Chip Maxson, General Manager, Sacramento Rivercats

Chip Maxson is the General Manager of the Sacramento Rivercats, AAA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. This interview was a special one to me because I grew up a Giants fan, so I was absolutely looking forward to speaking with the head of the farm system that produced the stars I’ve grown to know and love. Chip is in charge of running all business operations of the Rivercats, from ticket sales to marketing to making sure that all fans have a great time at the game. Being a General Manager in the minor leagues is vastly different from being GM of an MLB club. The Giants dictate the up and down movement of players, so Chip’s main job becomes marketing a great time at the game while also promoting the mascot in the community, which builds the Rivercats brand even further. He mentioned that the job changes from season to season but some behind the scenes work includes sitting in 1-on-1s with his VPs and directors as well as setting revenue goals for the organization as a whole.

Chip did his undergrad in Illinois at Olivet Nazarene University; he studied marketing and sports management with a Spanish minor, all while being a student athlete in baseball. Following this he got his Masters in sports from Baylor University while working as a PE teacher to put himself through school, though it should be noted that he does not recommend similar actions to others. Chip told me that all he cared about in college was playing baseball and thought it would be cool to work at a ballpark in his career. After college, he learned the different practices of sports and sports marketing through various minor league baseball internships and kept his “competitive juices” flowing throughout the high profile small business atmosphere of minor league baseball.

Like many other kids, Chip grew up wanting to own a team from the management side and quickly realized that hard work was something he needed to kick in,or in other words, that he had to “outwork others and be the last man standing.” He initially took a sales job and quickly learned the revenue side of minor league ball, an experience that soon led to a desire for even more knowledge. Before he knew it, finding the right time to switch jobs was one of the biggest challenges  Maxson was facing. He told me about how he views all experiences as irreplaceable, but he couldn’t turn down the chance to turn around a struggling franchise when he joined the Rivercats. One of Chip’s biggest mottos is that “Culture manages more than people do”; developing an ideal culture with the Rivercats was difficult at first because he had to fire people who were thinking too “old-minded” and weren’t focusing enough on the future. Looking back on his tenure so far, Chip is the first to tell you that he has fostered a fantastic culture in Sacramento, one that works together, and above all else, wins together.

Chip has seen sports change widely and rapidly since he first broke into the industry. Early on it was the “good ol’ boys network”, with a “shoot from the hip” approach, trying all ideas and putting no stress on the organization because fans loved coming out to games no matter what. Now things have become more business savvy and money minded, the business has changed. Social media has been a key influencer in the huge boom in the sports industry because the team brand isn’t just local anymore–it’s international. On the sales side, everything is so much more precise, with social selling, CRM, data analytics, and other tools helping the organization cater towards what people want to hear.

When asked about his biggest piece of advice for the next generation of sports professionals, Chip recalled the lessons he learned when he was a young man aspiring to make it big in the business. “Learn. Learn what you’re good at, learn what you’re willing to sacrifice, know yourself, know your skill sets, and understand your interests.” Pursue knowledge and remain resilient, and you’ll be as successful as Chip before you know it.

Erik van Dillen, Co-Founder & CEO, van Dillen Partners

I had the distinct opportunity of speaking with former professional tennis player Erik van Dillen. Erik went to school at the University of Southern California and got his undergrad in finance while playing Division 1 tennis. After going pro for 12 years Erik went back to school and got his MBA from San Francisco State University, after which he got a job at the largest international sports marketing firm, IMG. Erik had quickly figured that he could not make a living off playing tennis and had seen the sports industry start to rapidly expand, so with his family’s background in sports, he pursued a career with IMG. IMG told Erik that he could make his experience there his experiment, so with the networking experience he had already built up in college, Erik took off on his successful 18-year career with IMG, running half the country in national sales and clients.

Today, Erik is the Founder and CEO of van Dillen Partners, a smaller sports marketing firm with an international reach similar to IMG’s. As in any sports-based career, Erik’s schedule differs daily. He handles a wide variety of activities within the firm, including managing events like golf fundraisers and being the third party in sponsorship sales. When starting his own firm, Erik truly believed (and continues to believe) in sales through relationships, the best example being the trust he had built with clients in his several years at IMG. This outstanding belief of his has complemented his efforts of running his own firm for the last decade, and will continue to do so for years to come.

