Bradley Pincus has had some experience with American professional sports. A native New Yorker, he worked several years as a bat boy for the New York Mets and even joined the team during its spring training in Florida.

Still, Pincus, 25, said nothing prepared him for the level of behind-the-scenes access that he and his classmates received during 10 days with the top-tier Spanish soccer league, LaLiga.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” said Pincus, a senior studying sports administration. “Seeing the sports world from a European perspective and especially how one organization can bring an entire city together was really something.”

Pincus, who will earn his master’s in sport administration this December, joined 19 undergraduates and three graduate students on a new whirlwind study abroad trip to Madrid and Barcelona last spring break.

The group toured several Spanish stadiums and training centers, met with LaLiga executives to discuss the organization’s business and marketing strategies, and attended a Champions League match between FC Barcelona and Italian soccer team Napoli.

They also attended a EuroLeague basketball game, which Pincus noted was “a little more physical than in the U.S.”

“The intensity of sports and sports fans in Europe is like nothing we see in the U.S.,” Pincus said.

The students’ in-depth experience with European sports was possible because of a partnership between the School of Education and Human Development’s Sport Administration Program and LaLiga North America, created in 2021 to help train the next generation of sport administration professionals.

The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students majoring or minoring in sport administration, whether in-person or through UOnline, offered by the University’s Division of Continuing and International Education.

“This partnership reinforces the global presence the University’s sport administration program has established with its graduate and undergraduate programs, both on campus and online,” said Dean Laura Kohn Wood. “The internship and study abroad opportunities provided by LaLiga will enable students to be exposed to the diverse environment that this sport offers.”

La Liga North America also contributes to the University’s sport administration program. The league provides speakers for workshops focused on the globalization of sports, and provides mentorship and internship opportunities to support women and underrepresented minority students in the sports industry.

In September, a group of students from LaLiga Business School will visit the University of Miami and attend a lecture on collegiate sports in the U.S., said Erin McNary, an associate professor of sport administration who manages the University’s relationship with LaLiga.

“These types of international sport experiences provide a lot of learning, but they also help to create a new lens in which students view the industry,” McNary said. “Sitting in the LaLiga headquarters boardroom and listening to industry professionals in Madrid gives students a view into what is possible for them.”

Students were given a case study assignment where their job was to organize and promote an event for the LaLiga FC Pro Cup.

“They did a great job pitching their ideas and received real time feedback from LaLiga front office executives,” McNary said.

Graduate student Jose Blanco Chock said he signed up for the LaLiga program because he wanted to experience what the sports industry had to offer outside the U.S.

“We often talk about how the U.S. is the global sports hub, but when it comes to the biggest sport in the world, soccer, its prominence is mostly throughout Europe,” said Chock, who graduates with his M.S. in sport administration in December.

“This trip helped shape my perspective on what I want my career to look like,” Chock added. “It also helped me understand other aspects of the industry and avenues that I might not have thought of before.”

Pincus and Chock both said the trip was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for students whose only prior sports experience was in the United States.

“The main thing I’ve learned is to experience and try as many things as possible because that is the only way you will truly know what you want to do,” Chock said.

Pincus said the trip was worthwhile for any sport administration student.

“From the international connections we made to the LaLiga executives we got to know personally, and the exclusive tours of the facilities, this trip showed me how I can diversify my work and my talents in ways I might not otherwise have been exposed to,” he said. “Besides, you only live once. It was so worth it.”