From Fan to Professional: Internship at Sports Stadium Prepares SU Student for Career

SALISBURY, MD---While some students spend their summers cheering their favorite team at sports games or dancing next to the stage at concerts, Salisbury University senior Hailey Dougherty of Nazareth, PA, got experience on the other side of the ticket booth.

The marketing major and communications minor interned in ticket office fan relations at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, working such major events as an Eagles preseason football game and Rolling Stones concert. The internship was part of the Applied Business Learning Experience (ABLE) that is required of all students graduating from SU’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business.

On regular days, Dougherty would answer questions from fans at the ticket office, but she also helped plan and organize activities for big events. Although she liked the regular routine in the ticket office, she said event days were her favorite.

“It was fun having all the fans come to the stadium,” Dougherty said. “The normal schedule was nice because I could just go in and get tasks done, but even though event days were busy, interacting with the fans was always such a great time.”

More than anything else, Dougherty said her communication skills were honed through her internship. She answered phone calls and emails from fans, and each day brought new challenges and experiences. In a digital age, many stadiums are moving to electronic tickets, so she said she often had to help attendees who had been using printed tickets their entire life get used to the mobile platform.

“There were a lot of frustrated people sometimes, but I always had to find a happy medium no matter who the customer was or what problem they had,” Dougherty said.

In addition to the interpersonal skills she gained, she said one of the most valuable aspects of her internship was the opportunity to network with people in the sports community, including the social media director for the Eagles.

“A lot of people working for the Eagles know other people with NFL teams, so it was a lot of networking in a small-knit community,” Dougherty said.

Dougherty plays volleyball for SU and wants to use her marketing education to get into the world of professional sports. Her dream job is to work in marketing or social media for an NFL team.

Dougherty will graduate in 2020 and said she now feels prepared for a full-time job thanks to her internship experience. She said she’s glad she chose a school like SU that gave her the opportunity to do an internship as a requirement.

“Having accreditation behind the Perdue School made choosing SU a very easy choice,” Dougherty said. “I knew an internship also would help with job placement after graduation, and they make the process very easy. I would recommend the program and ABLE internship for anyone thinking of coming to SU.”