By Matt Coy, VP of Experiences — CUENTO Marketing
Hold up one t-shirt.
Just one. Hold it above your head in the middle of a crowded arena and watch what happens. Twenty thousand people who were talking, scrolling, eating, completely absorbed in their own world and then what happens is they stop. They look. They want it. The section to your left erupts trying to get your attention. The section to your right follows immediately. You point left, they scream louder. You point right, they match it. You fake left and the whole building groans and laughs and screams again. You have just taken complete control of a room full of strangers with a piece of cotton that cost four dollars.
That is the power of a great promotions team member who knows what they are doing. The ability to read a crowd, control the energy of a section, build one side of an arena against the other, and make twenty thousand people feel like they are all part of the same spontaneous moment, that is a skill. It is not an accident. The best promotions team members understand intuitively that a single t-shirt held above their head is not just a giveaway. It is a conductor's baton. The crowd is the orchestra. And for thirty seconds, that person in the aisle is in complete control of the room.
Every single time, that moment, the moment the shirt goes up and the crowd becomes putty in your hands, reminds me of something fundamental about live sports that no broadcast, no app, and no streaming platform can ever replicate. People want to be part of something. They want to be seen, included, surprised, and delighted. They want to feel the energy of a crowd moving together toward the same moment. And the people best positioned to give them that feeling are not always the players on the field.
Performance teams, promotions teams, dance teams, cheerleading squads, mascots, brand ambassadors, drum lines, ice skating crews, hip-hop dance groups, the names and formats vary by sport, by market, by organization. But the function is universal: these are the people who make the building feel alive. They are the first human contact a fan has with the brand. They perform in front of tens of thousands of people, activate sponsorships worth millions of dollars, represent the organization in the community year-round, and do all of it for wages that rarely reflect the value they create.
This article is for the people who run these teams, the people who are on them, and the organizations that haven't yet figured out how much they are leaving on the table by underinvesting in them.
Part One: Who These Teams Are and Why They Matter More Than You Think
The Full Roster of Fan-Facing Performance Personnel
Most people think of cheerleaders or a mascot when they think about performance teams in sports. The reality of what a fully developed game day support operation looks like is far broader and far more complex.
Cheerleading squads, the traditional sideline presence at football and basketball games, are the most recognized category, but within that category alone the range is enormous: co-ed squads, all-female squads, stunt-focused teams, performance-focused teams, kids dance squads, retiree ‘grandma squads,’ professional squads for major league franchises. Dance teams operate separately at many organizations, with a contemporary or hip-hop focus distinct from traditional cheerleading. Some franchises have both.
Promotions teams, often called street teams, ambassador teams, or activation crews, handle the on-site fan engagement work that doesn't usually involve performance: running contests, operating activations, distributing merchandise, managing sponsor integrations, greeting fans in parking lots and plazas, and doing the physical and logistical work that makes the in-game experience actually function. These are frequently the hardest-working people on game day and often the least visible from a budget perspective.
Mascots are their own category entirely, part performer, part brand ambassador, part community figure. A well-managed mascot program is an asset that extends far beyond game day. Drum lines add musical energy and crowd engagement, particularly in college athletics, where they can be as much a part of the identity as the team itself. Ice crews at NHL games, the teams that clean the ice surface at every TV timeout, are a specialized performance group that fans notice more than most organizations realize. The ice crew that performs a synchronized routine while resurfacing the ice is remembered. The one that just clears the surface and exits is not.
And then there are brand ambassadors, individuals hired specifically to represent a sponsor partner in the venue and in the community, often wearing co-branded uniforms, operating dedicated activations, and serving as a walking extension of both the team brand and the sponsor's investment. I have seen this done brilliantly, an airline sponsor that put a promotions team in flight suits, co-branded with both the team and the carrier, that looked remarkable and performed effectively in those uniforms. The best brand ambassador programs make the sponsorship feel like a natural part of the game day rather than an interruption of it.
What the Research Says About Why These Teams Matter
The case for investing in fan-facing performance personnel is not just intuitive — it is supported by research that makes the stakes of getting this right very clear.
A UConn study conducted at Gampel Pavilion found that the single most important factor in creating a memorable live sports experience was not the game itself, not the dunks, the three-pointers, or the lead changes, but being in the crowd. The research found that being part of a shared live experience fundamentally changes how a fan processes and retains the event, creating memories that watching the same game on television simply cannot replicate. The crowd is the product. And the performance teams in your building are among the primary architects of what that crowd experience feels like.
