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JK McKay Career Report Final Paper

Cooper Allen

The Pennsylvania State University

RPTM 101, Section 601

Professor Emigh

March 27, 2024

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For my career report, I interviewed JK McKay, the Director of Community Relations for

the Harrisburg Senators, on March 22nd. I chose to interview Mr. McKay because his job is a

combination of working in sports and public relations, working in the Communications,

Marketing, and Merchandising Department for the agency. I am interested in following a similar

path and thought that he would be a great candidate for me to learn from and gather some advice

for this career path. I also grew up in the local area of the Harrisburg Senators, going to their

games when I was younger, so I was excited to interview a community representative of the

agency. According to the Harrisburg Senators website, Mr. McKay is,“An alumnus of the

University of Central Arkansas where he studied public relations and marketing”(Harrisburg

Senators). Similarly to Penn State University, he did not have the option to major in sports

marketing or management. The public relations degree allowed him to work with nonprofits, so

he followed that path in hopes of working with the community as a front office staff member. He

joined the Harrisburg Senators in 2017 on an internship but, “Had very little work experience at

all, and zero working in sports before that”(McKay). After one season as an intern, he was hired

back full time and was later promoted to his current role, the Director of Community Relations.

After diving into Mr. McKay’s schooling and career history, I shifted towards asking him

questions about the mission and purpose of the agency and his specific department as well. Mr.

McKay did not have a formal mission statement for the Harrisburg Senators, but he came up with

the general idea: “Provide affordable family fun and baseball to surrounding areas, and to be a

positive staple of the community”(McKay). But, he also added that another one of the

organization's missions is to, “Be a stepping stone for professional baseball players to work their

way up to the majors”(McKay). Although I did not find the mission statement on the website,

Mr. McKay provided a great notion, on the spot, of the mission for the community, as well as the
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mission for the baseball players. Following this, we started to dive into the clients, and

everything that the agency and his specific department provides for them. His department mainly

markets towards families, but I found it interesting that they often target the woman in the

relationship specifically. He said this because they have found that, “When making family plans,

it typically comes down to the mothers decision”(McKay). Families make up a majority of their

client demographic and they are very successful with their marketing for them. The marketing

department has also found that their toughest demographic to market to is college aged kids, so

they, “Created a cheap beer night on Thursdays to draw on some smaller demographics that we

do not hit on as consistently”(McKay). They have been experimenting, trying to draw in more

people from crowds they do not normally see in attendance. The Harrisbrug Senators also

provide some season ticket memberships for their clients. You can get a quarter, half, and full

season tickets with each tier having different perks, and there is also a Kids Club version for

children. They also have an indoor club section with air conditioning, food, and beverages for

pass holders. A majority of the customers come from Hershey, Dauphin County, Cumberland

County, and some from Perry County(McKay). They try to pull customers from the more

populated surrounding areas, but are limited due to a competitor team located in York.

As we switched focus to the services provided, Mr. McKay talked about how the agency

provides a lot alongside the baseball games, and there is always a lot happening at the ballpark.

He dove into his department, the marketing department, and the range of things they provide.

The department deals with, “Community relations, social media, graphic design, video

production, game entertainment, and merchandise”(McKay). He explained how anything on

social media, any sign or advertisement in the ballpark, and the video board all fall under their

roles in the marketing department. Since he is the Director of Community Relations, he talked a
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lot about what exactly that means. It can include working with, “Schools, non profits, churches,

and youth sports to provide fundraising or outreach programs”(McKay). To build on that, he

mentioned that they rent out the stadium to non profits. The annual Heart Walk goes partially

into the stadium, and they even allow K-9 and service dog training there as well. One extra thing

they do is a little league field renovation with a partner so they split the cost. They tend to do a

lot of similar community services with sponsors as a way to give back to local communities.

I then shifted the interview towards more specific and logistic topics. Mr. McKay

estimates that there are about twenty five full time employees, which are all of the major roles of

the Front Office Staff. A huge part of the organization is part time work, ranging from, “Ushers,

ticket scanners, promo team, and concessions”(McKay). He estimates the total to be about

275-300 part time employees, but they do not always work every game. These workers are also

referred to as seasonal employees, as they have no work to do in the stadium during the off

season. They typically all return each season as most part time employers are retired and working

there for fun. There are no volunteer positions in the stadium, even the low tier internships are

paid. Next we discussed funding, and how the agency gets most of its income. Mr. McKay said,

“There are three big tiers; ticket sales, merchandise sales, and sponsorship agreements”(McKay).

Those are the biggest and easiest streams of income to measure. The team shop has a wide

variety of merchandise, and many companies can sponsor advertisements in the ballpark.

To wrap it up, I asked about his personal challenges and excitements working in this field

and career. He said the biggest challenges are, “Long hours and attending every game since we

do not have hundreds of full time employees like the professional teams do”(McKay). Similar to

some guest speakers we have had, he mentioned how busy he gets and how long his hours are

during the season, but the off season is a lot more laid back and there's less work to do. However,
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his excitements and high points in his career outshine the challenges. He really enjoys, “Being

involved in so many things, learning many new skills, and how different every day of work

is”(McKay). All of the special themed nights they have keep the job fun and exciting, making

each day completely different from the last. It is easy to tell that Mr. McKay loves his job, and

enjoys working in public relations for a sports team.

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Works Cited

Harrisburg Senators Baseball Club. The Official Site of the Harrisburg Senators. (n.d.).

https://www.milb.com/harrisburg

McKay, JK. (2024, March, 22). Personal Communication [Online Interview].