Navigating the Sports Industry During the COVID-19 Pandemic

by: Maggie Vlasaty

If you’re anything like me, six months ago you were simply living your life watching as opportunities in sports popped up left and right. You kept an eye on LinkedIn or TeamworkOnline, waiting for the right one before making your moves on it. I was up to my neck in an internship within the NHL, as well as balancing two part-time jobs within the NBA and MLB. Flashes of the novel coronavirus appeared on the news, but it seemed another world away from affecting the United States, let alone the world of professional sports. Yet as we were barely able to dip our feet into the month of March, we found ourselves in the midst of a pandemic. Seasons were suspended. Tournaments were cancelled. Anything “sports” was deemed a ‘dangerous gathering of epic proportions’, and therefore the precautionary cancellations abruptly halted the momentum of my career.

I suddenly went from 40-50 hour work weeks to sitting on my couch, wrapping my mind around the fact that just yesterday, I thought I’d be at work preparing for a game that night. Fast-forward a month, and I’m still with the hockey team, itching for things to occupy my time in hopes that they’ll hold on to their interns for another month or so, despite layoffs and reduced hours swarming around the organization. I quickly realized my time, regardless of my talent as a wee intern, was going to be cut short. From then on, I knew I had to do everything in my power to stay relevant in sports, whether they returned in a month or next year.

At the time, I had been applying to full-time positions with teams in the area, although I had always kept an eye on opportunities nationwide and even around the world. One thing to always remember with sports, pandemic or not, is that the willingness to relocate reflects greatly on your character and motivation to be in sports. This will be crucial for candidates to keep in mind once organizations start recruiting post-pandemic. Shortly after leagues suspended their seasons (March 13th, I’ll always know that day), I saw those applications and job openings disappear. Heck, I even had an interview scheduled to find out DURING the interview that the position was no longer available due to the pandemic. We were both sorry, and decided to continue with the interview anyways, asking and answering questions with less and less gumption as the meeting went on.

After the interview, I realized I had unintentionally made a great decision to stay on the line. While the position no longer exists, I now have a first-round interview complete with a human resources representative, who will hopefully remember the “girl who did an interview for a job we didn’t have.” From there, I made it a goal to communicate with, maintain, and grow my network more than I had ever done before. Webinars, online conferences, virtual happy hours and workouts, anything I could sign up for and show up to, I was there. My days suddenly switched from meetings for corporate events to meeting with new corporations. I felt busier than ever.

I learned very quickly that people were tired of answering, “When do you think things will be back to normal?” I also understood how inconsiderate it would be to ask if they had any openings, and steered clear from that conversation. With a sales director, we talked about the concept of competition, a public relations representative, we discussed how now is the best time to practice writing recaps or learn a second language, and with a game production assistant, we shared connections, as we were both now out of a job. Conversations seemed a bit easier to have because both ends were craving the old office conversations we weren’t sure when we’d have again.
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While I was continuing to build my network with people in the same shoes more than 300 miles away, I made sure to check in on my coworkers, bosses, and old sport management classmates. Another tip, never let your current connections slip, especially in a time like this where you may really need them or they may really need you. The change in topics was refreshing; we went from “how’d that customer handle the refund policy?” to “can you hold your cat up to the webcam again?”. I grew closer to coworkers more out of the office than I did when we were cubicle neighbors. Not saying I didn’t miss the ease of simply walking over to their desk to ask a question, or not worry about interrupting someone due to a two-second lag.

It’s July, now, and while it has felt like the longest slug-race of my life, I’ve made some progress. Thanks to an old colleague, and a few others who I’ve stayed in touch with, I’m confident that I’ll be one place or another when sports begin again. After everything, though, I’m not taking time to ease off of the gas. As unpredictable as things have been, and as ever-present the virus continues to be, there are bound to be changes between now and this time next week. All I can do is continue in the same strides I’ve been making; staying in touch, developing personal as well as professional relationships, and continuing to grow my skills and manifest my dreams as a PROFESSIONAL IN SPORTS.

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