Assignment:
Answer as a grad student, high school football coach at Northeastern high school in Elizabeth city NC. The school we are looking to upgrade is the Elizabeth City Middle school (ECMS) in Elizabeth city nc. The currently have no football field of their own so they are forced to use the Pasquotank county high school field for games and events.
As the signature assignment for this course, you will complete a comprehensive project in two parts that mirror real-world responsibilities an athletics director can face. This signature assignment challenges you to think strategically and innovatively, just as you will in your future leadership roles.
1. Facility Build or Upgrade Plan
2. Opening Event Management Plan
The Comprehensive Facility Plan and Opening Event Management Plan is an item you can include in your final MCAA/MSCE Capstone Portfolio. It can be submitted as a Word Document or a PDF with the goal that the plan could be presented to the leadership of your organization, potential donors or other supporters.
For maximum credit your presentation should include visuals such as pictures of the existing facility/site, aerials from sources such as Google Maps, architectural renderings (if available) or your initial schematic designs, charts, timelines that are integrated into the assignment. To maximize the impact and professionalism of your submission, the use of addendums is highly recommended. Addendums are the correct formatting method for including supporting visuals, such as images, schematics, charts, renderings, and detailed documentation, without interrupting the flow of your main narrative. Integrating your supplemental materials in this way helps organize content more effectively and models how these types of reports are delivered in real-world professional settings.
Your paper must be a minimum of 3-5 pages long (not including your title page, abstract, and reference page) with a minimum of three academic resources included as well. Please make sure that you address all of the required sections for this assignment, but also note that you are not limited to only the required sections. You may add more sections in addition to the required sections as you deem appropriate for your assignment. Additionally, information on governmental approvals needed for the project and other pertinent details that will enhance the reader's understanding should be included.
You must use the APA 7th edition for formatting your citations throughout the entirety of your paper.
Assignment Details:
Part 1 Overview: Facility Build or Upgrade Plan
Select an athletics facility you wish to build, rebuild, or upgrade. This could be at the high school, college, or community level and may include stadiums, gyms, fields, training centers, or multi-use spaces. Based upon the information discussed in the Facility Planning and Event Management class, create a comprehensive facility plan that could be presented to your school, board, investor, principal, AD, city council, etc. This plan may develop a new athletic-related facility or renovate an existing facility at a school, college site or athletic business. You may focus on one specific athletic facility on a campus or the entire athletic complex as a whole. Need Assignment Help?
Part 2 Overview: Opening Event Management Plan
Once your facility plan is finalized, you will design the grand opening event. This could be a game, tournament, showcase, or special ceremony based on your selected facility type.
This project simulates real-world scenarios you will face as an aspiring athletics director or event manager. By completing both a facility plan and an event plan, you will demonstrate your ability to:
- Lead or support capital project from concept to execution
- Manage teams and stakeholders effectively
- Align facility design with event success and user satisfaction
- Apply strategic planning, budgeting, and risk management skills
You will leave this course with a professional-level portfolio piece that showcases your readiness to plan athletics facilities and run successful events, skills highly valued in both high school and collegiate athletics administration.
Required Sections:
Required Assignment Sections: (label each section using APA 7th Edition heading levels)
Title Page & Abstract: Include a properly formatted APA 7th edition title page and abstract
Introduction: Should include a title sheet or slide with the student's name, title of project, name of institution, and its city and state. The introduction should briefly and succinctly explain the student's rationale for the project. Explain the history, scope, purpose, and vision of the facility, and most importantly, how it will benefit students or the users of the facility. Should include visuals (pictures, sketches, drawings, clip art, etc.) or other design elements to show what the facility looks like and could look like, which are ideally integrated into the presentation. (10pts Possible)
Part 1: Facility Build/Upgrade Required Sections
Usage/Flexibility: Describe how the facility will be used and how it will benefit the educational and athletic experiences of the students at the school. Include site location and a specific design (floor plan, room layout, equipment location, etc.) for the facility. Is it a multi-use facility or a sport/athlete-specific facility? What are the other uses for the facility? Explain the flexibility of the facility's uses. Other areas to consider, including but not limited to: Facility features and innovations, design considerations, sustainability, compliance considerations, and stakeholder engagement strategies.