A Kantar study across more than 8,250 consumers in 11 markets found that 80 percent of global consumers attend live sports events at least occasionally, and that the atmosphere, energy, and shared experience of being in a crowd are the primary draws that digital viewing cannot replicate. Seventy percent of live sports attenders plan to purchase food or beverages at their next event, and one-third plan to buy team merchandise on-site, both of which are purchasing decisions that are influenced by the energy of the environment these teams help create.
In an era when the competition for a fan's time and attention has never been more intense, the human energy on the floor and in the concourse is one of the few things a streaming service cannot provide. Performance teams are that human energy made visible and organized.
The Compensation Gap: What They Are Paid vs. What They Provide
Let me be direct about something that has bothered me for my entire career: the people who do the most visible, fan-facing work on game day have almost always been among the least compensated.
This is not a secret in the industry. It is a documented, decades-long pattern across professional sports. Historically, the typical per-game pay for an NFL cheerleader was in the range of $75 to $150, covering an entire game day that can span ten hours of work including pre-game rehearsals, fan interactions, and the game itself. Mandatory rehearsal time was often either unpaid or paid at a rate that, when calculated, fell well below minimum wage.
Today the landscape has pay ranges from roughly $150 per game for many squads to an estimated annual salary of $75,000 for top veterans on the highest-paying squads. Progress has been made. The systemic undervaluation of this work has not been fully corrected.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, a program I worked with and one I have enormous respect for, have become the most visible example of what change can look like when an organization genuinely invests in its performance team. Veterans on the DCC squad are now reportedly earning more than $75 an hour, a substantial increase that has pushed estimated annual earnings for members significantly higher than the league average.
But the compensation problem extends well beyond cheerleading squads, and well beyond the NFL. Throughout my career, at every stop, with every team and organization I have worked with, I have fought for wage increases for performance teams, promotions staff, and game presentation crews. These jobs have historically been paid at or near minimum wage. The part-time camera operator who has been running all over that stadium or ballpark for ten seasons. The promotions team member who has worked every home game for three years. The game presentation staff who script, produce, and execute the show that defines the fan experience for tens of thousands of fans, and who have historically been among the lowest-compensated people in the building.
I have had that conversation with management more times than I can count. Sometimes it went well. Sometimes it didn't. But I have never stopped having it, because the people doing this work deserve to be paid in a way that reflects the value they create. And organizations that pay their performance and production teams well, that treat these roles as the professional positions they are, get better work, better retention, and better game days. That is not a coincidence.
Part Two: Getting On These Teams, and What It Takes to Run a Great Tryout
Why These Jobs Are a Stepping Stone Into Sports
For anyone trying to break into the sports industry, a position on a performance or promotions team is one of the most accessible and genuinely valuable entry points available. You do not need a specific degree. You do not need prior industry experience. You need talent, energy, a great attitude, and the willingness to work hard in conditions that are not always glamorous.
What you get in return is direct experience working inside a live sports environment, understanding how a production operates, what game day logistics look like from the inside, how sponsor activations work in practice, and how to perform and engage under pressure in front of thousands of people. The career paths that emerge from these roles are broader than most people expect. Promotions team members become in-game hosts. In-game hosts become sideline reporters. Dance team members transition into full-time entertainment careers. Mascot performers develop skills in brand representation and character work that translate into commercial acting and entertainment. And many of the best game presentation professionals working at the full-time level today started on a promotions team or dance squad and built their careers from that foundation.
The Tryout: What It Looks Like From Both Sides
Most performance team tryouts are open, advertised on the organization's social media channels and website, accessible to anyone who meets the basic requirements, and structured to evaluate a large pool of candidates efficiently in a single day or weekend. What the tryout looks like depends entirely on the team.
For dance teams and cheerleading squads, candidates typically perform a prepared routine and then learn a combination choreographed specifically for the audition, demonstrating not just technical ability but the capacity to learn and execute material quickly under pressure. For promotions teams, the evaluation often involves a skit or activation scenario, assessing whether the candidate can be engaging, quick, funny, and responsive in an unscripted moment. Mascot tryouts evaluate physical performance, spatial awareness, the ability to convey personality without facial expression, and the stamina required to sustain character for hours at a time. Drum lines have candidates perform solo and in ensemble, assessing not just individual skill but how they fit within and contribute to a group sound.
The best tryouts happen at the venue where the team will perform, or in a space dressed and staged to simulate it. This matters for several reasons. The scale of a real venue changes how performance reads. What projects in a studio or rehearsal hall may disappear in an large stadium environment. The people evaluating the tryout, and this should include the game presentation director, the entertainment manager, and senior leaders of the returning team, need to see candidates in the environment they will actually be performing in. And candidates deserve to understand what they are auditioning for, not just in the abstract but physically and spatially.
