Happy St. Patrick’s everyone, I hope you’re wearing green!
As promised, here are the pictures from the Levi Stadium
tour. If you are a 49ers fan, live close, or like to travel to sporting events,
this will be one you do not want to miss. The way the stadium was described
made it seem as if it’ll be more of an experience than just watching a football
game.
The areas for concessions, bathrooms, and shops were state
of the art. There will be restaurants within the stadium as well. I think the
coolest thing (and most different) is that there will be an app you can
download on your phone that lets you order food and have it delivered to your
seat, as well as checking how long the line for the bathroom is! How cool is
that?
Meanwhile with school, my cohort just started Sport Business Research Methods with Dr. Nola Agha. I’m looking forward to this class mainly because of the interests I have with
what industry I want to work in. With media, it’s constant research. I know
other departments need research as well, but I think this class will really
benefit what I hope to do. With the
multiple positions I’ve had, the ones involving media definitely had the most
research to do.
We got a week off of school after one day with Dr. Nola because of spring break. In
undergrad, I never got a spring break because I was in season with gymnastics,
so this didn’t feel too terribly different. Since I work more days than I go to
school, I couldn’t exactly take a week off. Fortunately for me, the workload at
Pac-12 Networks last week was light because of the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball
Tournament. With that and having an awesome boss, I was able to leave early
Thursday to take a short vacation in Arizona for spring training.
As a lover of baseball and traveling, I don’t think I could
have had a better weekend. I went alone, which was an experience itself. If you’ve never experienced a new place on
your own, I recommend it. Moving to San Francisco on my own back in July opened
my eyes to what I thought was a whole new world. With so much to digest in San Francisco, it made me want to explore so much more; which is why I was okay to
go alone (and develop a love for traveling).
I went to four games and one bating practice during my
three-day stint. On Thursday, the first game I went to was the Arizona
Diamondbacks versus the Milwaukee Brewers at the Maryvale Stadium. It wasn’t the prettiest place I’ve been, but
I sat third row behind home plate, so I was happy. Later that day, I watched the Seattle
Mariners and Colorado Rockies batting practice before their game.
Friday I went to two games starting with the Texas Rangers
at the Oakland Athletics. The Phoenix Municipal Stadium was nice, but I think
it’s because the Rangers players made it look so good (okay, maybe I’m a
little biased). But man, it was the slowest game of my life. It was about four
and a half hours. The final score was 16-15 Rangers, so I was a very happy the
Rangers pulled out the win. During the game I saw two familiar, famous faces. I’ve
always been a fan of Chelsea Handler and her talk show, books, etc., so when I
saw her sidekick and friend, comedian Sarah Colonna, I sort of froze. She’s dating the punter for the Seattle Seahawks, Jon Ryan, so seeing them was
another perk of spring training. After
that long game, I got to see two of the best pitchers in baseball in the same
game: Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale. The Chicago White Sox beat the Los
Angeles Dodgers 5-4, but witnessing them pitch had to be a highlight of the
trip.
I saved the best game for last and that was watching the
Rangers at home against the White Sox. Surprise Stadium was amazing, and I’m
not just saying that because it’s where the Rangers call home (along with the
Kansas City Royals). It had a huge lawn, big video board, most seats were in
the shade, and had an overall feeling of a regular season game. I would have
liked to see the Royals play there as well, just to see if I would give it the
same reviews.
Although I went for a vacation, I couldn’t help but use the networking tools I’ve learned throughout the program. As many know by reading
these blogs and mentioning earlier, I’ve always wanted to work in media,
specifically a sideline reporter. I recently applied for a position with the
Modesto Nuts, the Advanced A minor league team for the Colorado Rockies. I applied the week before spring break, so
the organization didn’t have my information for that long. I e-mailed the guy
hiring for the position, letting him know I would be in town getting the spring
training experience and asked if he had time available to meet me to talk about
the position. Overall the interview went well, although I’m not sure if that
position will help me as much as I hoped with the aspirations I have. He was
impressed with how I reached out to him and my ‘go-getter’ mentality, so I’m glad I went
to make that connection because our paths could cross in the future. I would definitely recommend reaching out to someone in an organization while
traveling because more connections never hurt, and you never know where it
could lead.
When opportunity allows, take a trip, go somewhere new. Moving
out here was the biggest leap of faith I’ve ever taken and it has helped me
develop the fearlessness of trying new things and taking chances. A year ago, I
would have never done this. I probably would have laughed if I was told I would
go on a trip like this alone. This weekend in Arizona was not only a lot of fun
for me, but it had much more value to me than just being a baseball fan.
When an opportunity presents itself for a job or for good
time, don’t hesitate, go for it. You never know what it could lead to..
Brewers vs. Diamondbacks (Maryvale)
Rangers vs. Athletics (Phoenix Municipal)
White Sox vs. Rangers (Surprise Stadium)
