Game Presentation Evolution with Melissa Bromley

By: Cass Ferguson

“For over 100 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have represented ‘Honour, Pride and Courage’ in the game of hockey, to the City of Toronto and to the team’s fans”. Over these 100 years, hockey in Toronto has not only evolved on the ice, but the game presentation and entertainment has evolved as well.
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The real question is when you go to a game, do you strictly focus on the game itself or do you like having the small activities and giveaways on the side? Well, any of those activities and giveaways you see are organized, communicated and dealt with by Toronto Maple Leaf’s very own, Melissa Bromley, ‘Specialist, Game Presentation’.

What is your professional journey thus far?
Her love for sports, her love for hockey is what really brought her down her career path. She grew up playing hockey and actually went to the states where she played hockey in Rochester, New York. While in New York she studied journalism & business. She continued her four years in this program because one day she had a dream of being a sports broadcaster. 
Melissa said, “because I grew up playing hockey, because I continued playing in university, and the connections I have made over the years allowed me to work with the Barrie Colts, an OHL (Ontario Hockey League) team. After graduating the goal was to find a job and start working, but Melissa believes that her willingness to take on roles that weren’t so glamorous, like volunteering, only helped her in the end.

Her journey with the Barrie Colts started off on a volunteer base role as their post game reporter. Like she said before, “sometimes you have to take those not so glamorous roles where it’s volunteer, no pay, you may have to drive a far distance, but if you love what you’re doing then it feels glamorous in your eye.” Every time she went to a game she met one more new person, which allowed growth in her networking circle, as well as growth with her social media experience. Each role after this led her to gain more and more experiences, including game operations, player operations, game presentation, social media, etc. 

Fast forward to current day, where she has now been with the Maple Leafs for four seasons.  She said, “within my four years of being with the Leafs there has been so much that has changed; from moving into the Specialist position, to the game of hockey and even what people want to see on the ice when it comes to giveaways and promotions.” She went on to say that, “each one of these changes has allowed my job to evolve and realty makes each week leading up to a game, each game day and each day in general so different, and in sports that is very common, but I love it. No day is the same. No day is boring.

In your role, what does it look like? Can you break it down for us?
Like it was said above, each day is different and she went on to say, “it’s because things change so often, you have to be willing to adapt to those changes and move forward. On the Leafs side there is me and my manager; we are the two mainstays on that side, but through the day we will have some coordinators come help as they are people who work across all MLSE brands.”

“Within my role, one of the biggest aspects I deal with is dealing with our partners through our global partnership team. Each of our partners has an aspect within the game, whether it be a promotion, hit, etc. In the end, I am responsible for making sure all these partnership activations get executed, and executed properly, partners are happy with them, and helping to come up with ideas with the partners for each activation. The biggest thing is making sure that all we are doing matches the game presentation side, are we making sure that everyone has a chance to win, did the partners provide the prizing, what does the creative look like and so much more. The partnership activation was something that was recently added to my plate, but over the last season, I was able to learn and grow. It was something that I very much enjoyed and cannot wait to take on more next season. Outside of the partnership stuff, things that I’m responsible for are finding and brining in talent needed for internships, and being the floor manager on game days – meaning I am responsible for our game crew of 30 people on game days. In the end, my role deals with a lot of planning, communicating and organizing for all aspects of the game presentation.” 

Why did you choose working in the sports industry over any other industry?
There seems to be a pattern of when it comes to people working in sports, and most of the time they work in sports for reasons like Melissa noted of, “I have loved sports forever and I couldn’t imagine not bringing that love into my career. There wasn’t a big drive to do something outside of sport. Yes, I knew I wanted to work in sports, but I did not know that game presentation would be where I would be working, but I am really big into sports and fitness, which has allowed me to follow my heart.
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What are some key characteristics someone should have when looking to work in a role like yours?

1. Organization – In a role like mine you are juggling so much at once that you need to be able to stay on top of things. 
2. Strong communicator – You are dealing with so many people at once that being able to communicate the proper information to all, is key to success. You must also be able to find other ways to communicate information.
3. Creativity – Within the role I am in you are always constantly thinking of new ideas; always trying to push the boundaries. Although you are sometimes limited to what you can and cannot do, it’s about finding ways to execute something that fits within the team rules.  
4. The ability to adapt – In game presentation, there will be things that go wrong. You just have to be able to adapt, be prepared for everything, but have fun doing it at the same time. 

There is a lot out there and you aren’t going to know everything all of the time, but sometimes when you find that right piece of information, it stays with you on your journey.  Melissa wants people to know if you’re looking to get into the industry or a role like hers to “stay calm and always be on your feet, be fine with something going wrong, but know what you can do better for next time so that it goes right, and lastly, fight for your worth, showcase your value because one day you will see  something amazing will happen.”