Even today, Darolyn Pierce likes to say she has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up. But as a senior sports business major at Baylor a decade ago, her program took a spring break field trip to New York City.
Her professors arranged visits with the NFL, MLB, NBA, MSG, Yankees, Giants and Jets. Many of Pierce’s classmates already had jobs lined up in the industry, mostly on the sales side, but in listening to the executives discuss their careers and their franchises, the proverbial light bulb went off in her head — “the data light bulb, if you will,” she quipped.
Pierce realized that calling customers all day wasn’t her forté, but her skill set of using math and solving problems had a place in the industry. MSG had an open position for a CRM coordinator, so — even though her spring allergies were flaring up and the sheer number of people in the city was overwhelming — she applied for the role.
“What felt natural to me, I was learning at the time, was the data and systems building,” she said.
3 Questions With Darolyn Pierce
What do you do for fun?I love to travel. My favorite places that I’ve been the last couple of years have been Thailand and Lisbon, Portugal — two places in which I could see myself living long term. I travel with the same group of friends pretty much everywhere. We just pick a location every year and just go.
What are the most memorable sporting events you’ve attended?The Liberty championship was by far one of the coolest sporting experiences that I’ve had. Another one is going to the World Cup this year to go see France and Senegal. I went to the Olympics in Rio and then I went to the Olympics in Paris.
How much running have you done?I’ve run six half-marathons and one full marathon in Berlin. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life — the last time I’ll ever do it. But, no, it was cool.
Getting hired for that job started a career for Pierce that led to multiple promotions within that organization, a move to Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, an elevation to vice president of data analytics and insights, and an honor earlier this year as Next in Sports Tech: Rising Woman of the Year, presented by Next League, at the Sports Business Awards: Tech.
Pierce had never written a line of code by the time she graduated from college. MSG was developing a more robust tech stack around its sales enablement tools. Pierce had the task of using the CRM to generate leads for the sales team to call. She spent hours on Google and YouTube to learn coding skills and sought out bosses for help.
“I was very fortunate to have some really good bosses along the way who really invested into my learning, but they wouldn’t have invested in my learning had I not been curious and had I not actually sought out to learn,” said Pierce, describing it as a memorable moment when she was able to automate that entire lead-gen process. “There was this sense of autonomy and there was a sense of responsibility that felt rewarding because I could enable and empower my team.”
Her work ethic caught the attention of senior executives such as John Abbamondi, who at the time was MSG’s EVP of ticketing, suites and hospitality. In the evening hours around the office, he noticed Pierce often staying late, and not in a “hang out and see if the boss needs anything” way but because she had undertaken projects to help the organization.
“Even at a young age, she was proactive about seeking out opportunities for improvement in the organization on her own,” Abbamondi said.
“Of course, she’s technically proficient and whip-smart and the rest, but she’s just among the hardest-working people I’ve ever had the fortune to be around,” he added. “And look, it’s pretty simple in this business: Grinders win.”
Pierce credits her parents’ example for instilling that drive while growing up in Austin. Her mother is an attorney for Texas charter schools, and her dad owns a business consulting company. Pierce played basketball and soccer the longest but had stints in volleyball, tennis and swimming, too. At Baylor, she became a student manager for the women’s basketball program when Kim Mulkey was coach.
Moving to Brooklyn
After Abbomandi became the CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment Global, he recruited Pierce, bringing her over in late 2021 as a senior director of business intelligence charged with bolstering the organization’s data infrastructure. Suddenly, she went from being part of a team to leading a growing unit, then five employees and now 13 today.
After shaking off a mild bout of imposter syndrome, Pierce spearheaded the creation of a centralized data system on Snowflake that has led to a 150% increase in internal data utilization. Through an in-house program called Stakeholder Success Squads, she embedded analytics experts within each department. The Nets also became an early participant in the NBA leaguewide data initiative, leading to a meaningful gain in incremental revenue.
“Over time, her scope has grown,” said Keia Cole, BSE chief digital officer. “Anytime somebody needs a problem to solve, they’re coming to her to start with data as the foundation.”
Pierce also led a major fan segmentation project for the New York Liberty, leading to a targeted sales campaign — not only did the outreach enjoy a conversion rate significantly higher than the industry average, but it was all done in-house, saving BSE on consulting costs.
And though she’s now leading more than a dozen team members, the self-taught-coding Pierce still enjoys rolling up her sleeves to do the work. When Barclays Center was enduring some long ingress lines and her team was stretched too thin, Pierce used WaitTime data and built alerts in the operational Slack channels and visualizations with real-time data to address budding issues. That data light bulb of hers continues to flash.
