October 20, 2023 • 31 mins
With Super Bowl 58 fast approaching we discuss events and initiatives that are priorities now in Las Vegas. The Vegas Sports Jackpot is the GOLDEN TICKET with a chance to win access to the biggest upcoming Las Vegas sporting events including the Super Bowl. The raffle will generate funds to support local charitable organizations. On this episode we're also celebrating the UNLV / LVSBHC internship program. Guests on this episode are Julian High, President & CEO of United Way of Southern Nevada, Jay Vickers, Director of Internships and Community Engagement at UNLV and Sam Joffray, President & CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee.
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(00:00):
This is Inside the Vegas Huddle,your podcast connection to the events and initiatives
led by the Las Vegas Super Bowlfifty eight host Committee in advance of the
big game at Allegiance Stadium. Welcometo Inside the Vegas Huddle. Welcome back
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to another episode of Inside the VegasHuddle. I am Joanna Bowman with iHeartRadio
and I'm Chris Matthews with Channel AKLASTV. And we're excited to be back
for another exciting episode. I feellike anytime we get together, Chris is
always more stuff to talk about,all surrounding Super Bowl fifty Yeah, and
that thing's counting down quickly we talk. You know, it's been now through
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this our third podcast talking about thesuper Bowl, super Bowl fifty eight in
Las Vegas. So now it's gettingyou almost kind of feel the season's underway
or third of the way through theseason, the NFL season. Now you
kind of see some of those teamsthat may be pushing their way to Las
Vegas for Super Bowl fifty eight.So it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Hey, you know what else isa lot of fun, Joeta,
We got a couple of great guestshere. Once again we have Sam Joffrey,
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who was president and CEO of theLas Vegas Super Bowl fifty eight host
Committee, and we have Julian Highwho is CEO of United Way of Southern
Nevada. So, gentlemen, thankyou very much for being with us.
We appreciate that. Always fun totalk sports, always fun to talk about
the Super Bowl. And Sam,I gotta ask you, first of all,
that jackpot thing you guys put togetherwith a golden ticket like Willy Wonka,
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I believe Willly Wonka is forty events. I love it. I thought
it was. That's the Vegas sportsJackpot, something that we came up with
with United Way and certainly couldn't havedone it without a great community and engagement
partner here launched that very exciting Yeah, one lucky Las Vegas or Raffle ticket
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winner is gonna win more prizes thanwe have time to talk about today.
But it certainly starts with Super Bowlfifty eight and all the events surrounding that,
whether it's Opening Night and Super Bowlexperience, and then starts to trickle
down to Vegas Golden Knights and theRaiders and Formula One later in the year,
the NASCAR events, UNLV events.Somebody is gonna be a rain maker
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of tickets here in this in Vegas. What they're gonna yeah, what they're
gonna have a lot of new friendsis what I was gonna say. A
lot of phone calls. This person'sgonna be how many friends you have once
you get that many tickets in yourback pocket? Right? And something really
great about the Golden Ticket the VegasSports Jackpot is those proceeds are going to
be staying right here in the community. Julian, Can you tell us a
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little bit about that and how we'llimpact your organization? Absolutely? You know,
one of the things I'm fond ofsaying is what's raised here stays here,
and that's through the that's through atremendous partnership with that we've had with
the Las Vegas Football Host Committee,and Sam and his team have just been
extraordinary in the way that they've cometo town and really integrated themselves into the
community in a way. And Ithink that that shows itself in the way
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that we've been able to partner withthe Super Bowl host commit to make sure
that the dollars raised are staying hereand that there's lasting legacy impact for our
community. Particularly in the most vulnerablecommunities here in Soude, Nevada. It's
really just one leg of our partnershipwith United Way. I think you're here
today UNLV and United Way, wherethe two first partners at the Host Committee
kind of looked at to be ourguardians in the community, and from internship
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programs to fundraising initiatives like this toSuper Bowl Days of Service that we're going
to be planning in January to makesure that we maximize the opportunities to bring
the Super Bowl out and have apositive impact on the community. And we
believe that the impact, just likeeverything else that happens in Vegas, is
going to be the greatest of anysingle ever to have happened, and we're
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so excited to be able to doit on behalf of so many of the
nonprofits here in the community. Yeah, and something I love because we have
a few of them I think instudio right now. But something really cool
is that the United Way and SouthernNevada also supports the Las Vegas Super Bowl
Host Committee's internship program, which isso important. Tell us about that,
Well, let me tell you it'smy favorite program maybe since I've been a
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United Way, and it's my favoriteprogram because it was really an opportunity to
have United Way be visible and bea significant contributor to something that was new
in our community, which was thisinternship for students at UNLV who were interested
in learning about the business of sports. And since we're now the sports capital
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of the world as well, Ithought that that was a real opportunity for
us to demonstrate that we are seriousabout impact and that these students are going
to have the ability to have extraordinarycareers based on this experience. And that
was what we were investing in andwe're so thrilled to be able to do
that. Yeah. Part of theorigin story of that is that, you
know, I've seen multiple Super Bowls, Final Fours, NBA All Star Games
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in my career where we could putout a posting for unpaid internships to work
those events and we would get phonecalls, applications would get We'd have colleges
from out of state contacting us sayingwe will send our students there and we
will put them up and house themand put them and have for them to
get this opportunity to work these majorsport events. But there was one common
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thread with that is that it tendedto be students who could afford to do
an unpaid internship. Sure, that'sa that's a big toll to ask twenty
to forty hours a week for somebody. So we sat down and said,
how can we do an internship programthat keeps those opportunities local and that removes
any financial barrier that somebody might haveif they were trying to weigh working at
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Starbucks versus interning for the super Bowl, that we could remove that via a
really good hourly wage. But alsowe're paying their college tuition for the three
hours of credit that they get forinterning. And we couldn't have done it
without. You know, I'd budgetedto do one semester's worth of that,
which would be the semester we're inright now, the final semester. But
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once we presented that to the UnitedWay, they said, we love that
program. We'd love to see thathappen for two semesters, and they doubled
our funding on that. The NFLFoundation. We put it in front of
them, they said, you're creatinga great opportunity for students that might not
have that opportunity otherwise. We'll matchit as well. So we got three
semesters out of that and then foundsome additional funding here and there, and
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we're able to do it. Eversince the day we opened the door of
the host Committee, we've had Ourfirst class was five and we're at fifteen
right now. That first inaugural classof interns that we had. Of those
five, I know of at leastfour right now that are that transitioned right
into working paid jobs at either onewent to UFC and then on the Raiders.
We have more at the Raiders,one at CIRCA in the hospitality industry,
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and one that's doing pretty nicely asan entrepreneur and continuing her education.
