Reflection Charlotte Knights

I had the opportunity to shadow Lindsey Roycraft who is the Community and Team Relations Manager for the Charlotte Knight (Charlotte Knights). My night started off a bit interesting, we met her on the field and she was dressed in a nice black skirt and polka dot blouse, before I meet someone I try to picture what they would look like and she didn’t look like what I thought. I pictured her in a Knights polo and khaki’s. During that time on the field some of the Carolina Panthers (Carolina Panthers)  were there taking batting practice before the game started and she instructed us to stand by the fence until batting practice was over so we wouldn’t be in the way of the interviews. That was the last time we saw her for the night, she was occupied with behind the scene events with the Carolina Panthers players and were unable to meet back up with her. Therefore, most of this interview and background about her came by email which she replied back to very quickly. While conducting the interview by email it was some what challenging but I was able to get most of the answers to my questions to finish the assignment

Lindsey has been in with the Knights for the past year and a half and has held the position for the same amount of time. She previously worked for Pkolino which is a children’s furniture store and handled their public relations, marketing and sales. Prior to that she worked as an intern for Heel summer baseball league as the general manager. She has also volunteered with teams such as the Charlotte Bobcats, and Carolina Panthers. Something that did surprise me was that she graduated from Wingate University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Sports Management. Her job is very demanding and responsibilities include some of the following:

• Review and grant donation requests for over 1500 organizations
• Plan and organize monthly volunteer outings for the front office staff (EX. Men’s Shelter, Classroom Central)
• Coordinate special charitable events, Pink Knights, Charlotte Knights Golf Classic, and JDRF Swing for cure night
• Manage and authorize Mascot appearances, payroll, and game day responsibilities
• Oversee player relations and manage baseball camps and clinics

As you can see she is a very busy person even when there’s not a game. Some of her game day responsibilities include any outside special event, such as the Carolina Panthers batting practice yesterday (which was given to them last minute and organized through a financial advisor at Bank of America, and the Knights sales dept), coordinating and handling all aspects of PRE-GAME (parades, first pitches, dream team, national anthem, etc.) and Oversee on field promotions and regulate game activities, so through out the game she is everywhere. I tried to find out what was her most difficult event to organize and she couldn’t come up with just one she said every night is a challenge and often things are thrown at you last minute.

Lindsey is a key player in public relations for the Charlotte Knight and things don’t happen if she drops the ball. I completely understand how fast things can get out of control and how she is in a fast paced role within the organization. She comes in contact with different publics in her role as Community and Team Relations Manager, the publics she comes in contact with are fans which happens every night, for example last night they had a Facebook contest for one lucky fan and his/her family to take batting practice with the Carolina Panthers. Other publics are the players, Knights staff, anyone interested in the organization, people that they do volunteer work with and the list could go on and on because of her position.

This assignment definitely gives me a new look at public relations in a sports organization, and how fast things can go wrong and how fast the day can change from what you may have already planned out. The position is definitely a key position in the sports organization because of all the publics they interact with on a regular basis. I learned from the night that you have to be able to adapt to any situation that and be flexible on the personalities that you may come across, you can’t be start struck when you meet a celebrity and have to be able to maintain a professional attitude while around these publics even if their demands may seem unreasonable and out of the norm from what you are use to.