WINTER, 2007
SPORT BUSINESS
T H E
C O L L E G E
O F
WINTER 2006
ESPN’s Rosa Gatti Named Executivein-Residence at UNH for 2006-07
T
he University of New Haven’s
Management of Sport Industries
Program (MSIP) began inviting
prominent sport management executives to
campus eleven years ago to interact with faculty and students as part of its Executive-inResidence (EIR) Program. This year’s EIR is
Rosa Gatti, Senior Vice President for Communications at ESPN. Gatti has been responsible
for ESPN’s public relations since its first year
of operation in 1980. Today, she oversees the
communication initiatives for ESPN, Inc., a
multimedia sports entertainment company
including six domestic television networks,
ESPN International, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN The
Magazine, and ESPN Enterprises.
Rosa Gatti, Senior Vice President for
Communications, ESPN
“I really enjoyed the engaging discussion with the students and
faculty during my visit to UNH. There are limitless possibilities in our
world, and college students today are so much better prepared to
manage and assimilate information through so many mediums.”
—Rosa Gatti, Senior Vice President for Communications, ESPN
In the early years of ESPN, Gatti served on the Policy Committee to develop
company guidelines. In 1992, she founded ESPN’s Diversity Committee to accelerate
employee awareness of diversity issues and recommended ways to incorporate and
cultivate diversity in the workplace. Prior to joining ESPN, Gatti spent four years
as the Sports Information Director at Brown University. Before that, she was employed
by her alma mater, Villanova University. After starting as a secretary in the Sports
Information Office, she advanced rapidly to become the first female Sports Information Director at a member school in the NCAA’s major university division.
During her year as EIR, Gatti will lecture, meet with students and faculty, and
discuss the nuts and bolts of publicity efforts she has directed for America’s Cup, the
NFL, Sports Center, Sports Century and its countdown of the top 100 athletes of the
20th century, and the X Games, to name only a few. Gatti is the second sports executive from ESPN to serve as Executive-in-Residence at UNH. The first was Craig
Mortali, an Emmy Award winning producer and UNH graduate.
B U S I N E S S
www.newhaven.edu/sportsman
UNH Establishes
Institute for Sport
Management
The College of Business at the University of New Haven has established an
Institute of Sport Management to further reinforce the sport management
program’s reputation as a center of
excellence. The mission of the Institute
is to provide career-related sport management education and knowledge for
future and current sport managers,
combining state-of-the-art classroom
instruction and technology with ongoing intensive contact with the sport
business community.
The Institute will continue to support for-credit coursework in sport
management but will extend its reach
to the sport business community outside the traditional academic setting.
Among the activities supported by
the Institute are College of Business
professional enrichment activities
delivered by sport business leaders and
professional seminars in the form of
community literacy programs offered
for free or funded by grants. The
Institute will also offer fee-based
developmental programs.
According to Dr. Allen Sack, the
Institute’s director, “our emphasis is
on experiential learning initiatives
which promote the development of
real-life learning. This includes internships and small-group consulting
experiences for our students and
research that empowers our faculty
and corporate sponsors to engage in
cutting-edge industry research.” Last
spring the Institute supported a professional enrichment track on brand
(continued on page 6)
S P O R T
ALUMNI NEWS
Connecticut Defenders
GM to Teach at UNH
harlie Dowd, the new General Manager of the Connecticut Defenders, a
Class A affiliate of the San Francisco
Giants, will teach a course in the MSIP this
winter. Dowd has been working in professional
baseball for 18 years, including the last nine as
general manager for the Bridgeport Bluefish of
the Independent Atlantic League. For five years
prior to running the Bluefish he worked in the
Eastern League as the Manager of the New
Haven Ravens, from 1992 to 1997.
Charlie Dowd,General Manager
Dowd has been closely involved with the
of the CT Defenders
MSIP since the early 1990s when he began serving on the program’s advisory board and giving occasional guest lectures. Dowd’s
course, entitled “Professional Sport Franchise Management,” will address all facets of
running a professional team. Dowd’s tenure in both Bridgeport and New Haven
included the startup operation of both franchises. His first full-time job in professional
baseball was at the major league level, as a sales representative with the New York
Mets in 1988 and 1989. Dowd also has considerable experience planning, selling, and
conducting All Star games.