So wow, I'm blessed to havea roster of interns from the past twenty
five years that I still keep incontact with that got really valuable experience from
working these events. And this iscertainly no exception and to a whole other
level and scale for Chris and Ito sign up for the interser, I
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want to volunteer. What you guyshave done is phenomenal. What give us
an idea what these volunteers will do? These or and these interns, what
will they do during the Super Bowland helping out I mean, there's got
to be a million things that theycan help out and do. What is
there is there one or two thingsthat you said that they're gonna help here,
They're gonna help here, they're gonnahelp you. Yeah, our interns
are embedded in every part of theprocesses. You know, We've we've got
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eleven subcommittees that we manage as partof the host committee that are volunteer professional
volunteers in those areas of transportation,public safety, marketing, media, and
PR. Our current class of fifteeninterns are kind of evenly distributed along that
to help with the committee, communications, the scheduling of the meetings. But
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then in those areas of expertise,they're helping recruit volunteers, they're helping manage
our volunteer program. They're working closelywith our marketing team and our PR team
and our social team to do toget a really valuable working experience, not
just kind of there's no grabbing coffeeat our in our internship program. They're
they're fully embedded members of the teamand getting that real valuable resume experience that
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I did this for Super Bowl,not just that'd be phenomenal. Can you
imagine that the opportunity. I mean, if you're going to school and you
have an opportunity to work with UnitedWay with the Super Bowl Host Committee,
right, that'd be unbelievable. Yeah. So some of them were participating this
weekend in a media fan trip wedid, so they got to see how
a fam trip gets put together frombeginning to end, from the from the
invites to the itineraries, to theexecution of it, to the transportation.
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I mean they were they definitely gotto be heavily engaged and part of the
planning process and no exception for thefor the other ones. Now we have
our our volunteer core of about ninethousand volunteers we've recruited without and within the
destination to do things that are youknow, they're going to help enhance Super
Bowl for the visitors, so welcoming, welcoming them at the airport, providing
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some concierge service at some of ourevents are on corners. But then we've
also we've got a whole another groupof thirty five hundred paid Host Committee and
NFL teammates that will have an opportunityto sign up and be paid to do
things like work events and be withinthe footprint of the Super Bowl in a
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more official capacity for things that shouldbe paid for. But between our volunteers
and our interns, it's been reallyincredible. I mean, the whole effort
all around, from top to bottom, is extremely impressive. But I really
think what's resonating with the Las Vegascommunity and being talked about all over is
again the Golden Ticket and the VegasSports Jackpot. Now, I like to
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know from both of you, gentlemen, what do you think something like that,
a raffle like that so big?What's that type of impact that after
the winner is pulled it leaves onthe community. Well, if I could
answer just in terms of the lastingimpact, I believe one thing that's huge
for us is at the conclusion ofthis raffle United, we have Southern Nevada
will then to operate a yearly sportsJackpot raffle gift of the super Bowl Host
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Committee and the Raiders and all thepartners involved with this effort. And then
when the super Bowl comes back,and it will come back, then we'll
turn that back over to our friendsat the super Bowl Host Committee. So
I think that's again the demonstration ofreal partnership a demonstration of real commitment and
an understanding of the impact that thesuper Bowl can have in the community in
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lasting ways that will be important.I mean just I look around the room
at our interns, and I thinkthat those folks are going to be movers
and sacreds for the next super Bowl, probably when well, we talk about
legacy a lot, and what youknow, what's what are the legacies that
come out of the super Bowl.And yes there's economic impact, and yes
there's being able to say we hostedit and proved that we can host these
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major events. But all these littleprograms that we're building, we're not just
building them with a legacy for thenext super Bowl. We want them to
have an annual presence. So whetherit's our Business connect program, which is
taking local disadvantage businesses and embedding themin the process to do work around super
Bowl, to our volunteer program,to our Raffle, anything that we can
create that can not go away andhave an annual impact between these major sporting
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events, then they'll also benefit.Things like the Final Four when it comes
to town, Julian will have araffle. They can have just as exciting
of a major, major event.Ticket inventory in it until the super Bowl
comes back, because that's the onethat and we'll hopefully moves the needle keeping
cauraging people to buy raffle tickets forthis for this raffle because we still have
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time. And there's I believe wetalked about this in the last podcast,
but there's no cap to that,right, Like, you sell as many
of those things as you can.You can buy as many issues want to.
That's pretty cool. Yes, Ithink so too. I think that
that's a nice that's a nice feature. Is there a number that you guys
have, I mean, how manyof you? How many people have purchased
these hundred there are hundred dollars rightbucks? And I don't I don't know
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exactly how many people have purchased becauseI didn't check this morning, that last
check, last check, last check. I want to say, I don't
want to give you a bad number, but it was not. It was
not the number expected for Las Vegas. So I think Las Vegas will do
better. I know they'll do better. Well, now here's the thing,
though, I think the average personout there, wait a sect, where
can I buy this ticket? Well, I think you've got to w W
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W Vegas jackpot dot com, Vegassports Checkpot dotank. You Sam, I
don't want to screw that up.They were all going to Vegas check website.
Got on the website, Just googleit, look on social media,
you'll see it. It's got thewhole list of prizes, everything included.
We're so, you know, weanticipate with maybe adding some more prizes to
it as things go along, butyou know, with such a long sales
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cycle on there, we do knowthat it's really just about building equity in
the community, about knowing about theraffle, and then when Christmas comes around,
people start looking for stocking stuffers forDad and family members check to Dad.
This year, we've had some conversationsabout people that may want to buy
purchase bulk tickets to be able toinclude in some of the things they're doing
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for their customers or their clients.So, uh, to Julian's point about
the where we are the numbers,we really don't know right now, but
we hope that at some point we'llkind of publish numbers so that people can
be motivated to say, oh,those are pretty good odds. That's great.
No, it's totally Hopefully there's athermometer or something, you know,
not a way I used to usethe thermometer to to make to measure how
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well what we're doing in our campaigns. Yeah, we should do. We
should do with thermometers so everybody knowsat any given time what their odds look.
And I feel like it. Ithink we should do that. I
feel like Julian threw out a littlebit of a challenge there too, because
he didn't seem too impressed by thenumber yet. So I feel like,
now by this time to the nextpodcast, we're gonna get the word out
there so much that you will beimpressed, because I think that's what it
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is is. Sometimes it's a localYou're like, is this really a real
thing? Is this obtainable? Isthis something I could really win? And
yes, somebody is gonna win thisincredible prize. Someone's gonna win, and
maybe that person is going to beright here in Las Vegas. Likely the
right here in Las Vegas. Asthe native son of Las Vegan Las Vegas,
I want to encourage my brothers andsisters in the community to get out
there and buy tickets. But yeah, I think I think it's an exciting
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time for the community and for folkswho really care about sports. Ohasline by
the way to purchase the raffile ticket. It is January twenty eighth, twenty
eighth, January twenty four, sowe'll be selling all the way up to
that point. But you know,it's also yeah, it's great to be
able to have a chance to win, but it's also great to have an
opportunity just to support the United Wayand the work that they do, and
work that Supero host Committee Charities isdoing it because all the dollars, like
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Julian mentioned, are going to ourcommunity affairs efforts, our environmental programs,
and our youth programming and everything thatwe do here. This is not money
we're raising to help pay the NFLfor some of the obligations we have for
them. This is a completely separateeffort. It's strictly about helping out the
community. So your hundred dollars isgoing to have an impact no matter what.
And yeah, you might win thosecouple of hundred sporting tickets. Now,
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when a Super Bowl leaved, letme say, Sam, when a
super leaves a city, You've seenthat happen a ton of times throughout your
career. What happens to the citywhen the Super Bowl's gone, because you
always hear the bad stories of whenthe Olympics leave. You got all this
stuff, you know you're sitting onand you know it's like, wow,
we think, should we really havehosted the Olympics because you all these facilities
and infrastructure that now just sits.But when the Super Bowl leaves, what
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is it? What kind of lastingimpression is left on the communities. Well,
you know, one of the bigthings I think, especially popular for
Las Vegas will be the fact thatwe're going to show the world what Las
Vegas looks like on Super Bowl weekend. So when Dallas hosted their first Super
Bowl, when Indianapolis had Theirs,it really was a lasting impact on those
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communities and their capacity to host thesemajor events. We think that one of
the lasting legacies out of this isgoing to be the media pr exposure we
get throughout the week. I meanwhen the media started arriving on Monday and
start talking about the media party thehost committee had that they went to to
the fan experiences, to the broll shots of the city with the sphere
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and this and that. But seeingwhat a what an incredible weekend that the
Super Bowl weekend is in Vegas everyyear. I would hope that part of
the legacy of this Super Bowl isthat there's a pretty serious contingency of people
that see this on TV and say, I'm going to Vegas for Super Bowl
next year or every year to bepart of that, because it is.
