Business Leadership Students Visit Grand Rapids Gold
For a group of Kuyper Business Leadership students, a recent field trip to Van Andel Arena offered an exciting behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a professional sports organization.
The Grand Rapids Gold are a professional basketball team in the NBA G League, affiliated with the Denver Nuggets, and play their home games at the arena.
Marc Andreas, associate professor of business leadership and the program’s director, said the mid-November excursion was the perfect fit for his Business of Sports class because it allowed students to see classroom learning come alive.
“They got to see what we’ve been learning about in class firsthand, that running a sports organization is about so much more than what happens on the court or the field,” he said.
Andreas intentionally chose the Gold in part because of his personal connection to the franchise. In 2014, he was part of the effort to bring the team—then known as the Drive—to Grand Rapids. That experience is also where he first met Trey Connor, the Gold’s chief operating officer and one of the organization’s founders. Connor began his career with the Gold in ticket sales and community relations and worked his way up through various roles before becoming COO.
Connor was eager to welcome the Kuyper group, leading them on a comprehensive tour of the arena and offering a look at what goes into preparing for a typical home game.
“We have 28 full-time staff and 40 interns, and they cover everything from photography and videography to marketing, ticket sales and operations. Then we have our dancers and drumline. There’s a lot of different departments,” he noted.
He also shared practical advice for students considering a similar career path.
“At the beginning, I focused on having a positive attitude and staying consistent, because those were the two things I could control,” he explained. “And I try to continue to do that now, because I want to be the same person on the top as I was climbing the hill.”
Following their tour, Andreas and his students stayed for the Gold’s first Saturday night home game of the season, where the Gold defeated the Motor City Cruise, affiliated with the Detroit Pistons, 118–94.
