unique, exploring the unique points of attachment that they may possess, and how it shapes purchasing behavior.

Blaine Huber: Huber’s current research investigates online fan communities, how fans operate and use language within these settings, and how one’s geographic location influences online fan behavior. He also studies nostalgia in relation to fandom, specifically the role of nostalgia in the non-local fan experience.

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STAY CONNECTED GRAB THE KEYS TO OUR ALUMNI DATABASE We are celebrating 50 years of excellence, and with celebrations come department updates and events going on throughout the 50th year. Help us help you—update your profile today so you’ll be in the loop for all the upcoming celebrations!

The department has moved our unrivaled and inspiring alumni network database over to a new and enhanced platform that unlocks the true power of your McCormack network. Email alumnisupport@isenberg.umass.edu to retrieve your alumni ID, and set up your account. Emailing this address with your request will provide you with your unique alumni ID number; registering your information only takes 5 minutes, and sets you up for life!

Please take the time to fill out the information fully—we really appreciate it! Spread the word to your classmates, and be sure to select the field of specialty (industry segment) you’re currently working in. Capitalize on the value of your sport management degree today, and help us keep our database strong.

Do you have photo memories from your time at UMass?

We want to share them! Please email your photo memories to sportmgt@umass.edu. Only have a print file? Don’t worry—snap a photo of the photo and send it our way!

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Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management

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