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It is an incredible weekend here,and there's no better way to tell that
story of the world than through actuallyhosting the Super Bowl. On top of
everything else. I love that.Join anything else you want to note,
I just I have a note thatthe rule about purchasing tickets is that you
must be ge offenced in in Nevadawhen you buy the ticket, because it
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is a Nevada a Nevada lottery systemthat we're working. You don't have to
live here, but you have tobe here when you buy the ticket.
You don't have to be here towin it. You can win it,
that's exactly right. Yeah, butyou can buy the ticket at mccaren before
you wherever you are, if youhave a California ID. But if you're
in Vegas and you purchased at yourhouse or anywhere in Nevada, anywhere in
Nevada, and they're tracking that throughthe through the purchasing mechanic on the back
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end. No, that's really important. And then hit that website again where
people can buy the Golden ticket theVegas Sports You go directly to it at
Vegas Sports jackpot dot com or throughthe United Ware Host Committee's websites. We
all have it featured on there aswell. Awesome, Well, thank you
so much. Sam Jeoffrey, Presidentand CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl
fifty eight Host Committee, and JulianHigh, President and CEO of the United
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Way of Southern Nevada. Thank youso much, Thank you very much,
and welcome back to inside the VegasHuddle Chris and Joanna, And this is
a lot of fun as we talkedabout Super Bowl fifty eight, Juanna and
you got a couple of great wetalked about Sam already, Sam Joffrey.
Now we've got Jay here, Yesyou do, Jay Vickers, Chief Operating
Officer of u n LV Sports Innovation. Welcome, Welcome, I'm happy to
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be here. Thanks for having me, and we hear you are the go
to guy for all things that tellus about the internship program and what that
means to our community and everything.You've already done with it. We are
just so excited to learn all aboutthis internship program that came about with UNLV.
Absolutely, I think it's been reallyexciting and my opinion, in my
career, this has probably been oneof the most exciting programs I've been a
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part of because I've seen not onlyto change in our students and their affection
for sports, the after the opportunityto introduce it to not only you know,
a lot of times people say,oh, it's a male sport,
this is all about males and that, but we've seen a really great balance
between genders, all types of people. I mean that helps that our university
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is one of the most diverse universitiesin the country. And to have this
opportunity that's now considered an NFL legacyprogram and in my opinion, is unprecedented
first and foremost, but then towork with great people like Sam Joffrey and
the rest of his team, it'sjust been pretty awesome experience. That's awesome,
you know, you think of theinternships also with the super Bowl coming
here, it's allowed you to putthis internship program together, but it'll be
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long lasting. Long after super Bowlgoes away. You'll have these opportunities in
these students that want to stay involvedand get these sort of experiences. Right,
what else The beautiful thing about theinternship program is that it is open
up the eyes of opportunity beyond justwhat we are known for, which is
hospitality and gaming. Now that we'vebecome this sports and entertainment mecca that people
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have seen through the sports renaissance andhaving partners like you know that we have
something Nevada NFL Foundation. Obviously,the Las Vegas Super Bowl host Committee is
allowed opportunities for students that it wouldhave never thought was possible to be able
to work in so many different elementsone of the largest scale events in the
world, the Super Bowl is onething, but then also see the opportunities
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that they can have for them aftertheir experience with this internship to go work
for UFC or the Raiders or theKnights or the Aces or the Lights and
any other team that decides they wantto be in Las Vegas because it is
the best city in the world.Now, it's really cool, and you
made a good point, but yousaid about the thinking about UNLV is just
like hospitality, food and beverage,Like I'm in a hotel, management.
No, you can come here andbe part of some of the biggest sporting
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organizations and events in the world.Absolutely, and hospitality, I mean,
even though I mean what we've doneso well here in this city, you've
seen it through Sam and his teamand their efforts, as we do hospitality
well. So even those hospitality majorswill have opportunities in sports and entertainment,
and I think those will just continuedto increase. We've already seen some of
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our students who have been hired withsome of the other organizations and because of
the Super Bowl host Committee experience,that have had the opportunity now to get
hired over someone else who's had moreexperience. They're starting to see that trend
as well as what they're learning inclass. So doctor Nancy Lowe leeds our
intercollegiate and professional sports management program,and what they're learning in class now is
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similar to what they're experiencing by theconnections we now have with all those partners,
and I think it's going in myopinion, if I'm a student,
I want to be involved in sportsand entertainment, there's only one place to
go to. Well, I thinkwe're also opening some eyes that if you
want to work in sports and entertainment, you don't have to be an athlete.
You don't have to be a coach, you don't have to be front
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office. There are all these otheraspects to being an integral part of pulling
off these events, whether it's transportationor media in PR training and I know
a lot of your students that werecruited came from other departments. We have
students from the political science departments,and wow, you know. One of
the things that I always tell interns at the very beginning is sometimes it's
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just as valuable to get into aninternship and realize, you know, maybe
I don't like working in an office, or maybe social media is not all
those cracked up to be for mefor me, So sometimes you can learn
more out of what you don't likeversus what you do like. But we've
been very blessed with this class thatI think they've all found a great niche
and gotten a variety of work experiencethroughout it. I tell you wanted.
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The things that present with Field focuseson is he wants to break silos within
our university and wants to have promotemore interdisciplinary opportunities because that just benefits one,
that's our students. So for meto be able to have the opportunity
to present these opportunity as far asjobs and things of that nature, but
to look at the sale of histeam and say, what do you need?
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What are you looking for? Wehave majors in every respective category,
and we're able to find not onlystudents, but very very talented students in
each of those areas and they've donean outstanding job and in their respective area.
Graphic design comes to mind. We'vehad some graphic design in terms of
gotten to design things that are goingto be in very big format, very
(22:33):
high profile pieces that become an incrediblyvaluable part of their portfolio moving forward and
realizing that, hey, I didn'treally kind of think as a graphic designer,
I could be working in sports.But you take a look around at
all the fence wraps, all thesignage, all the digital assets that we
do. So that's that's been agreat one, very valuable for us.
Exactly. We definitely had a chanceto diversify interests and in my opinion,
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and so when I think of thethe sports world here in Las Vegas,
it's been truly an economic enhancer,but also an education and answer because it
allows Now there's more faculty members,there's more information that we can do even
through sports innovation. One of ournext projects is to create a data sports
data analytics HUP and now that wehave the interest of those that want to
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be a part of it, andnot only would that focus on what is
happening in the job market, fanengagement, sports science, sports technology,
and etc. We'll be able tospeak on all those different areas, but
also have students who'll be interested inworking in those different departments as well.
That's incredible now over the past eightmonths, and I think it's probably safe
to guess the responses have been extraordinary. But what are some of the students
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who have been part of the internshipprogram saying? What's the feedback you're hearing?
