NOLA GOLD RUGBY
Events & Operations Manager · 2025 · New Orleans, LA
Built and managed the operational systems behind NOLA Gold Rugby's game-day experience while overseeing the logistics, staff, entertainment, and activations that brought the stadium experience to life.
- 30
- Event staffcoordinatedEvent staff coordinated
- 6 weeks
- Hire to homeopenerHire to home opener
- ~2,000
- Attendeesper gameAttendees per game
Budget managed is not yet confirmed.
Events & Operations Manager
A season of professional rugby match-day production at New Orleans' Gold Mine on Airline, combining professional sport with live entertainment, fan engagement, hospitality, vendors, sponsors, and community programming.
Project context
Each home match required transforming the stadium into a complete game-day experience - coordinating a 30-person event staff alongside venue operations, vendors, performers, entertainment, activations, and the many logistical requirements surrounding a professional sporting event.
Across the season, my role extended beyond executing individual matches. I helped build the operational infrastructure behind them while developing and coordinating entertainment designed to give the NOLA Gold game-day experience a distinctly New Orleans identity - from local performers and cultural programming to concepts incorporating the city's brass-band tradition.
The Situation
Operating professional rugby matches inside a rented stadium required coordinating the needs of the club, league, venue, vendors, performers, staff, and fans - without an established internal operating system tying those moving pieces together.
The challenge was both operational and experiential: build the infrastructure necessary to run game day reliably while creating an engaging environment around the match itself.
The Execution
Developed core event operations from the ground up, including SOPs, contracts, inventory systems, staff instructions, game-day runbooks, and communication processes.
On match days, oversaw a 30-person event staff while coordinating venue logistics, vendors, entertainment, performers, activations, and other moving pieces across the stadium.
Alongside operational management, helped shape the game-day entertainment experience by developing programming concepts and coordinating the talent and production requirements necessary to execute them.
The Impact
Created repeatable systems that gave the organization greater structure and clarity across game-day operations while reducing reliance on improvised decision-making.
Those systems were tested under real live-event pressure when severe weather forced a three-hour schedule shift and cancellations. I reprioritized programming, coordinated changes across stakeholders, adjusted the operational plan, and helped carry the event through execution despite the disruption.
The experience demonstrated the value of building operational infrastructure before the moment it is needed: systems strong enough to create consistency while remaining flexible enough to respond when live events inevitably change.