The field of sports management includes any blend of skills which are related to:
- Planning,
- Organising,
- Directing,
- Controlling,
- Budgeting,
- Leading, and
- Evaluating
These activities happen within the sphere of an organisation or department whose primary deliverable is related to sports or physical activity.
Sport managers find jobs in a variety of organisations, such as:
- Universities or Colleges,
- Professional Sports,
- Amateur Sports,
- Sports marketing and management firms,
- Sports communications and news media firms,
- Corporate sponsorship and advertising firms,
- Sporting goods firms.
What tasks are involved in sports management?
Sports management is currently ranking as the fourth-largest growth industry. Owing to this growth, the field has a need for new people to fill roles. Positions in sports management administration may provide stimulating prospects for those who wish to combine their business skills and sports knowledge.
In professional sports, it is a sports manager’s job to employ athletes. Together with other employees, the sports manager draws up contracts for each sportsman. In addition, he or she negotiates with the athletes in order to reach a contractual agreement.
At university level, a sports manager works together with a recruiting team in order to review high school talent as well as attract the best athletes. The sports manager makes use of scholarships as well as other benefits to do this. Sports managers take up the role of sports agents for individual athletes and assist them with negotiating contracts with the teams.
The management duties of a sports manager
The sports manager is responsible for management duties at several different levels:
- For professional teams, sports managers – together with coaches and trainers – make sure that each athlete has the training resources that they need to be the best at their position.
- Sports managers who work for universities as athletic directors manage all the facets of that university’s athletic programme.
- A sports manager can also act in the role of facility manager. If they do this they will:
- Oversee the sports facility,
- Hire food and service staff,
- Develop game schedules, and
- Oversee the facility’s maintenance.
Marketing and Communications
Often, the sports manager will be the face and spokesperson for the team. As such they must take interviews and hold press conferences with the media:
- Some sports managers act as sports marketers or fundraisers. They bring in corporate sponsorships as well as endorsements.
- Sports managers also function as public relations personnel or sports information directors. In this role they will coordinate media days for their team and act as a link between the team and media to arrange interviews, scores as well as share updates on the team.
- A sports manager function as an event planner for a team or athletic organisation.
Sports managers take on a number of other duties and jobs that don’t fall into the professional, amateur or university sporting programmes. Some work at gyms or health clubs and are in charge of operations. Others take on management duties for recreational, community and education sporting programmes. Sports managers can even work at resorts and organise sports and athletic activities for guests.
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