She’s Got Next: Bridget Niland

A Western New York native, Bridget Niland has excelled as an athlete, an advocate and an administrator. Currently serving as Dean of the College of Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at Niagara University, Bridget is a graduate of the University at Buffalo Law School. She served in several management roles at the NCAA’s national office, returning to Daemen College in Buffalo where she became a tenured sports management professor and led the school’s transition to NCAA Division II membership as its director of athletics. Over the course of her running career, she captained the University at Buffalo’s track and cross-country teams, won the Buffalo Marathon twice and finished in the top 5 of the Marine Corps Marathon.

The following conversation is edited for space and clarity.

When you think back to your elite running experiences, how has that shaped the way you approach your work in sports?

There’s just so much to my running career that really has been the foundation of everything else. Running became like a trusted friend that I could always rely on.

And in all honesty, how I got into running was different. I came from a very athletic basketball family, and I’m the youngest of seven. When you’re the youngest, you always feel like everybody above you has something they’re great at, and you’re thinking, “what am I going to be good at?” I tried to be good at all the things that they were good at, and I wasn’t. My father was an amazing coach – and an amazing father – and sometimes he gave it to you straight. I remember one day I had gone out for a run to train for field hockey and basketball, and when I came back, I asked him how far I ran. I had run nine miles, and he looks at me, he goes, “I gotta tell you, kid, you’re just not that good of a basketball player, and so I really think you’re onto something here with running.”

At the time, those words were a little hurtful. Here is this guy who’s known for basketball, my brothers all play basketball and I tried to. I didn’t immediately switch to running, but I did really like running and it became this trusted friend that no matter what was going on in my family life or my personal life or my work life, I could always rely on running. It gave me this sense of comfort, of constant security, of competence, and also this feeling of whatever I’m dealing with in my life, whether it’s something difficult at work or at home, it can’t be as bad as hill repeats, right? It can’t be as bad as training for the Boston Marathon during a snowstorm. I keep reminding myself of what I have physically pushed myself to the brink of doing and I think that gives you that sense of grounding. That sense of OK, bring it.

Have you seen an evolution of women’s voices at the table when it comes to decision-making in the sports world?

I was born the same year as Title IX, so whether it was playing sports or sports leadership, like a lot of Gen Xers, I was sandwiched between these two major generations that have been bringing about large cultural change. Unlike the Baby Boomer women before me, when I came into athletic leadership, I didn’t know what it was like to not be included. The Boomers definitely passed on to me the notion of “you can do it,” which was positive, but also shared, “remember, you’re lucky to be here.”

So when I got to those leadership tables, I behaved like I belonged there, which could be shocking to the men, but more so to the women, because I think some were like, “Hey kid don’t ruin this for us.”

I wanted to be very respectful of the women who trail-blazed for me, because I wouldn’t even be at the table without them. But I also felt this pressure to play by their playbook. And then I had this group of women younger than me, the millennials, that were like, “You know, we aren’t just lucky to be here. We belong here, keep pushing.” And I value both of those generations. I have really learned a ton from both of them.

Title IX gets a lot of play for increasing athletic participation opportunities. What’s really not recognized as much about Title IX is that it not only kicked open the door for female athletic opportunities; it also kicked open the door for female athletic leadership opportunities. I’ve seen that change, and that’s been cool to watch.

In college, I was an intern for the Buffalo Bills and got to work with Gretchen Geitter, who recently retired from the Bills as their Vice President of Community Relations. Watching Gretchen’s career evolve has been amazing. She was someone we all looked up to. A woman just a bit younger than me is Allison Wagner, who was also at UB Law School. She was Vice President of Legal at the NHL for 13 years and now is Senior Counsel at the NFL. I mean, Gretchen and Allison kicked open that door, because when I interned at the Bills, there weren’t any females in vice president roles.

In 2024 there has been more coverage and conversation about the growing popularity and investment in women’s sports. How do you feel that that is going to have an impact for women on that business and leadership side of the sports ledger?

I want to be positive, but I don’t think it’s simple, because there are some societal forces that need to change in the United States. You can do anything sports wise – if you come from a certain income bracket. We really need to highlight the fact that Title IX has not worked for every single female. For example, you’ve got to have money to play travel soccer, which you need to do in order to succeed in and keep playing soccer.Title IX didn’t work for every kid, and although we’ve seen tremendous growth in some areas, we’ve seen a significant contraction in others because sports have gotten too expensive.

We also need to recognize that while female participation has increased, female leadership hasn’t increased as significantly. I think the reason is that we are not a country that has embraced supporting women in every phase of our lives.

I shifted out of my role at the NCAA because I wanted to be a mom and because I wanted to make sure that I was at least carrying some of the elder care responsibilities that existed in my family at the time. I don’t know if I ended up doing either of those things well. Most nights I hit the pillow thinking I was shortchanging someone, but I also didn’t feel like I had any right to complain because so many women carry much more than I do.

We need to be doing more so that every woman, whatever version of themselves that they want to be, we are fully supporting them. We don’t provide support to people who are taking care of their parents, which are predominantly women, and we don’t provide support to people who want to raise families. We put both in a box and say, figure it out. And so women are still confounded with choices that men don’t have to make.

Buffalo likes to pride itself on being a sports town, but it lacks any professional women’s team sports on a big scale. Why hasn’t the region fully embraced women’s sports?

The conversation always starts with the question, “Is it a good investment?” And the challenge is getting men to appreciate the level of game that women are playing, because men have more disposable time to watch sports and spend money on them. For example, more women are playing golf but it’s still not nearly as many men who play golf. Why? Because golf takes all day. If women are seen as the central elder caregivers and childcare providers and just general care people, the result can be that we have less disposable time to be sports fans, and thus less influence on the market and investment.

The younger generations are sharing family duties more, which I think will then spill over to sharing elder care more, which could be that huge shift in time for women allowing them to play an even bigger role in sports markets and investment.

One of my favorite quotes that I used a lot when I was working with Project Play of WNY for the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, is from John F Kennedy when he signed the Sports Broadcasting Act in 1961 warning us about becoming a country full of sport spectators rather than participants.

Sometimes, I worry that Buffalo is being held back as a participant athletic town because we’ve had to make tradeoffs to support our professional sports teams that other regions haven’t had to do. Other regions have money to support both spectators and participants. Here we had to choose. So, we will not be getting a big, massive indoor athletic complex that is publicly accessible for youth sports. We chose the new Bills stadium which means that our kids are going to continue to have to drive six and seven hours to compete in indoor track or swimming at a top-level facility. I worry that we’ve become a community of sports spectators, and we’re losing the ability to be sports participants, which can have long-term negative consequences for our region. This is a different take on the sports market in our region and one I gained through my work at Project Play WNY.

What’s your advice for women who want to work in sport industry?

My advice to them is make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. You will likely encounter challenges that you will need to work through which may quickly what you love about sports. Stay determined, steady and focused. Develop a thick skin. Use the experiences and the strength that you built physically as an athlete to sustain you mentally as a leader.

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