Dowd, 44, graduated with his bachelor’s degree from City University of New York
in Staten Island and went on to earn his Juris Doctorate from Western New England
College School of Law in 1988. He and his wife, Dawn, currently reside in Madison,
Connecticut with their three sons, Casey (13), Conner (11), and Tristan (9).
Next spring the MSIP will offer another new class focused on sport broadcasting
and communication.
C
New Honors Program Gives Students Opportunity
to Connect Personally with Industry
The MSIP has developed a new honors program that will give its students the opportunity to be paired with a mentor within their field of choice. The newly launched
program surveys qualified students (both graduate and undergraduate) regarding their
interests within the sport industry. Based on their answers, students are teamed up
with a mentor who has been working in that field. The student and mentor are
encouraged to interact during the year, and UNH will foot the bill for a local lunch
or dinner for them. The mentors cover the wide spectrum of the sports world: ESPN,
MLS, MLB, NFL, individual sport team executives, Pop Warner Football, the Arena
at Harbor Yard, and a host of other businesses and organizations. A number of the
mentors are UNH alumni or are on our advisory board.
The purpose of the program is to give students an opportunity to network effectively and to learn the key aspects and characteristics that are needed to succeed. The
mentors offer firsthand guidance and assistance to students on what they need to know
about their future dream job and what they can expect when they achieve it.
Students who qualify for the program must have a GPA of at least a 3.25 or a recommendation from an advisor. Students can earn a new mentor each year at UNH.
Thus, a student can have four or five mentors who can serve as career coaches as well
(continued on page 3)
2
photo by Meaghan Davis
Great news keeps coming in from our
alumni who are moving up the career
ladder. DEAN LOMBARDI (BA ’82)
was recently named General Manager of
the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. Lombardi,
who was formerly the GM of the San
Jose Sharks, serves on the UNH Management of Sports Industries Advisory
Board. Lombardi played ice hockey at
UNH. Business College alumnus and
Advisory Board member NICK SAKIEWICZ (BS ’83), the former General
Manager of the New York Metro-Stars,
is now with the club’s former owner,
Anshutz Entertainment Group, as director of Northeast Operations. Sakiewicz
formely played soccer at UNH.
JACOB GORDON (MBA, Sport
Management Concentration ’06) is the
Director of Public Relations for the
United States Basketball League. OMER
DORON (BS, Sport Management ’02,
MBA ’03) is now the Managed Care
Contracting Coordinator for Yale-New
Haven Hospital. JOHN HAZELETT (BS,
Sport Management ’02) has been in the
New York Mets Community and Group
Sales and Services Department for the
past three years. BRENT FISHER (MS,
Sport Management ’03) is Affiliate Sales
Account Manager, NFL Network, and
was a panelist at a special symposium
entitled “The Future of Jews in Sports”
held at Yeshiva University.
CHRIS BROWN, (BS, Sport Management ’01) has been promoted to
Manager, Fan Experience, with the New
York Mets. Chris serves on the MSI
Advisory Board. Another Advisory Board
member, CHRIS ANN HAYES (MS
’04), is now the supervisor, Sourcing
Department at StubHub. MATT
CURCIO (MS, Sport Management ’06)
is employed at ESPN and works in
the motorsport finance area. TONY
DiPAOLO (MBA, Sport Management
Concentration ’04) has been promoted
to General Manager, Chicago Region,
Laz Parking.
B U S I N E S S
S P O R T
B U S I N E S S
Prominent Sports
Agent Speaks at UNH
ALUMNI NEWS
he Sports Industries Club at UNH
sponsored a talk this fall by Joe
Linta, a prominent local sports agent.
In 1982 Linta graduated from Yale where he
was a defensive lineman on Carm Cozza-coached
Yale teams that won three straight Ivy League
titles from 1979 through 1981. He started
working as a financial advisor at Prudential
Securities in New Haven after he left Yale. At
Joe Linta, President, JL Sports
the same time, he served from 1984 to 1991
as the defensive coordinator of Yale’s freshman football team. He also served one year
as an assistant football coach at the University of New Haven.