Finance/Budget: Research the estimated total cost of the project and present a budget for your project that includes projected costs, sources of income, both public and private. If you are renovating an existing facility, take the facility as it currently exists and itemize the costs associated with bringing your project to reality. If you are building a new facility, you will need to research all costs associated with building the facility from the ground up. This may or may not include land purchase. In either case, there will be costs associated with purchasing furniture, equipment, data/information/computers, and other items needed to get your facility up and running. Are there sponsorship and/or advertising dollars available? Naming rights allowed? Describe your plan and ideas for generating revenue through these and other sources. It is suggested that budgets include income sources and projected expenses presented in tables or charts. Ideally, costs and income should be presented in easy-to-read tables and/or charts.
Timeline: Should include estimated times it will take to work through the entire process of design, fundraising/funding, approval, construction and finishing of your facility. It is preferred that timelines include tables, charts or some other graphic display that makes them easier to understand.
Barriers: What are the barriers that you envision having to overcome? How will you overcome those barriers? How will it be paid for? Who makes the final decision? How will you develop consensus for the project? Are there institutional or community dynamics that are unique to your project that must be considered to gain approval?
Governmental Approval Process - What will need to be done in terms of permits and submittals to have your project approved by the appropriate governmental organizations (city, state, county, school district, college/university system, environmental organizations, etc.)
Management/Maintenance: Once constructed, describe the management plan. How will the facility be run and maintained? Who will be responsible for its upkeep and regular scheduling of usage by students? If appropriate, provide an organizational chart showing levels of responsibility for the facility's management and maintenance.
Part 2: Opening Event Plan Required Sections
Event Concept & Objectives: Define the purpose of your opening event (e.g., grand opening event, tournament, homecoming game, alumni event, facility naming event, fundraiser... etc.) Within this section, identify the key objectives and target audiences as well.
Budget Development: To the best of your ability, outline projected expenses for the opening event (staffing, officials, equipment, security, marketing, promotional giveaways, etc.). In this section, you also want to identify any revenue streams from the event (ticket sales, concessions, donations, sponsorships, team store sales, etc.).
Staffing/Volunteer Coordination: Identify the staffing needs of your event. (Will you be hiring staff or soliciting volunteers- or both) Will you have a staff/volunteer coordinator, or who will be managing the staff? Will you have meetings beforehand with staff? If so, please describe how you will go about training staff/volunteers and assigning duties and responsibilities.
Marketing & Communication Plan (To promote the opening event): How will you promote this event? (Flyers, social media posts, mailers, on campus promotions, off campus promotions...etc.)
Risk Management & Emergency Preparedness: Give a description of the EAP for the venue/event opening and discuss coordination with campus safety, campus police, fire, EMT services, security, athletic training and sports medicine department...etc. Also, ensure that the event complies with safety codes, insurance policies, and ADA compliance.
Fan Experience Enhancements: If you are selling tickets, how much per ticket, advance sales, VIP, student discounts, etc. Also, explain how you will be selling tickets (e-tickets? Mobile ticket scanning? Paper tickets? Both? How are you collecting tickets, what will the admissions process look like? will-call, entry gates, guest-list...etc). Please include any other information for how you intend to enhance the fan experience ( crowd flow, parking, transportation routes, day of information, giveaways, raffles, in-game entertainment, seat upgrade drawing, concessions options, social media in-game engagement...etc.)
Operational Timeline & Logistics: Please provide a timeline for the event that includes event set-up, event flow, and breakdown. The timeline should be a detailed schedule that includes any vendors, deliveries, day of agenda, etc.
Sponsorships and Partnerships: In this section, please identify any partnerships that you may have for this event (on-campus, off-campus, community partners, student groups, etc.). Are there sponsorship packages and benefits for this event? Are there any activation stations with partners/sponsors? If so, is there on-site branding and coordination that needs to take place?
Post-Event Evaluations and Feedback: Feedback is vital for growth and event management/stakeholder satisfaction. How will you gather feedback from staff, volunteers, attendees, and stakeholders? How will you review the financials against the budget? Are you in the red or the green after this event concludes? How will you document the lessons you have learned and recommendations for future events?
