Dare to Dream: Lily’s Road to the Super Bowl

Dare to Dream: Lily’s Road to the Super Bowl 

Lily Ly dreams of one day running the Super Bowl. It’s a path she embarked on when she first started working home games for the Seattle Seahawks at age 15. Twelve years later, with more than a decade of NFL experience and just six months left in her Notre Dame MBA program, Ly is poised to make her dreams come true.

“A lot of people don’t associate MBA students with having a job or having extracurricular activities outside of school, especially in a one-year program, but when I got here I was really determined to work for athletics,” Ly says. “I think anyone who wants to work anywhere on campus, the Notre Dame family would be happy to embrace it, especially here in athletics.”By taking advantage of the extracurricular opportunities afforded to MBA students at Notre Dame, Ly has added relevant football experience to an already-impressive resume. When she arrived on campus, Ly emailed “everyone in the athletic department” offering to work for credit or for less money than usual, just for the opportunity to experience football Saturday from the inside. After a few weeks, she was able to secure a position assisting with the premium experience in O’Neill Family Hall’s South Club on game days.

The perks of Ly’s job extend beyond free tickets and a premium seat on game day—she believes she can leverage her work with the Fighting Irish to further her career in the NFL upon completing her MBA. “My ultimate goal after the MBA program is to create, plan and execute a Super Bowl,” Ly notes. “Being able to share with other members around the sports industry that I’ve worked the first season of a premium experience at Notre Dame Stadium is an incredible opportunity and stamp of approval. The connections I’ve made here are going to take me far.”

Ly feels confident that, as a result of her Notre Dame education, when the time comes for her to realize her dreams, she’ll be able to do so in a way that asks more of business. “I want to see how we can implement change in the NFL when we do the Super Bowl. What does it mean when we come into a city and disrupt its whole operation? How can we reduce the carbon footprint of the events we produce? I don’t think any other school would be able to provide that education or help me develop that critical thinking in regards to social responsibility, sustainability and being a good citizen of this earth.”