In 1993, he became an NFL player agent. In his first year as an agent, Linta had
five players drafted. The client base for his company, JL Sports, has since increased to
54 players. He now lists as clients perennial Pro-Bowlers Will Shields, a guard for the
Kansas City Chiefs, and David Akers, a kicker for the Philadelphia Eagles, in addition
to a handful of other former Ivy Leaguers. Linta told UNH students that one of the
most difficult things about being an agent is getting into the business in the first
place. In this business, according to Linta, “it really helps to know someone who has
credibility in the eyes of the athletes you seek to represent.”
T
“Being an agent requires traveling a lot and possessing excellent
interpersonal skills. You can’t be shy and be an agent.”
JOE LINTA, SPORTS AGENT
Linta still works seven hours a day at Prudential while pursuing his career as an
agent. At his busiest, during free agency and around the NFL Draft, Linta spends up
to ten hours a day working as an agent. During the season, it requires three hours of
recruiting each night. “Being an agent requires traveling a lot and possessing excellent
interpersonal skills,” says Linta. “You can’t be shy and be an agent.” Linta also emphasized the importance of finance skills in his work. While he does not have a law
degree, he has learned how to negotiate player contracts with the best of them. Linta
expressed an interest in coming back to UNH in the future to share his wisdom with
students, and he has agreed to serve as a MSIP Board member.
New Honors Program
(continued from page 2)
as references when the student applies for jobs. Seniors who have been in the honors
program their entire career at UNH (at least three years) will be invited to a conference or regional industry trade show with their mentor or faculty member. They also
will receive special acknowledgement upon graduation at the awards ceremony, recognizing their academic achievement.
If you are interested in this program as a student or mentor, please feel free to
contact Professor Gil Fried at gfried@newhaven.edu or at 203-932-7081.
3
AARON HAVILAND (BS Sport Management ’97), has accepted a position as
Director of Operations for the Miami
Dolphins Stadium. Aaron was formerly
with the Washington Redskins in Event
Management. ROBYN LUBISCO (MS
Sport Management ’06) is Assistant
Director of Recreation at Fairfield
University, where she is responsible
for sports clubs and intramural and
fitness programs. Starting fall 2007,
she will begin her PhD studies at the
University of New Mexico, with a
concentration in Sports Management/
Business Administration.
ANNEMARIE RICKES (MBA, Sport
Management Concentration ’06) is currently working as an Associate Program
Manager at an integrated marketing firm
in Wilton, CT. Her primary clients are
New Balance and W.J. Deutsch & Sons,
whose most notable product line is Yellow Tail Wines. She is very excited to be
working closely with New Balance, thus
staying involved in sports. She will be
organizing a special event for New Balance at the 2007 Women’s Final Four in
Cleveland. RYAN KELLEY (MS ’07) and
CARL SKARNE (MS ’06) both recently
had baby daughters who will hopefully
be raised as future Chargers. Ryan is currently working in research for ESPN.
Other recent graduates who majored
in the Management of Sport Industries
are also doing well. BRIAN SHORT (BS,
Sports Management ’06) is currently
employed with Enterprise-Rent-A-Car
in Raritan, NJ, as a management trainee.
He is the third graduate from our program to enter this executive training
program, which was recently highlighted by Business Week magazine as
one of the top 10 corporate management
training programs in the world. ERIKA
KAMENS (BS, Sports Management ’01,
MBA ’03) is now the Managed Services
Coordinator for Horizon Marketing
Group, Inc. and Peer360, Inc.
S P O R T
B U S I N E S S
Professional Enrichment
Program Attracts StarStudded Cast
Faculty Updates
he purpose of the College of Business Professional Enrichment Program (PEP) is to
encourage leaders from the world of sports to
visit UNH and to talk with and teach business skills to
students. Last spring, the Management of Sport Industries Program put together a PEP track on “brand
management” that featured five major players in sports
Michelle Wilson, VP of
marketing and brand management. Brian Jennings,
Marketing, U.S.T.A.
Senior Group Vice President for Consumer Product
Marketing in the National Hockey League, led off with a discussion of how the NHL
has reinvented itself as a brand after alienating the public by canceling an entire season because of a labor dispute.
