Manager, Sports Experiences

TKO • Dallas, TX

9d

About The Position

Who We Are: On Location is a global leader in premium experiential hospitality, offering ticketing, curated guest experiences, live event production and travel management across sports, entertainment, fashion and culture. On Location provides unrivaled access for corporate clients and fans looking for official, immersive experiences at marquee events, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games, FIFA World Cup 2026, Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, and more. An official partner and/or service provider to over 150 iconic rights holders, such as the IOC (the Milano Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games), FIFA, NFL, NCAA, UFC, WWE, and PGA of America, the company also owns and operates a number of its own unique experiences. On Location is a subsidiary of TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TKO), a premium sports and entertainment company. TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TKO) is a premium sports and entertainment company. TKO owns iconic properties including UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization; WWE, the global leader in sports entertainment; and PBR, the world’s premier bull riding organization. Together, these properties reach 1 billion households across 210 countries and territories and organize more than 500 live events year-round, attracting more than three million fans. TKO also services and partners with major sports rights holders through IMG, an industry-leading global sports marketing agency; and On Location, a global leader in premium experiential hospitality. Overall Scope of Role The Manager, Sports Experiences, is a key leadership role with primary responsibility for developing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with clients, hotels, hotel brands, the Housing team, and other internal and external clients as applies. This leader will work with executives and leadership within On Location on New York Road Runners and Fanatics related matters and liaise between the client and OLE to help reinforce efficient operations and alignment, as needed. The role successfully manages large-volume hotel reservation management, hotel selection, negotiations, contracting, cash flow, inventory management, and reporting for the Housing team.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Hospitality, Sports Management, Marketing, Business or a related field, or equivalent experience preferred
• Experience in a management position (minimum of 3-5 years) preferably in the sports and/or travel and hospitality industry.
• Experience in handling day-to-day team management activities and issues that may arise.
• The ability to enter negotiations understanding both parties needs and wants and ultimately partnering to obtain win/win results for On Location, vendor, and client
• Demonstrates appropriate level of technical expertise necessary to work with event bid documents, hotel RFPs and hotel contracts
• Exceptional interpersonal skills – a collaborative style and ability to communicate effectively at all levels with strong oral, written, and presentation skills
• The ability to communicate information and ideas to other people verbally in an understandable manner. This competency includes effectively speaking to groups and individuals, making formal presentations, and listening to others.
• Expresses a concern for client satisfaction and focuses the attention of others on the importance of client satisfaction. Initiate actions, steps, plans, systems, processes or programs that seek to maintain high levels or enhance client satisfaction.
• Having and demonstrating the skill to effectively address and resolve problems as part of a team. Solicit input form team members in a group setting. Put team's success ahead of own and share credit for team accomplishments.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas to others in written form, in an understandable manner.
• The ability to understand and comprehend information and ideas in written form. This competency includes effective writing and reading.
• A proven record of accomplishment of strong personal effectiveness in which imaginative and distinctive leadership have been demonstrated
• Continually strive for self-development and discovering better means of accomplishing both personal and professional goals
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications; in particular Excel and Outlook

Nice To Haves

• Professional Sports and Events Operations
• Travel & Hospitality

Responsibilities

• Identify lodging needs for all client events including hotel evaluation, selection, contracting, and ongoing relationship management
• Negotiate hotel contracts based on specific needs (including attrition, food and beverage minimums, amenities, etc.)
• Monitor and manage hotel/lodging contracts to ensure that events receive services as negotiated and terms are appropriately managed (e.g., attrition, rooming list deadlines, special requests, room blocks, etc.)
• Review requests for lodging needs or issue resolution. Gather and relay information between the client, partners, and other departments. Ensure quick turnaround of recommendations or resolutions.
• Ongoing client management with both internal and external clients
• Develop an operational plan to efficiently manage hotel inventory across all events
• Create event and hotel-builds in proprietary reservation system
• Provide leadership and direction while working with leaders of other event teams to develop standardized and documented processes across our team and offices
• Develop a collaborative environment effective at reviewing the efficiency and accuracy of our processes and identify and implement improvements in a timely fashion
• Expand our ability to identify and track opportunities to improve quality
• Establish operational accountability (checklists, quality assurance tests, etc.) and share best practices across housing teams
• Identify improvement opportunities and develop effective training materials to impact results
• Develop, track and improve year-to-year reporting to identify patterns
• Optimize sales and maintain strong hotel relationships in markets
• Situation analysis and decision making
• Takes initiative to identify solutions to solve processes or business problems
• Site inspections of procured hotels and future potential hotels in market as needed
• Provide exceptional customer service
• Work with marketing department to create and distribute consistent event-related communications
• Support accounting with reconciliation and collection process
• Conduct event related training to Housing team, as needed
• Provide leadership/feedback on process development/improvement during meetings
• Participate in post-event review meetings
• Conduct process review/improvement meetings
• Provide input on performance reviews, bonuses, and merit increases, as needed

Benefits

• Competitive salary, commensurate with experience, and a generous benefits package that includes: medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, paid time off, and 401k plan.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager