The big league: Trine class partners with Pistons for capstone

For five years, Trine University’s Sport Management Capstone class has partnered with a professional basketball team to provide students experience working in sports partnership.

This year, they’ve been able to advance to the big league.

The class had worked to sell tickets for Fort Wayne’s Mad Ants for the past four falls. Though Brandon Podgorski, associate professor of sport management, said it was a “great partnership,” the effort derailed when the Indiana Pacers recently moved the Mad Ants to Indianapolis.

He contacted Andy Myers, a 2020 Trine University sport management graduate who works for the NBA’s Detroit Pistons as a group sales executive.

“Professor Podgorski reached out not knowing if it would work with the Pistons being more than two hours away,” Myers said. “Luckily, we already work with a few other schools on a Ticket Sales class, so we were very familiar with how he wanted to structure everything.”

Podgorski said the new partnership will provide even greater benefits to Trine students and the sport management program.

“This is a great benefit to our students and our program since the Pistons are more widely known, we have the ability to sell more games, and the Pistons have more resources to better train our students,” Podgorski said.

It will benefit the Pistons as well. Myers said the partnership helps promote the Pistons brand in new markets, generates ticket sales and provides a funnel into the team’s hiring pipeline.

“If there is a student who is able to excel at a high level selling tickets to a team more than two hours away, you can bet they will be on our radar for our entry-level sales team,” he said.

Tickets on sale now

Leading up to the launch of sales, the students received six weeks of sales training from Podgorski and additional in-person training from Myers as well as Clark Rowekamp, senior director of group sales, and Matt Cammire, manager of ticket sales.

The students will have the opportunity to sell discounted tickets to all 41 home Pistons games. Sales began Oct. 2 and will continue through Dec. 1.

Students also will be able to sell Trine College Night packages for the Jan. 28, 2024, game between the Pistons and the Oklahoma Thunder.

Those who purchase tickets to that game will be able to see the Thunder men’s basketball team face off against Adrian College in the Little Caesars Arena following the Pistons game, and will receive a co-branded Pistons and Trine University baseball cap.

“This gives them an opportunity to learn real-world skills and include selling experience with the Pistons on their resumes,” Podgorski said.

The top seller in the class will receive four lower-level tickets to a Pistons game, an autographed mini-basketball and a one-on-one meeting with the Pistons ticket sales hiring manager, putting them in position to land a possible job with the team after graduation.

Myers holds the record for most tickets sold, with 250.

“It is very rewarding to be on the other side of the partnership,” he said.

“Everything came full circle when I got promoted with the Pistons to join the Group Sales team. I now sit right next to (Pistons Group Sales Account Executive) Brandon Goebel, who helped me get my start. Everything came full circle again with this class, as it helped me separate myself in the interview process. Now I’m able to do the same for the next wave of Trine students and help them provide them experience they can use to break into the sports industry.”