Christine Johnson, Director of Marketing for Swiss Army Brands, focused on
her marketing experiences with events such as the Boston Marathon, the Iron Man
Triathlon in Hawaii, the New York Marathon, and many other events she has promoted during her career at a number of different companies. David Beckerman,
former owner and CEO of Starter Corporation, discussed the “staying power” of a
brand. Beckerman, whose company went out of business in 1997, noted that the S
and Star logo his company launched into international prominence is still alive and
well, even though Nike, rather than the company he founded, now owns the Starter
trademark.
Michelle Wilson, Vice President of Marketing for the U.S.T.A., told students
about the tremendous responsibility and excitement she experiences while promoting
the largest single yearly sporting event in the world, the U.S. Open. Closing out the
five-week program was Marc Jacobson, President of the Silverman Group, a New
Haven-based sport marketing agency. Jacobson presented a detailed case study of
how his company worked with the Big East Conference after several major schools
left the conference.
T
Career Fair Replaced by Interview Days
Instead of Career Fairs, the MSIP has decided to offer a new and innovative way to
give students the opportunity to land an internship or permanent employment. We
are implementing a new system that requires students to develop appropriate job
search and interview skills through direct feedback from employers.
After much contemplation, the MSIP has created Interview Days. These “Days”
allow students, if selected, to have an interview with a recruiting representative from
a company they have requested. A list of participating companies will be available
from the MSIP. Students will be notified of their Interview Day along with an appointment to meet with the corporate representative. Several companies, including national
and international ones, have already agreed to participate.
If you are interested in participating (as a potential employer or employee) in
Interview Days or would like more information, please contact Professor Gil Fried
at gfried@newhaven.edu or 203-932-7081.
4
PROFESSOR GIL FRIED has been
busy this past year developing ancillary material for
his internationally utilized
Managing Sport
Facility textbook
and writing a
new edition of
his Sport Finance
textbook. He has
given several major presentations in
the United States and Israel. Professor Fried worked with the National
Recreation and Park Association’s
(NRPA’s) task force that developed
and produced the Operation TLC2
Making Communities Safer training
program to be used by all park and
recreation volunteers in the United
States. He was also appointed by the
federal government to the National
Occupational Research Agenda, Services Sector Council, CDC/NIOSH,
representing the sport/entertainment
industry sector.
PROFESSOR JAMES MURDY
continues his work developing
and promoting
the Professional
Enrichment Program for the College of Business.
In addition to his
teaching responsibilities in sport
management and
tourism, Dr. Murdy is developing a
small business initiative that will
help support student-managed
events developed by Sport Management students. Dr. Murdy has also
continued his service to the profession
by being elected the Vice President of
the Northeast Chapter of the International Travel and Tourism Research
(continued on page 5)
S P O R T
B U S I N E S S
UNH Opens
Samuel S.
Bergami Jr.
Learning Center
for Finance and
Technology
Faculty Updates
MSI majors concentrating on
the financial side of the industry now have access to stateof-the-art computer software Prof. Allen Sack talks to students in the new trading floor at the
to analyze stock market data
Samuel S. Bergami, Jr. Learning Center for Finance and Technology.
and corporate financial statements, simulate running publicly traded sport businesses, and invest in stocks, at the
Samuel S. Bergami Jr. Learning Center for Finance and Technology. According to Gil
Fried, a sport management professor and author of a best selling textbook on sport
finance, “with all the publicly traded sport companies, our students need an opportunity to learn from the latest technology and software used by the big investment
firms. The Samuel S. Bergami Jr. Learning Center for Finance and Technology will
give them that edge, as we are the only sport management program in the world
leveraging an on-campus trading floor.”
“We are the only sport management program in the world
leveraging an on-campus trading floor.”
GIL FRIED, UNH SPORT MANAGEMENT PROFESSOR AND AUTHOR
The new $1.75 million facility, which opened in the fall, has 32 work stations, several
42-inch plasma-screen televisions, and electrical boards and tickertapes tracking real-time
stock prices. Funded by Mr. Samuel S. Bergami Jr., the Center is located in Maxcy Hall.
Using the state-of-the-art software, students can assess stock return data, analyze portfolios, analyze the risk of individual stocks, download information to their cell phones, and
simulate managing their own businesses. According to Jess Boronico, the Dean of the
College of Business, “the only thing that limits us in this room is the boundaries of our
imagination.” The new Samuel S. Bergami Jr. Learning Center for Finance and Technology puts UNH on a new level among schools of business.
