The Young Professionals Chamber of Commerce Sixth Annual Business Leadership Competition in December was a huge success and especially gratifying for the top five teams who had competed in the Sports Marketing category.  Teams from Commack, Deer Park, Northport and St. Dominic High School were invited to share their presentations with the President of the New York Islanders on Friday January 16th. 

This year’s Sports Marketing project focused on the Islanders franchise and how to improve the business. The students were given the task of creating a plan to attract more people, promote the team, promote team merchandise and make attending the games more exciting.  One of the judges for the category, Paul Lancey, former Business Director for the Islanders, was so impressed with the presentations that he invited the top five teams to the Islander Headquarters to present their project information to Chris Dey, President of the Islanders.

Mr. Dey truly felt each team had several great ideas and he promised to consider some of their concepts to improve the marketing of the Islanders.  Each team was interested in student discounts, signed merchandise and meeting the players to sign autographs before games.

After the projects were completed the students were more excited to hear how Mr. Dey started his career in sports, his college internships, first job and how he became President of the Islanders.  His story was fascinating and much appreciated by his audience.