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New Management Concentration Makes Debut Many business schools offer programs focused on sports, entertainment, or hospitality management individually. CBAPP’s new Sports Entertainment and Hospitality Management concentration will be unique by serving as a nexus for all three. CSUDH offers the perfect location for such a program. The campus is located in the entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles. Additionally, the city serves as one of the largest spectator sports markets and most popular tourism destinations in the country. Making the location even more ideal for such a program is the presence on campus of the multi-million dollar Home Depot Center sports complex. The University and specifically Provost Allen Mori have long intended to bring such a program to campus that will embody the public-private partnership with the HDC. Essentially, AEG, the owners of the HDC and the Staples Center, are in the business of weaving all three of these aspects of management together, which helped serve as the framework for developing the groundbreaking program. “Las Vegas established the model: You use sports and entertainment to drive people to your venue and sell them food and rooms once they’re there. At the Home Depot Center, they bring people to their venues with sports, which is entertainment in itself from a marketing perspective, and they also host events like concerts. Now, with Phase II of the HDC under construction, they’ll also soon be providing the meals and beds that incorporates the hospitality side,” said Dean James Strong. The Phase II project Strong speaks of is the construction of a 200-bed luxury hotel that will be located on campus. Within the Phase II contract, the HDC has promised to offer 20 internships to CSUDH students and the new program would deliver many deserving candidates for these positions. Phase II is projected for completion in TK. In addition, Strong hopes they will be able to fold other components of the program into AEG’s day-to-day business relationships and experience. Roger Berry, professor and chair of marketing, and Jack Kitson, emeritus professor of marketing, took the lead on developing the curriculum for the concentration over the past two years, which will consist of eight total classes including three required courses and five electives. At the same time the curriculum was being built, CBAPP actively recruited for a faculty position to head-up the program and found what they were looking for in Natasa Christodoulidou, assistant professor of hospitality management, who will come to campus in the fall. With her focus on hospitality management, Christodoulidou has spent her time at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas completing her Ph.D. on research dealing with how consumers find and use electronic travel services such as Travelocity.com and Expedia.com. UNLV is widely regarded as having one of the best hospitality management programs in the country, and Christodoulidou graduated in May with a 3.92 grade-point average. Her dissertation was titled, “Exploring the Role of Travel Meta Search in the Hospitality Industry: Opportunity or Threat?” She also has expertise in supply chain management based on Ph.D. coursework at Arizona State University, another focus for CBAPP as it launches its Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management program this fall. Like everyone else involved in launching the Sports Entertainment and Hospitality Management Program, she recognizes the power that the program’s setting will have in not only attracting students, but giving them practical, hands-on experience to supplement their coursework. “It’s a great combination for the university with the location of the sports facility and also Long Beach and Los Angeles as major travel and tourism destinations. It’s a very dynamic location for this concentration to take shape and it will give graduating students a number of opportunities as they exit the program,” said Christodoulidou, who has been steeped in hospitality management from an early age because her father ran a travel agency during her childhood. Christodoulidou will come to campus at the start of the fall semester and will lead in the development of the program along with Strong and Berry. |
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