Vice President of Business Development, Urban Sports & Entertainment Group
When the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) was founded on the campus of Hampton University in 1912, it was to provide an opportunity for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to be able to compete in a major athletic conference, since they were being denied access to white conferences.
Nearly a century later, the CIAA has grown into the third most attended athletic event in all of collegiate sports, bringing over 165,000 attendees to Charlotte, N.C., in 2007 alone. Thanks to the Urban Sports & Entertainment group, the entire community gets free access passes to a considerable number of events.
“It’s very important to keep the events free, because we understand tickets are so hard to come by,” explains Micah Fuller. “If you didn’t have a ticket, you wouldn’t be able to experience the magic of the CIAA. What makes the CIAA ‘the CIAA’ is inclusion. We want everyone to come in and enjoy.”
As vice president of business development for the Urban Sports & Entertainment Group, Fuller works with over 2.5 million HBCU students, fans and alumni to optimize their collegiate experiences – from homecomings to championships. One of the most anticipated free experiences of the 2008 CIAA conference comes courtesy of Ford.
“This year marks the return of Ford’s Fan Experience, which is 150,000-square-feet of free, interactive opportunities for fans to come in and see artists, such as CeCe Winans, Fabolous, Chingy and also interact with different sponsors,” reveals Fuller. “We have tremendous opportunities for everyone to come down and experience it, even if you don’t have a ticket.” – adam jones
