Are you a college student who loves sports? Would you like to spend your career supporting athletes and helping the sports industry grow? If so, then sports management might be a worthwhile field of study for you.
Of course, to succeed in sports management, you need to have the right personality traits, but that’s not all. Depending on your career track, you’ll need to have business acumen, great written and oral communication skills as well as the ability to network and work with people. Of course, you’ll also need to understand how the sports environment works and how to support athletes to reach their full potential. Here’s how to know if you should consider studying sports management.
You Have the Right Skills and Traits to Work in the Field
To succeed in the field of sports management, you need to cultivate some personality traits and skills that will serve you well in your professional life. First of all, you’ll need to be comfortable with multitasking, taking on new roles and working an unconventional schedule in unconventional settings.
Sure, there are some sports management professionals who work at a desk, but in many career tracks, you’ll find yourself traveling a lot, meeting with athletes, sponsors and other professionals and even spending time outdoors in all kinds of weather. You’ll need to be flexible, adaptable and, for at least some career tracks, willing to put in more hours than you would at your typical nine to five job. You’ll also need to be organized, efficient and attentive to detail; if you’re cluttered or flighty, you might not succeed in many career tracks in sports management.
No matter what career path you choose in sports management, you’re going to need strong communication skills. Whether you’re a sports coach working to support your team to reach their full potential, a general manager negotiating with vendors and sponsors, a PR rep speaking to the press about an athlete’s achievements, or a professor teaching sports management to university students, you’re going to need to be able to speak and write clearly and persuasively.
You’ll also need to be both creative and analytical. Whether you’re a PR rep putting together press releases for the team, an event coordinator planning the logistics of a major competition on short notice or a coach brainstorming new ways to train your athletes, you’re going to need to get creative to succeed. Chances are you’re going to need to be imaginative just to get your foot in the door to an interview, as sports management departments and professional teams often only choose to interview those with the most original and interesting applications and resumes.
You’re Interested in a Field With Many Career Tracks
There may only be about 11,800 professional athletes working in the U.S., there are tens of thousands more roles in the sports industry. The sports management field also offers career tracks to match every temperament. Whether you have a talent for business, a passion for writing or a knack for sales, there’s a job in the sports management field for you. For example, you can work as a:
- Fitness director, overseeing and implementing group fitness activities and organizational fitness programs and facilities;
- General manager, handling a sport’s team’s business dealings;
- Event coordinator, planning sports and fitness events and competitions of all sizes;
- Sports agent, representing individual professional athletes;
- Inside sales representative, selling tickets to sporting events;
- Public relations professional, managing the reputations of professional athletes;
- Marketing manager, responsible for marketing a sports company’s or an athlete’s brand; or
- Professor, teaching sports management to university students, as well as performing and publishing your own research.
These are just some of the career tracks available to sports management professionals. If you’re interested in a specific career track in sports management, you can prepare for it by earning a relevant bachelor’s degree and enrolling in one of the many online master’s in sports management programs available from reputable universities around the country.
You’re Ready to Work in a Dynamic and Promising Field
If you’re looking for fulfilling work in a promising field with many job prospects, sports management is a great bet right now. The growth of technology over the past decade has added thousands of new positions to the sports management field. At the same time, the infusion of billions of sponsorship and advertising dollars into the sports industry has opened up opportunities for sports consulting, marketing and management professionals like never before. The industry is growing rapidly; salaries and incentives are better than ever, even for entry-level professionals, especially in analytics, marketing, and sales positions.
Do you want to build your career in the sports industry? You should consider studying sports management. A degree in this field could be your ticket to a long, exciting and enjoyable career supporting the athletes and games you love.