(continued from page 3)
Association, an organization that highlights research on tourism, including
sport and sport events tourism. Dr.
Murdy was recently awarded four
“Best In Session” Awards for papers
he authored or co-authored at the
Institute of Business and Economic
Research (IBER) Conference.
PROFESSOR ALLEN SACK has finished a book entitled The Twilight of
Amateurism: An Athlete’s Journey through
the Sixties to the Age of Academic Capitalism that is under review by a number
of publishers. He
delivered a paper
this fall entitled
“Clashing Models
of Collegiate Sport
Reform: Suggestions for Scholarly
Research” at the
Annual Conference
of the North American Society for
the Sociology of Sport in Vancouver,
British Columbia. Professor Sack was
awarded the Researcher of the Year
Award at last spring’s College of Business Awards Banquet. He is currently
working on a paper on the unrelated
business income tax and collegiate sport
to be delivered at this year’s Drake
Group Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
He continues to serve on the Editorial
Board of the Sport Management Journal.
Professor Sack Debates Pay for Play on ESPN Classic
Allen Sack, Professor of Sport Management, often feels that he is “shouting in
the wind” when he argues that big-time
college athletes deserve a larger share of
the revenue they generate. Prior to the
start of this fall’s college football season, he
was included in a distinguished group of
former college coaches, players, and
administrators on ESPN Classic to debate
whether the NCAA can be blamed for not
paying athletes more than they do now.
Among those taking Sack’s position
were Tom Osborne, former football coach
at the University of Nebraska; Nolan
Richardson, former Arkansas head basketball coach; NBA superstar Patrick Ewing;
Jim McMahon, NFL All Pro Quarterback
in the 1980s and early 1990s; and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.
Although Sack thinks that ESPN
5
stacked the cards in favor of the NCAA
and its President, Miles Brand, he still
admits it was a great show and generally
allowed different sides of the debate to
be heard. According to Sack, a former
defensive end at Notre Dame, the issue
of whether college athletes in programs
that generate millions in revenue are
merely amateurs will undoubtedly be
argued for years to come.
S P O R T
B U S I N E S S
Institute for Sport
Management
(continued from page 1)
marketing and management taught by
major sport industry executives. This
year, professor Gil Fried will organize
a seminar series leading to a certificate
in crowd management and a seminar
for local businesses who want to get
more return on their investment in
sport sponsorship. The goal of the
Institute for Sport Management is to
become the leader in experience-based
sport management education.
Mike (far left), hard at work on the set of College GameDay on ESPN Radio at the University of
Southern California with hosts (L to R) Dave Revsine, Todd McShay and Gerry DiNardo.
ESPN Producer Leverages UNH Education
country and dealing with the inner workings of the athletic departments of Division I schools piqued his interest and
inspired him to want to make a difference.
The University of New Haven provided
him an opportunity to get a master’s
degree to start a new path in his career.
He currently produces the new radio
program, The Pulse with Doug Gottlieb,
on ESPN Radio from 7 to 10 PM ET
Monday–Friday. He was married in
2003 and resides in Kensington, CT
with his wife Melissa and son Jameson,
and another child is on the way.
Produced by UNH Department of Marketing & Publications. Univ. M&P 1106-533
Management of
Sports Industries
300 Boston Post Road
West Haven, CT 06516
M
and eventually became a producer. He
has worked with many of the personalities
you see and hear on ESPN including the
late Dick Schaap, Mike Golic and Mike
Greenberg, Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick,
Hamden’s own Erik Kuselias, and TV
personalities such as John Clayton, Mel
Kiper Jr., Chris Berman, Trey Wingo,
and many others.
His quest for more knowledge on the
collegiate sports scene began when he
became the producer of College GameDay on ESPN Radio in 2002. Traveling
to many college campuses across the
www.newhaven.edu
ike Urrunaga, a Connecticut
resident for eight years, works
for the worldwide leader in
sports, ESPN, during the day while pursuing a degree in Sport Management in
the evening. After graduating from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications/Journalism, he was hired in the
winter of 1998 as a temporary production
assistant in ESPN Radio’s screening
department. Gradually he rose through
the ranks, editing tape and running the
audio board for many sports talk shows,