Aaron Rodriguez

Dr. Mark Nagel 

Business Development and Sales in Sports 

July 7, 2020

Interview Report

Jane Normansell is the Director of Global Partnerships at the Los Angeles Rams. She is responsible for the team partnerships at the SoFi Stadium and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park. When searching for a career, Ms. Normansell said, “When I was searching for a career I did not know that a career in sports existed.,” This is an interesting statement given that many would assume she achieved her current position after working toward this goal for all of her adult life. While in college she began to realize that a career in sports was possible. While a student at Murray State University she played for the university soccer team and interned for the baseball team which became the beginning of her career in sport business. While in the internship she produced the in-stadium signage for the team, executed radio promotions, and implemented campaigns on-campus. This helped her understand the business of sport, which then helped her land an internship with ESPN in content management systems. In that position she developed expertise in ESPN multimedia platforms and created upfront buy for the Jack Daniels BBQ sauce brand. Her internship ended during the recession of 2008 which led to a hiring freeze at ESPN. She began to look for a different job and secured an assistant marketing position at Marshall University who paid for her graduate school as well as gave her a salary. During her time at Marshall University, she worked with coaches to get their voices heard through rights holders, radio, and events as was exposed to the roles of an athletic director. This experience exposed her to many areas of sports. However, this particularly piqued her interest in sales, but she didn’t want to be stuck in college athletics, so she pursued more opportunities in sales outside the university campus setting. This led to her working for WME/IMG where she was managing key accounts with Vanderbilt University as well as cross-property accounts with other SEC schools. During this time her husband’s company bought a company in California which allowed him to work less and make more money, but required both of them to move to Southern California. Thankfully she was able to transfer to Los Angeles where she managed key accounts for the Rose Bowl Stadium and UCLA Athletics properties

Ms. Normansell continued to work for WME/IMG until 2014, until she learned about an opportunity with the Rams in St. Louis from one of her mentors for the position of manager of corporate partnership sales. She continued this position and working in St. Louis until the Rams relocation to Los Angeles where she helped with the transition. The work on the relocation developed into a promotion to her current role as Director of Global Partnerships. She took the position when she knew there was a second entity of the Rams that would be handling the stadium side of partnerships which intrigued her due to her pervious experiences. Her current duties include managing the stadium complex and selling naming rights and partnerships for the stadium.

Ms. Normansell’s job is not transactional, meaning that products are not given immediately and that her deals are more complex. This complexity causes a lot of planning in the fall and allows her to work on about 15-20 sponsorships a year as her sponsors are not looking for immediate signing of the deal and will work out the details of the deal. Her work usually has her traveling often to meet with clients and members of the league office to discuss details and make sure that all parties involved are satisfied with the elements of the deal and navigate approvals. The league needs to make sure that the company falls into the values with the NFL as well as the team is responsible for the company to be aligned with their values as well. For example, if the Rams wanted to have a marijuana company sponsor them and the league didn’t feel like the company represented the values of the league then the deal wouldn’t go through. Currently, during the pandemic these meetings have been supplemented through conference calls. During meetings to find agreeable terms on deals brands would expect the ability to make changes to deals. Ms. Normansell would have to make sure that those changes were  both acceptable to the team and the NFL in order to proceed with the deal.Ms. Normansell said “managing the relationships between the league, the Rams and the sponsors are the toughest part of my job.” Managing relationship seems to be more of a struggle given the fact that the NFL tends to want to control their image and this creates strict rules for developing sponsorships at the team level. This provides fewer opportunities for sponsorships given the league is not willing to expand the view of their league too much. This means that the league is looking to stay as a company that wants to keep their image the same and is not willing to partner with companies that stray from the current view of their company. Ms. Normansells main goal is to get the brand interested and then get the best deal for the Rams while navigating the complex web of interpersonal relationships with a multitude of entities. This task seems daunting and in order to succeed it requires an assortment of types of skills and a mastery of those skills. 

To achieve success in bringing in a new partner as well as maintain relationships with existing partners, Ms. Normansell is very conscious of the relationships she develops and makes sure not to burn any bridges between her and companies. Her first step is to become aware of the partners that Kroenke Sports and the NFL have and looks at how she can bring in companies associated with them to be a part of a Ram’s partnership. To keep strong relationships, she always makes sure she can deliver on the things that she agrees on. This requires meticulous planning and an honest assessment of the abilities of herself and her team. Another strategy she uses while selling sponsorships is understanding her client’s budget. This is key to building relationships, so all parties involved are satisfied and have a long-lasting relationship. She makes sure that she is not upselling clients and giving them things that may not be beneficial to the sponsor or their brand. Given this information of what the sponsor wants, she then layers it with the timing of a project to ensure that the project is done promptly as well as the sponsor is satisfied with the product and won’t feel cheated. Given all of this meticulous planning and communication there are still unexpected circumstances that come while finding terms to a deal.

COVID-19 has created uncertainty in the industry and leaders in the industry are trying to figure out what daily announcements mean for their work. One announcement that was made is the concerts will be pushed to 2021 at the new SoFi stadium. With this new information, Ms. Normansell is coordinating with leagues, concert coordinators and other event managers to gather information about which leagues are in a better position at this point and what changes they are making for reopening and how this may help with their grand opening. Given this new landscape of a post-COVID world there are a few developing trends in her industry. Some trends that Ms. Normansell is keeping an eye out for are which industries are growing and what industries are falling from COVID-19. Industries such as online groceries will be an industry she is looking to partner with in the future while she is looking at the tourism industry and thinking twice about sponsorships from these companies. Understanding these trends will prove pivotal to the future success of her organization

Reflecting on Ms. Normansell’s journey she recommends understanding both sides of a transaction, understanding this will be beneficial whether you are the sponsor or the team because you will be able to know what the people you are negotiating with are looking for. She also realized that early in her sales career she was very hesitant to ask people for money. She then learned through a mentor that if a company is not going to spend their money with her, they will spend it with someone else. She realized that there is nothing to fear or be hesitant about and this fear would cause her to miss out on opportunities Once she found that out, she was less hesitant to ask for money and was able to be more successful. From these experiences, what she recommends to others in the sports industry is to build human connections and develop hard numbers to prove your success. If you do these things, she believes that you can control your destiny.

Young people interested in the sports industry can learn from Jane Normansell. She has provided great insight to me on how things in your career can change and don’t be afraid to take those opportunities. She also spoke about, “how when things get hard in your work, don’t be afraid to ask for help” and “don’t burn bridges”. This statement seems to be something that comes up a lot. The more one continues to work and speak to others in the sports industry they will continue to see the truth in her words. Many people who achieve high positions in sports organizations tend to move around to find opportunities to improve their skills and have developed relationships with mentors along the way who help them if they ask. This interview highlights that fact and the winding road of a successful career. This interconnectivity means that early in sports professionals’ career’s they should be developing the support system in the industry to find the answers that they will need. Moving forward in one’s career they should be finding new opportunities no matter where they may take them and hopefully, capitalize on the opportunities to achieve success.