Career Report

Dorothea Hionis
Penn State
 Introduction
I chose to interview Jeff Long for this report. I interviewed Mr. Long on February 8th 2023. I
chose to interview him because I have heard about him and his work before. After the
interview, I learned so much more about him and what he does as well as his past in his
industry. Jeff Long is the founder of Victory Event Series and is a sports agent. He attended
Saint Joes University and wanted to be a D1 athlete in running. He wanted to become a sports
agent and after having a conversation with his uncle who was layer with taxes told him that he
needs to learn how to read and write in order to get into law school to be a sports agent. After
hearing this he decided to become an English major with a minor in business. Although Mr.
Long did not end up going to law school when he graduated but instead he was given the
opportunity to become a graduate assistant in the athletic department at Saint Joes for their
marketing and events in their ticket office. Then about 2 years later he landed a job at Rutgers
in their athletic department generating revenue non-traditionally for almost 2 years. While
there he created the Scarlette Night Corporate Village which was a high-end tailgate party for
companies who wanted to do company morale. Then became the Director of Corporate
Sponsorship for the Atlantic Ten Conference, then got elevated to Assistant Commissioner and
was there for 11 seasons. Then applied for the Eagles and landed a job as the Director of
Corporate Partnerships for them and worked there for 3 years. While working for them Jeff was
put in a situation to make a deal that he said was nearly impossible to make so he decided that
he was going to start his own firm and sold for CBS who bought the Atlantic Ten rights as well
as a bunch of other people. While doing this end ended up selling for this guy who sold a lot of
lacrosse tournaments and decided that he could do the same thing and he took off. He was
running some of the largest lacrosse tournaments around. He started a basketball league and
much more with the Victory Event Series which is what he created in October of 2008.

Mission/Purpose of the Agency/Department

For Victory Event Series Mission statement it is, “Deliver elite events for elite athletes”. They try
and hold all their elite events at elite facilities for elite athletes as well which is something that
Mr. Long explained could be sometimes a bit of a challenge. For example, the Westtown School
in West Chester PA is an example of an elite facility because of how many grass fields they
have. This company goes above and beyond in making all of the clubs and teams that are
attending these tournaments and events feel very special. He states that something that he
does differently that some other companies may not is that he will personally do a follow up
call with the coaches a few months before the tournament and confirm with them that they are
still as good as the club says they are and that they would still like to be in the bracket for this
tournament that they first stated.

Clientele Served
Within Victory Event Series there was many clients within his company. He sold seats for
colleges sports games but only for 2 years. He continues to sell to different teams, companies,
and individuals. For example, he worked for Chickie & Petes working with all their athletes like
the Eagles players. He also has is lacrosse tournament that have had up to over 100 teams
playing in it. He calls different lacrosse team coaches to tell them about his tournaments to get
them to attend. He holds the tournaments at large facilities like the Westtown School for
example. He has done both male and female tournaments with all different age ranges. The
lacrosse tournaments are usually held in the fall and summer. In also explained to me that he
does summer basketball tournaments as well as they are in the works of branching out even
more but not able to disclose further information at this time. At one point he also had The
Healthy Kids Running Series which was the largest non-exclusive running series in the country
but later on sold it to his brother to focus more on Victory Event Series.

Services and Programs Provided

Victory Event Series’ main focus is its lacrosse tournaments. There boys lacrosse tournament is
their oldest one and they are going on 17 years of this tournament. They also offer a girls
lacrosse tournament. They also have a summer basketball league for both boys and girls. They
have branched out and hold these tournaments all over the U.S. now with hundreds of teams
attending. They also hold showcases for lacrosse as well.

Staffing
The Victory Event Series staff contains only six workers as well as the 3 interns they hire every
summer. There is the owners, who is Jeff Long as well as his wife, the executive director, they
have an operations coordinator, and then 3 sales workers. The sales workers are the ones
calling the lacrosse teams to tell them about their upcoming events and that they should have
their teams participate in them.

Funding Source(s)
As for the lacrosse tournaments are he states they are “a multi- fascinate revenue stream."
Meaning that they collect revenue from the team that pays to register their team. They also
 collect revenue from their concession stands as well as from their sponsorship sales. They
control their own sponsorships. They also collect revenue on merchandise as well as hotels. As
Mr. Long Stated, “Right now we are not representing anyone but ourselves because we have
enough inventory to sell our own sponsorships.” They pay their staff and rent and others things
like that from the revenues they generate from their lacrosse tournaments.

Professional Issues

When asking Mr. Jeff Long what one of the biggest issues he and his agency struggles with he
said, “Getting people to believe me that I can run a lacrosse tournament when I know nothing
about lacrosse.” Hearing this proves that if you are passionate about something so much and
put in the work it pays off. He also states that he needs to be careful he does not become a
“mom and pop” type of company. He states that one of his challenges is trying to stay relevant,
and completive and really cater towards the customer in a way that makes them want to come
back. He is constantly trying to make everyone's experience at his tournaments all feel like
winners. He states that he is constantly working on trying to make the losers of the
tournaments still feel like they gained something from attending and playing. he said that he is
always felt that he has developed that need for those teams and attendees. He says that this is
a completive field. Chances are that there is going to be someone out there who may be better
than you. When he first started his agency he felt blessed that he had so much self-discipline to
not ever give up and not let all of the struggles outweigh the future accomplishments that he is
going to achieve. He said that you should never let anyone tell you that “you can't” or “you’re
not going to make it” because he started his company doing lacrosse tournaments which is
something that he had no knowledge about at all and it all started because he went to his
neighbor’s son’s lacrosse game.