Four Lessons from a Summer Internship at an NFL Stadium
For his summer internship, Ethan Metaferia ’27 reported every day to an iconic, rather large, and not-so-typical workplace: Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
NFL fans know that stadium well. It’s the home of the Atlanta Falcons. It also hosts the Atlanta United soccer team and major concerts and events. When Beyonce comes to Atlanta, she’s playing Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Metaferia served as a stadium operations intern, helping with all those many happenings. The stadium was a heady place to work. “It was amazing,” Metaferia says. “One of the first questions I asked my boss was, ‘Does it ever get old?’ ”
The answer, quite simply, was no. But, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of work to do. Metaferia assisted with a host of responsibilities before, during, and after events, whether they were Metallica rock concerts or FIFA Club World Cup soccer matches. Housekeeping, event setup, engineering, project planning—he was involved in all of it. “Our team had our hands in everything that goes into an event,” he says. “They are literally boots on the ground, ready to work.”
This isn’t Metaferia’s first experience at the stadium. Last year, he participated in a Babson course called Good Company, Good Game: Law, Ethics, and Leadership in Sports Business. Inspired by the values and experiences of Arthur M. Blank ’63, H’98, that course takes students to Atlanta, where they study The Blank Family of Businesses, which includes the Falcons and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Having landed the summer internship at the stadium this year, Metaferia was grateful to return to Atlanta. In the future, he plans to pursue a career in sports. He appreciates how it can bring different types of people together. “If we both enjoy a sport, we have that in common,” he says.
As he looks back on his summer at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Metaferia offers four key lessons that he learned.
1. Don’t Forget to Close
As an intern, Metaferia focused on meeting people and building his network. He was constantly introducing himself, making conversation, first in his department and then beyond that. He sometimes felt that he was burdening people, but he came to realize that they wanted to talk and help him make connections. “People are way more kind and willing to help than we imagine,” he says.
Metaferia learned an important lesson in networking when he met with Tim Zulawski, the president of AMB Sports and Entertainment. Metaferia mentioned that he wanted to land a job in sports in his hometown of Dallas, and Zulawski said he knew someone who could help.
Metaferia, though, didn’t ask for the number of the contact. He thought he might do that at a later point, but Zulawski called him out on it. “You forgot to close,” he told Metaferia. “If you have the opportunity to close, close.”
Don’t wait to act. That was the lesson Zulawski was imparting. “He wanted me to ask for the number on the spot,” Metaferia says. “Without the phone number, you couldn’t pursue the opportunity.”
2. Get Lost
On the very first day of his internship at the stadium, Metaferia received an interesting directive from his supervisor. “The first thing my boss told me to do was go get lost,” he says.
At 2 million square feet, Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a humongous place. To learn its layout, Metaferia’s supervisor wanted the interns to explore. That first day, he told them to get lost and come back after lunch. On subsequent days, if they found themselves bored, the edict remained the same: Get lost. “You won’t know where everything is unless you go out,” Metaferia says. “I ran into people I never would have met.”
Metaferia thinks that the importance of getting lost extends beyond his summer internship. In business and in life, one must continue to explore, question, stay curious, try new things, and think new ways. “If you are limited in your thinking, you will get limited results,” he says.
3. Kick Up Dust
When Metaferia worked with the stadium’s project management team, on initiatives such as creating a new event lounge, he saw how budgeting, planning, value engineering, and many other business skills came together during a project. “Everything I studied in the classroom, I was able to see,” he says.
The team’s members have a slogan: If there’s dust, it’s us. They are a group unafraid to dig into a project and make a mess. Witnessing them in action, Metaferia saw how working hard, with one day’s effort building upon that of the day before, produces results. Kick up some dust, and good things happen. “Eventually, your hard work will be rewarded,” Metaferia says.
4. Hold the Door
Metaferia was grateful to land the internship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “I knew it was an opportunity most people don’t have,” he says.
When he first started in Atlanta, he wanted to use the position to find a job in sports. But now, he’s aiming for that and something more. Believing that good things that happen to you need to be shared, he also wants to help others find opportunities in sports.
“Everything I studied in the classroom, I was able to see.”
Ethan Metaferia ’27
That’s what he’s doing with the Babson Sports Business club. Metaferia serves as president of the popular group, which offers guest speakers, tours, and connections for its members looking to break into the industry.
“Once the door is open for me,” Metaferia says, “I can be the door holder for others to follow.”
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