You know, there's a lot ofsound bites. The one that always
stands out is life changing wow.And I think that's really important is to
offer those type of experiences that peoplecan say that's actually changed my life.
I thought I was gonna go downone rabbit hole, and I decided to
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go down this rabbit hole, andin doing so, they also found their
passion whether that passion is in entrepreneurshipor is it working in sports but under
or working in marketing and understanding whatthat pace is. You know, we
always say the speed of the game, it's a different pace and when it
comes to sports, right and howwe operate and how we work. And
I think that's really important for ourstudents to see the differences between other job
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opportunities and you know, we're hereto change lives, you know, it
helps that. For me, what'sreally resonates with me is I'm a first
generation college student and two thirds ofour student population either first gen or non
traditional students. So for them tohave this opportunity and it's life changing now
is it will stay with them forthe rest of their lives. And even
(24:48):
more importantly is the people you workwith. And I know the people I
know who Sam is, Rochelle andothers, and they're working the best we
have to offer. Where you're saying, Sam, also that these in turns
are are getting paid and getting schoolcredit have phenomenals. Generally, that's the
model is you intern for free andyou get school credit, but guess you
still got to pay for those threehours of school credits. So we wanted
(25:11):
to remove that obstacle too, sowe did do the salary plus the benefit.
One of the things that I've reallyI get the biggest kick out of
the internship program is watching them learnsome of those real world skills that you
just don't get in the classroom.So when I walk around the office and
I see them making phone calls tovolunteers to answer questions or to get more
information to hear, those phone skillsstart to develop, because that's something that
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there's a there's not a phone oneoh one class where you sit down like
we used to do with typewriters andpractice a phone call right taking up the
phone and making a call. Thesedays, like that's so foreign for a
lot of the younger generation. Andwe took five down to Phoenix with us
for Super Bowl last year to helpwork our media booth and those intermed you
know those cold call introductions when you'remeeting a media person for the first time,
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to have to naturally, they developedit throughout the week of how to
gauge in the conversation and in thoseface to face skills that they're just they're
not talking college no offense, no, no, no, no, you're
exactly right. They're not calling incollege. But that's why these opportunities are
life changing, because they have theopportunity to learn. And I've always thought
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that was the best way. Andthen whenever I've had interns myself and our
departments, is I don't want youpushing papers or stapling things, or or
going to get whatever I need youto do real assignments. We have a
project that's going to be due,Oh well tell me more about it.
I care about outcomes, so let'sfigure out how we can have solutions to
(26:37):
whatever opportunities we have or things ofthat nature. And I've always felt that
was the right way to go.I think that's how me and Sam resonated
together when we first met it andsay, look, they gotta be doing
real work. I was like,awesome, And having real ideas, yes,
and learning how to convey those ideasin the form of a pitch or
a presentation or proposal then end upbecoming something that might actually happen on campus.
(26:57):
Absolutely. So, speaking of that, where we have an event that's
going to be October, take thatup nicely, job, So October thirty,
if we have a Super Bowl eventwhere we're going to have a panel
discussion to talk about the Super Bowland the impact it has not only for
UNLV but also for the community.So we'll have Coach Barry on them of
(27:18):
our we four and one five andone football team. I focus on the
one loss cuts we don't have toworry about that, but also the time
this serves by the way, it'llbe six and one. Yeah, that's
the plan. Uh, Eric Harper, obviously, Sam Jeffrey, and we'll
have some other special guests as well. But the key there is really talk
about, you know, how isthis changing and what's the impact has had
(27:42):
on our on our community, onour university and et cetera. Uh So
we'll have great guests there as well. To be in thomasin Mac October thirtieth,
October October thirty at three o'clock pm. And we're kind of burying the
lead because this whole thing happened becausewe had one intern who put together a
proposal and said, I've got anidea for an event on campus. We
listened to it, we looked atit. We then made him do a
(28:03):
little bit more work on the budgetand okay, now you got to look
at expenses and you got to lookat revenues and you have to look at
the logistics and kind of coached himthrough it, but it was completely born
and planned through it. Kobe Cornerwas definitely the created the initiative for it.
Likely Kobe also as a GA forme. Now that's sports innovation,
so that helps. That helps prettywell. So we went through the budget
(28:26):
aspect of it. Sam and histeam did a good job with it as
initially, and then we just kindof went through and figured out, Hey,
now I need you to go withme and so I can show you
how we can get a sponsorship forthis or these different pieces. So again
world world experiences that they're learning onboth sides. Now that's a huge deal.
And the fact that you said,Sam, that you actually took the
idea and implemented it. I mean, at least in the days when I
(28:48):
was a part of internship programs,it was like you didn't feel like your
voice was heard. So it seemslike this truly does allow students to be
able to have their voice be heard. And I'll tell you what from what
I'm hearing today, anybody else inthe valley who's offering internship programs, you
guys are setting the bar pretty high. Well, we wanted to make sure
that the students understood that this isopportunity you don't want to miss, right,
(29:11):
so we need to make sure wedo our part as relates to that.
But that's not just us. Thatwas thanks to you United Way of
somen Nevada who was here earlier,as well as NFL Foundation. But also
I give credit to Sam because havingthe I guess, the forethought to say,
hey, let's do something different,let's do something new. So when
it was presented to him, hewas like, we've never done that,
(29:33):
but let's look into it. Youcould have just said that doesn't happen,
we don't do it that way,let's not move forward, Let's figure out
something else. He goes, let'stry it out. And I think that's
what's really important. Part of ourapproach to the host committee was reserving some
space for innovation to make sure thatyou know, we never had to say
no to a really good idea becausewe didn't budget for it or plan for
it. So that definitely fell intothat wheelhouse. And we've also had some
(29:57):
of these interns where we've been ableidentify their talents and their skills and help
enhance those. Rochelle had a socialmedia and turned in the last class Jordan
who is now running social media forUNLV, so their work product actually got
seen became a valuable part of theircareer development. That's phenomenal. It seems
(30:18):
like UNLB and Las Vegas are aperfect marriage now with how those sports are
just becoming such a popular thing herein the city. We really are the
sports capital of the world, andthat's our vision from a UNLB perspective,
and sports innovation is going to bethe hub of the intellectual capital of sport
entertainment. That's really our per visionas we move forward. So these type
(30:40):
of relationships and the ones that wecontinue to build will allow us to do
that and give not only give theopportunity to our students but our faculty the
showcase that work that they're doing intospace, but also show our sports teams
that, look, you have agreat university riding your backyard that's willing,
hungry, ready to move forward andto help you have an even better organization
than you already have. Well,I think we can all say it's safe
(31:03):
to say our future is bright withthe interns that you have under your belt
for our Las Vegas community and foryears to come. So thank you,
Jay Vicker's Chief Operating Officer un lV Sports Innovation. And again thank you
Sam Joffrey, President and CEO ofthe Las Vegas Super Bowl fifty eight Host
Committee. And we want to saythank you to the Super Bowl fifty eight
(31:25):
Host Committee sponsors, Caesar's Entertainment,Inner Mountain Health, Howard Hughes, San
Manuel, Band of Mission Indians.And we'd also like to thank our partners
MGM Rewards, Allegiant, UFC,PNC Bank, fivo iHeartMedia, and Bank of Nevada
This is Inside the Vegas Huddle,your podcast connection to the events and initiatives
led by the Las Vegas Super Bowlfifty eight host Committee in advance of the
big game at Allegiance Stadium. Welcometo Inside the Vegas Huddle. Welcome back
(00:24):
to another episode of Inside the VegasHuddle. I am Joanna Bowman with iHeartRadio
and I'm Chris Matthews with Channel AKLASTV. And we're excited to be back
for another exciting episode. I feellike anytime we get together, Chris is
always more stuff to talk about,all surrounding Super Bowl fifty Yeah, and
that thing's counting down quickly we talk. You know, it's been now through
(00:44):
this our third podcast talking about thesuper Bowl, super Bowl fifty eight in
Las Vegas. So now it's gettingyou almost kind of feel the season's underway
or third of the way through theseason, the NFL season. Now you
kind of see some of those teamsthat may be pushing their way to Las
Vegas for Super Bowl fifty eight.So it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Hey, you know what else isa lot of fun, Joeta,
We got a couple of great guestshere. Once again we have Sam Joffrey,
(01:06):
who was president and CEO of theLas Vegas Super Bowl fifty eight host
Committee, and we have Julian Highwho is CEO of United Way of Southern
Nevada. So, gentlemen, thankyou very much for being with us.
