Gidaro Sports Management

2009 Internship with the Oregon’s Men Lacrosse Team

It’s an exciting feeling to be part of something that you know has the potential to grow and accomplish big things. During winter term of freshman year I joined the Oregon’s men lacrosse team with a student marketing internship. Thanks to the Warsaw Sports Business Club, I found out about an opening to work with the team through one of the bi-weekly meetings we had throughout the term. I immediately capitalized on the opportunity, emailed the coach, and was set up as one of the marketing directors.

Lacrosse Growth, Nationwide

Having played a couple years of lacrosse in high school, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to compliment my knowledge for lacrosse with my passion for sports business. My high school lacrosse team in Sacramento started out as club, and only one season later we became a varsity sport. Teams, leagues, and skills camps were being formed all over the Sacramento area, and continue to grow today. It is certainly hard to deny that lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in America. The sport grew over 12% last year.

Lacrosse at the University of Oregon

We saw the lacrosse team at the U of O grow considerably this season when they made nationals and finished top 25 in the nation for the seventh time in seven seasons.  My role with the team was to develop a marketing proposal that could lead to a greater fan awareness of the team and bring in more revenue to the program. On the road a lot with not too many home games, we picked our top two home games that we thought we could draw the most fans.

For our games against Washington and nationally ranked Simon-Fraser, we set up a table next to the stands at the field and provided information on how to order team apparel and had packets available for those who were interested in donating to the team. Before the season, I also compiled a contact database of over twenty local and statewide athletic companies that could possibly sponsor the team. In addition, I stayed in contact with the school newspaper to provide game stories and recaps.

The Ducks played their 2009 home games next to the historic Hayward Field.

Challenges and the Future of UO Lax

The biggest problem the lacrosse team faces is the fact that it’s a club team. Limited on funding and resources, the players have to pay team dues and the team has to abide by the University’s club sports regulations. Not being officially recognized as a varsity collegiate team, it seems that the team should have a bigger fan base than it does now.

However, not all things can change over one season. Like one of the team’s coaches told me, anything you do in business cannot simply happen overnight. We just have to continue to stick to the game plan and persist with our marketing and team operations in order to build the team’s brand its full potential.

Where is our program heading? My goal over the next three years is to continue growing the fan base and seeking revenue from sponsorships. Also, in the back of my head, I have the dream of helping put this program on track to become a varsity collegiate sport at the U of O. We would be one of the first on the west coast, and this step up would lead to a major shift in the west. My high school team went varsity in one season. Can it happen here? Time and hard work can only tell.

In the Next Post:

Stay tuned for my next post on the sports industry guest speakers that visited campus this year; including Andy Dolich of the San Francisco 49ers and Howard “H” White of the Nike Jordan Brand. 

-AG