Sports Management is one of the most lucrative and sought-after jobs in the world right now. Their demand is only rising and will likely grow in the future. Sports such as Football, Kabaddi, and Badminton are rapidly garnering a huge fan following after cricket in India. These sports are also expanding into newer territories and reaching remote pockets and corners of India. This rise in sporting leagues is a positive indicator of the thriving and dynamic job market in Sports Management. Therefore, studying Sports Management will open up multiple job opportunities for students.
What is Sports Management?
Sports Management deals with the business side of sports and recreation. As a professional field of study, Sports Management mixes business principles with the world of sports. The basic aspects of Sports Management are planning, organizing, and managing a sports organization. They also manage athletes and major sports events.
Studying Sports Management equips students with the strategic planning, organization, management, and administration around a sport and its players. It also involves marketing and promotion of events and negotiating with potential clients and sponsors. It covers topics like finance, marketing, and event management, among others. Students also learn about the various management tools required to identify business opportunities, and they quickly adapt to the evolving sports industry.
Why is Sports Management Important?
Sports Management is important since it ensures a hassle-free, consistent, and smooth operation of a sporting organization, its events, and its athletes. Sports Management ensures that athletes don’t need to worry about anything else besides their game. It is also important for those management professionals since it gives them lucrative jobs. It creates a job demand which leads to more jobs, thereby generating more revenue and an improved economy.
Sports is also one of the most passion-fueled, highly attractive occupations in the world. It brings fame, money, and all the glamour and glitz that comes with it. Working in the same industry as athletes, albeit as a manager, is bound to bring an added sheen and esteem to one’s job. It drives motivation and helps one excel at their job on a more frequent basis.
In the modern-day context, running sports organizations without Sports Management will be virtually impossible. The world of sports has become increasingly professional, and more and more athletes are making millions of dollars. Therefore, given the surplus of money pouring into every sports tournament, event, department, and league, Sports Management is crucial to successfully operating them. Athlete management, event planning, and marketing are just some of the various factors involved in the job of a sports manager.
Sports Management also ensures that teams and organizations are financially stable, efficiently managed, and effectively promote their activities.
Real-Life Examples of Effective Sports Management
Effective Sports Management examples are scattered all across the world. From the NFL to the NHL to the IPL to International cricket and football to FIFA to the EPL to many other leagues, events, and organizations, everyone has had a brilliant sports management example. Here is a list of a few of them from across all sports around the world:
- Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Management – CSK is one of the most successful franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL), winning 5 titles so far, the joint highest with Mumbai Indians (MI). Many credit their incredible run at the competition to their superb man-management skills. Each individual in the setup, not just players, is taken care of, and all their needs are fulfilled by the organization. This way, the players, the coaching staff, the staff members, etc., can only focus on the game without any distractions. Robin Utthappa, an ex-CSK cricketer, also said that the CSK management would often not charge for their travel expenses of the players’ family members – a very rare privilege indeed. This helps build loyalty and trust of players towards a franchise.
- Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United – Legendary football coach Sir Alex Ferguson managed the Manchester United team for 26 years, leading them to 38 trophies, 13 Premier Leaue titles, and 2 Champions League titles. It was a testament to his man-management skills and his strong impact on the strategic management of the team.
- Mumbai Indians’ Scouting System – Mumbai Indians, alongside CSK, with 5 IPL trophies, is the most successful IPL franchise. A large reason behind their success over the years is the incredible raw and new talent that has come through the ranks. Players such as Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Tilak Varma, etc., have all been scouted by agents from remote corners of India. Their eye for talent is second to none. This is also a major example of grassroots-level management, something that can change the fortunes of a team’s success.
- Bill Belichick – Legendary NFL (National Football League) coach Bill Belichick has been renowned for his ‘tight-lipped’ media strategy inside the team facility. No player’s social media is allowed, and everybody is committed to their vision of how things should be done. He also advises his players to stay out of trouble after midnight since, ‘Nothing good happens after 12 o’clock’, as Belichick’s famous saying. Such a management style of Belichick led to tremendous successes for the teams he coached over the years.