We appreciate that. Always fun totalk sports, always fun to talk about
the Super Bowl. And Sam,I gotta ask you, first of all,
that jackpot thing you guys put togetherwith a golden ticket like Willy Wonka,
(01:27):
I believe Willly Wonka is forty events. I love it. I thought
it was. That's the Vegas sportsJackpot, something that we came up with
with United Way and certainly couldn't havedone it without a great community and engagement
partner here launched that very exciting Yeah, one lucky Las Vegas or Raffle ticket
(01:53):
winner is gonna win more prizes thanwe have time to talk about today.
But it certainly starts with Super Bowlfifty eight and all the events surrounding that,
whether it's Opening Night and Super Bowlexperience, and then starts to trickle
down to Vegas Golden Knights and theRaiders and Formula One later in the year,
the NASCAR events, UNLV events.Somebody is gonna be a rain maker
(02:14):
of tickets here in this in Vegas. What they're gonna yeah, what they're
gonna have a lot of new friendsis what I was gonna say. A
lot of phone calls. This person'sgonna be how many friends you have once
you get that many tickets in yourback pocket? Right? And something really
great about the Golden Ticket the VegasSports Jackpot is those proceeds are going to
be staying right here in the community. Julian, Can you tell us a
(02:35):
little bit about that and how we'llimpact your organization? Absolutely? You know,
one of the things I'm fond ofsaying is what's raised here stays here,
and that's through the that's through atremendous partnership with that we've had with
the Las Vegas Football Host Committee,and Sam and his team have just been
extraordinary in the way that they've cometo town and really integrated themselves into the
community in a way. And Ithink that that shows itself in the way
(02:57):
that we've been able to partner withthe Super Bowl host commit to make sure
that the dollars raised are staying hereand that there's lasting legacy impact for our
community. Particularly in the most vulnerablecommunities here in Soude, Nevada. It's
really just one leg of our partnershipwith United Way. I think you're here
today UNLV and United Way, wherethe two first partners at the Host Committee
kind of looked at to be ourguardians in the community, and from internship
(03:23):
programs to fundraising initiatives like this toSuper Bowl Days of Service that we're going
to be planning in January to makesure that we maximize the opportunities to bring
the Super Bowl out and have apositive impact on the community. And we
believe that the impact, just likeeverything else that happens in Vegas, is
going to be the greatest of anysingle ever to have happened, and we're
(03:45):
so excited to be able to doit on behalf of so many of the
nonprofits here in the community. Yeah, and something I love because we have
a few of them I think instudio right now. But something really cool
is that the United Way and SouthernNevada also supports the Las Vegas Super Bowl
Host Committee's internship program, which isso important. Tell us about that,
Well, let me tell you it'smy favorite program maybe since I've been a
(04:06):
United Way, and it's my favoriteprogram because it was really an opportunity to
have United Way be visible and bea significant contributor to something that was new
in our community, which was thisinternship for students at UNLV who were interested
in learning about the business of sports. And since we're now the sports capital
(04:28):
of the world as well, Ithought that that was a real opportunity for
us to demonstrate that we are seriousabout impact and that these students are going
to have the ability to have extraordinarycareers based on this experience. And that
was what we were investing in andwe're so thrilled to be able to do
that. Yeah. Part of theorigin story of that is that, you
know, I've seen multiple Super Bowls, Final Fours, NBA All Star Games
(04:50):
in my career where we could putout a posting for unpaid internships to work
those events and we would get phonecalls, applications would get We'd have colleges
from out of state contacting us sayingwe will send our students there and we
will put them up and house themand put them and have for them to
get this opportunity to work these majorsport events. But there was one common
(05:11):
thread with that is that it tendedto be students who could afford to do
an unpaid internship. Sure, that'sa that's a big toll to ask twenty
to forty hours a week for somebody. So we sat down and said,
how can we do an internship programthat keeps those opportunities local and that removes
any financial barrier that somebody might haveif they were trying to weigh working at
(05:33):
Starbucks versus interning for the super Bowl, that we could remove that via a
really good hourly wage. But alsowe're paying their college tuition for the three
hours of credit that they get forinterning. And we couldn't have done it
without. You know, I'd budgetedto do one semester's worth of that,
which would be the semester we're inright now, the final semester. But
(05:53):
once we presented that to the UnitedWay, they said, we love that
program. We'd love to see thathappen for two semesters, and they doubled
our funding on that. The NFLFoundation. We put it in front of
them, they said, you're creatinga great opportunity for students that might not
have that opportunity otherwise. We'll matchit as well. So we got three
semesters out of that and then foundsome additional funding here and there, and
(06:15):
we're able to do it. Eversince the day we opened the door of
the host Committee, we've had Ourfirst class was five and we're at fifteen
right now. That first inaugural classof interns that we had. Of those
five, I know of at leastfour right now that are that transitioned right
into working paid jobs at either onewent to UFC and then on the Raiders.
We have more at the Raiders,one at CIRCA in the hospitality industry,
(06:41):
and one that's doing pretty nicely asan entrepreneur and continuing her education.
So wow, I'm blessed to havea roster of interns from the past twenty
five years that I still keep incontact with that got really valuable experience from
working these events. And this iscertainly no exception and to a whole other
level and scale for Chris and Ito sign up for the interser, I
(07:03):
want to volunteer. What you guyshave done is phenomenal. What give us
an idea what these volunteers will do? These or and these interns, what
will they do during the Super Bowland helping out I mean, there's got
to be a million things that theycan help out and do. What is
there is there one or two thingsthat you said that they're gonna help here,
They're gonna help here, they're gonnahelp you. Yeah, our interns
are embedded in every part of theprocesses. You know, We've we've got
(07:25):
eleven subcommittees that we manage as partof the host committee that are volunteer professional
volunteers in those areas of transportation,public safety, marketing, media, and
PR. Our current class of fifteeninterns are kind of evenly distributed along that
to help with the committee, communications, the scheduling of the meetings. But
(07:45):
then in those areas of expertise,they're helping recruit volunteers, they're helping manage
our volunteer program. They're working closelywith our marketing team and our PR team
and our social team to do toget a really valuable working experience, not
just kind of there's no grabbing coffeeat our in our internship program. They're
they're fully embedded members of the teamand getting that real valuable resume experience that
(08:09):
I did this for Super Bowl,not just that'd be phenomenal. Can you
imagine that the opportunity. I mean, if you're going to school and you
have an opportunity to work with UnitedWay with the Super Bowl Host Committee,
right, that'd be unbelievable. Yeah. So some of them were participating this
weekend in a media fan trip wedid, so they got to see how
a fam trip gets put together frombeginning to end, from the from the
invites to the itineraries, to theexecution of it, to the transportation.
