Eric Flatt
Class of 2003
Major: Sports Management
You do not need to be a scholar to understand how professional
sports have grown in our American society over the past 50 years.
Football, basketball, and baseball franchises have grown at both
the major and minor league level. Sports entertainment has become
a multi-million dollar industry in both major cities and small
towns, and since the turn of the century in 2000, other sports
including soccer, volleyball, X Games, and even NASCAR have become
successful business ventures. The role of a sports management
major is to have active roles in the success of these important
businesses. Eric Flatt came to Tri-State University from nearby
Niles, Michigan in 1999 with the desire to pursue a career in
this ever growing industry.
Four years later in 2003, Eric graduated from Tri-State University
with a degree in sports management and is now an account executive,
inside sales manager for the National Basketball Association franchise
in Charlotte, North Carolina. He manages a staff of eight sales
representatives, and he is eager to tell you that sales for the
Charlotte Bobcats have grown over the past two years from 27th
to 4th. When asked about his college experience at Tri-State University,
Eric enthusiastically replied, “Tri-State University is
a small time college with a big time atmosphere, I loved every
minute of it!”
The capstone experience of a sports management major at Tri-State
University is their internship experience in the senior year.
Eric did his internship at the United States Olympic Training
Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Eric used this experience
as a spring board to acquire his first job in Indianapolis, Indiana
on the staff of Pacers Entertainment. Eric’s day-to-day-experience
as an inside sales representative for the Pacers was to sell entertainment
packages to businesses. His ten month employment there has helped
prepare him for his present responsibilities with the Charlotte
Bobcats.
As our society continues to embrace sports as a major part of
our culture, the need for sports management majors will continue
to grow.
