The Monroe Street Journal

Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Andy Trebbi [Click to enlarge]

As the Ross School of Business continues to increase its presence in the sports industry, four members of the Michigan Sports Business Administration took on a new initiative to help further this cause by representing Ross in the school's first sports business case competition.

The third annual International Sports Business Case Competition produced by San Diego State University (SDSU) in partnership with the San Diego Padres, the founding partner of the SDSU Sports MBA program. The inaugural case competition held in 2006 was sparked by the San Diego Padres' need for fresh minds to creatively build and analyze a marketing campaign for their hosting of the 2006 International Baseball Classic, which was held at the Padres' PETCO Park later that year. The success of the inaugural competition in 2006 resulted in this international sports case competition as an annual event and is considered to be the only such inter-school sports case competition in the country.

This 24-hour case competition commenced on Thursday morning, February 24th, and was completed by Friday afternoon. The location was PETCO Park, home of the San Diego Padres, and the representatives from Ross were first-year MBAs Mark Gillilan, Matt Jung, Chris Nielsen, and Andy Trebbi.

Our group arrived late Wednesday evening and was at PETCO Park early Thursday morning for the commencement. Upon arrival we were greeted by the SDSU/Padres host committee and were whisked off to breakfast that was served on a perch overlooking the baseball field and the famous San Diego Gas Lamp district. It was a crisp San Diego morning; and we were loving life in the warm sun, happy to be far away from the frigid snow blanketed streets of Ann Arbor.

As we enjoyed our breakfast, we began mingling with the other participating teams, which included four international teams from far away countries such as China(China Europe International Business School) and the UK(University of London's Cass School), as well as eight domestic teams including SDSU, Sloan, Kellogg, Anderson, Marshall, Darden, and Haas.

Continued...

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