- Nike and the ‘Thank You Mom’ campaign – Nike once ran a ‘Thank You Mom’ campaign to show the impact of mothers on their children’s sporting success.
Career Opportunities in Sports Management
After completing a Sports Management degree, lots of career opportunities open up for individuals. They will have the privilege of choosing from a wide range of career opportunities. Here are some of them listed below:
- Sports Marketing Manager
- Sports General Manager
- Sports Public Relations
- Sports Financial Analysts
- Sports Agents
- Sports Information Director
- Sports Event Manager
- Facilities Manager
- Athletic Director
- Business Managers of Athletes
- Computer Systems Analyst
Skills Needed for Sports Management
Here are some of the important skills required to be a Sports Manager:
- Specialized Knowledge – Sports Managers are required to have a unique learning perspective towards the sports industry. Additionally, different sports and different teams offer incentivized knowledge that’s mutually exclusive of each other.
- Leadership and Teamwork – Leadership and teamwork are necessary skills to have in any management role, let alone in Sports Management. A Sports Management graduate must develop those skills from their college days, which in turn helps them adjust better in a corporate environment.
- Communication and Interpersonal Skills – The various curricular activities, mock demos, seminars, and other activities inside a college campus, whilst pursuing one’s Sports Management degree, help one develop the communication and interpersonal skills required to be a Manager in this field. Additionally, having access to the industry and knowledge about their work helps.
- Problem Solving – Sports Management often tends to challenge employees, putting them in difficult situations during any corporate decision. They then develop a way to solve those problems on their own and find a suitable way out. This sparks their creative and analytical thinking and helps them to develop a problem-solving attitude.
- Negotiation Tactics and Conflict Resolution – Conflicts arise during negotiation. Thereby, alongside developing negotiation skills, Sports Managers are required to avoid problems once they occur. In elite high-performance sports, this happens quite often. Therefore, Conflict Resolution is an important skill for a Sports Manager to have.
- Critical Thinking – Sports Management professionals are always required to stay on their toes, analyze information objectively, and ask pointed questions to form their opinion. In the management of sports organizations, this skill comes in very handy.
Courses and Education in Sports Management
In Sports Management, you can usually pursue a course in bachelor’s degree and in master’s degree. They are BBA and MBA, respectively. A BBA is usually a 3-year undergraduate course that provides you with the necessary knowledge about the Sports industry and the business acumen to improve decision-making skills and performance. It is more about the basics of management skills, business skills, and organizational skills, in the context of Sports and the Sporting industry.
An MBA in Sports Management is typically a 2-year program that teaches students strategic planning, organization, management, and administration around a sport and its players. It also involves marketing and promotion of events and negotiating with potential clients and sponsors. It also includes topics such as finance, marketing, and event management, among others. Students also learn about the various management tools required to identify business opportunities, and they quickly adapt to the evolving sports industry.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What does a Sports Manager do?
A Sports Manager oversees all aspects of a sports organization. From athlete management to event planning to facility management, Sports Managers handle everything.
2. Is Sports Management a Good Career?
Yes, Sports Management is a good career option. As of 2023, the Indian Sports industry was worth around INR 158 billion. It had increased nearly 11% from the previous year and is on an upward curve. It is expected to touch unprecedented heights in the coming years. This will create numerous job opportunities in the sports industry. The most lucrative of those, besides the players themselves, will be the ones concerning Sports Management. Therefore, Sports Management is a good career.
3. What are the Benefits of studying Sports Management?
A wide range of career opportunities, job flexibility, traveling around, lucrative salaries, specialized knowledge, developing public and media relations, etc., are some of the benefits of studying Sports Management.
4. Why Sports Management Matters for Athletes and Teams?
Sports Management allows athletes to not worry about any other aspect of their life and solely focus on their game. Be it while traveling, managing family members, or any other task, it’s usually taken care of by the management of the sports organization. Owing to this and the lack of distraction players get due to sports management, it helps in team building, lifting team morale, group bonding, and doing other things as a unit.
5. What are the Career Opportunities in the Sports Management field?
Sports Marketing Manager, Sports General Manager, Sports Public Relations, Sports Financial Analysts, and Sports Agents are some of the best career opportunities in Sports Management.
