Sophie Wand's Senior Project Blog

This week I continued to work on my proposal for each of my events, but the main thing I did was shadow Morgan for the Thorns game. In addition to her role as an organizer for fan events and promotions, she is in charge of everything that goes on the LED boards, is advertised, and shared at games. From the PA announcer, to communicating who is subbing, to choosing which replay to show, she has to deal with a lot of moving parts during games. 
 I got to the stadium at 5:30 – 2 hours before kickoff – and walked around the stadium to see behind the scenes. There are a lot of people working to communicate and make sure things run smoothly. I wore a headset during the game and there were at least 5 other people on the headset in different roles who helped to ensure the video board, sound, and stats were correct. It was interesting to see things before any fans were in the stadium and slowly how things ramped up.   

I had another zoom meeting with Morgan to discuss my progress and she was really happy with some of my ideas. Without getting into the specifics too much (confidentiality), I came up with different ways to keep fans engaged throughout the game and the away game watch party event. Through talking with her, I also got more clarity on the Street Team project and realized I have even more creative license than I thought.  I focused mostly on creating a more detailed plan on how to execute elements of the Pub Program this week, and will shift to more of the Street Team next week. Additionally, I'm coming up with an estimated budget for each event and will be shadowing Morgan for the next Thorns game. It will be interesting to follow her and see how she operates in the stadium on game days because she is in charge of videos that go on the jumbo tron and other promotional elements.  I think I've been able to be independent through this project and that has led to be more creative, bu...

I am working with Morgan Lunz at the Portland Timbers and Thorns. I'm helping her organize the Pub Partners and the Street Team project. The pub program is for the away games that the Timbers and the Thorns play.  PTFC partners with several pubs/restaurants in the Portland-Metro area to host away game watch parties with games, food/beverages, and a place to watch the Timbers/Thorns when they play away from Portland. I'm helping Morgan revamp this project and research new, innovative ways that clubs in the MLS are approaching away games. The Street Team is the grassroots marketing initiative. The goal is to reach new fans in the community through several different events. There's a lot of creative freedom for this one.  I chose this project because I'm passionate about soccer and wanted to combine that with my interest in business. It might be something that I am interested in doing after college, so I wanted to see what working for a soccer team would be like. Through s...