(08:33):
I mean they were they definitely gotto be heavily engaged and part of the
planning process and no exception for thefor the other ones. Now we have
our our volunteer core of about ninethousand volunteers we've recruited without and within the
destination to do things that are youknow, they're going to help enhance Super
Bowl for the visitors, so welcoming, welcoming them at the airport, providing
(08:56):
some concierge service at some of ourevents are on corners. But then we've
also we've got a whole another groupof thirty five hundred paid Host Committee and
NFL teammates that will have an opportunityto sign up and be paid to do
things like work events and be withinthe footprint of the Super Bowl in a
(09:16):
more official capacity for things that shouldbe paid for. But between our volunteers
and our interns, it's been reallyincredible. I mean, the whole effort
all around, from top to bottom, is extremely impressive. But I really
think what's resonating with the Las Vegascommunity and being talked about all over is
again the Golden Ticket and the VegasSports Jackpot. Now, I like to
(09:39):
know from both of you, gentlemen, what do you think something like that,
a raffle like that so big?What's that type of impact that after
the winner is pulled it leaves onthe community. Well, if I could
answer just in terms of the lastingimpact, I believe one thing that's huge
for us is at the conclusion ofthis raffle United, we have Southern Nevada
will then to operate a yearly sportsJackpot raffle gift of the super Bowl Host
(10:05):
Committee and the Raiders and all thepartners involved with this effort. And then
when the super Bowl comes back,and it will come back, then we'll
turn that back over to our friendsat the super Bowl Host Committee. So
I think that's again the demonstration ofreal partnership a demonstration of real commitment and
an understanding of the impact that thesuper Bowl can have in the community in
(10:26):
lasting ways that will be important.I mean just I look around the room
at our interns, and I thinkthat those folks are going to be movers
and sacreds for the next super Bowl, probably when well, we talk about
legacy a lot, and what youknow, what's what are the legacies that
come out of the super Bowl.And yes there's economic impact, and yes
there's being able to say we hostedit and proved that we can host these
(10:46):
major events. But all these littleprograms that we're building, we're not just
building them with a legacy for thenext super Bowl. We want them to
have an annual presence. So whetherit's our Business connect program, which is
taking local disadvantage businesses and embedding themin the process to do work around super
Bowl, to our volunteer program,to our Raffle, anything that we can
create that can not go away andhave an annual impact between these major sporting
(11:11):
events, then they'll also benefit.Things like the Final Four when it comes
to town, Julian will have araffle. They can have just as exciting
of a major, major event.Ticket inventory in it until the super Bowl
comes back, because that's the onethat and we'll hopefully moves the needle keeping
cauraging people to buy raffle tickets forthis for this raffle because we still have
(11:31):
time. And there's I believe wetalked about this in the last podcast,
but there's no cap to that,right, Like, you sell as many
of those things as you can.You can buy as many issues want to.
That's pretty cool. Yes, Ithink so too. I think that
that's a nice that's a nice feature. Is there a number that you guys
have, I mean, how manyof you? How many people have purchased
these hundred there are hundred dollars rightbucks? And I don't I don't know
(11:56):
exactly how many people have purchased becauseI didn't check this morning, that last
check, last check, last check. I want to say, I don't
want to give you a bad number, but it was not. It was
not the number expected for Las Vegas. So I think Las Vegas will do
better. I know they'll do better. Well, now here's the thing,
though, I think the average personout there, wait a sect, where
can I buy this ticket? Well, I think you've got to w W
(12:20):
W Vegas jackpot dot com, Vegassports Checkpot dotank. You Sam, I
don't want to screw that up.They were all going to Vegas check website.
Got on the website, Just googleit, look on social media,
you'll see it. It's got thewhole list of prizes, everything included.
We're so, you know, weanticipate with maybe adding some more prizes to
it as things go along, butyou know, with such a long sales
(12:43):
cycle on there, we do knowthat it's really just about building equity in
the community, about knowing about theraffle, and then when Christmas comes around,
people start looking for stocking stuffers forDad and family members check to Dad.
This year, we've had some conversationsabout people that may want to buy
purchase bulk tickets to be able toinclude in some of the things they're doing
(13:03):
for their customers or their clients.So, uh, to Julian's point about
the where we are the numbers,we really don't know right now, but
we hope that at some point we'llkind of publish numbers so that people can
be motivated to say, oh,those are pretty good odds. That's great.
No, it's totally Hopefully there's athermometer or something, you know,
not a way I used to usethe thermometer to to make to measure how
(13:24):
well what we're doing in our campaigns. Yeah, we should do. We
should do with thermometers so everybody knowsat any given time what their odds look.
And I feel like it. Ithink we should do that. I
feel like Julian threw out a littlebit of a challenge there too, because
he didn't seem too impressed by thenumber yet. So I feel like,
now by this time to the nextpodcast, we're gonna get the word out
there so much that you will beimpressed, because I think that's what it
(13:46):
is is. Sometimes it's a localYou're like, is this really a real
thing? Is this obtainable? Isthis something I could really win? And
yes, somebody is gonna win thisincredible prize. Someone's gonna win, and
maybe that person is going to beright here in Las Vegas. Likely the
right here in Las Vegas. Asthe native son of Las Vegan Las Vegas,
I want to encourage my brothers andsisters in the community to get out
there and buy tickets. But yeah, I think I think it's an exciting
(14:09):
time for the community and for folkswho really care about sports. Ohasline by
the way to purchase the raffile ticket. It is January twenty eighth, twenty
eighth, January twenty four, sowe'll be selling all the way up to
that point. But you know,it's also yeah, it's great to be
able to have a chance to win, but it's also great to have an
opportunity just to support the United Wayand the work that they do, and
work that Supero host Committee Charities isdoing it because all the dollars, like
(14:33):
Julian mentioned, are going to ourcommunity affairs efforts, our environmental programs,
and our youth programming and everything thatwe do here. This is not money
we're raising to help pay the NFLfor some of the obligations we have for
them. This is a completely separateeffort. It's strictly about helping out the
community. So your hundred dollars isgoing to have an impact no matter what.
And yeah, you might win thosecouple of hundred sporting tickets. Now,
(14:56):
when a Super Bowl leaved, letme say, Sam, when a
super leaves a city, You've seenthat happen a ton of times throughout your
career. What happens to the citywhen the Super Bowl's gone, because you
always hear the bad stories of whenthe Olympics leave. You got all this
stuff, you know you're sitting onand you know it's like, wow,
we think, should we really havehosted the Olympics because you all these facilities
and infrastructure that now just sits.But when the Super Bowl leaves, what
(15:20):
is it? What kind of lastingimpression is left on the communities. Well,
you know, one of the bigthings I think, especially popular for
Las Vegas will be the fact thatwe're going to show the world what Las
Vegas looks like on Super Bowl weekend. So when Dallas hosted their first Super
Bowl, when Indianapolis had Theirs,it really was a lasting impact on those
(15:41):
communities and their capacity to host thesemajor events. We think that one of
the lasting legacies out of this isgoing to be the media pr exposure we
get throughout the week. I meanwhen the media started arriving on Monday and
start talking about the media party thehost committee had that they went to to
the fan experiences, to the broll shots of the city with the sphere
(16:02):
and this and that. But seeingwhat a what an incredible weekend that the
Super Bowl weekend is in Vegas everyyear. I would hope that part of
the legacy of this Super Bowl isthat there's a pretty serious contingency of people
that see this on TV and say, I'm going to Vegas for Super Bowl
next year or every year to bepart of that, because it is.
