Corey Saccone, Contributing writer
COO of Dover Motor Sports, Mike Tatoian spoke with Saint Leo Sport Business students about starting from the bottom and working your way up.
Teco Hall played host of yet another sports professional from the National Sports Forum Speaker Series. This particular guest gave students the insights of working in motor sports. Starting from the ground up, Mike started as a telemarketer and now serves as Executive Vice President Chief Operating Officer of Dover Motor Sports.
Picking up his bachelor’s degree studying public relations and marketing at the University of Northern Iowa, Mike’s first job after being a telemarketer was groundskeeper for the university’s baseball team. Making a mere two dollars an hour, he quickly became director of media relations.
Davenport, Iowa was the starting point for Mike’s sports oriented goal. While with the Quad Cities Angels minor league baseball team, he went from being assistant general manager to general manger in his short time with the club. From there he switched over to the mid-west league to become general manager of the Fort Wayne Wizards minor league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.
As Chief Executive Officer for Victory Sports Group, a baseball team was created in Gary, Indiana. Many people did not see this being a smart idea at the time. With strategic planning and continuous marketing, the first game of the season was an absolute success not only because it was a packed stadium, but the fact that blacks and whites were socializing and rooting for the same team was remarkable beyond itself during that time.
Some challenges he faced throughout the course of his career began with having to clean bathrooms in the Texas league, while with Tulsa to forgetting to order buns with hot dogs on 50 cent hot dog night. While with Tulsa he was specifically upset about cleaning bathrooms because out of college with a degree he didn’t expect to be doing maintenance type work. His boss told him to be the best at whatever he did and to have the cleanest bathrooms in the Texas league. Mike made this a goal and at the end of the year received an award for his work even though he knew it was just out of respect.
At Dover Speedway Tatoian’s crew helped host the Firefly Music Festival with Red Frog Events which included 48 rock bands and four separate stages over 80 acres of land outside the tracks. Averaging 30,000 people a night over the three day weekend the festival is projected to be doubled with 60 bands this upcoming June to go along with 60,000 fans a night.
Tatoian’s advice was that even though he had no idea of anything involving motor sports, he learned that all sports follow the same core infrastructure of selling tickets, public safety, merchandising, customer service, and food and beverage among others. He goes by the phrase PIK, which stands for passion, integrity, and kindness. Having all these tasks calls for a successful organization.
“It shocked me to find out he knew nothing about motor sports and now he is the executive vice president of Dover motor sports,” said sophomore Melissa McMahon.
The speaker series continues on Tuesday, March 5th at 7:00 p.m. in Teco Hall. Caitlin Moyer, Senior Manager-Advertising and Marketing for the Milwaukee Brewers will Skype in and give the student’s advice from the MLB.
