Aaron Rodriguez

September 28,2020

Internship Analysis Paper

Cohort 21S

The Los Angeles Rams have a commitment to community outreach and look to build on their charitable legacy in Los Angeles. I have been able to understand these efforts firsthand while working with their community relations department as a 50/50 raffle ticket seller. Through their program of 50/50 raffle ticket selling as well as other fundraising activities the Los Angeles Rams have been able to better the community through investments in education, regional food banks and encouragement of voter registration. Their efforts in the community are also felt within their team which was shown while I worked with them by providing meals for our team. This was an incredibly kind gesture that I appreciated as I thought that this would be a place where we would just clock in and clock out.  I found the team to provide a competitive yet supportive environment that lives up to their mission.  They always make our efforts feel like a team effort as we always huddle before a game and have our chant of: “Whose House, Rams House”. This is another small gesture which is impactful as we feel as though we are a part of the team and bigger mission of the organization. The days I was out selling tickets and may be getting a lot of rejection in the beginning or may not have stellar numbers it is good to know that there is a bigger mission at hand. Knowing that we are supporting our community of Los Angles and our Rams community is supporting us is something that I find comforting and helpful in providing an excellent effort. Their commitment is not only to reach out to a community but to build a community. We can develop a community not only with the team but also with the fans. While working there I was able to build relationships with fans who bought from me every time. I didn’t really stop by to sell tickets, I more stopped by to interact with them and have fun to hype them up for the games. Selling the tickets was simply a byproduct of having fun with the fans.

While working there I saw that this community of the Rams organization had a typical administrative structure. As you got lower and lower down the organization the number of employees increased. A small nuance to this was that there was some cross-department interaction which developed a more complex administrative structure. I was only able to observe three levels of this structure firsthand but through some research I was able to learn about the cross-department interaction. The three levels I was able had the first level being the sellers which was the largest group and managed by two others who were the Raffle Ticket Coordinator and Community Affairs Intern who was then managed by the Community Affairs and Player Engagement Manager. Through some research I was able to learn that other departments such as operations and partnerships are involved with the community affairs department to better assist their efforts. Through the COVID-19 pandemic this has evolved this relationship by further intertwining different departments. For example, the community relations department worked with the partnerships department for their “Game Faces for Good” campaign to reach fans and get them to buy carboard cutouts to help the Los Angeles community from the proceeds of these purchases. In the future I predict that this interconnectivity will continue to grow, and more departments will work closer together. Given that everyone must use various technological platforms to communicate this has made it easier than ever to work together because of the lack of need to be in one physical location as well as the reduction in travel to and from meetings. This provides more time to work and an ease to communicating with others thus giving the ability of different departments to work together. I would suggest that they continue to work with other departments and find new departments to work with. This will not only make work better by bringing in many different perspectives but will also develop a stronger community within the organization as they are all working to achieve a common goal.

My routine duties in the organization was to generate sales, maintain an accurate count of sales and utilize a point of sale system. First, was generating sales. I was able to generate sales by developing relationships with fans. On the first day I did not look at developing relationships and simply looked at just trying to get the sale. I had not performed how I expected and was able to improve when I changed my tactics and developed relationships with people. Once I started doing that sales came. I was also able to learn where the best spots to sell where and at what times I should move from one area to another. Talking to people and developing relationships became my strength. Through this I was also able to find out my weakness, which is that I don’t know how to end conversations well. I found myself on multiple occasions that I was interacting with a fan who went on talking about themselves or the game which in the moment made me lose sight of my goal of a sale. Some occasions ultimately ended up in sales while others didn’t. I am still working on a strategy to end conversations that are going on too long without being rude. Overall, I think I did well and was able to grow quickly to learn the system and different tactics for success. I think although I did lose sight of goals at times everyone who I interacted with did have a good experience by the time we had stopped talking to each other.

This internship has helped significantly in my personal and professional growth. This was my first job in the sports industry, and I was able to understand how the culture of a sports organization is. Everyone is hyperconnected to the industry and talk about what is going on all the time. Coming into this I was more focused on getting things done and achieving goals. I was able to find that those things are important but developing relationships with others and being able to talk about what is going on around us is just as important to having the knowledge to be able to do my job. This also developed skills of talking to people I don’t know and develop relationships form that. I am now more confident in striking up conversations with new people at work and finding common things we can talk about every time that we meet. My coursework has been a great tool to my growth in the industry as I have been able to have more things to talk to people about and provide insight during conversations based on case studies and talk about new ideas based on different projects worked on through the program. I found that in positions that I worked in that required specific skills or had a more selective process I had positive experiences such as the Los Angeles Rams, Rose Bowl and my current role at SoFi Stadium. However, roles that were less selective such as CSC where places where I didn’t have a positive experience. It was tough for me to work with people who didn’t care about their work and were just looking to collect a paycheck. Despite this, I did try and understand why they were thinking this way and I came out of that experience with a better understanding of different employees.

Coursework as well as internships have expanded my professional goals as I have learned more about different industries in sports while learning about different departments through internships. The internships really showed me how interconnected everything is to have a successful event. While coursework allowed me to explore different industries through projects while case studies introduced me to many different situations that others have faced which prepares me for similar situations and provides a reference for future dilemmas. Overall, my professional goals are still the same, but I am continuing to explore more avenues for future endeavors once I have accomplished those goals.

I believe that my agency supervisors were effective at their jobs. They allowed us to explore different strategies for success and gave us a framework to provide structure to our ideas. The Los Angeles Rams provided a lot of enthusiasm and provided great incentives for us to strive more and work harder. It made me want to learn more about the organization which I was able to do through informational interviews with others in the organization. Through coursework I was able to better prepare myself for these interviews and gain insight into the organizations and the future and challenges that they are facing. Everyone around the organization seems very excited about graduate school students and are very willing to share information of their experiences with others. I believe the Rams organization is a great place for future students to learn due to their supportive environment and enthusiasm for graduate students. This enjoinment combined with the access to those in leadership positions allows future students to be able to learn a lot about the team, league and sports industry.