Philicia Douglas, New Orleans Saints & Pelicans Manager of Inside Sales - a podcast by Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged Learning at WorkinSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…







For the last year you’ve heard me talk about the decline in sales jobs in sports. This is not breaking news, rather an obvious reality based on all of us being in the grips of a global pandemic that restricts public gatherings.   







No tickets to sell, no suites to sell, no group packages,  fewer sponsorships, less in-stadium marketing activations -- this result is clear. Revenue was lost. Lots of it. Jobs were furloughed, lots of them. 







Sales, as a sector of the industry, a dominant sector of the industry, was hit the hardest by far.  







But let’s put some numbers on that, rather than just logical conclusions.







According to Team Marketing Report, a sports business intelligence firm, The Washington Football Team, it is estimated, lost 124 million dollars in unrealized game-day revenue.







To put that in perspective, if you add up the 2020 contracts of 







* Alex Smith* Landon Collins* Kendall Fuller * Morgan Moses* Chase Young  







Arguably, their 5 best players, You get 63.8 million. They lost 124 million minimum. 







That was tops in the NFL, who TMR estimated lost 2.7 billion as a whole. 















Those calculations, that 124 million in game day revenue losses, does not include the hit to other revenue streams like suites leases, secondary market ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, media rights, non-NFL events, revenue sharing, off-site sales, licensing, or preseason and postseason money.







The amount of revenue lost by sports teams is staggering. 







NBA - $694 million in unrecognized game day revenue







MLB - $5.2 billion! 162 games cut down to 60 without fans… big hit. 







All of this is to say - as I tell my kids - save your money, you don’t know when things are going to turn upside down and you’ll need that buffer. 







Actually, what this is realy to say, although saving money is a good tip - is that it’s easy to see why sports jobs plummeted.







BUT -- as Kali Franklin VP of HR at NYCFC said in last week’s podcast episode, a business that isn’t hiring talented people, isn’t growing. 







The sports industry is finding its footing and hiring again. We aren’t back to normal, far from it, but we are finding new ways to emerge. 







What is amazing to me, in the face of all these losses, is that so many of the businesses I have spoken to recently are proud of the fact that they didn't lay off any staff. Clearly many of you lost your jobs, I’ve heard from so many of your personally and I hurt for you, but let this be a marker in the moment -- hiring is coming back, numbers are on the rise, and teams, leagues, sports tech firms, sports websites, athlete marketers and more and hiring people like you.







Back in November, I saw a LinkedIn post from today’s guest, Philici Douglas, Manager of Inside Sales for the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, and it caught my eye.   







If you are a graduating senior or already graduated from college I want to get to know you! If you are looking to work in sales in sports I am going to begin hosting interviews for our Inside Sales Consultant positions. Book a time on my calendar below. 

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