Gonzaga Sport Consulting Group Hosted by the Portland Trail Blazers

MATEO VALDEZ: What’s up Zags! Mateo Valdez here. I’m a current senior at GU, and founder and president of Gonzaga Sport Consulting Group (GSCG). I’ve co-written this article alongside one of our newest GSCG consultants, John Burns, current freshman at GU.

GSCG is the premier student-run consultancy at GU that shapes future business leaders through sports, by providing students the opportunity to help high-level sports brands with their real business problems. So far GSCG has done all kinds of business projects (marketing, partnerships, IT, sales, etc.) for brands like the Seattle Kraken, Los Angeles Clippers, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, San Francisco Giants, Truist Bank, Gonzaga University Athletics, Spokane Hoopfest Association, Seattle Sounders FC, Portland Timbers, Minnesota United FC, and of course, the Portland Trail Blazers. Learn more about GSCG’s humble beginnings here.

This semester we had the honor of working on a partnerships and customer experience project with the Portland Trail Blazers’ front office. Part of the project entailed doing a “secret shop” of the whole Blazers fan experience and providing feedback on how they can improve those processes. To do exactly that, the Blazers invited one of our teams (seven students total) to experience their game versus OKC Thunder. Thanks to the kind hospitality of the Trail Blazers’ front office team (shoutout Jenna Crawford and Ryan Horiuchi) combined with the support of our own Dean Ken Anderson and the rest of our School of Business Administration, we were able to make this unique opportunity a reality.

I will turn it over to one of our (as we put it at GSCG) “freshman wunderkinds” Mr. John Burns, to share his experience of the overall trip.

JOHN BURNS: Thanks Mateo! My first semester at GSCG and GU was truly special. I’m very privileged to have gotten to work with a remarkable team of other like-minded individuals on the Portland Trail Blazers project. First and foremost, it’s important to note that the work we did this semester wouldn’t have been possible without the hands-on experience we had at the Moda Center.

The Blazers took us on a full tour of their facilities, which included their management offices and the entirety of Moda Center. Our work began well before tip-off, as we had the unique opportunity of adding a critical “shoppers' eye" to the fan experience. The team continued taking notes, engaging with both guests and workers, and workshopping tangible solutions to problems we saw throughout the game. Plus, the Blazers played the OKC Thunder, so it’s always awesome to see some Chet Holmgren action!

After our work was wrapped up, we met up with our contacts in the Blazers organization to briefly discuss our initial thoughts and takeaways. Very grateful to them for the opportunity, and I can confidently state that the team and myself all benefited immensely from our collective experiences. Shortly after, we were packing up, heading back to home sweet Spokane!

 

VALDEZ: Thank you for the recap, John. His project team led by Project Manager Rory Shanks (’24) did such an impressive job handling this complex project. This fall semester GSCG had a total of 30 students like John working on different business projects for five different leading companies in the sport industry. Aside from our Portland trip this semester, we also traveled to Michigan as we were awarded by the University of Michigan Sport Business Conference!

We have big plans for GSCG’s future and part of it includes being able to send more Zag students on amazing trips like these. A huge shoutout to Dean Anderson, Dr. Gary Weber, and Dr John Correia for being so supportive of our students, and of course, all our Zag student consultants for their tremendous work this semester.

Go Blazers and go Zags!