🏆 From Pit Lanes to PBR: How Mario Hirose Built a Career in Live Sports

Mario Hirose is the Director of Live Event Marketing at Professional Bull Riders (PBR), where he leads market strategy and dynamic ticket pricing for PBR events across the West Coast. Raised in Los Angeles and once on a pre-med track at UC Irvine, he gravitated to sports through stacked internships and campus roles, then earned his master’s in sport management from the University of San Francisco’s Orange County campus. Mario spent nearly 18 years at the National Hot Rod Association, rising through promotions while touching sponsorships, sales, business research, and event operations before moving into combat sports with Bellator MMA under the Showtime umbrella. After a brief stop at the Professional Fighters League, he joined PBR, combining on-the-ground promotion with data-driven pricing to fill arenas and elevate the live fan experience.

From Med School Plans to Sold Out Arenas

Mario laughs when he talks about his original path. “My mom brainwashed me into thinking I was going to go into med school,” he says. He enrolled at UC Irvine as a biology major, but the labs did not click. “Within that very first year, I hated all the science classes,” he admits. Outside the classroom, though, sports kept pulling him in. He organized a dorm rec league, wrote for the student paper, and stacked internships with the athletic department, a minor league soccer team, and the LA Galaxy. “All I did in my free time it felt like I was in some type of internship,” he says.

A month after graduation he landed at the National Hot Rod Association. He expected it to be a short stint in his career. It became an 18-year run with five or six promotions. “I had a really good boss for most of my career,” Mario says, and the work let him touch sponsorship, corporate sales, business research, and more.

Finding Fit in Combat Sports

Through his network, Mario jumped to Bellator MMA, then under the Showtime umbrella at Paramount. “Absolutely loved that job,” he says. “Culturally, leadership, co-workers, everything about the sport.” When Showtime exited sports, the Professional Fighters League stepped in. This transition led him to his next opportunity with PBR. He took it and has been there about a year and a half.

The Art and Science of Filling Seats

At PBR, Mario wears two hats. First, he is the promoter and marketer for events across California, Oregon, and Washington. “When PBR comes to town, I’m the person that puts together the marketing plan and hopefully makes you aware of the event, consider buying tickets and finally making that transaction,” he says. His metric is simple: ticket revenue.

He also leads pricing. “I’m the person that actually puts together all those price points,” Mario says. He reviews seat maps daily and adjusts in real time. “If a certain section is not selling, do I need to lower the price or vice versa.” He partners with Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing team, which monitors clicks and conversions. “They have like a certain number where they think that conversion should happen,” he explains. If the ratio is off, they pivot.

Why University of San Francisco

Graduate school was both a promise and a bridge. “I was like, look, I’m not going to med school, but I am going to grad school,” Mario says. Coming from a science-heavy undergrad, he wanted something hands-on that connected directly to the sports world.

USF’s Southern California campus gave him that – real reps in a major sports market. “Going to school for sports in LA, I think that’s a really unique opportunity,” he says. Staying at home helped him save money, and he threw himself into internships to gain experience wherever he could. “At the end of the day, it’s all about getting a job.”

That mindset fit perfectly with USF’s approach. The Sport Management program’s Southern California location and tight-knit alumni network opened doors that might have stayed closed elsewhere. With more than 2,700+ graduates working across sports and entertainment, the program gave Mario a way to turn classroom lessons into connections, and connections into a career.

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What Great Teammates Share

Two traits stand out from his 20-plus years around arenas and fight nights. “One is just the hard work that goes behind it,” Mario says. PBR’s first year for him was “a 60 to 80 hour work week,” with nights, weekends, and holidays. The second is creativity. He values teammates who do not rinse and repeat. “Let’s find a different, more optimal solution,” he says, pointing to the Savannah Bananas and MLB’s pitch clock as examples of rethinking the product for fans.

The Why

It is not a spreadsheet or a title. It is a moment. “The payoff knowing that my hard work is going to lead to a sold out arena,” Mario says. Working an event, hearing the roar, looking around the building, that is fuel. He once considered a traditional marketing role outside sports. The job looked fine on paper, but he could not picture the daily spark. “Can I wake up excited about promoting bread sales,” he asked himself. He knew the answer. “My end product is going to stadiums and arenas,” he says. That is where he belongs.