(16:23):
It is an incredible weekend here,and there's no better way to tell that
story of the world than through actuallyhosting the Super Bowl. On top of
everything else. I love that.Join anything else you want to note,
I just I have a note thatthe rule about purchasing tickets is that you
must be ge offenced in in Nevadawhen you buy the ticket, because it
(16:45):
is a Nevada a Nevada lottery systemthat we're working. You don't have to
live here, but you have tobe here when you buy the ticket.
You don't have to be here towin it. You can win it,
that's exactly right. Yeah, butyou can buy the ticket at mccaren before
you wherever you are, if youhave a California ID. But if you're
in Vegas and you purchased at yourhouse or anywhere in Nevada, anywhere in
Nevada, and they're tracking that throughthe through the purchasing mechanic on the back
(17:08):
end. No, that's really important. And then hit that website again where
people can buy the Golden ticket theVegas Sports You go directly to it at
Vegas Sports jackpot dot com or throughthe United Ware Host Committee's websites. We
all have it featured on there aswell. Awesome, Well, thank you
so much. Sam Jeoffrey, Presidentand CEO of the Las Vegas Super Bowl
fifty eight Host Committee, and JulianHigh, President and CEO of the United
(17:32):
Way of Southern Nevada. Thank youso much, Thank you very much,
and welcome back to inside the VegasHuddle Chris and Joanna, And this is
a lot of fun as we talkedabout Super Bowl fifty eight, Juanna and
you got a couple of great wetalked about Sam already, Sam Joffrey.
Now we've got Jay here, Yesyou do, Jay Vickers, Chief Operating
Officer of u n LV Sports Innovation. Welcome, Welcome, I'm happy to
(17:53):
be here. Thanks for having me, and we hear you are the go
to guy for all things that tellus about the internship program and what that
means to our community and everything.You've already done with it. We are
just so excited to learn all aboutthis internship program that came about with UNLV.
Absolutely, I think it's been reallyexciting and my opinion, in my
career, this has probably been oneof the most exciting programs I've been a
(18:15):
part of because I've seen not onlyto change in our students and their affection
for sports, the after the opportunityto introduce it to not only you know,
a lot of times people say,oh, it's a male sport,
this is all about males and that, but we've seen a really great balance
between genders, all types of people. I mean that helps that our university
(18:36):
is one of the most diverse universitiesin the country. And to have this
opportunity that's now considered an NFL legacyprogram and in my opinion, is unprecedented
first and foremost, but then towork with great people like Sam Joffrey and
the rest of his team, it'sjust been pretty awesome experience. That's awesome,
you know, you think of theinternships also with the super Bowl coming
here, it's allowed you to putthis internship program together, but it'll be
(18:57):
long lasting. Long after super Bowlgoes away. You'll have these opportunities in
these students that want to stay involvedand get these sort of experiences. Right,
what else The beautiful thing about theinternship program is that it is open
up the eyes of opportunity beyond justwhat we are known for, which is
hospitality and gaming. Now that we'vebecome this sports and entertainment mecca that people
(19:18):
have seen through the sports renaissance andhaving partners like you know that we have
something Nevada NFL Foundation. Obviously,the Las Vegas Super Bowl host Committee is
allowed opportunities for students that it wouldhave never thought was possible to be able
to work in so many different elementsone of the largest scale events in the
world, the Super Bowl is onething, but then also see the opportunities
(19:40):
that they can have for them aftertheir experience with this internship to go work
for UFC or the Raiders or theKnights or the Aces or the Lights and
any other team that decides they wantto be in Las Vegas because it is
the best city in the world.Now, it's really cool, and you
made a good point, but yousaid about the thinking about UNLV is just
like hospitality, food and beverage,Like I'm in a hotel, management.
No, you can come here andbe part of some of the biggest sporting
(20:03):
organizations and events in the world.Absolutely, and hospitality, I mean,
even though I mean what we've doneso well here in this city, you've
seen it through Sam and his teamand their efforts, as we do hospitality
well. So even those hospitality majorswill have opportunities in sports and entertainment,
and I think those will just continuedto increase. We've already seen some of
(20:23):
our students who have been hired withsome of the other organizations and because of
the Super Bowl host Committee experience,that have had the opportunity now to get
hired over someone else who's had moreexperience. They're starting to see that trend
as well as what they're learning inclass. So doctor Nancy Lowe leeds our
intercollegiate and professional sports management program,and what they're learning in class now is
(20:45):
similar to what they're experiencing by theconnections we now have with all those partners,
and I think it's going in myopinion, if I'm a student,
I want to be involved in sportsand entertainment, there's only one place to
go to. Well, I thinkwe're also opening some eyes that if you
want to work in sports and entertainment, you don't have to be an athlete.
You don't have to be a coach, you don't have to be front
(21:07):
office. There are all these otheraspects to being an integral part of pulling
off these events, whether it's transportationor media in PR training and I know
a lot of your students that werecruited came from other departments. We have
students from the political science departments,and wow, you know. One of
the things that I always tell interns at the very beginning is sometimes it's
(21:27):
just as valuable to get into aninternship and realize, you know, maybe
I don't like working in an office, or maybe social media is not all
those cracked up to be for mefor me, So sometimes you can learn
more out of what you don't likeversus what you do like. But we've
been very blessed with this class thatI think they've all found a great niche
and gotten a variety of work experiencethroughout it. I tell you wanted.
(21:49):
The things that present with Field focuseson is he wants to break silos within
our university and wants to have promotemore interdisciplinary opportunities because that just benefits one,
that's our students. So for meto be able to have the opportunity
to present these opportunity as far asjobs and things of that nature, but
to look at the sale of histeam and say, what do you need?
(22:11):
What are you looking for? Wehave majors in every respective category,
and we're able to find not onlystudents, but very very talented students in
each of those areas and they've donean outstanding job and in their respective area.
Graphic design comes to mind. We'vehad some graphic design in terms of
gotten to design things that are goingto be in very big format, very
(22:33):
high profile pieces that become an incrediblyvaluable part of their portfolio moving forward and
realizing that, hey, I didn'treally kind of think as a graphic designer,
I could be working in sports.But you take a look around at
all the fence wraps, all thesignage, all the digital assets that we
do. So that's that's been agreat one, very valuable for us.
Exactly. We definitely had a chanceto diversify interests and in my opinion,
(22:57):
and so when I think of thethe sports world here in Las Vegas,
it's been truly an economic enhancer,but also an education and answer because it
allows Now there's more faculty members,there's more information that we can do even
through sports innovation. One of ournext projects is to create a data sports
data analytics HUP and now that wehave the interest of those that want to
(23:19):
be a part of it, andnot only would that focus on what is
happening in the job market, fanengagement, sports science, sports technology,
and etc. We'll be able tospeak on all those different areas, but
also have students who'll be interested inworking in those different departments as well.
