20 | INNOVISION MAGAZINE TANNER BUCHAS SPORT MANAGEMENT FEATURED SPEAKER The event started with a few hurdles as students and faculty rallied together to fix technical issues before Marketing Manager, Tanner Buchas, could virtually share his journey with the Sport Management students this Fall. The ticking down of the forty-five-minute slot added urgency as the spontaneously assembled team worked to gain sound from the speaker system. Buchas broke the tension when he said, “you guys are clearly sport management majors—when you have an issue, you figure it out.” After achieving a makeshift solution consisting of two cellphones and a portable, clip-on microphone to amplify Buchas’ voice, Buchas snapped into presentation mode taking advantage of the remaining minutes. The team returned to their seats, and the room settled, allowing the technical difficulties to melt easily away. “I kind of took a unique path through sports,” Buchas admitted. He possesses an interesting story, starting as an engineering major at York college to then become the Mascot Coordinator, specializing in Game Presentation, for the Florida Panthers Hockey Team. He did not intend to go into Sport Management, but when a friend asked him to come work for the Lehigh Valley’s minor league baseball team, the IronPigs, his path drastically changed. At first, Buchas refused his friend’s offer, not seeing how it would help his career path; however, during a family dinner his father, with a serious jest, said to Buchas, “You idiot! When are you going to get the chance to work for a sports team? Go for it.” Buchas would go on to work for the IronPigs for six years, ultimately making the decision to completely change his career path into sport management. Gaining four titles within the six years working for the IronPigs, Buchas had the most fun in event management as a sales sponsor and promo crew member. He also gained multiple opportunities for internships that gained him marketing experience and provided him with key skills he would utilize in his future. At the time, Buchas “was the youngest person working for the IronPigs to sell a $100,000 sponsorship through Mack Trucks,” he relayed. “My biggest advice is to make sure you know how to sell and make money,” Buchas said soberly. “You can be the best at social media and community relations, but what they really want to know is if you can bring money into the company.” He also had the opportunity to manage events and network with many notable people in the sports industry during his time with the IronPigs, such as the owner of the New Jersey Devils and the Seventy-Sixers. This led Buchas to gain a job with Florida’s pro hockey team, the Panthers. While working a total of six years with the Panthers, Buchas was also the teams’ mascot as well as Mascot Coordinator, managing an immediate team of six while learning about all the moving parts in Professional Sport Management. These parts included various duties of director, manager, and coordinator of Game Presentation which require strict attention to detail with everything in the right place at the right time on game day. The Traveling Video Producer is also a vital person of the production, Buchas stated, traveling everywhere with the team. The process has a quick turner over where producers must edit videos as they travel from game to game. After fourteen years in the sport management business, Buchas is now the Regional Market Manager at StaySky Vacation Clubs. Although his career has taken a different route, Bachas said all his marketing experience in sport management “is easily transferable” to the resort industry. As a side business he also possesses his own brand and content creation, Fresh Fuzz Freddy, where he shares stories and secrets of his time as a Mascot relaying the times when he would sweat ten pounds of water weight per game and wake up the next day feeling like he had a hangover due to dehydration (not alcohol consumption). Buchas runs multiple social media accounts for his brand with a large following and has future plans of working on a mascot themed game show project with Half Year Productions. As the forty-five minutes depleted, Buchas wrapped up his presentation on Sport Management and Production by opening channels of communication with the students through LinkedIn, email, and a QR code to Fresh Fuzz Freddy. His unique journey acts as an alternative route through Sport Management for majors to consider and learn from as they continue their own individual and unique paths.
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