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Warsaw Sports Business Club
The Warsaw Sports Business Club strives to provide an environment for eager students to be educated in every aspect of the sports business industry. Along with hearing from experts with diverse backgrounds and unique career stories, our students take site visits and participate in other career development events throughout the year.
We could not thank our founder Jim Warsaw enough for his dedication to the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and Warsaw Sports Business Club. To learn more about his life please click HERE.
Why Boston?
For the first 20 years that our club has existed, we had never attended a company site visit outside of Oregon or Washington. That all changed last year with our first annual trip to Boston, MA. As we constantly visit apparel companies such as Nike and Adidas or teams like the Portland Trail Blazers and Portland Timbers every year, going to Boston exposes our members to companies and organizations in the sports industry that they probably would never have the chance to attend otherwise. Being one of the most historical and successful cities for sport in the entire world, Boston is an enormous market and presents an outstanding opportunity for our members to build a network in.
First Annual Trip: 2017
With a new faculty advisor and expanded executive team, the WSBC underwent it's first ever major change of leadership in over 12 years. With the vision of expanding the club and creating additional career advancement opportunities for our members, Boston was a monumental goal from the start of the year. Luckily, with funding assistance from the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO), the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and rollover club funds from the year prior, we were able to make this event happen for 10 of the most dedicated students of the club. The trip was an amazing success as we visited over 15 companies in the sports industry and attended the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, all in 5 days. All in all, the 10 deserving students who went on this trip gained a large network of industry professionals in their respective area of interest and are now prepared to break into the sports industry more than ever before.
Company Site Visits:
MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
At its roots, the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is about education and its goal is to provide more opportunities for sharing industry successes, create forums to discuss the most challenging topics of the day, and continue to identify new ideas. Each year, they have added new elements to identify innovation and push analytics forward. Bringing in top sport industry executives to give insight into their innovations and challenges gives students an opportunity to learn about current trends in a multitude of differing sport industries, and analyze how they can make an impact moving forward. The conference agenda and full list of speakers can be accessed by clicking HERE.
Need
After becoming an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization this year, WSBC has a vision of providing premium experiential opportunities for our members like never before. Because the majority of our funding for this trip came directly from surplus funds, we have to continue to raise funds in order to make this a staple event every year for club members to take advantage of. With an approximate cost of $1,000 per student on this trip, we need your help to send 10 students again this year! Because this industry often requires unpaid work for college students starting out, we want to ensure that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds have the opportunity to go. Due to our increased programming efforts, our costs throughout the year are the highest they have ever been in club history. The last thing we want is to to scale back on year-long career development opportunities that the majority of our members take advantage of.
Impact
The impact that this trip to Boston has on the careers of our members is truly invaluable. It not only gives them an opportunity to network with some of the top industry executives, but allows them to understand analytics and how they can use data to solve problems and be a true asset to a company.
Not only does this trip impact the 10 students that are chosen, but it also impacts our entire membership of over 350 students. We have a program in place in which we capture information and data at each company site visit and the entire Sports Analytics Conference. We use the information and insight that we gather to teach it back to the members of the club at the conclusion of the trip. Therefore, this trip isn't solely benefiting the 10 members who go on it. It is directly benefitting the entire membership as well.
Looking Ahead: 2018
With your support, we can make Boston 2018 a reality for 10 deserving club members next school year! Next year, we hope to once again attend the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference as well as increase the site visits from 15 to 20. In addition to visiting the majority of the site visits from the past year's trip, we hope to add Puma, Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Boston Bruins, DraftKings, K Sports & Entertainment and The Kraft Group to the list.
Whether you're an alumni, a parent, or just heard about Warsaw from a friend, you can make a big difference! Help by donating $10 to develop the professional experience of members who go to Boston to set them up for successful careers in sports business.
Help improve the experience of WSBC members on this trip as your donation of $25 will go towards increasing and diversifying site visits to expose students to a larger spectrum of companies in the sports industry.
Want to help make sure every student on this trip is prepared for each site visit? Your donation of $50 will help buy custom Warsaw notebooks for students to take notes during company presentations.
Who doesn't love offense? Your $100 donation will keep us moving from company to company by providing tickets to ride the T around the city!
Being an MVP of the WSBC extended network is a special honor. Your donation of $500 will pay for 2 full tickets for members to attend the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference!
Do you want to be the Michael Jordan of WSBC? $1,000 will provide a full scholarship for 1 of the 10 students going on this trip!
