Exit Interview: Stadium Operations Trainee Matt Cinciripino

Stadium Operations Trainee and Boyertown, Pennsylvania native Matt Cinciripino is heading back to his home state to take a position in sports and entertainment management.
Matt is taking a manager position with Pinnacle Venue Services, a company that oversees the operations of the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He becomes the seventh of the Gwinnett Stripers' nine 2018 trainees to accept a job.
Media Relations Trainee Dan Reiner spoke with Matt about his experiences in operations and how they prepared him for a full-time position.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What job are you taking?
I am taking the Events and Operations Manager at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex. It is Indiana University of Pennsylvania's basketball arena and conference center. I'll be managing staff as well as managing different events, changeovers and anything else they need done.
How has your experience here in Gwinnett prepared you for the role?
It's given me a different type of management style that I'm not accustomed to. (Stadium Operations Coordinator) Rick (Fultz) and (Director of Stadium Operations) Ryan (Stoltenberg) are more hands-on, whereas other places I've been it was more "this is your thing, run with it." It's good to have that experience and that management style because then you can piece together different styles that you like.
Also, I managed a bigger staff. The most I'd managed prior to being here was 18 student-managers. We had over 100 people on staff here that we managed.
What is your job going to be like there?
It'll be different. There's not an event every single day, whereas we had baseball games every day here. There's conferences, which we didn't have to deal with here, and basketball, volleyball, as well as concerts and graduations. It's not just one sport and some events like here, it's a wide range.
Did you find working 70 baseball games plus events benefited you?
If you look at the beginning of the season, setting up for a game took (fellow Stadium Operations Trainee) Zach (Canada) and I the morning and part of the afternoon. You get into July and September, and we're done before lunch. So compared to the beginning of the year when we didn't necessarily know what we doing, by the end we were running the show and much more efficient. You get in a rhythm doing that, and where I'm going it won't necessarily be as rhythmic because it's not seven games at home, seven games away. There's an event some Fridays and some Saturdays, putting down the basketball court for two days, picking it back up and having a concert come in.
Is that something you're prepared for after your previous operations jobs at George Mason University, Liberty University, the Washington Redskins and Gwinnett?
It's something I enjoyed when I was at Mason (for undergraduate). I worked at their basketball arena, where they had games, concerts, Disney on Ice. They had bigger scale stuff than what I'll be working with, but I enjoyed the variety of different things there.
Do you have any favorite memories from your time with the Stripers?
Just the whole staff getting together in an environment outside of work. It was really nice to relax and get to know people.