Erik has seen the sports industry change quite a bit throughout his time in it. He remarked that back in the day, there barely used to be one page of sports coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle; now there is an entire section dedicated just to sports. Particularly with tennis, he has seen something so specific to one interest exponentially expand internationally. Unfortunately, though, as the tennis industry grew, Erik  found it very difficult to lead a professional tennis tour while raising two kids and handling a mortgage. Looking back at the end of his playing career, he was distraught that he had to walk away from his passion and start completely anew, but the fact that he would be continuing to work within the industry he loved consoled him through the process.

Through both his playing and professional career, van Dillen has learned a thing or two on how to succeed, both in the sports marketing world and in general. First, he believes it is crucial to understand that not everything is perfect and that adapting to any situation is important, especially in a novelty industry like sports. Second, he says that people must work as a team to be successful, no matter what scenario they are in. And third, he asserted that people must make sure they are prepared to face anything that might come at them.

When asked about his biggest piece of advice for young aspiring sports industry individuals, he was straight to the point: “Do something you love, be passionate about it, try to find your skill set, and make sure you work with people you like and respect.” Keep these aces in your arsenal, and you’ll be serving up Game, Set, and Match in no time!

Greg Galiette, Senior Vice President, Louisville Bats

I caught Greg Galiette—Senior Vice President of the AAA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, the Louisville Bats—on a considerably busy day; Homer Bailey, star pitcher for the Reds, was making his final post-surgery rehab start before heading back to the big leagues. Nonetheless, Greg was kind enough to share some of his time and story with me for my first interview of this project.

Greg is a marketing graduate from the University of Louisville. Following in the footsteps of most of his family, he decided to pursue law school, but soon reached the conclusion that it definitely didn’t suit him. His dad had played college football and his uncle was one of the first Sportscenter anchors, so he took advantage of his Louisville and sports backgrounds and started pestering the owner of the then Louisville Redbirds for an internship. This eventually led to Greg joining the organization only a year after graduating college. In fact, as a result of his strong work ethic, he soon found himself working a double job with the Bats and the Louisville Riverfrogs, a minor league hockey team, and he continued to do so until the late 1990s.

Tragically, during his time working the two jobs, Greg and his family were involved in a car crash in which he lost his mother, and he himself ended up in the ICU for three weeks. Nonetheless, this experience taught him that life is very short and that he shouldn’t let the little things get to him, whether it’s in his professional life or his personal life. Through all the hardships, Greg found sports to be the comforting medium, and he deeply expressed to me how lucky he is to have a wife who is understanding of his career and his deeply rooted affection for baseball, even if she isn’t the biggest fan of the sport.

As our conversation together moved along, I came to better understand and appreciate the magnitude of his work. Greg’s day-to-day job consists of three main roles: he sells sponsorships, serves as the main liaison between the media and the team, and works to promote the team both locally and nationally. In mentioning these tasks, he was quick to highlight the fact that the business of minor league baseball is far different from that of the majors; the tickets and entertainment are significantly more affordable, and the greatest sources of revenue are corporate sponsorships, which involve connections, numerous meetings, and massive amounts of “babysitting.”

When asked about how he’s seen the sports industry change since he started working in it, Greg had one big thing to say: “TECHNOLOGY.” In the past, he had to deal with sales slips, stacks of papers, sponsorship paper trails, and limited scoreboard tech with which to display sponsor ads. Over the past three decades, though, his job has become easier and more efficient thanks to the development of different technologies and a growing number of media outlets. Greg advised me that for a front office to function well as things evolve, it is very important for people to get along with each other, to communicate on the same wavelength, and to think on their feet quickly, and to not let type A personalities take advantage of others around them.

But Greg’s biggest piece of advice for young, aspiring sports-industry individuals? “Find something you’re passionate about, and enjoy going to it.”

Intro to Your Career in Sports

For years, I’ve dreamt of working in the business of sports. To me, sports are more than just entertainment—they’re my passion. Thus, I set out this past summer to achieve a better understanding of the industry I love so much, interviewing multiple executives from various athletic fields and businesses. The goal of this research project is to give many young professionals who ambition to work in Sports Industry Management without having any idea of where to start, a point in the right direction of what it takes through the effort put in by so many professionals in the industry past. These blog posts contain interviews with employees in all sections of the Sports Industry and gain a background knowledge on who they are what they do, and how they got to the position they are at today. What they shared with me was more than just surface-level advice; each of them had stories to tell, unique insights into their businesses, and a love of their game. I am beyond excited to finally share my informational interviews with you. It’s my hope that you’ll enjoy reading through these conversations as much as I enjoyed having them. Enjoy! 

"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."

-Confucius