Rowan University’s Center for Sports Communication and Social Impact hosted Ryan Simon, manager of ticket services for the Philadelphia Phillies. In a packed King Auditorium, students learned about Simon’s journey in sports, beginning his junior year of high school when he decided it was the career path he wanted to pursue. After a career day at his high school, a guest speaker and a mascot came in. From there, he realized that there was more to working in sports than being an athlete. Following in his family’s footsteps, he continued his education at Holy Family University, where he majored in Sports Management.

After his college graduation, Simon spoke about his journey to actually working in sports. He had always wanted to work for the Phillies, but he also knew that it was a numbers game. However, with the help of his former professor, Vice President of Security, Sal DeAngelis, he slowly got his foot in the door. Simon started as a gameday staff member in the premium service department, and although it wasn’t his dream position, he loved being in the office.

“You would have thought I was the general manager,” Simon said. “I was the happiest dude coming to the office, and all I was doing was working a gameday job.”

After his season in premium services, Simon was hired in 2011 as one of the team’s ticket sales interns. During his time there, he was part of the team that sold out 257 consecutive games at Citizens Bank Park. When the Phillies were ultimately eliminated from the 2011 postseason, Simon’s time in ticket sales came to an end. While he was devastated that he was no longer on the path to his dream job, Simon worked hard to get another position with the baseball organization. 

Amid his job search, Simon received an offer to work at an insurance company, which he ended up turning down, in hopes of one day making it back to the sports industry. 

“My family thought I was crazy; they were not wrong,” Simon said. “I was unemployed for a few months, interviewing at a bunch of different places, and then I ended up getting another opportunity with the Phillies.”

Simon’s next chapter with the Phillies was in the team’s merchandise department. He referred to this as his “blue-collar job” because of the hands-on involvement he had in this position. Knowing he wanted to return to sales, Simon took a full-time position as a group sales account executive at Wells Fargo Center (Xfinity Mobile Arena) across the street. Despite his new position, Simon wanted to remain committed to his merchandising role with the Phillies, including their Black Friday sale. His last day on the job got him an invite to the Phillies holiday party, where he was also awarded Orient of the Year.

“To this day, it’s one of the most impactful moments,” Simon said. “I got a standing ovation, David Montgomery gave me the award.”

Even though Simon felt validated after all of his hard work for the organization over the years, he said it still stung, considering he was still not a full-time employee. However, he remained vigilant until he was finally given his position in the Phillies’ sales department in 2015. Since then, Simon has strived, being promoted to manager in 2019.

With many of the Rowan students in attendance planning on working in sports, Simon wanted to end his visit with a piece of advice to ensure everyone has a long career. He explained that it’s important to have drive when you wake up in the morning and want to do your job.

“Happiness is a fleeting thing, you’re gonna have highs and lows, and you can’t tie your joy to the on-field success,” Simon said. “You have to find your happiness somewhere else.”

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