That's incredible now over the past eightmonths, and I think it's probably safe
to guess the responses have been extraordinary. But what are some of the students
(23:42):
who have been part of the internshipprogram saying? What's the feedback you're hearing?
You know, there's a lot ofsound bites. The one that always
stands out is life changing wow.And I think that's really important is to
offer those type of experiences that peoplecan say that's actually changed my life.
I thought I was gonna go downone rabbit hole, and I decided to
(24:04):
go down this rabbit hole, andin doing so, they also found their
passion whether that passion is in entrepreneurshipor is it working in sports but under
or working in marketing and understanding whatthat pace is. You know, we
always say the speed of the game, it's a different pace and when it
comes to sports, right and howwe operate and how we work. And
I think that's really important for ourstudents to see the differences between other job
(24:27):
opportunities and you know, we're hereto change lives, you know, it
helps that. For me, what'sreally resonates with me is I'm a first
generation college student and two thirds ofour student population either first gen or non
traditional students. So for them tohave this opportunity and it's life changing now
is it will stay with them forthe rest of their lives. And even
(24:48):
more importantly is the people you workwith. And I know the people I
know who Sam is, Rochelle andothers, and they're working the best we
have to offer. Where you're saying, Sam, also that these in turns
are are getting paid and getting schoolcredit have phenomenals. Generally, that's the
model is you intern for free andyou get school credit, but guess you
still got to pay for those threehours of school credits. So we wanted
(25:11):
to remove that obstacle too, sowe did do the salary plus the benefit.
One of the things that I've reallyI get the biggest kick out of
the internship program is watching them learnsome of those real world skills that you
just don't get in the classroom.So when I walk around the office and
I see them making phone calls tovolunteers to answer questions or to get more
information to hear, those phone skillsstart to develop, because that's something that
(25:33):
there's a there's not a phone oneoh one class where you sit down like
we used to do with typewriters andpractice a phone call right taking up the
phone and making a call. Thesedays, like that's so foreign for a
lot of the younger generation. Andwe took five down to Phoenix with us
for Super Bowl last year to helpwork our media booth and those intermed you
know those cold call introductions when you'remeeting a media person for the first time,
(25:55):
to have to naturally, they developedit throughout the week of how to
gauge in the conversation and in thoseface to face skills that they're just they're
not talking college no offense, no, no, no, no, you're
exactly right. They're not calling incollege. But that's why these opportunities are
life changing, because they have theopportunity to learn. And I've always thought
(26:15):
that was the best way. Andthen whenever I've had interns myself and our
departments, is I don't want youpushing papers or stapling things, or or
going to get whatever I need youto do real assignments. We have a
project that's going to be due,Oh well tell me more about it.
I care about outcomes, so let'sfigure out how we can have solutions to
(26:37):
whatever opportunities we have or things ofthat nature. And I've always felt that
was the right way to go.I think that's how me and Sam resonated
together when we first met it andsay, look, they gotta be doing
real work. I was like,awesome, And having real ideas, yes,
and learning how to convey those ideasin the form of a pitch or
a presentation or proposal then end upbecoming something that might actually happen on campus.
(26:57):
Absolutely. So, speaking of that, where we have an event that's
going to be October, take thatup nicely, job, So October thirty,
if we have a Super Bowl eventwhere we're going to have a panel
discussion to talk about the Super Bowland the impact it has not only for
UNLV but also for the community.So we'll have Coach Barry on them of
(27:18):
our we four and one five andone football team. I focus on the
one loss cuts we don't have toworry about that, but also the time
this serves by the way, it'llbe six and one. Yeah, that's
the plan. Uh, Eric Harper, obviously, Sam Jeffrey, and we'll
have some other special guests as well. But the key there is really talk
about, you know, how isthis changing and what's the impact has had
(27:42):
on our on our community, onour university and et cetera. Uh So
we'll have great guests there as well. To be in thomasin Mac October thirtieth,
October October thirty at three o'clock pm. And we're kind of burying the
lead because this whole thing happened becausewe had one intern who put together a
proposal and said, I've got anidea for an event on campus. We
listened to it, we looked atit. We then made him do a
(28:03):
little bit more work on the budgetand okay, now you got to look
at expenses and you got to lookat revenues and you have to look at
the logistics and kind of coached himthrough it, but it was completely born
and planned through it. Kobe Cornerwas definitely the created the initiative for it.
Likely Kobe also as a GA forme. Now that's sports innovation,
so that helps. That helps prettywell. So we went through the budget
(28:26):
aspect of it. Sam and histeam did a good job with it as
initially, and then we just kindof went through and figured out, Hey,
now I need you to go withme and so I can show you
how we can get a sponsorship forthis or these different pieces. So again
world world experiences that they're learning onboth sides. Now that's a huge deal.
And the fact that you said,Sam, that you actually took the
idea and implemented it. I mean, at least in the days when I
(28:48):
was a part of internship programs,it was like you didn't feel like your
voice was heard. So it seemslike this truly does allow students to be
able to have their voice be heard. And I'll tell you what from what
I'm hearing today, anybody else inthe valley who's offering internship programs, you
guys are setting the bar pretty high. Well, we wanted to make sure
that the students understood that this isopportunity you don't want to miss, right,
(29:11):
so we need to make sure wedo our part as relates to that.
But that's not just us. Thatwas thanks to you United Way of
somen Nevada who was here earlier,as well as NFL Foundation. But also
I give credit to Sam because havingthe I guess, the forethought to say,
hey, let's do something different,let's do something new. So when
it was presented to him, hewas like, we've never done that,
(29:33):
but let's look into it. Youcould have just said that doesn't happen,
we don't do it that way,let's not move forward, Let's figure out
something else. He goes, let'stry it out. And I think that's
what's really important. Part of ourapproach to the host committee was reserving some
space for innovation to make sure thatyou know, we never had to say
no to a really good idea becausewe didn't budget for it or plan for
it. So that definitely fell intothat wheelhouse. And we've also had some
(29:57):
of these interns where we've been ableidentify their talents and their skills and help
enhance those. Rochelle had a socialmedia and turned in the last class Jordan
who is now running social media forUNLV, so their work product actually got
seen became a valuable part of theircareer development. That's phenomenal. It seems
(30:18):
like UNLB and Las Vegas are aperfect marriage now with how those sports are
just becoming such a popular thing herein the city. We really are the
sports capital of the world, andthat's our vision from a UNLB perspective,
and sports innovation is going to bethe hub of the intellectual capital of sport
entertainment. That's really our per visionas we move forward. So these type
(30:40):
of relationships and the ones that wecontinue to build will allow us to do
that and give not only give theopportunity to our students but our faculty the
showcase that work that they're doing intospace, but also show our sports teams
that, look, you have agreat university riding your backyard that's willing,
hungry, ready to move forward andto help you have an even better organization
than you already have. Well,I think we can all say it's safe
(31:03):
to say our future is bright withthe interns that you have under your belt
for our Las Vegas community and foryears to come. So thank you,
Jay Vicker's Chief Operating Officer un lV Sports Innovation. And again thank you
Sam Joffrey, President and CEO ofthe Las Vegas Super Bowl fifty eight Host
Committee. And we want to saythank you to the Super Bowl fifty eight
(31:25):
Host Committee sponsors, Caesar's Entertainment,Inner Mountain Health, Howard Hughes, San
Manuel, Band of Mission Indians.And we'd also like to thank our partners
MGM Rewards, Allegiant, UFC,PNC Bank, fivo iHeartMedia, and Bank of Nevada
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