When Daniel McIntosh talks about the Olympic Games, he doesn’t begin with medals or podiums. He begins with planning, branding and experience.
“This is a sports business trip where the classroom becomes the event itself,” stated McIntosh, a instructing professor in the Department of Marketing at the W. P. Carey School of Business who’s main a gaggle of 12 Arizona State University students to Milan, Italy, throughout the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“We are not just watching the Olympics. We are embedded in it, learning how the world’s biggest sporting event actually works.”
The Olympics began on Feb. 6 and ends on Feb. 22. The Milan Olympic study abroad group arrived in Italy on Saturday, Feb. 14, and might be there for 5 days.
The program is one of three international examine overseas applications the W. P. Carey School affords this spring. It locations students at the intersection of international sport, marketing technique and real-time decision-making.
And the experience begins lengthy earlier than the group boards a aircraft.
As half of a for-credit tutorial program aligned with ASU’s sports enterprise curriculum, the students concentrate on Olympic sponsorship, model positioning and built-in marketing communications. Each one is assigned a serious Olympic associate or governing physique and arrives in Italy with weeks of analysis already accomplished.
Once on web site, concept provides approach to experience. Students attend two Olympic occasions and volunteer for 2 days at the USA IceHouse, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s hospitality venue for athletes, households and companions. They are additionally assembly with eight to 10 executives from Olympic sponsors and companions — together with Visa, Airbnb, Coca Cola, Allianz and NBC. NBC is internet hosting the group at the International Broadcast Center, providing a behind-the-scenes have a look at how the Games are delivered to billions of viewers worldwide.
“What makes this special is hearing executives explain their strategy while the activation is happening,” McIntosh stated. “It is one thing to study a brand in a classroom. It is another thing to hear a senior executive explain why they are spending eight or nine figures on an Olympic partnership while you are standing in the middle of it.”
Rachel Lauer, a double-major in marketing and sports enterprise, stated the scale of the operation is what stands out most.
“I want to see how many people and how many years of effort go into making something like this happen,” Lauer stated. “It is not just the sports; it is the sponsors, the partnerships and the logistics that people never really think about.”
That consideration to element is a theme McIntosh emphasizes repeatedly. He factors to previous Olympic and Super Bowl experiences the place even the smallest parts had been rigorously deliberate.
“These events are so well executed that you only notice something when it goes wrong,” he stated. “Our students get to see how much trust and planning goes into every single detail, from transportation to hospitality to brand imagery.”
Fourth-year sports enterprise pupil Luz Campos Berumen is concentrated on the international nature of marketing and the way messages translate throughout cultures. She is researching the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and inspecting how the group builds its model round athletes and experience somewhat than merchandise.
“They are not selling merchandise in the same way as a company,” stated Campos Berumen, who’s a sports business scholar at ASU. “They are selling an experience and the stories of their athletes. I want to see how that comes to life with fans and sponsors in person.”
For Nathan Edlebeck, who’s learning enterprise legislation with a minor in Spanish, the Olympics symbolize one thing even bigger.
“It is incredible to see how countries come together for this,” stated Edlebeck, a fourth-year pupil. “Beyond the business and marketing, there is a global moment where competition and cooperation exist at the same time. Being there in person is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Edlebeck has been researching the International Olympic Committee and is especially in how company sponsorship connects to international viewership.
“You might not have millions of people in the stadiums,” he stated. “But you have billions watching around the world. The marketing impact of that is massive, and it absolutely pays off.”
One of the most notable points of the Milan program is its inclusion of ASU Online students for the first time. Porter Farr, a fourth-year pupil majoring in sports enterprise who lives in Utah, will be a part of the group in Italy.
“When I saw this (opportunity), I knew I could not miss it. It is a huge resume builder and something I would regret forever if I did not go,” Farr stated.
Farr’s participation represents a broader shift in entry, McIntosh stated.
“This is a new model for connecting online students to global experiential learning,” he stated. “We are expanding who gets to have these high-impact experiences, and that is incredibly important to our mission.”
McIntosh hopes students return with greater than pictures and reminiscences.
“We want them to understand how global sport really works,” he stated. “If you want to be a leader in sports business, you need to see it at this level. There is simply no classroom big enough to teach the Olympics.”