Conclusion/Summary: A final restatement of your vision for the project, how it will benefit students or users, and should include a final needs statement to secure support of your project if read by or presented to a school principal, board of trustees, dean, college president, etc.
References: MCAA Course Guidelines require Capstone Projects for all classes to include at least three references in APA style. Acceptable references include from the textbook, websites where you gathered information, and citations of local or state codes. All references must be properly cited in APA 7th edition format and listed on a reference page. Ensure that all sources are credible and accessible to readers for verification and further exploration.
Overall Presentation: Completeness of combined elements, visual appearance of presentation, grammar and spelling, and feasibility of the project. This project is one of the designated projects for MCAA 562 that needs to be included in your MCAA 595 Capstone submission.
Helpful Hints & Reminders:
- Google or Bing aerial shots of the site of proposed projects with outlines of proposed additions/new facilities.
- Use APA 7th Edition heading levels to organize your paper.
- Use Charts, graphs, or tables for your timelines and cost estimates so those items are more easily understood by readers as addendums.
- Properly use $ signs and commas when expressing numbers. The correct way to say dollar amounts over a million in your narrative is $1 million, $5.2 million, not $1,000,000 or $5,200,000.
- Make sure the numbers in columns add up correctly and that timelines have logical progressions.
- Please save multiple copies of your Final Project as they are needed for your MCAA/MSCE 595 capstone project.
- Use one-inch (1") margins on all sides of the document.
- A variety of fonts are permitted in APA Style papers. The MCAA/MSCE department prefers that you continue to use Times New Roman. However, if you select to use Calibri or another font, please use Calibri or the other font throughout the paper. Please note that your final portfolio will require the same font throughout. Font options include the following:
1. sans serif fonts such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode
2. serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the default font for LaTeX)
- In general, double-space all parts of an APA Style paper, including the abstract; text; block quotations; table and figure numbers, titles, and notes; and reference list (including between and within entries). Do not add extra space before or after paragraphs.
- Indent the first line of each paragraph of text 0.5 in. from the left margin. Use the tab key or the automatic paragraph-formatting function of your word-processing program to achieve the indentation (the default setting is likely already 0.5 in.). Do not use the space bar to create indentation.
- Student papers do not include a running head. The student title page includes the paper title, author names (the byline), author affiliation, course number and name for which the paper is being submitted, instructor name, assignment due date, and page number, as shown in the following example. Click on the following web link to view the "Title Page Setup" information:
- There are five levels of heading in APA Style. Level 1 is the highest or main level of heading, Level 2 is a subheading of Level 1, Level 3 is a subheading of Level 2, and so on through Levels 4 and 5.
The number of headings to use in a paper depends on the length and complexity of the work.
- If only one level of heading is needed, use Level 1.
- If two levels of heading are needed, use Levels 1 and 2.
- If three levels of heading are needed, use Levels 1, 2, and 3 (and so on).
Use only the number of headings necessary to differentiate distinct sections in your paper.
Important Note: 595/596 students, please make sure to follow the MA Sample Format for Portfolio document, as the title page is in a different format than the core and elective courses.
- Use one (1) space after all punctuation at the end of a sentence.
- Use numerals to express numbers 10 and above, and words for numbers nine and below.
- Abstracts are required within signature assignments.
- Use Word's spelling and grammar checker. Do not assume that the spell checker will catch everything-proofreading is still needed to catch errors like "here" in place of "hear." Microsoft Word's Spelling and Grammar Checker catches extra spaces as well as repeated words. Please check every word, space, and phrase that is underlined in green or red.
- Generally speaking, avoid using the word I, unless you are the sole author of the document. Likewise, avoid using the word we, unless you are a co-author of the document.
- Your reference list should only include sources that you cite in the body of your paper.
- If you cite a reference, you are tacitly certifying that you have read the entire journal article or pertinent book chapter(s), are familiar with the contents, and have evaluated the substance of the work in terms of your task.
- A block quotation is used for a direct quote of over 40 words in length. These quotations are indented one tab space and do not contain quotation marks, and the punctuation comes at the end of the sentence rather than after the citation.