Events

Don Costante is the Senior Director of Event Presentation & Production for the Kansas City Royals and doubles as the founder and CEO of Costante Group. Don Costante is a highly recognizable name in Event Presentation & Production circles across North American professional sports. In fact, two interviewees suggested we...

Spencer Larson, Guest Experience Manager at the Minnesota Wild and Xcel Energy Center, holds the responsibility of ensuring that the experience of all guests, employees, and clients who use the center is a good one. Like many professionals working in sports, no two days are alike for Spencer Larson. Whether...

Caitlyn Pence is a Game Presentation Stage Manager for the Arizona Coyotes of the NHL ?. In her own words, once the game starts, she "runs around like a chicken with its head cut off." Caitlyn Pence is a young, yet successful woman in the sport industry, and as such,...

Giovanna Perone, Associate Manager with Wasserman Media Group, works year-round on RBC Golf Business to bring visions and sponsorships to life. The job also entails working on player contract fulfillments, and anything within the hospitality field. In her position, Giovanna Perone travels a great deal, especially during the summer months,...

Scott Cunningham, Vice President of Fan Experience at the Atlanta Braves, is responsible for organizing presentations and entertainment for all of the team's home games and events! As a huge fan of the allure of a sport event myself, I was excited to have the chance to interview Scott to...

Kejuan Washington is the Game and Event Management Assistant for Lousiana State University's Athletics Department. His role is in this department is broad, and very hectic! As a Game and Event Management Assistant, Kejuan Washington helps manage many event staff for LSU sporting events. As the event staff of any...

Erin Prueter is the Game Operations Manager for the American Hockey League's (AHL) Colorado Eagles. In her position, Erin directs the entire in-game experience for the fans, from what advertisements they see on the big screen, to what the in-game host says during stoppages in play! Erin Prueter oversees a...

Tanyn Walters is the Manager of Operations and Entertainment for the Austin Spurs (Spurs Sports & Entertainment). At her job, you can catch her doing anything from working on financial documents to hosting Hype Squad auditions. It is evident from her vast list of career experiences that Walters is a...

Justin Savoie is the Promotions Manager for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Not only is he responsible for the in-game aspect of promotions, but he is also responsible for many community initiatives, some of the National Hockey League's most successful in fact. After hearing about Thunderbug's Kids Club & Student Rush...

Russell Kovshoff is the Director of Game Entertainment & Events at Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club Inc. Russell Kovshoff has an incredibly interesting story. The season before the Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA Championship, Russell Kovshoff played a huge role in the team's game day presentation efforts as a Coordinator....

Jennifer Smart is Rugby Canada's Director of Events. She's also a Match Manager on the Rugby World Cup 2019 Organizing Committee. I knew we had to get Jennifer on our SPort MAnagement (SPMA) Hub after seeing her featured in a Twitter post by Rugby Canada. https://twitter.com/RugbyCanada/status/1184266332457451520 She talks about everything...

Preston Petri is the Soccer Communications Manager at Spurs Sports & Entertainment. In his Soccer Communications role, Preston is the go-between for the organization and anybody else looking to interact with members of the organization. Preston not only gets the chance to build relationships with members of the media, but...

Amanda Frechette is the Senior Coordinator of Events at the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC). After featuring their CEO Karen O’Neill a little while back, I sought to interview someone else from their fantastic organization. I landed upon Amanda Frechette because of the great events the CPC tends to run. So,...

William Mussack is the Fan Experience Manager & Game Production Manager for the Real Salt Lake (RSL) & Utah Royals FC. RSL is a professional soccer franchise competing in the Major League Soccer (MLS). As a soccer fan, I was introduced to William’s work with RSL seeing all the great...

Darren Ross is the Coordinator, Stadium Events and Operations at Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club and Forge FC. Darren Ross decided from an early age that working in the sport industry was the path for him. In this interview, he recalls the start of his sport management career, his current day-to-day...

Kevin Kelley is the Manager of Events for the Washington Nationals, a role he's been in for almost 2 years. Before that, he was Assistant Manager of Events with the organization for two and a half. And before that, he was an account executive. In total, Kevin has been with...

Angel McGee is the Manager of Communications and Outreach of the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy for the Kansas City Royals. In the fall/winter, Angel McGee is the Field Coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs. When one season ends, the next begins for Angel. My favourite thing about talking...

Matt Schulte is the Senior Manager of Special Events and Promotions for the Kansas City Royals. Matt’s passion for event management radiates through his work and wants nothing more than to make Royals fans happy. This is exactly what I found most inspiring about Matt’s story; the connection he feels...

