Finding the perfect fit

For Allison Bremer Howard ’00, going on college tours was a lot like shopping for new basketball shoes. It took a few tries before she finally found her perfect fit.

Howard was searching for a prestigious engineering school with a friendly campus feel. Equal parts flashy and comfortable, UD was like a new pair of Kobe’s.

“I remember opening the door of my family’s gray Cutlass Ciera and looking out on the red brick,” Howard said. “I hadn't even set my foot out, and I said, ‘This is where I'm going to school.’”

Years before she was balling out and breaking ankles as the executive vice president and chief commercial officer of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Howard got her rookie start in UD’s School of Engineering.

“My claim to fame is I was probably the worst student of the 21 who graduated,” Howard said. “I like to say I wore the carpet out walking from my dorm room to my professors’ offices for help every day.”

Co-op experiences fed Howard’s need for practical knowledge. It wasn’t enough to be book smart — Howard knew she had always been a worker, and working is what helped her learn.

After graduating, Howard put her civil engineering degree to work in Los Angeles for five years before she experienced what she calls a “look in the mirror moment.”

It was time for a jersey swap.

LOOKING FOR PURPOSE

At 27, working in LA for Shell Oil Co., Howard was no longer jumping out of bed to go to work. It was the first time she’d felt that way in her life.

“You can put on a brave face for a lot of other people, but you gotta be able to be honest with yourself,” Howard said. “Once I finally was honest with myself, I realized I didn’t love it at all.”

She pivoted into project management with Advanced Fuel, hoping a new role would bring renewed energy while allowing her to stay in LA. Instead, the move became another lesson in adaptability: Howard got married, went on her honeymoon and returned to find the company bankrupt. “Quite frankly, I stumbled into sports,” Howard said. “I knew the power of sports, but I knew nothing about the business of sports.”

In 2005, Howard joined Premier Partnerships as a salesperson, where she learned the commercial side of sports from the ground up. She discovered she loved “the sell” — the strategy, relationships and deal-making — but after six years, the constant travel began to take its toll, especially as she became a mother to two boys less than two years apart.

“I wasn't being the wife that I wanted to be, I wasn't being the mom that I wanted to be, and that became my next ‘look in the mirror moment,’” she said.

That’s when Howard took a sales job with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2012, where she played a key role in the commercial success of one of the most powerful brands in all of sports.

During her decade with the Lakers, Howard advanced to vice president of corporate partnerships and sold the naming rights to their $100 million training center built in 2017. She sold three different jersey patches and continued growth of the Lakers brand by selling partnerships when the NBA International Team Marketing Program began. 

In September 2021, another mirror moment was impending. That’s when a move back to the Midwest came knocking.

As president of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Kansas City Current, she oversaw the building of their new stadium and training facilities and signed all of their partners during her two-year stint.

“I felt the pressure of all women's sports on my shoulders,” Howard said. “I absolutely put the job first, and my family suffered. When I pulled my head up, I realized I could not continue.”

So when Rock Entertainment Group called with an opportunity in Cleveland, Howard was clear about what had to change.

“I told them my family was not going to come second again,” she said.

As executive vice president and chief commercial officer for REG and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Howard oversees corporate and ticket sales revenue and strategy, corporate partnerships and venue experience. Last year, she was also named president of the WNBA Cleveland expansion team.

NEW BEGINNINGS

With a fresh perspective shaped by the well-established Lakers brand and the total start-up project she took on with the KC Current, Howard is looking to build the most inclusive brand in all of sports in Cleveland.

“I think what I love so much about women's sports is you can have everybody at those games. ...It's like this utopian society where everybody gets along.”

“I think what I love so much about women's sports is you can have everybody at those games,” Howard said. “You have your straight family of four right next to a queer couple. You can have somebody decked out in crazy team gear next to somebody who just came from work. It's like this utopian society where everybody gets along.”

In the time that Howard has before the team hits the court in Rocket Arena in 2028, she’s spending her time out in the Cleveland community, listening to the wants and needs of fans.

“Every dollar that we make from a ticket, from merchandise, from concessions, from a partnership, from anything, goes into the fan experience, the players, or the community,” Howard said.

This ability to give back and be more involved in her community is a feeling Howard has chased since her UD days. And now, she’s finally found it.

“Right now, if I was asked to go and buy more hot dogs because the stadium is out of them for a game tonight, I would say, ‘Sure. How many do we need? A thousand?’ I would do any of it,” Howard said. “That humility is something so many of us have from UD.”

Howard said her time at UD first opened her mind to the belief that continues to ground her today: “It's not about who is right, it's about what is right.”

“Once you get rid of the ego and you realize that we have so many more similarities than we do differences, your guard comes down and you become so much more open to not only the good, but just all the opportunities the world has to offer.”

“Once you get rid of the ego and you realize that we have so many more similarities than we do differences, your guard comes down and you become so much more open to not only the good, but just all the opportunities the world has to offer,” Howard said.

While it’s true that Howard has worn a lot of jerseys in her career, the throughline has never wavered. The UD grounding, the worker’s mindset, the belief that purpose matters more than position: that’s the same player who stepped out of a gray Cutlass Ciera and knew she’d found her home court.

Photographs courtesy WNBA and Allison Howard '00

 A version of this article appears in print in the Spring 2026 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 40. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE