Less than a month after leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to victory in the World Series, Dave Roberts, the team’s manager, came to USC to tell students stories from the dugout. Roberts was just one of many speakers here for the Sports Business Summit, held in the Trojan Grand Ballroom Thursday.

Featured panelists included Bob Graziano, chairman of the L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission; Kevin Demoff, president of the L.A. Rams; and Stephanie Mejia, an executive and NBA agent at WME Sports. They talked about their experiences working in various sectors across the industry, like finance, sports talent management and leadership.

Last year, the Sports Business Summit hosted over 1,000 attendees and 30 speakers.  This year, the Sports Business Association continued this momentum with 23 speakers across five panels as well as one keynote conversation.

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“No two speakers came from the exact same connection, place, outreach, email … Every single speaker was carefully curated by someone on our team, and I think that’s what makes it such a great event,” said Blair Solender, president of SBA and a senior majoring in business administration. 

The event was free of charge and open for anyone to attend, regardless of major or university affiliation. 

“The goal is to get like-minded individuals into the room … employers, people who are looking for employment, people who just want to hear from cool speakers and just anyone who has an interest in sports in Los Angeles,” Solender said. 

The event lasted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and attendees could come and go as they pleased throughout the day. 

Mia Pomponio, a junior majoring in business administration, attended a panel on working in baseball management with Roberts and Mark Kotsay, manager of the Oakland Athletics. She said that she highly resonated with Roberts’s advice, especially as a softball player herself. 

“He talked about the importance of having a mentor or mentors in your circle as you go throughout your life, which I do think is really important and I’ll take with me as I continue my career,” Pomponio said. 

The summit wrapped up with an engaging keynote conversation between Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics, and Jason Kelly, the chief correspondent at Bloomberg Originals. They talked about how taking risks and asking questions during the early stages of their careers played a key role in their success as sports entrepreneurs today. 

Jeremiah Su, a freshman majoring in psychology, said that he learned about the importance of stepping out of his comfort zone from Rubin and Kelly.

“You can’t be scared in sports business … You have to be bold and put yourself out there. You can’t be shy or scared of rejection or failure or judgment from others,” he said. 

SBA is the largest Marshall-recognized student organization, having over 300 registered members this semester. Every month, they host speakers from various sectors in the sports industry to speak to SBA members. They also maintain a mentorship program, where students are matched on a personalized, one-on-one basis with experienced sports business professionals. Ultimately, their goal is to connect students with real-life, professional opportunities in the sports industry. 

The Sports Business Summit, inspired by Stanford University’s Graduate Sports Business Innovation Conference, is SBA’s biggest event of the year. The day-long event is dedicated to celebrating sports business at USC and allowing students to take advantage of the vast Trojan network.

The event was entirely planned and led by students. Since March 2023, 23 SBA students have managed the summit’s programming, marketing, outreach and finance operations. The programming team, in particular, focused on bringing an impressive lineup of speakers to campus. Solender said that the diverse range of speakers reflected the networks the programming team connected with during the planning process. 

Overall, the summit opened doors for students to explore an abundance of future career opportunities in the sports business industry. 

“Hearing about everyone’s stories and how they were able to integrate themselves [into the industry] and get started off was really helpful to me,” Su said.