Sports Management - Essay Example

The growth of sports as an industry is well recognized today and a large number of business schools are offering specialized instructions in the subject. The vistas in sports management are also ever increasing ranging from management of facilities to sponsorships, media and event management. Sports management thus is a great career for today as well as tomorrow, which will prove to be an empowering and enabling experience for personal and professional growth. Sports management has evolved with the evolution of civilization.

It is common knowledge that the first organized competitive sports were the Olympic Games in Greece in ancient times. English premier league football clubs as Manchester United founded in the late 19th Century have progressed as sporting institutions successfully by combining business acumen with sporting excellence over the years denoting the benefits of professional management in the field of sports. (http://www.manutd.com/supportersunited). Evolution of towns and cities is said to be the main factor influencing growth of organized sports industry the World over. (www.louisville.edu). Cities enabled rationalization and organization of sports as also developing specializations within.

The career opportunities too came about with even relatively small cities as Louisville centrally located between larger cities as Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Nashville and St Louis abounding in opportunities for sports management. Over the years, it is America which has led the way with recreational athletic pastimes contributing to development of sports as an industry. (www.louisville.edu). Professional governance of sports has also seen emergence of specialized business management courses in various American universities.

Stanford, Wharton and Harvard and the alumni of these establishments join prestigious sports organizations as the National Football League (NFL). (Jeffrey : 2006) It is a common fallacy that mere expertise or interest in sports will enable charting a career in sports management. (Matt: 2006). Apart from the general areas of management, sports requires training in a number of diverse fields to include sports promotion, ticket sales management, public relations and media management, management of sports facilities, agency of professional athletes, directing sports institutes and also management of sports governing bodies.

These skills have to supplement the traditional training identified with sports management that of managing events. (careers.cua.edu). Thus specialized coursed have been designed to provide a great career in the arena of sports management. (Alsop : 2005).While experience in sports will help, it is hard work and drive along with organization, management and people relationship which will provide the skills to excel in this field as per Jesse Krebs president and CEO of Minneapolis-based The Wrestling Mall, an online retailer of wrestling merchandise and equipment.

Becky Heidesch, a veteran in the sports industry expressed similar views and highlighted the need for basic knowledge of business to include sales, marketing, sponsorship, licensing and so on for success in the long run. (Matt :2006).The spread of the sports industry is not only based in just a niche geographical area but is spread