Staff Spotlight: Kate Gier

This is the 20th in a biweekly series spotlighting the men and women behind the scenes supporting Temple Athletics.

Kate Gier joined the Temple Athletics Marketing and Fan Engagement staff in September of 2021. Before shifting over to the marketing and fan engagement staff, Gier began her career at Temple in July of 2017 in ticket sales.

In her current role, Gier works directly in marketing women's basketball and volleyball and her efforts helped contribute to a 71 percent growth in revenue for women's basketball from 2021-22 to 2022-23.

For nearly two years (2017-19), Gier served as a Ticket Sales Account Executive for Learfield IMG College Ticket Solutions working with the Temple Athletics account. She then transitioned to a full-time position with Temple Athletics when the ticket sales department was taken in house. Gier and the ticket sales staff worked to build and foster client relationships and drive revenue for the department through the sale of season ticket packages, experiences and single game tickets.

Gier came to Temple after spending three years working as a Dual Rate Supervisor for Sands Casino in Bethlehem, Pa. Prior to that, she spent a year with The Aspire Group as a Retention Specialist for Rutgers University. In the fall of 2012, Gier was a ticket sales associate for the Sacramento Kings. She also completed internships with the Philadelphia Eagles and Lehigh University.

Gier, who earned her undergraduate degree from DeSales University in 2012 in sport management, completed her master's degree in Sport Business from Temple's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management in 2020.

Talk about your decision to return to work in athletics after being away from it since your internships following graduation?
"I took a three-year break from athletics while working at a casino in marketing as I wanted to work within the entertainment industry. I thought it would be a better work-life balance, but once I was out of athletics for a while I missed it, especially the game days and the atmosphere of the fans in the stands.   So, after three years I realized I was not meant to be working in a casino. The whole reason I love what I do now is because of those game days. The absence of that made life a little more boring."

You started at Temple in ticket sales, then moved over to marketing and fan engagement. How has that worked out?
"My long-term career goal was always to work withing marketing and fan engagement I was really lucky when Temple took the ticket office operation in-house as I was then able to go to grad school. So, I went to grad school with the intention of moving into marketing. That is one thing I am really thankful to Temple for, that I was able to earn my master's degree. As part of the program, we had to write a marketing plan. So, when this job opened, I applied for it and showed Scott (Walcoff) my marketing plan and won the job.

I absolutely love what I do. Gamedays in any sport are what drive me. Interacting with the fans and seeing their excitement. I feel like I get a lot more of that in marketing than in ticket sales.   I love to be able to create that experience. The different promotions on the field or on the court, setting up the fan zones, that is what I am really interested in, and I have a lot of fun doing it."

How difficult was it to work full-time here at Temple while earning your master's degree?
"It was hard as I did a program that is no longer offered, an accelerated master's program. So instead of it being two years it was one. Every class was five weeks instead of a semester long. It was also at nights. It was difficult as working in sports is a lot of hours so trying to work and get the classes in between games was a lot. The fact that Covid hit while I was in school meant we did not have as many in-person games made it a lot easier for me to get through it."

What is the most memorable moment so far in your time here at Temple?
"The first thing that comes to mind is when Scott Walcoff told me I had the position as I finally landed my dream job. Besides that, was a couple years ago when we played Memphis for our Homecoming Football game. It was a tight game. There was a controversial call that went our way, and we got the ball back. I was sitting with my group and experiencing that with the group. It was so nice."

What is the next step in your career path?
"The next step for me is to get as much experience as possible. Murray (Littlepage) is going to let me go up into the Football press box and let me help call games to get more experience. Then hopefully moving into an assistant athletic director position in this field."

Temple University Athletics

Staff Spotlight: Kate Gier

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