Day Four: Gillette Stadium by Griffin Whitman and Evan Weiss

Day Four: Gillette Stadium by Griffin Whitman and Evan Weiss

A Welcome Sign

       Day four of the New England Immersion trip once again started at the crack of dawn.  After everyone ate their pancakes, eggs, and fruit, and downed their coffee, we loaded up the bus for the 7:30am departure.  We arrived at Gillette Stadium an hour later with a friendly greeting as seen in the picture to the right.  After taking in the beautiful view of Gillette Stadium, we went inside to begin the day.  Inside the building filled the few Patriot fan's eyes with familiar memories of joy and pride while the Patriot haters had to grimace in pain staring at four televisions, each one showing a different Patriot Super Bowl year highlights.  
      The meetings began with Revolution President, Brian Bilello. Bilello, an MIT graduate, became the President of the team in 2011.  He started out by giving a brief history of the MLS and the Revolution.  After that, Bilello started talking about the increase in soccer and MLS fans from 2010 to 2014.  Over the four years, adult soccer fans increased from 59 million people to 79 million people and adult MLS fans grew from 35 million people to 45 million people.  Bilello also explained how although it appears that the MLS does not have as many fans at games than some of the other professional leagues, but that the average attendance is actually higher for the MLS than the NBA and NHL.  The reason people believe that the MLS does not have as high of an attendance is because they play in larger stadiums so more seats are empty.  The Kraft Group is working on fixing this issue for the Revolution though.  Bilello spoke briefly about how they are looking into building a new stadium somewhere in Boston that would hold around 20 to 22 thousand people.  Another point Bilello made was about the difference in the perception of soccer in the United States.  He explained that 20 years ago most people hated soccer with a few people being neutral and the occasional soccer fan.  However, today a decent amount of people like the sport and at worst, most people are neutral.  So the MLS has been able to shift from in the early years trying to just get fans to like the sport of soccer, to today trying to get soccer fans to like the specific MLS Brand.  Bilello concluded by giving a brief introduction on the Revolution soccer Academy which led into the next speaker, Bryan Scales.

The View from the Luxury Box

      Bryan Scales is the Director of Youth Development.  He formerly worked with Professor Veley "50 years ago" at Cornell University.  Scales told us about the success the Revolution have had with their Academy.  They have three players who have gone through the Academy and played on the team.  They are also second in the MLS in home grown minutes, only trailing Dallas.  Two of the three home grown players have also been named MVP as well.  One important aspect of the Academy Scales mentioned was that the Revolution can only recruit players within a 75 mile radius.  He also said that this is different for every time, for example the New York teams can only recruit within a 25 mile radius.  The over arching message from Scales was the emphasis the MLS is placing on the youth.  He believes that from the new Academies that in the near future, probably within 10 years, the first world class player will come out of the United States.  
       After Scales was Cathal Conlon, the Vice President of Marketing.  Conlon joined the club in 2006.  Conlon spoke about the four major pillars of the Revolution.  First is being authentic.  Not only do the Revolution need to be authentic to the sport of soccer, but they need to be authentic to New England as well.  Next is being communal.  The players need to be close to their supporters and build a connection.  Third is being unique.  The way you watch soccer is unique compared to the other major sports as well as how the sport is continuous with no timeouts or commercials.  Lastly, is passion.  Every day, it is necessary to bring passion to your job.  It is also important to shower passion to your fans.  The last aspect Conlon mentioned was the Revolution mission statement: "Win Everyday, Be New England Proud."

Next we spoke with Dan Dropkin-Frank.  Dan is the Package Sales Manager of the New England Revolution.  Dan spoke to us about his staff and the numerous positions among the sales team.  He really preached the the importance of having a great sales staff.  He told us that for every $1 spent on hiring a ticket sales representative, there is a $10 return of investment.  Dan then went on to talk about how they target their clients.  The Revolution have a CRM analyst who manages a database that divides their clients into different demographics.  They use the different demographics to determine the level of interest each client has.  All of us loved hearing from Dan because ticket sales are the best way to break into the sports industry.

View of Gillette

Speaking alongside Dan was Mac Kasemen.  Mac also works in ticket sales, and he is an account executive for the Revolution.  Kasemen graduated from Syracuse’s Sport Management program in May 2015.  Mac described his daily and weekly routine.  It was great to here what he had to say.  Basically Mac makes at least 90 business calls a day, and has meetings with the rest of the staff about strategy 1-2 times a week. 

            Next was Aaron Salkin, Director of Media Relations for the Patriots.  Salkin, an SU alum, began by telling us how he chose which college to attend: a Penn State vs. Syracuse football game.  Luckily Syracuse came away with the victory and Salkin became an Orangeman.  Salkin emphasized how a huge part of his job is crisis management and how he tries to plan for everything.  One way he does this is by trying to learn from other people's mistakes, not his own. After being asked a few questions about Aaron Hernandez and Deflategate, Salkin carefully tip toed his way around saying anything he shouldn't have, displaying that he truly is also a member of the Patriot way.  

Memories from the Patriots 3 Super Bowls in 4 Years

After meeting with the Patriots we met with Jessica Gelman, the CEO of Kraft Analytics Group.  Gelman has been working for Kraft Analytics group for 15 years.  She went over the evolution of analytics use by the group over the years.  Also, she described the issues that the group has encountered over the past few years.  Despite the issues, she was able to help the Patriots increase season ticket retention by over 1.5% using analytics.  Personally, I found Jessica’s presentation the very fascinating.  She told us the importance of having a great work ethic and being a hard worker.  
            After our meeting with Jessica, we went off to lunch at CBS Scene.  We all got our own meals at the restaurant, and the phone was delicious.  We stayed at the restaurant for about an hour before heading back to Gillette for our meeting with Mathew Samost.  Samost is the Senior BI Data Warehouse Developer for the Kraft Analytics Group.  Before getting the job with KAGR, Samost was a business analyst with the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Now he does business analytics with KAGR.  Samost spent the majority of our meeting with him giving us career advice.  The advice that really got me thinking was the importance of networking with my peers.  The people in my sport management classes are future professionals in the industry and you never know who is going to be the one kid to make it big in sports that helps you find a job.  I really enjoyed speaking with Mathew Samost and he really opened my eyes to a lot of different things.

After a long day we headed back to our hotel on a nice long bus ride.  The bus ride is a great time to catch up on your sleep, and pretty much everyone was passed out on the bus.  Overall, it was a really great day!