A team of four Warsaw Sports Marketing Center MBA students won the National Sports Forum (NSF) Case Cup, February 10-13, 2017, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Danielle Barbian, Nick Hudson, Luke Nofsinger, and Kelly O"Shaughnessy bested teams from other elite graduate sports business programs representing colleges and universities across the country, including Temple University, University of South Carolina, Ohio University, University of South Florida, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, George Washington University, and Long Beach State University.

The 2017 case, which was written by Warsaw Center alumnus Ian Campbell "09—now director of club services for the Major League Soccer (MLS)—focused on driving ticketing and partnership revenue for MLS team Sporting Kansas City by leveraging a new strategic partnership with SeatGeek, a search engine for sports and concert events on the secondary ticket market.

The NSF Case Cup is a graduate-level case competition held every year as part of the larger sports business industry conference, the National Sports Forum. The 24-hour, multidisciplinary case study is designed to push students to excel in a real-world, fast-paced environment similar to working conditions in the sports industry.

NSF is the largest annual cross gathering of the top sports marketing, sales, promotions, and event entertainment executives from the broad range of teams and leagues in North America. Case Cup participants are the only students allowed to join the professionals at the National Sports Forum.

Next year's NSF conference is to be held in Frisco, Texas. The Warsaw Center enjoyed a strong alumni presence in Minnesota this year and would welcome even more of its team-, league-, and brand-focused alumni to the 2018 event. The center has four free passes to distribute; those interested may contact Craig Leon with any questions.