University of Delaware Athletics
The World Cup Experience: Olivia Bley's Journey Beyond the Field
7/15/2026 1:43:00 PM | Women's Soccer
NEWARK, Del. - The 2026 FIFA World Cup has been a hot ticket this summer with soccer fans glued to the action for the past month across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For University of Delaware junior forward Olivia Bley of the women’s soccer program, the World Cup provided an exciting opportunity. The West Chester, Pennsylvania native has spent the tournament interning with the Home Depot activation team at the games in Philadelphia.
Home Depot has partnered with David Beckham to host fan festivals at each host site during the tournament, featuring interactive soccer contests, giveaways and merchandise shops. In her role, Bley has been able to learn the ins and outs of sports marketing and event management at the largest sporting event in the world.
Bluehens.com was recently able to catch up with Bley to discuss her once-in-a-lifetime experience that she described as “too perfect."
How did you find out about this internship?
I was not planning on doing any internships this summer, and I had a really long talk with our career services advisor Steven Caufield. He said I was in a good place professionally. So I was in a headspace where I was going to solely focus on soccer. But then I went to a BLUE meeting for financial literacy where Steve Dunkin and Thyrick Pitts spoke about managing money as an athlete, and that’s something I’m really interested in. Because I went to that BLUE meeting, my perspective changed about my excitement towards doing things professionally. Because I had that change in my mentality, I saw a notification from LinkedIn. I saw the job and thought ‘wow this looks really cool.’ I applied through Octagon's platform, interviewed and got the position. I credit the BLUE meeting because, had I not gone to that meeting, I would have not opened that email.
* Octagon is a leading global sports, entertainment, and culture marketing agency. The agency specializes in brand sponsorship consulting, corporate marketing strategy, and full-service talent management, and represents over 900 athletes, coaches, and broadcasters.
Gallery: Olivia Bley - FIFA World Cup Internship
What is your role with this internship?
We are hired by Octagon to represent Home Depot at their fan festival site, called “Beckham’s Backyard”. There are five primary activations or promotions that the group is running. But essentially, what we’re doing is creating a fun experience for fans through different marketing tactics. Running activations, handing out prizes, engaging with and meeting fans across different cultures with the goal of creating a positive image, and appropriately representing the Home Depot. Each of the fan festivals has a Home Depot site with different activities, such as a soccer simulation game, where they can win prizes. Everything is built from the ground up from Home Depot. The point of it is to feel that they’re at home. The whole point is to create an experience. We want them to watch, enjoy the game, play the games, and create memories. I don’t know much about how to set up an event with a saw and tools but I do know a lot about soccer and have a positive attitude.
What kind of impact do you have on the fan experience?
Home Depot is the only company that can say “FIFA World Cup” on its products, I made a couple of pitches to repurpose the do-it-yourself cornhole kits to include the FIFA World Cup branding. I thought that we needed to put that branding on everything. I also suggested giving cowbells away on site. My manager brought that idea up, and now we’re going to give cowbells away.
What is your plan after the internship concludes?
This is really cool for me because I want to get into the professional sports space, but from a legal perspective after undergrad. Tentatively, I want to get into the legal space of college athletics through NIL. College athletics is becoming more similar to professional sports, except the resources for college athletes feels minuscule compared to professional sports. I feel like there are very few genuine resources that are in the athletes’ best interest. So, I want to get into the legal side of that with signing contracts and making brand deals. Having the opportunities to get exposed to the number of hours you have to work in sports is insightful. Realizing that weekends aren’t like your typical weekends, as there are game days. Learning how to navigate working 8-hour or 10-hour shifts, keeping my energy high so I can provide a positive influence on the people around me. I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy it, but it’s affirming to know I can handle it, and have high energy.
What did this internship mean to you and how did this have a positive affect on your experience at UD?
This internship is so special, it’s too perfect for me. As a fall athlete, it can be tricky to do summer internships. Getting to do this, go through the process of applying, interviewing for the internship, and getting that acceptance letter was really cool for my development. I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that. With the internship being the World Cup, it’s the biggest sporting event in the world and the biggest sporting event of my lifetime. Being involved in this as a student-athlete is so unique. It’s not that far away from campus because it’s in Philadelphia. It’s such an amazing opportunity to be so close to the World Cup as a division I soccer athlete. I get to meet people from other countries, including people from my dad’s country, the Ivory Coast. It gave me a sense of what loving a job feels like and now I feel affirmed in my choices for my majors, and what job I want to go to.
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