Niagara Power Baseball - Public Relations

Summer 2018

This past summer I was given the opportunity to stay in Western NY and intern with the Niagara Power Baseball Team. The team plays in the New York Collegiate Baseball League at Sal Maglie Stadium located in Niagara Falls, NY. The team played a total of 42 games over the course of 7 weeks along with 21 of those being home games. I was able to learn all aspects of a baseball team and see first hand how much the fans enjoyed the game of baseball.

This was my first hands on sport experience outside of the university. I was able to focus my time on my specific fields of interest while always being excited for game days. However, my season with the Niagara Power started before June 1st. I was asked to work on a few projects before the season started. I helped create our birthday party and scout night brochure, edit the website, stuff envelopes with tickets, visited schools once the players arrived, and other community related events. It was during these times where I found myself within a great organization.

The community relations aspect of working with the Power was by far one of my favorite aspects of the internship. My first community event marketing the power was the Niagara Edge 5K/10K and mile walk located at the Summit Healthplex in Niagara Falls. Bolt welcomed participants as they entered the parking lot and when the race started and ended. We handed out our flyers to everyone following the race and discussed our upcoming season with locals.

My second event was the Thunder of Niagara Air Show. We had a table set up and I was able to speak to many locals about how the Niagara Power was bringing baseball back to Sal Maglie. From there I walked around with Bolt our maskot and handed out tickets to families who were interested in coming out to a game of their choice. We decided it was best to mark the tickets to be able to track the foot traffic we would be receiving from the tickets we handed out.

I also was able to be a part of the Royalton-Hartland Elementary School Field Day. The team was supposed to have an away game that night but it got postponed because of the incoming weather. We were lucky enough to have four members of the team come to the school and help encourage the kids during their field day games. The players were very involved and encouraged the kids to do their best. We were able to speak to their family members at the end of the day when they were picked up and told them to come see the team play during the summer.

For the first half of the season, all interns were set on a weekly rotation schedule. Some of these rotations included promotions, ticketing, concessions and the press box. I started out in promotions, the first game we had Bolt our maskot arrive in a helicopter. I was in center field helped Bolt meet the fans. We had a promotion scheduled for almost every half inning during the game. We had to make sure we were making each game fun and entertaining for our crowd. Each game script listed the games for kids to play (musical chairs, dizzy bat, etc.) and sponsorship reads while the game was between innings. As some ideas came easy, others took some work and effort to figure out. As the season progressed it became easier to do promotions and also easier when to know to cancel a promotion because it just did not work.

From kids day to our last game being fan appreciation night, our promotions and game tactics varied but the core ideas and energy were always the same. Being able to work with all different groups of kids from the area was something that made my job more enjoyable. Using our promotions to get kids from all over participating and getting excited about the game was something that made me more excited to come to every game.

I also spent some time in the concession stand. During the day I am a teller at a local credit union, so working with money is something that I enjoy. I liked taking on the task of a fast paced environment and learning a new Point of Sale system.

The next task I was asked to do was to conquer was the scoreboard. I had never learned to operate a scoreboard before so this took some time to learn. I questioned myself a lot in the beginning, but I slowly learned how to watch the umpire. Once I was able to understand their motions, it became easier to operate the scoreboard. I had to remind myself that although it took me some time to figure out a good system that worked best for me, that was all a part of learning different aspects of the game.

Overall, the focus of our jobs as an intern was fan interaction and to make every game as enjoyable as the last. Even though some games were hard to keep the cheerful energy up, somehow we always had the crowd excited and on their feet for the next thing. It was definitely fun when we were able to have the players and other interns get involved!

I would highly recommend this internship for anyone who is interested in sports and or marketing. It was beneficial to my learning to experience marketing an organization from the ground up. Although it was unpaid, the experience is something that is priceless. This internship helped me understand the different aspects of community relations, promotions and the ins and outs of the press box. Being active with the community relations side of an organization changed my mindset and it is something that I would like to pursue in the near future. I am very thankful for the opportunity I received to further my education and experience while creating memories with the staff along the way.