A West Paterson native, Joseph Vacca began his tenure with NJIT's Department of Athletics in July 2015 and currently serves as the Highlanders Business Manager and Ticket Manager.
In his role, Vacca manages budget requests for all 19 varsity athletic programs and departments, preparing budget and data reports. He also works with the campuses' budget and accounting administration to compile financial forecasts and projections, while managing accounting of athletic revenues and preparing the annual NCAA/EADA reports.
Vacca coordinates team travel and is involved with all daily business transactions of handling payments for the Athletic Department with major contracted vendors, which includes Anthony Travel, Academy Bus, Adidas, Verizon and Enterprise. In addition, Vacca manages the athletics travel policy, including overseeing team and recruiting expense reporting, the departmental travel card program and departmental banner finance requisition system.
Vacca oversees all departmental athletic apparel and equipment, including for all 19 varsity athletic programs . He is responsible for apparel and equipment purchases and inventory, while consulting with coaching staffs on specific sport apparel needs, while adhering to NCAA, ASUN Conference and NJIT branding and safety policies.
Vacca oversees all ticketing activities, which includes selling individual tickets, season packages and group deals to the community, as well as managing the ticket system database. He serves as the primary managerial contact for Highlanders' ticketing operation and athletic department's ticketing systems. In addition, Vacca trains sales associates and interns to develop and maintain relationships through phone calls, emails, and hard mailers.
Prior to joining the Highlanders, Vacca served as a Quality Assurance Analyst with GameChanger Media, Inc., a technology company based in New York City that builds simple and powerful products for youth sports teams and their communities. He began his tenure as a customer service manager, before being elevated to QA Analyst to test & deliver an app that provided world class access to youth live game action, the statistics to inform teachings and help fuel growth, and solutions that rally community around a youth team.
Upon graduating from Rutgers, Vacca was the Assistant Elite Director at the worldwide leader in basketball instruction; The Hoop Group from 2012-13, where he was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of player accounts, expense reporting and maximizing brand/sponsor exposure at team & individual youth events across the east coast.
Vacca continued his career in athletics working as a student manager for the Rutgers men's basketball program in 2011 and 2012, where he assisted with practice preparation, team travel business items, and youth camps.
He started his career in athletics working as a gameday and promotions intern for the New Jersey Jackals minor league baseball team in 2011, where he produced the in game fan engagement script, coordinated in between inning on field promotions and assisted with group ticket sales.
Vacca graduated with a sports management degree and labor studies minor from Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