Daniella Orsi is a Game Presentation and Talent Management Specialist with the Toronto Raptors. Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Daniella about what her role involves, how she got started working in game day operations and how she approaches the challenges faced and relishes successes experienced in her...

Shauna Bookal is the Interim Executive Director at Field Hockey Ontario. Involved, active, dedicated, fun, and experienced are just a few words that describe Shauna's work in the sport industry. In addition to what we've heard from fellow sport managers, such as the Raptors 905's Tenneya Martin and students, we've...

Shiva Keshavan is a six-time Olympian, ten-time Asian Medalist and the first luge athlete to represent India at the Olympics. Born in 1981, Shiva has no intention of competing on the world stage anymore. Now, Shiva thoroughly invests time, effort and energy into improving India's sport presence. As the President...

David Lasday is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Israel Lacrosse Association. David brings over a decade and a half of sport industry experience to the table. Also, he's played an important role in the growth of lacrosse in Israel. I've followed David Lasday's sport experiences over the years...

Gabrielle Sims is now the Senior Coordinator of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the Charlotte Hornets. She's well into her fourth season with the organization. Her awesome work with the Hornets caught our attention. Some of that work came before making the leap into CSR four months ago. Previously, Gabrielle...

Up until this summer, Richa Prabhakar worked for Cricket Canada as Marketing and Brand Manager. Beyond her role with Cricket Canada, Richa has left her mark on the sport industry across several countries. She’s previously worked for USPORTS, Lagardère Sports, Lusofonia Games, and Buddh International Circuit. For that reason, her...

In order to gain insight into what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in today’s sports industry landscape, we at SPMA were lucky enough to have the chance to learn from Tim Macdonell, owner of Elite Sports Tours. Tim started Elite Sports tours at the age of 23 in...

Kyler Nurmsoo is the Event Manager for the BC Games Society. It was a long, long time ago that Kyler and I teamed up to investigate the "recent" policy of the National Basketball Association (NBA) regarding the use of technical fouls to curtain undue demonstrativeness by its players. In fact,...

Melissa Robinson is an Account Executive, Experience & Event Sales at MLSE. She's also one of several MLSE employees who help make GroundbreakHERs come to life. Time is ticking! The Summer Social is TONIGHT! So, it's only right that we chat with the lone GroundbreakHERs co-founder we haven't featured yet;...

Melissa Hicks is the Events Partnership Specialist for Curling Canada. This means that Hicks represents Curling Canada when local businesses partner up to gain exposure in their many national curling events. She seeks, fosters and maintains marketing relationships with all kinds of local businesses. Hick’s role allows her to work...

Wonder if a background in theatre and a career in sport mesh? Shelby Vilneff is the Director of Marketing, Communications & Events for the Guelph Nighthawks. At the same time, she's also the Game Day Manager for another team in the same league: the Hamilton Honey Badgers. How is that...

From trying to make Kawhi Leonard hear his viral meme-ing laugh or playing Barney when the Raptors are introduced, the Bucks fan experience crew does as much as they can to affect the visiting team. The Toronto Raptors made it to the Eastern Conference, but they won't have home court...

Nicole Artuso is the Tennis Professionals Association (TPA) and Professional Events at Tennis Canada. So what this means is that she assists with all TPA-related responsibilities as well as all professional events put on by Tennis Canada. We’ve known Nicole Artuso for two years so we’ve seen some of the...

As I mentioned in my previous article, my time studying Sport Management led me to my current position with Elite Sports Tours. This is a company that has been pioneering and capitalizing on the growth of sport travel for over the past 12 years. Aspiring sport pros, we need to...

It was the late summer of 2015. Ontario had just hosted a major multinational sport event. Yes indeed, the Para Am Games took over the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) from July 10 to 26, 2015. Toronto needed a break from the whirlwind of events. Some citizens spent their past 16+...

Taylor Dean started her education with a desire to one day work for Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE). Dean’s interest in working for the Toronto Maple Leafs drove her into studies as she aimed to make it in the sport of hockey. While many young Ontario-natives dream of playing...

The hunger is kicking in. You neglected to eat this morning. You needed to catch the bus on time and also forgot to brush your teeth. Piu... stinky breath! Foooood is all you can think about as class begins. Until you get some food in your system, you aren't going...

Sports fans who love their sports teams seem to be traveling more and more to see their teams play when they’re on the road. Frankly, this is not anything new. Fans who may have been relocated to a new city have always come out to support the teams they grew...