Sean Rooney - Assistant Athletics Director/Tickets & Pirate Club Operations - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Sean Rooney

Title:
Assistant Athletics Director/Tickets & Pirate Club Operations
Email:
Phone:
(252) 737-4500

Sean Rooney, who has nearly 10 years of experience in collegiate athletics, was named the Assistant Athletic Director for Tickets & Pirate Club Operations at East Carolina University on June 9, 2025.

Rooney’s hire to lead the Pirate Athletic Ticket Office ends a three-year stint at the University of Houston where he was the director of ticket operations since March of 2023. While on the Cougars staff, served as the primary ticketing manager for football and men’s basketball, while also overseeing online and event tickets sales, and customer service for seven ticketed sports as well as external events and pre-paid event parking.

The California native trained and developed full time and part time ticket operations staff on the Paciolan ticket platform, event preparation, and customer service, while establishing and maintaining compliance with NCAA and University rules and regulations. Rooney also oversaw cash management and reconciliation for all ticketed events, maintained and tracked ticketing inventory, facilities, and event related manifests, as well as sales data.

Lastly, he curated information from past ticket sales to recommend informed opinions for sales strategy and collaborated with ticket sales and service team, marketing, and creative departments to execute ticket sales plans.

Prior to Houston, Rooney spent nearly six years working at the University of California (2017-23) as an assistant director of ticket operations serving as the manager for eight of the eleven ticketed sports. He worked closely with men’s basketball, while also assisting with premium seating for football, basketball and oversaw all parking for Cal Athletic events.

Rooney began his full-time career in collegiate athletics at the University of San Francisco first as a graduate assistant in ticket operations (2015-16) while working towards his masters degree in sport management. Following graduation and in October of 2016, he was named the Dons Director of Ticket Operations and Sales (2016-17) where he managed a student staff of nearly 10 people for six sports as well as special events. He planned and implemented ticket promotions as well as special offers to drive online sales and data capture while providing client services for all ticketing needs.

Rooney earned his undergraduate degree in mass communication from California State University-Sacramento in 2010.