Darline Llamas Llopis, Vice President of Finance & Retail for the Miami Dolphins

How did you get your start in a career in sports?

I have always loved sports. As a kid, I remember watching soccer with my dad, and it was always this reason to watch TV because we didn’t watch much of it. Big games or a boxing match brought us together, so it was very much a community aspect, which is what I loved about sports. I went to the University of Southern California during the Pete Carroll era, so football was obviously a huge deal in college. I loved USC football during that time, but I never really thought of football as a job option. It was more like football is what you do for fun, then people go have a separate job.

After school, I worked at a few different accounting firms, and when I was in Dallas, one of my clients asked me if I knew anyone in Los Angeles who’d be interested in a job with the Rams. I talked to my husband, then told the client I was interested. After I got the job at the Rams, my boss told me that my client and friend had written a “glowing recommendation” for me. I always tell people that you never know who you’re talking to. I had no idea when I met that client in Dallas that she knew someone at the Rams and that would open a door for me.

Going into that job with the Rams, I knew I loved it, but working in finance and accounting, what we do is very similar to working outside of sports. But being able to be part of something like the Rams and the NFL that impact people in such a positive way, that was really special. I knew it was an industry I wanted to stay in.

What was your role with the Rams and how does it differ from your current role with the Dolphins?

I came in as controller with the Rams, managing finance aspects of the business. The team had moved from St. Louis to L.A. the year before I got there in 2017, so it had been running on bare bones. The finance department was a three-person team at the time, so I came on to help my boss, Jeff Brewer, ramp up that team, get processes in place and get back to budgeting. It was a really exciting time — we went to the Super Bowl in the 2018 season, along with growing and learning from the team and all of the intricacies of working in the NFL.

Then, I came over to Miami as the vice president of finance, and one of the first assignments I received from Tom Garfinkel, Dolphins vice chairman, president and CEO, was to do some analysis on whether we should bring our stadium retail in-house. I did all this research, punched the numbers and made a presentation. Then I went to him and said, “I think we can make a little more money, but the main reason to bring it in-house is we can have more control over our brand.” For anyone who runs retail, it’s more about margin and how much money they’re making and less about the brand. He turns to me and says, “I totally agree. You should go do that.”

So, I tapped into all of my networks to build a team, and I had nine months to get it live. One of my friends from the Rams ended up coming over and has helped run this department. We’ve done some incredible things and have really been able to show our brand in a different way. From a dollar sense, we have increased our sales tremendously, but the management we have of the brand, of the collaborations and product we put out has really resonated with the fans.

I also do finance, payroll — and procurement is a department we started a little over a year ago. We do so much across Hard Rock Stadium, with the Dolphins, events, concerts, Formula One Miami Grand Prix and Miami Open. Last year, I focused a lot on the grand prix, making sure we had processes in place for all of the finances and how we thought about our products. That event is very different from the Dolphins. For the football team, it’s, These are the seats, this is what we’re selling. With F1, we put it up and take it down every year, so we also change things every year. We’re constantly discussing the amount of grandstand seats, hospitality locations and the fans. So we’re working across all of our departments with ticketing and campus experience to try to come up with a consolidated plan, which makes it exciting and dynamic.