Full Sail Stories

In Boston, sports are more than just a pastime, they’re a way of life. And for Full Sail Sports Marketing & Media grad Tahira Bellot, that culture is where everything started.

“So I'm originally from Boston, Massachusetts. And if you know anything about Boston sports fans, you know we're obsessed,” she says. That obsession stayed with her when she moved to Orlando right before high school, a shift that came with a sports culture shock.

“I would go to school in Boston and everybody was wearing sports gear to school, and then I moved to Florida and it was kind of opposite of that… and I just didn't understand why people weren't about that.” Seeing the difference in sports cultures helped Tahira find her resolve.

“I knew what I wanted to do, I wanted to work in sports and make sure that people support the team and the city that they live in.”

By age 14, she’d said the words out loud: she wanted to become the first Black female president of an NFL franchise.

“Spoiler alert, I'm not,” she laughs, “but I do work for her.”

Today, Tahira is the Director of Premium Service for the Las Vegas Raiders, overseeing the experience of the team’s season ticket holders and shaping some of the most memorable moments that happen inside Allegiant Stadium.

In Las Vegas, “premium” means something different than it does in other markets.

“Most directors of premium service across the league are more focused on the suites and clubs,” she explains. “Here, because this is Vegas, we say that everybody is premium. So unlike a lot of teams, I deal with our season ticket members.”

The Raiders are sold out of season tickets, so her job is all about service, retention, and making fans feel valued in a city built on entertainment. Because there are no season tickets left to sell, her team’s core mission is renewal – and they consistently achieve a 99% renewal rate.

Much of that work happens long before kickoff. Tahira explains that fans don’t just buy seats, they buy experiences, and she and her team design the kind of moments you can’t purchase; a child sprinting onto the field to retrieve the kicking tee or families stepping onto the turf for a postgame photo.

“This off-season, I really focused on new game day experiences and benefits that are exclusive to season ticket members,” she says. For Tahira, the more personal the touch, the more lasting the memory.

During the season, Tahira’s days are full of collaboration.

“Most of it is meetings. I feel like I'm in meetings every day, all day,” she says. Production meetings can involve more than 100 people including stadium operations, security, game presentation, broadcast, and marketing, all aligning on every detail.

Her department also fields questions and concerns from the Raiders’ most invested fans. “My staff is [on] the front lines,” she says. “When someone, even if they're not a season ticket member, has a question, they're going to call 1-800-RAIDERS and they're going to reach my team.”

According to Tahira, the small details matter, and every decision loops back to the fan experience.

“We literally become a part of people's lifelong memories by the things that we allow them to do,” she says. She remembers the family who attended a game in honor of their son, a passionate fan who had passed away. After the game, the Raiders surprised them with a photo of him on the field so they could take a picture with him. “There’s not a dry eye out there when it happens,” she says. “You are huge parts of people's memories.”

Tahira credits her time at Full Sail with helping her build the creativity and initiative that set her apart early in her career. While working with the San Francisco 49ers, she pitched a prospecting event inspired by something she’d learned in the program.

“It cost us $2,000 to throw the event, and we closed $120K at the event,” she says. “So many of the classes… were designed around being creative and coming up with things. Full Sail embedded in me this level of creativity… but also thinking about how it affects other departments.”

Networking – something she learned to do in her online studies – became another critical skill. “Once we have something in common, now we have a conversation… and Full Sail had a lot to do with that.”

Before the Raiders, she built experience in the NBA, WNBA, and niche sports – roles that gave her access and insight she still relies on. “When you're in the smaller niche sports, you get a chance to be in the room when decisions are being made,” she says. Those experiences prepared her for the NFL in ways she couldn’t have anticipated.

For students and aspiring sports professionals, Tahira emphasizes humility, flexibility, and authenticity.

“You should look at your career as a jungle gym and not necessarily as a ladder,” she says. “Nothing should be beneath you.” She encourages grads not to overlook smaller leagues and niche sports which were the places where she learned the most, stretched the most, and gained responsibility quickly.

“And network, network, network,” she says. “Closed mouths don't get fed.”

As for her own fandom? She still roots for her Boston teams, unless they are playing a team she works for. "What I always say is only one team pays me to be a fan." she jokes.