The University of North Texas sport entertainment management program is collaborating with Stadia Ventures, a global sports innovation hub for entrepreneurs, industry partners and investors headquartered in St. Louis.
Together, Stadia and UNT will cohost an exclusive summer event where students can showcase their creativity and business knowledge by developing a startup pitch with the added advantage of a coaching assist from Stadia executives acting as mentors.
As part of the collaboration, students also will work with Stadia to conduct research and collect data relating to emerging global sports technology and innovation. Stadia will support educational programs alongside the UNT sport entertainment management curriculum and offer unique internship opportunities for UNT students across Stadia events and cohorts.
“The UNT sport entertainment management program prides itself on its ability to partner with the industry and having Stadia Ventures join our partners at the Dallas Cowboys and the PGA of America provides our students with unique access to the latest innovations in sports technology, and an incredible network of some of the brightest minds in the sport industry,” said Bob Heere, program director of UNT’s undergraduate and graduate sport entertainment management programs. “We couldn’t be more pleased about this collaboration.”
Stadia has more than 50 startups in its portfolio and continues to evolve while offering a robust accelerator program with senior business leaders as mentors, senior industry executives as guest speakers and partners with varying areas of expertise. Access to the wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated by Stadia’s mentors helps guide the startups and their founders down a successful path.
Stadia recently held its prestigious “Finalist Pitch Day” with more than 400 judges comprised of senior leaders in sports, esports and business from around the world evaluating pitches from 10 top finalists selected out of more than 300 global applicants. Stadia has just announced its Spring 2021 cohort, offering UNT students the chance to work alongside cohort and mentor teams through the 14-week program.
“We are delighted to work with Bob and the whole team at UNT this year,” said Alex Chalmers, director of corporate partnerships at Stadia Ventures. “Since we started our work in Frisco, Texas in 2018, we have built a fantastic relationship that has now evolved into this collaboration, and we look forward to working alongside many great interns in 2021.”
UNT offers both B.B.A. and M.B.A. programs in sport and entertainment management. Classes are offered either online or in Frisco, in close proximity of the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Stars headquarters, FC Dallas, the Frisco Roughriders, the Texas Legends and the PGA of America. Under the supervision of world class faculty, UNT students continuously engage in project-based learning with many of the professional sport entertainment organizations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and have completed projects over the last two years with the Dallas Cowboys, the PGA of America, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Stars, Major League Rugby, the Professional Futsal League, the Frisco Roughriders and the Dallas Jackals among others.