The Intern Journal: Red Bull Arena

Gabriela Jimenez '26 has been attending soccer matches at Red Bull Arena for as long as Red Bull Arena has existed (2010). She's a soccer fan from a soccer-fanatic family (right), and cheering on the New York Red Bulls is among their favorite traditions. For years, she reveled in the action from the stands. This summer, she was on the sidelines.

"Sometimes I would look up in the stands and think, 'That's where our season tickets were. We sat there.'"

She didn't have much time to reminisce. She was working.

Jimenez spent the summer as a special events intern for Red Bull Arena. A business major with concentrations in digital marketing communications and project management, she worked alongside the game day events team for home matches (and sometimes fetched balls during games on the sidelines). Primarily, though, she worked ancillary events for the arena and generated new business leads.

The arena only serves a couple dozen Major League Soccer matches per season. The special events team manages a secondary revenue stream attracting and hosting non-soccer events. In the past five years, Jimenez's boss has doubled the arena's special events revenue.

"My first week there, we hosted a car show. There were more than 500 cars all over the concourse. I helped measure where the cars would fit and be parked. We've got to be careful during the season not to mess with the pitch."

Jimenez isn't sure whether she'll pursue a career in operations, but the value of the internship transcends industry.

Red Bull Arena is across the river in New Jersey, but Jimenez and the other interns spent a day in Manhattan at the Major League Soccer headquarters. Jimenez's pull to the internship wasn't the specific internship, but rather the opportunity to explore careers in professional sports. Mission accomplished.

"I'm not the best with networking, but this internship was really about getting to meet people and talk to them and figure out how we can utilize each other moving forward. Meeting so many people was the best outcome for myself. The sports industry has always fascinated me and this solidified it's an area I'd like to pursue. Now I have contacts that could be a resource."

Gabriela Jimenez '26