For the organizations running the tryout: be organized, be respectful of everyone's time, have your evaluation criteria clear before the day begins, and communicate the process and timeline to candidates at the start. A well-run tryout communicates to every person who walks through the door, whether they make the team or not, that your organization is professional, that you value their time, and that being part of your program means something. A poorly run one does the opposite, and in an industry that runs on reputation, that matters.
What the Job Is Actually Like
Anyone considering a role on one of these teams should go in with clear eyes about what the job requires. These are not glamorous positions in the logistical sense. You are there before anyone else arrives and you leave after almost everyone else has gone. You carry equipment, set up activations, break down after the event, reload storage rooms, and handle the physical work that makes the fan-facing moments possible. You are on your feet for six, eight, ten hours at a stretch, in the heat of an outdoor stadium in July, in the cold of an outdoor event in January, in the humidity of an indoor arena under performance lighting.
You perform the same routine at halftime of a preseason game with eight thousand people in the building and at the championship game with a sellout crowd and national television cameras. You run a contest activation for the fourteenth time this season with exactly the same energy you had the first time. You high-five a child on the way to the stage and stop to take a photo with a family who has been waiting to meet the mascot, even though you are already three minutes behind your cue time.
And you do all of it with a smile, because you are the fan's first impression of the organization and you understand that the person in front of you has no awareness of anything happening backstage. They just see you, and what they see shapes how they feel about being there.
These jobs can feel thankless. The organizations that make sure they never do, that feed their teams well, provide water and Gatorade, offer vegan and high-protein options alongside the inevitable pizza, express genuine gratitude consistently and not just on social media, consistently get better performances and lower turnover. Taking care of your people is not a soft consideration. It is an operational one.
Part Three: What These Teams Do, and What They Make Possible
Sponsorship Activation: The Revenue They Generate
For sponsors, performance and promotions teams are often the most tangible and engaging element of their game day investment. A sponsorship package that includes a timeout activation, be it a race, a contest, a branded giveaway, a performance, requires a skilled, energetic, reliable team to execute it. These teams are what turns a sponsored element from a logo on a screen into a moment the fan actually participates in.
Promotions teams pass out the items. They hold the props. They run alongside contestants. They play the characters in the race. They throw the t-shirts, fire the cannons, escort the prize winners. They are the activation. When they do it well, with energy, precision, and the kind of crowd-reading instinct that only comes from doing this repeatedly in front of real audiences, they make the sponsor look great, they make the organization look great, and they give the fan a memory from that game that wasn't about a play on the field.
These teams also create revenue directly. Appearances, community events, school visits, foundation partnerships, private event bookings, a well-managed performance team has a calendar of revenue-generating activity that extends well beyond the game day schedule. The mascot visiting a children's hospital, the cheerleaders performing at a corporate event, the dance team leading a fitness program at an elementary school, these are not just goodwill activities. They are income streams and community touch points that deepen the relationship between the franchise and the market it serves.
The Mascot: Your Brand's Most Accessible Ambassador
The mascot occupies a unique position in a sports organization's brand ecosystem. When players are unavailable, in the locker room, in practice, in the off-season, the mascot is always available. The mascot can hug a child, take a photo with a family, visit a school, appear at a community event, and represent the brand in settings that no player or executive can be present for at the volume and accessibility that a team's community engagement requires.
A well-developed mascot program has reading initiatives, fitness programs, math challenges, and school visit series that run all year and that create genuine bonds between young fans and the franchise long before those fans are old enough to be ticket buyers. Those bonds are among the most durable in sports fandom, people who grew up with a mascot as part of their childhood relationship with a team carry that connection for life.
On game day, the mascot is one of the most photographed and social-media-documented elements of the fan experience. Every fan who takes a photo with the mascot and posts it is creating organic content for the brand. Every kid who waves to the mascot from their seat and gets a wave back has a game day moment they will talk about. These interactions are not incidental. They are among the highest-return fan engagement activities available to a sports organization, and they cost a fraction of what a billboard or a digital ad buy would cost to produce an equivalent impression.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: What a Brand-Within-a-Brand Looks Like
I worked with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders for multiple years during my time overseeing game presentation at AT&T Stadium. Working for the amazing Charlotte Jones and alongside Kelli Finglass, who has led the program as director for decades, and Judy Trammell, who has been the choreographer that shaped the artistic identity of the squad, was one of the genuinely formative experiences of my career in understanding what a performance team can become when it is treated as a serious organizational asset and led with vision and rigor.
The DCC is not a cheerleading squad in the conventional sense. It is a brand within a brand, a globally recognized entertainment property that produces its own content, maintains its own community relationships, generates its own revenue streams, and now has its own streaming presence on Netflix through America's Sweethearts, a docuseries that has drawn global audiences, sparked a national conversation about the compensation of professional performers, and generated over $50 million in equivalent brand value for the Cowboys franchise since it premiered.
