Florida Atlantic University Athletics
The Point Where Work and School Collide
1/29/2013 12:00:00 AM | General
Jan. 29, 2013
When you work in sports, the work day is never really over. For most of the staff in the athletics department, the idea of working 9-5 would make them laugh. Right now I am balancing work and graduate school so the concept of "free time" is quickly becoming a thing of the past. This week I was presented with an interesting assignment. My sport marketing professor had reached out to the senior AD of external relations for FAU athletics. The result of their meeting was an assignment that is now bringing my responsibilities at work and at school together.
On Wednesday, February 13, FAU's women's basketball team will take on Western Kentucky for the Play 4 Kay Breast Cancer Awareness Game. Boca Regional Hospital will be sponsoring the event and proceeds will be donated for breast cancer research to the Christine E. Lynn Women's Health Institute. The assignment for class required that we break up into three groups: pre event, event, and post-event. I signed up for the pre event responsibilities and will be working under our group leader who is both in the class and an assistant with FAU's marketing department. This assignment is going to expose me to what the marketing department must do to ensure the success of a game. I typically work women's basketball games but media relations requires much different responsibilities.
Our group met for the first time last night to break up what we would each start working on. Pre event tasks for the Play4Kay event include recognizing cancer survivors at the game, contacting local women organization to get involved, selling t-shirts to raise money for cancer research, and involving student organizations as well as the nursing school. There were also media focused tasks that need to be completed before the event. We split up the tasks according to our skills and experience. I was assigned the media tasks which include securing media coverage for the halftime presentation for the Boca Raton Regional Hospital and creating a press release for the event to promote and increase attendance.
We will be spending the next couple of weeks working on pre event marketing and hope for a great turnout. The main goals for both FAU and the assignment are to create awareness around the community, as well as generate attendance for the game, to raise money in support of breast cancer research. I urge everyone to come out on February 13 at 7 p.m. in The Burrow as The Owls take on the Hilltoppers and show your support at Play 4 Kay!
