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.”
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