New partnership allows sport management students to market SU’s Olympic sports teams as ‘general managers’

New partnership allows sport management students to market SU’s Olympic sports teams as ‘general managers’September 01, 2006Wendy S. Loughlinwsloughl@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s Department of Athletics and Department of Sport Management have created an innovative partnership designed to enhance the marketing of SU’s Olympic sports teams. Developed by Director of Athletics Daryl Gross and Michael Veley, director of the Department of Sport Management in SU’s College of Human Services and Health Professions, Syner-Cuse will allow students to become general and assistant general managers of teams, receiving the ultimate hands-on learning experience.

“The name `Syner-Cuse’ implies the developing synergy between athletics and sport management,” says Gross. “Students will develop business and marketing skills in a true organizational structure while helping to promote our student athletes, coaches and overall athletic program. They will gain first-hand knowledge of sport franchise management.”

“We are indebted to Dr. Gross and his staff for giving our students further insight into the dimensions of the industry, including sport communications, marketing, business and compliance,” says Veley. “He has provided our students with a one-of-a-kind opportunity to manage. It epitomizes `Scholarship in Action’ and will benefit both the athletics and sport management departments tremendously.”

Gross and Veley envision establishing management “pods” of students, blending their career interests and expertise into a mini-management structure. Students will become “general managers” of an Olympic sport for an entire year, working with the team’s coaching staff to develop such things as a marketing plan to enhance attendance, a business plan and budget, sponsorship proposals and philanthropic community support. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for our students to gain experiential learning inside a premier Division I athletic program,” says Veley. “Our students are thrilled. Where else in the country would they have such an opportunity?”

Syner-Cuse will begin during the current academic year, with an estimated 30 students participating in the first year, and will be under the direction of the Department of Athletics marketing department and sport management faculty.