What if your mom is forcing you to oversee sports? What if your job is to study your favorite sports? Yes, you’re reading it right.
Last year, the size of the global sports market was about 500 billion dollars. With the massive involvement of money, the sports sector has been getting sophisticated. To gain competitive advantages, teams are enlisting specialized people. As a result, the demand for sports management degree holders has been on the rise for the last few years.
The great news is top educational institutions have stepped forward to provide professional and full-time education courses to meet the market demand. It’s the best time for sports enthusiastic people to make a career in the sports arena. Let’s see what you can do with a sports management degree?
Turning Passion into Reality:
Don’t lose hope like my friend. He was passionate about cricket from the very beginning of his childhood. But typical Asian parents were reluctant to let him pursue the passion. Now, my friend is a business development executive nonchalantly doing his day to day job.
Chances are that you’re one of them. Don’t lose hope. Smart people like you always find a way to find connection with their passions. Thanks to the upward trend of the sports sector, new professions have been emerging every year. You too can be affiliated with your favorite sports. You may not be playing in the top eleven, but you’re the mastermind behind the main squad. Or maybe you’re the creative sports analyst who figures out the weaknesses of the opposing team.
Studying Sports Management can allow you to follow your dormant passion in a different way. Will your parents have an issue when the average sports management salary ranges from $50,000 to $90,000. You’re following your dream job and getting paid handsomely for it. The world is very much fair after all, no?
High Profile Clients:
How many times do you see a sports celebrity advertising the products you use? Maybe the shampoo you’re using has an athletic ambassador? Or perhaps the digital payment you’re using has a sports celebrity endorsement? Or you’re wearing Air Jordan shoes?
Who manages all of the official work of connecting sports to everyday life? It’s not the job of the athlete. Every team or athlete has personnel to manage all of that. A sports manager is one member of said team. A sports manager finds charity events that are appropriate for the ball player. They figure out which brand affiliation will raise the footballer’s value.
Now do you get a clear idea of a sports management job? While managing these common tasks, you may get exposed to other celebrities and some big organizations. Where will that lead you?
Diversifying Your Career:
Sports management has diversifying roles. If you become a sports manager or an assistant of a mid-range team, you will have to play multiple positions. Different types of sports management roles are-
Managing people
Business operation
Balancing finances
Liaison between coaches, players and media
Sponsorship ad deals
Scheduling events and appearances
Monitoring ticket sales
Marketing of players and teams
Day-by-day, new roles are being added to the list. Industry experts suggest doing an internship before starting your career. There are plenty of sports management internships for college students. You can easily manage to get one, no?
Flexible Job opportunities:
It’s pretty common among the young employed to switch jobs after a few years of service. Some people even think about changing professions.
If you have a Sports Management education and enough industry experience, you will become an auto-choice for other jobs. For example, maybe you want to give a shot at a business analytics career? Having expertise in sports analytics will help you to foster your chances in a new industry.
Growing Industry:
Having a global growth rate of close to 5% per year, the current estimated market worth is $500 billion. Analytics have forecasted that next year it will rise to a 622 billion dollar market.
For example, before 2008, there was nothing called the IPL. Currently, it is one of the hottest money intensive sports leagues in the world. Similarly, other sports leagues around the world are on the rise. Covid-19 may have halted expansion for the time being, but we all know how hungry we are to watch our favourite sports again. It means that a lot more money will be pouring into the sports world.
It’s an all-time-hit growth intensive industry. Joining now can help you take the early mover advantages and become an industry expert.
Travel and Experience:
How many business executives get the chance to travel to their favorite destinations? Your friend may be a travel enthusiast and never find enough time to roam around foreign cities, but someone in sports management often does. Sports Management can be a solution for adventure-loving people. All professional sports teams travel from place to place, throughout the year. As a part of the group, you often also need to travel with them.
New places mean new experiences. You will have the opportunity to stay in luxurious hotels, walk in the dugouts of famous stadiums and witness nail-biting matches, as part of your regular job. Why would you hold back? Apply for your favourite Sports Management degree.
Gain skills that Impress the Business World:
If you work under a small team or an individual athlete, you still have access to the greater business environment. It doesn’t matter whether you work for an athlete or a team; you will have to perform all kinds of jobs, such as finding sponsorships, strengthening links between players and clubs, drawing analytics, etc.
Working for multiple years in this industry will help you gain holistic business acumen. Who knows, after a few years, your dormant entrepreneurial mind might break the silence? All of a sudden, you want to start a business. Having experience in Sports Management will increase the chances of steadfast growth in any industry.
Aspiring people like challenges. As is the nature of this industry, the job roles are also challenging. For example, girls’ sports are gaining momentum year-after-year, but still, traditional business people or managers are skeptical of it. As a part of the job, you may accept the challenge and learn enough about the importance and future of female sports to sign a sponsorship.
Another common scenario may involve you legalizing sports betting in conservative countries. Convincing government authorities ton do anything can be a back-breaking task. As a sports manager, you have to find a win-win solution for everyone.
As a sports manager, you will never run out of new challenges including: new season, new rules. According to the rules, your job responsibilities may also change.
Make an impact on your community:
Sports are one of the largest forms of entertainment. With greater enjoyment, brings greater responsibility.
Racial aggression from the supporters or team members has been a recent topic of many sports. Shaming gender harassment, raising a voice for the suppressed communities, giving a helping hand for the underprivileged children, taking a stand for the environmental movement and other current issues are somehow, or by someone, connected with sports.
As the whole world watches sports games, one finds an excellent platform to display any message. You can create the most creative environmental campaign during a cricket match and entice the audience to restrain themselves from using plastics. In 2018, Nielsen Sports included social responsibility as one of its five global sports industry trends. As the industry has been growing, the duties are also mounting.
As you’re reading this line, we hope you have enough convincing reasons to pursue a career in Sports Management. Setting a career in sports is what you wanted, no? It doesn’t matter whether you’re a sportsman or an analyst; you’re part of a sports team. There are many sports management degrees and scholarships. You can apply for them and make your dreams come true.