What Kelli and Judy have built under the leadership and guidance of Charlotte Jones, and continue to evolve, is the clearest demonstration in professional sports of what happens when an organization commits fully to its performance team: invests in it, leads it with excellence, gives it room to grow and innovate, and understands that the women who wear that uniform are not decorative. They are athletes, performers, brand representatives, and community figures whose contribution to the Cowboys franchise is measurable, significant, and in the case of the Netflix series, now globally documented.
Every sports organization has the potential to build something with that kind of intention. Most haven't started yet.
One Part of a Much Larger Show: The Cowboys on Game Day
Working with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders at AT&T Stadium was one of the genuine privileges of my career, and yet on game day at AT&T Stadium, the DCC were one piece, one important, high-profile, beautifully executed piece, of a show that included multiple other performance groups, all of which needed to be coordinated, scheduled, rehearsed, and managed to peak simultaneously. The logistical and creative challenge of running a game day production at that scale, ensuring that every group is where they need to be, performing at their best, in the right sequence, with the right technical support around them, is something most fans never see and most organizations significantly underestimate. It takes genuine coordination discipline and a production team that treats every group's performance as equally worthy of attention, not just the headline act.
The organizations that get this right invest in the relationship between groups, making sure every team knows what the others are doing in overlapping windows, making sure the band understands the halftime timing, making sure every performance group feels like part of one unified production rather than independent entities sharing a field. That cohesion shows on game day. Fans feel it even when they can't articulate it.
Madison Square Garden: The Knicks City Dancers and the Magic of Special Performances
At Madison Square Garden, overseeing game presentation for both the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, I worked with one of the largest and most diverse performance operations in professional sports. The Knicks City Dancers are another exceptional example of what a professional dance team can be, skilled, consistent, brand-aligned, and deeply connected to the identity of the franchise and the city it represents. Working with them game after game built a production relationship that made the show better in ways that are hard to quantify but immediately visible to anyone watching.
But some of the most memorable moments from my time at MSG came from the special performances, the halftime shows, the playoff pregame productions, the moments when celebrities and musical performers joined the game day program and transformed a standard production into something the building would talk about for years. Rehearsing those moments alongside the Knicks City Dancers, building a halftime production from scratch in a compressed window, adapting in real time when a celebrity appearance changed the rundown at the last moment, those are the moments that remind you why this work matters. The performance teams make those moments possible. Fans love them, share them, and come back hoping to experience something like that again.
On the Ice: A Different Kind of Performance Team
One of the more unusual chapters of my work with performance teams came in hockey. I was involved with one of the first on-ice dance teams in hockey when I worked in the ECHL at a time when the concept was novel enough to generate real debate about whether it could work and what it should look like. It could work. And when it was done well, it was genuinely captivating, specific to the sport, visually unique in a way no other league could replicate, and deeply engaging for fans who had never seen anything quite like it.
At the NHL level with the Phoenix Coyotes, we developed an on-ice dance team that was one of a kind in the league at the time. The creative and logistical considerations were substantial, costumes built for full performance movement on special shoes, choreography designed around the ice surface and arena sight-lines, integration into TV timeout and intermission windows. What it produced for the fans was a performance element they had never seen before and couldn't see anywhere else.
That is the through-line in all of it, from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders to the Knicks City Dancers to an on-ice team in a minor league hockey arena. The goal is always the same: be creative, engage the fan more deeply, and create an extension of the brand that is always positive, always something the fan is glad they saw, and always worth coming back for. The format changes. The sport changes. The budget changes. The principle does not.
The Standard Worth Setting
The people on your performance and promotions teams are the ones your fans actually touch, literally and figuratively. They high-five strangers. They make children laugh. They perform in front of sellout crowds and empty arenas with the same energy. They carry the boxes, run the activations, work the long days, and represent your brand in the community on days when the games aren't being played.
They deserve to be paid fairly. They deserve to be fed well. They deserve leadership that acknowledges their contribution consistently and not just in the end-of-season highlight reel. And they deserve to work for organizations that understand what they actually produce, not just on the scoreboard, not just in the sponsorship reports, but in the hearts and minds of the fans who came to your building and left feeling like it was worth it.
That feeling, the one that turns a first-time attendee into a season ticket holder and a season ticket holder into a lifelong fan, is built, in no small part, by the people who never stop smiling no matter how long the day has been.
Matt Coy is VP of Experiences at CUENTO Marketing. He consults with sports teams, leagues, federations, and major events on fan experience strategy, game presentation, and performance team development. He also serves as a fractional VP of Game Presentation for select clients.
