Why You Should Pursue a Career in Sports Management

Imagine taking your passion for sports, combining it with your interest and talent for business, and making a career out of both. You can achieve this dream with a career in sports management. With a variety of athletic niches in which to specialise, sports management is the ideal field for individuals with a penchant for athletics and desire for exciting business opportunities.

Sports management is an ideal career for people who love sports.

Aside from being a professional athlete, one of the best careers for people who thrive on sports is sports management. This field has options for every sports lover, from public relations and marketing to recruiting to team management. Some individuals in this career become sports agents, coaches, scouts, and athletic directors.

Pursuing a career in sports management allows you to learn the ins and outs of athletics. You will learn about the various roles that business, law, finance, and marketing play in the sports world. Upon completion of your diploma, you can take your sports management career to nearly any type of sport at any level, including amateur, collegiate, and professional athletics. The athletic industry generates billions of dollars in revenue each year, making it a lucrative field with frequent chances for advancement and opportunity for sports managers.

What traits are best for a career as a sports manager?

As a sports manager, you will work with athletes as well as colleagues to achieve goals determined by your athletic company. To be successful, people in sports management typically possess key characteristics that lead to that success and job fulfilment. Here are the best traits for a sports manager:

  • Passion and mastery
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Empathy
  • Selflessness
  • Effective time management skills
  • Honesty
  • Sound judgment and conviction
  • Decisiveness
  • Emphasis on teamwork
  • Humility
  • Trustworthiness
  • A sense of fairness

Sports managers need to make sensible, equitable business decisions on behalf of their company, team, or client athletes. To earn trust, a sports manager needs practical and clear communication skills, an ability to listen carefully and empathise with others’ positions, and a strong ethical commitment to both their career and their clientele.

How sports managers help others pursue a career in sports

For a sports manager, everything happens behind the scenes. Unlike athletes, sports managers stay away from the limelight and focus on essential work, like negotiating business deals, salaries, contracts, or trades, at all hours of the day.

An effective sports manager helps other people pursue professional careers in sports in multiple ways. Many sports managers are agents or scouts, and they spend time on the road finding amateur players to sign with their club. Agents may also represent their clients by helping them get drafted into a sport. Those sports managers who work on the marketing and sales departments use their positions to influence fans and bring the next generation of sports managers into the world of professional athletics.

Financial considerations, contract management, and negotiations

For sports management professionals, knowledge of business and finance is a necessity for their clients’ or company’s success. Financial considerations that all sports managers should prepare for include sports budgeting and financial planning. Sports budgeting involves overseeing the main budget, monitoring and reviewing monthly and annual expenses, developing and achieving income goals, and hiring and organizing staff.

Some professional sports teams need oversight for financial planning for complex revenue streams, such as ticket sales, television and radio, internet and franchises. A sports manager is responsible for these critical areas. Even in not-for-profit positions, such as park and recreation programs or amateur sports leagues, a manager is necessary for review of any financial considerations.

Many sports managers become involved with contract management, and may, as sports agents, also oversee negotiations. As part of budgeting responsibilities, a sports manager has a meaningful say in accepting contracts. Sports manager agents are primarily involved with contract negotiation on behalf of multiple clients, and may also negotiate contracts between client athletes and endorsers.

Enlisting sponsors and endorsements for your client

Another component of sports management involves securing financial resources via sponsorships and endorsements. A sports manager takes into account these critical components of a relationship between an athlete, team or franchise, and a sponsor or endorser:

  • the need to be an active, responsive and willing partner in helping sponsors meet their goals and objectives;
  • current knowledge of how companies use endorsements and sponsorships in marketing;
  • the ability to measure the accomplishment of core objectives;
  • charging a fair fee for providing sponsors with leverage opportunities.

By enlisting endorsers and sponsors for clients, sports managers can improve brand awareness for clients and teams as well as significantly enhance corporate exposure.

Get on the field and kick start your sports management career.

Combine your love for athletics and your interest in business and immerse yourself in the exciting career of sports management. Get the necessary qualifications to start your career with ICI’s Sports Management online course. Kick-off your career in sports management, and enrol today.

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Gladys Mae

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Gladys Mae serves as the General Manager and Head of Student Services at the International Career Institute. Gladys holds a degree in Mass Communication - Broadcast Media from the University of San Jose-Recoletos. She joined ICI in 2010 and has over the past 12 years been instrumental in providing leadership and guidance to staff and students alike. Prior to joining ICI Gladys led a multifaceted career with key roles in the banking and business process outsourcing industries.