January 30, 2020

Meet Ashley Splawn of Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena in Downtown

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Splawn.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Ashley. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
As a child, I was always into sports. Many of my weekends were spent traveling to play competitive soccer and AAU basketball. Never was I the girl interested in playing with dolls or wearing dresses. My business was sports and this was something that always stayed with me. Because of my dedication and competitive drive I was able to land a soccer scholarship to Lees-McRae College, NCAA Division II, where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Sports Management and Business. I knew I wanted to work in professional sports but I had no idea how I was going to get my foot in the door. My college professor, Dr. Blassingame always states, “It is not what you know, but who you know”. This was a hard concept for me to grasp. After all, I was from a small community in Knoxville TN, went to a small private college, and quite frankly didn’t have any connections to get me where I wanted to be. Despite my humble beginnings, I always thought big and was determined to figure it out on my own and build from the group up.

After college, I decided to leap of faith and moved to California, because I knew California had an abundance of sports opportunities for me to jump start my career… And you can never go wrong with the weather. During my time there I attended California Baptist University where I obtained my Master’s Degree in Sports Management. While the curriculum aided in my understanding of the industry, I wasn’t able to gain much traction because of my lack of work experience. Fortunately, I was able to land two unpaid internships at ABC7 Sports Departments as a sports reporter and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes baseball team working in marketing/promotions. In addition to my internship positions, I was working part-time at Costco and the Nike Outlet and my weekends were always spent attending different networking events in LA in hopes to leverage my chances in connecting with the right person to start my career in sports. Often, reiterating the phrase in my head “It’s not what you know, but who you know”, it was #TeamNoSleep for me.

After completing grad school and my two internships, I began actively searching for jobs on Teamworkonline.com (a career site that connects people to leading organizations in sports and live events.) After being interviewed and told “No” from a few professional sports teams in California, I didn’t allow that to stop by determination and drive to pursue my goal. Shortly after, Angels Baseball said “Yes” and I finally landed my first official career job in the sports industry. After working with the Angels organization for a year I then went on to work for AEG Entertainment.

Due to personal circumstances, I decided to leave California and continue to grow my career in Atlanta, GA. With no connections in Atlanta, I started to connect with current employees of the Atlanta Hawks organization on LinkedIn in hopes they can direct my resume to the right hiring manager at that time. My resume was presented to the hiring manager seven times which lead me to establish a new role with the Atlanta Hawks organization not from my past experiences, but my persistence. Since starting with the organization back in 2014, I have been promoted four times and I still currently work there.

My journey has not been easy. I have made many sacrifices, mistakes, and tireless efforts to figure out what I wanted for myself. With each hurdle that I faced, there was always valuable lessons that I learned – stay persistent, pursue your passion, and genuinely connect with people.

Has it been a smooth road?
My journey has not always been easy. Whenever I felt I was taking one step forward, I was faced with hurdles that pushed me to take two steps back. While I was searching for a job after grad school I found that most of the open positions required 3-5+ years experience. With no experience, I decided to go in a different direction and was able to obtain two unpaid internships. I worked along with side people with substantially fewer credentials. Even though I took these internships with the understanding that my goal was to gain experience in different roles, I started to question myself and worried if it was worth it. My frustration only served to slow down my progress and I soon realized I needed to change my mindset to finish what I started. Overall, my internships gave me experience but also clarity. I didn’t establish a passion for either role and knew what I didn’t want to do.

I had been told “no” multiple times after interviews before I landed my first career job in the sports industry. This caused me to feel an intense sense of failure. I decided to change my perspective on the word “no” because rejection happens all the time, especially working in sales. Over the years, I learned to be open to unexpected opportunities in the midst of struggles and challenges. Now my focus is to elevate my awareness and be adaptive to change.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena is a live sports and entertainment venue. Our core mission is to make memorable moments for each and every guest. More than just the home of the NBA Atlanta Hawks, State Farm Arena is a top destination for the biggest musical performers and consistently recognized as one of the best live music venues in North America and the world.

Currently, I work as a Manager of Premium Sales. My role consists of developing a network of corporate executives and business professionals by providing them with world-class entertainment, sports, and hospitality options for their clients or employees at State Farm Arena.

I am most proud of the business results and cultural impact that the Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena has accomplished thus far. By building bridges through basketball, growing our partnerships, and raising the bar on how we interact with and entertain fans — our success has been enabled through cooperation that reaches across all parts of the organization.

I have been successful in my current position because of my focus on networking and building genuine connections with clients and potential clients. Relationship capital and situational knowledge are the two biggest things that I have utilized to help build my career. You need to be focused when you’re young, surrounding yourself with the right people, the right ideas, and treating those people and ideas with respect. Situational knowledge is invaluable and gets easier with time and experience. While you can’t do anything about time, you can find ways to utilize your time more efficiently.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Atlanta is a great city to start career sports because there are multiple sports teams and opportunities to gain insight into the industry.

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