The 9th SDSU International Sports MBA Case Competition

“For the first time since the creation of the competition, the judges decided that there is a runner-up position because of the outstanding work and ideas: The Chinese University of Hong Kong!”

Congratulations! A team of our four full-time Year 1 students was awarded the runner-up honor in the 9th SDSU International Sports MBA Case Competition.

This competition, held annually in San Diego on the Thursday and Friday after the Super Bowl, features four-person team of MBA students from top graduate business programs in sports business strategy competition. Teams are given 24 hours to develop a solution to an international sports-related consulting exercise and then present their research to a panel of sports industry executives, who grade the presentations based on the creativity and efficacy of the proposed solutions.

Hear what the team say…

When you decide to apply for an international competition, and when you know the competition will take place in San Diego, you start crossing your fingers and you easily begin daydreaming about it. But you don’t know that the experience will become a life-long memory.

Our team was composed of Philippe from France, also known as the Captain, Alfie from China, our golf expert, Tobias from Sweden, a former football player and motocross professional, and Paola from Italy, aka the ballerina.

The first day of the competition we met the seven other teams coming mostly from the US and Asia: excitement was in the air! The case presentation was held at PETCO Park, the stadium of the Padres, the professional baseball team of San Diego, and when the business case was finally released around 10 am, we rushed back to our room as we had only 22 hours to deliver our presentation and documents.

The case was about Ironman, the world-known triathlon competition, started in the 70’s and still followed by a growing number of challenges lovers.

Let’s say that working on the case was somehow like preparing an Ironman competition: we worked consecutively from 11 am to 4 am, without any spare time, trying to keep the pace and the energy.

What should we say about the competition at SDSU? The organizers were great, they tried to make us feeling welcomed, they chose an amazing case, and they planned everything with attention. The team was fantastic: it was the first time we worked together, and we created a strong connection during these days in San Diego.

A special thanks goes to CUHK MBA Office for the help in organizing and funding the trip. So, as the next batch is already invited for 2015 competition, there’s only one simple question: are you ready for the challenge?

Philippe Delplancke
Tobias Karlsson
Paola Perversi
Alfred Wang

CUHK MBA Full-time Year 1