When Andrea McConnell '14 and '17 steps into the lower bowl at Lumen Field on Seattle Seahawks game days, she gets goosebumps.
“Everyone is so excited. They're having these moments with strangers, with family, with friends,” McConnell said. Just getting to be part of someone's special moment is really cool for me.”
McConnell has spent the past four years working events with her hometown team, the Seahawks, including two as the team's gameday event manager, a position she worked toward her entire career.
Her path to that goal was not a linear one. After her family moved from Seattle to Jenison, outside of Grand Rapids, when she was 9, McConnell initially enrolled at Grand Valley as an aquatic science major, hoping to become a marine biologist. After deciding that her interests lay elsewhere, she found her passion in the hospitality and tourism major.
“In Hospitality 101, we were asked, 'What’s your dream job?' she said. “I said it was to be the event manager of the Seahawks one day.”
McConnell worked for a catering company in Chicago after graduating in 2014, but she was not quite satisfied in her role.
“Sports were missing,” said McConnell, who was a member of the GVSU cheer team. “I love the sports atmosphere. It felt weird not being part of sports anymore.”
After the catering company was selected to work the 2015 NFL Draft in Chicago, McConnell connected her passion for events with sports, and decided to go back and earn a second bachelor’s degree from GVSU, this time in sports leadership.
“I loved Grand Valley too much to go anywhere else,” she said.
With a second degree under her belt, McConnell moved back to Seattle, working at a convention center. Her boss helped connect her with the Seahawks and get her foot in the door. She received her opportunity with the team, running events at Lumen Field for the Seattle Reign of the National Women's Soccer League as well as a smaller game day event during Seahawks games.
After being promoted to the Seahawks' Gameday Event Manager, McConnell has planned and run major events such as the 2026 NFC Championship Game.
Andrea McConnell swaps NFL Football games for FIFA World Cup matches
This summer, the United States, Canada and Mexico co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Six of the event's matches will take place at Lumen Field, with McConnell and her team undertaking planning and management duties for the Seattle games. The difference in scale between NFL games and the World Cup is not lost on McConnell.
“It's quite literally a completely different ball game,” she said.
In her role, McConnell ordinarily runs events that are for a single day. One day might be a Seahawks game, and the next might be a golf event from the decks of Lumen Field. While Seattle is hosting six separate matches of the World Cup, those matches are being treated like one encompassing event.
This change in approach means a change in workflow. While McConnell is typically the only manager working her assigned events, the World Cup has called for her to work more in tandem with other event managers within the organization.
“The World Cup is such a big project that we all have our pieces that we are individually working on, but [also] collaborating with each other to make sure it meshes together,” she said. “It’s like a big group project. We'll see how it comes out at the end.”
Preparing for the most-watched sporting event in the world can be a daunting task.
“There's more pressure, obviously,” she said. “We want to make sure that we're putting such a good face forward for all the eyes that are going to be on us, but it's a really cool experience to know that this event is going to reach so much further than [an American] football game.”
