Southern Miss Sport Management Collaborates with Birmingham Squadron
Mon, 12/18/2023 - 08:58am | By: Van Arnold
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Sport Management program collaborated with the NBA-G League member Birmingham Squadron in sport marketing and public relations class this fall semester enabling graduate students to be actively involved in the professional sport marketing process.
Dr. Chris Croft, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, and Leslie Claybrook, Birmingham Squadron General Manager of Business Operations, organized the joint effort.
“With our past Southern Miss Sport Management collaboration with the New Orleans Pelicans, I thought this would be a great opportunity to extend that partnership with their NBA-G League Birmingham Squadron. The Squadron allowed us to assist in sport marketing efforts for the spring 2024 season,” said Croft.
Claybrook allowed Southern Miss Sport Management to assist in spring 2024 sport marketing efforts by creating a business plan for the Greensboro Swarm home game on March 8, 2024. Claybrook provided an overview of NBA G-League, Birmingham Squadron history, and project overview needs. Students worked in groups to develop a business plan for the targeted game including:
- Game Night Theme
- Marketing/Promotions Ideas
- Social Media Plan
- Community Connection
The project information was relayed to Claybrook and her staff to evaluate options for implementation in upcoming games.
Claybrook noted, “The Birmingham Squadron were excited to partner with Southern Mississippi’s Sport Management program to provide an experiential learning experience for its students. The students worked creatively to provide solutions to drive brand awareness, marketing/promote ideas to increase tickets sales with the goal to increase fans in the stands. We look forward to implementing many of the ideas at upcoming games.”
Added Croft: “This was our first opportunity with Southern Miss Sport Management to work with an NBA G-League franchise, and we are very grateful for the opportunity that the Birmingham Squadron and Leslie Claybrook afforded us. It was an outstanding opportunity for our students to add creativity to sport marketing ideas to assist them.”
To learn more, visit these websites: