🏆 From Milwaukee to Cleveland: Inside a Career Built in the NBA

Alyson Ambrookian is the Senior Director of Integrated Marketing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, where she leads the team’s integrated marketing strategy across partnerships, game presentation, content, and brand initiatives. She has spent more than four years with the Cavs and fourteen seasons in the NBA, including a championship run with the Milwaukee Bucks. A Southern California native with a career rooted in partnership marketing, activation, and team operations, she has worked across premium hospitality, multi-platform campaigns, and cross-functional collaboration with team, arena, and league stakeholders. Her path has been shaped by curiosity, professionalism, and a commitment to building a trusted brand inside one of the most innovative leagues in the world.

Staying Nimble

Alyson has spent her entire professional career inside a league that moves quickly and rarely stays still. The NBA tests new ideas, builds new fan experiences, and expects teams to innovate just as fast as the league office does.

She believes the people who succeed are the ones who stay adaptable, curious, and open to change. She encourages young professionals to use digital platforms to showcase their abilities, their values, and their brand. In her view, social media and online networking create leverage for candidates who want to stand out. Progress is rarely instant, she says, but consistent output builds long-term equity.

The Realities of Working in Sports

Alyson’s rise in the league is rooted in both optimism and realism. She loves the privilege of working in sports, but she never pretends the path is glamorous every day. “In the world of sports, building strong relationships is the most rewarding aspect,” she says. “Seeing athletes achieve their best, whether it is a world championship or a personal goal, brings immense satisfaction.” At the same time, she understands the weight of the schedule. Sports runs when fans are free, which means late nights, weekends, holidays, and long stretches of travel. For Alyson, days are filled with partners, clients, ticket holders, internal teams, creative departments, arena operations, and back-to-back events. The workload is real.

Her advice reflects that honesty. You need to love the responsibility more than the visibility. You need to care about the craft of marketing, the strategy behind partnerships, and the experience you deliver to fans and clients. The passion has to be for the work itself, not just the team colors or the proximity to the court. Sustained careers grow from that mindset.

So Many Roles, So Many Pathways

One of Alyson’s favorite things about the industry is the wide variety of opportunities. Partnerships, marketing, analytics, content creation, ticketing, operations, technology, brand management, and community engagement all fall under the sports umbrella. She believes most people underestimate how much activity happens around a sporting event. “Next time, before heading to your seat, take a few laps around the arena or venue,” she says. “Explore the food and beverage vendors, engage with the concourse activations, and take in the signage and on court entertainment. Everything around you is part of the behind the scenes work of someone in a role like mine.”

Her message to students and early career professionals is clear. If you pay attention, you will see dozens of potential entry points. As the industry evolves, teams and leagues are investing more heavily in technology, fan intelligence, brand integration, and experience design. Salaries are growing in these areas. So is demand for talent. There is space for people who want to work with pro teams, with college programs, or with youth and community sports. There is space for creative thinkers, operators, analysts, strategists, and relationship builders. The challenge is choosing a lane, building the right skills, and staying open to where opportunities may lead.