Alumni Thrive in a Rapidly Growing Field of Sports Entertainment, As Demand Surges

From managing professional football players to analyzing data for a sports network, alumni of Heinz College’s Master of Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) Program are forging careers connected to the sports industry.

Careers in sports entertainment hold potential for MEIM alumni, said Dan Green, director of the program. The field is growing at an “unmatched rate,” he said, as television networks and streaming services want to draw viewers to watch live sports. Recently, Netflix brought in 108 million viewers when it live-streamed a boxing event between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul –– what the service described as the “most-streamed sporting event ever.” 

“There are very few things that people will stop and talk about the next day when it comes to entertainment as powerful as a live event, be that the Super Bowl, an NBA game, the Emmys, the Oscars or the Grammys,” Dan Green said. “Those live events mean a great deal to advertisers, to entertainment executives and to the public.”

The MEIM program offers a “360-degree view of entertainment, and sports are an important part of the entertainment ecosystem,” he said. 

Dan Green continued, “If you come into this program, you're going to take a lot of the foundational classes related to what makes a good story. How do you sell that story, how do you finance it, how do you distribute or sell it, and how do you exhibit it?”

The MEIM program's unique preparation has helped many alumni find their place in the sports industry. Read the stories of the three alumni below. 

Forging connections with professional football players 

Olivia Green (MEIM ‘19) is a senior client relations manager at Athletes First, a full-service agency representing players, coaches, executives, and broadcasters in the National Football League (NFL). Client relations managers nurture the long-term relationships of high-value clients and assist in identifying opportunities. Athletes First is a premier agency, having worked with eight Super Bowl MVPs, and its work ranges from negotiating contracts to securing commercials and other marketing opportunities. 

Olivia Green helps manage the off-the-field lives of several athletes, coaches, and front-office executives from many NFL teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Los Angeles Chargers, and this year’s Super Bowl contender, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Her work varies from day to day. Sometimes, she’s helping a client plan and find sponsorships for a community event; other times, she’s securing a dinner reservation for the athlete and their family. A big part of her job, Olivia Green said, is building relationships with the athletes she represents. Once she’s learned an athlete’s communication style and gained their trust, they may give her more personal tasks.

“It goes outside of the ‘I need a dinner reservation, or a hotel reservation, or a flight.’ It extends to ‘Hey, I'm having an issue with this person or this family member, or this aspect of my life, and I need some extra guidance,” Olivia Green said. “It's a mix of all of the problem-solving logistics and also building those relationships with them.”

So far in her career, Olivia Green has planned a party for a rookie player who became a first-round draft pick –– and saw the athlete and his family revel in the achievement. She’s seen a player move to another team and secure a Super Bowl win. She’s also supported a client as he recovers from repeat injuries.

“We made sure he was getting the rehab he needed. He was in therapy; he was eating correctly, and he was in an environment where he felt safe and comfortable again. I was taking care of all the distractions as much as I could so that he could focus on playing a full season,” Olivia Green said.

“It might not be huge for other people, but that is huge for guys in this league, where longevity is not promised,” she continued. “He sent me a really nice, long text message thanking me for just being a part of his process.”

Growing up, Olivia Green had no idea that careers like hers existed – “I just thought there were teams, and there were athletes,” she said. While many of her colleagues first worked for college athletic departments, Olivia Green’s road to her current role was more winding. After earning her bachelor’s degree in business administration, marketing and information systems, Olivia Green worked as a business analyst and front-end developer in the information technology space.

During her senior year of college, she interned with the Pittsburgh Steelers. She loved the experience, and the team brought her back after she graduated. 

“I really enjoyed having that client-facing interaction with the players,” Olivia Green said. “I'm really good at building relationships, so I've always wanted to be in a role where I was helping people. That's kind of what brought me to the MEIM program.”

The MEIM program taught Olivia Green how to network and market herself. Though she had experience with the Steelers, the connections and support she gained at Heinz College helped her land more opportunities. While enrolled, Olivia Green secured an internship with an athlete and entertainment representation firm in Los Angeles. After graduation, the firm hired her, and she worked there for several years before moving to Athlete’s First. 

In the MEIM program, students spend their second year in Los Angeles and hold internships while pursuing coursework. That experience helped Olivia Green learn how to solve problems, think on her feet and manage her time –  skills she said she uses everyday. 

“I transferred that experience from managing my time to managing other people's times and schedules,” she said. 

Helping a media company grow

Based in London, England, Footballco is a media company offering analysis, original reporting, podcasts, videos and more about English football, or American soccer. The company aims to become “the place to go for soccer, no matter what country or league,” said Chris Landa (MEIM ‘11), the company’s vice president of business development, focused on the United States.

Landa joined Footballco more than a year ago. He oversees talent and creator strategies, often weighing in on potential hosts for new shows and considering programming formats for different digital platforms. He researches and negotiates partnership deals with creators and acquisitions of popular social media accounts.

“Since the U.S. operation was really more of a startup, I think I was the first person formally hired. Now, we're about 30 people,” Landa said. 

“We've built an amazing team,” he continued. “We did just over 100 million views each month in the summer, around CopaAmerica. So, basically, we grew our viewership probably tenfold in those months. That was a lot of work I helped lay the groundwork for.”

Landa discovered his interest in digital media while he was enrolled in the MEIM program. After graduating, he helped develop the influencer marketing team and a partnership program for Machinima, which was one of YouTube’s largest multi-channel networks and was primarily focused on gaming. Later, he co-founded SuperBam, Inc., a company that helped creators, media companies and celebrities protect their rights on YouTube.

“YouTube ended up seeing explosive growth, and I got in at exactly the right time. I was very lucky in that regard,” he said. Landa credits his experience in digital media –– working with both content creators and platforms –– for helping him score his job at Footballco. 

Landa’s MEIM experience also supported his career. The program provided Landa with an understanding of the financial and creative side of film and television, which he thinks about constantly. “I was able to apply a lot of principles and strategic thinking to digital, without actually being too locked into a fixed mindset,” he said.

“For students interested in covering sports, looking at digital and digital brands is an amazing way to enter the space. You're seeing a lot of brands start on YouTube, Instagram or Tik Tok. Those would be wonderful places to work where you’re going to be able to do a lot more, a lot sooner in your career,” Landa said.

Turning data into actionable insights

Caitlyn Dour (MEIM ‘23) is the manager of data analytics at FanDuel Sports Network. She uses data to track how the network’s content is performing and how viewers are engaging with it. Though her job requires technical skills, Dour emphasized that storytelling is an important component, too.

“It’s really about designing methodology, applying it and explaining it clearly,” she said. “Are you a storyteller? Can you get your insights off a report and into action? That’s important to motivate people around you.”

The storytelling skills that students learn in the MEIM program are invaluable in her work, Dour said. Looking back, she values that she was able to connect with industry professionals at Heinz College and take data-related courses as electives. When she interned with her current employer, the knowledge she gained from her courses on Structured Query Language (SQL) and Tableau helped her automate programmatic telecast data entry, opening space to help in survey design and brand campaign measurement.

Dour’s advice to MEIM students? “Talk to everyone about what they like, what they watch, and how they find and interact with entertainment. We’re in the business of fandom, at the end of the day. So get to know the fans.”

She also recommends that students consider taking electives related to analytics and business intelligence. The course she took on management science was the hardest she enrolled in, she said, but it had the best payoff. “The course influenced my critical and strategic thinking. The technical skills I learned in that course have helped me become a go-to at work for cross-functional team opportunities,” she said.

“Branch out and take the hard course — you’re there because you’re smart enough,” she said. “The best thing I did was go to Heinz College.”