Sports Marketing Option

Industry Snapshot...

From youth sporting leagues to international events such as the Olympic Games, sporting events draw millions of visitors and billions of dollars each year locally, regionally, and globally. The sports business industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the United States. Our annual survey of the size of the industry estimated the sports business industry last year at $213 billion. It is far more than twice the size of the U.S. auto industry and seven times the size of the movie industry.

According to Street and Smith’s Sportsbusiness Journal, sports is the sixth largest industry in the nation. Students who select the sport studies area will be exposed to sports as a worldwide phenomenon. Graduates who earn bachelors degrees in sports management or marketing will be prepared for positions such as sports marketing account manager, event planning and conference manager, facility manager, ticket operations director, sporting goods marketing and sales manager, and sponsorship sales manager. And according to the U.S. Department of Labor, employment opportunities in the field are expected to grow as fast as the average for all occupations through the year 2010. Employment will grow as public participation in sports continues to increase as a form of entertainment, recreation, and physical conditioning. Job growth will also be driven in part by the growing number of “baby boomers” approaching retirement who are expected to become more active participants of leisure time activities in the growing areas of sports and experienced-based tourism.

Sources:
http://www.streetandsmiths.com http://www.fingerlakes.edu/academics/sportstourism/index.html

Annual Expenditures From The Latest Sports Industry Survey

Sales Figures of US Corporations (Sporting Goods Only)

Sources:

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
www.sgma.com
www.usfca.edu/usfnews/03/04.01/ac.1.html
http://cworld.clemson.edu/winter2001/fsttrck.htm

Where the Jobs Are...

The openings for sports management and recreation professionals are growing faster than average for all other professions. The industry needs educators and managers who can create and manage programs to meet the ever-growing demand for leadership in sport and recreation Source: http://www.springfieldcollege.edu

• Most full-time, entry-level positions salaries, depending on the market location and the work experience that someone brings, would be on the modest side around $30,000 a year, on the upper side somewhere around $60,000 a year. 
  Source: http://www.gamefacesportsjobs.com/sportsjobfaqs.htm
  
  
• Jobs in sports marketing should grow faster than  average through 2012, as the interest in sports continues to grow. In addition, new types of sports such as snowboarding, extreme skiing and other activities are growing in popularity, providing for even more opportunities. On the other hand, this is a field that is perceived as glamorous and interesting.
  
  
• Compensation for people in sports marketing varies greatly, depending on the size and type of employer. For instance, an entry-level marketer working for a professional team might earn only about $30,000 annually, while more experienced workers in the same category might make $75,000 or more. People in very prominent roles might earn $150,000 or more. Ticket managers earn on average about $40,000 annually.
  Source: Career Prospects in Virginia: http://www3.ccps.virginia.edu/career_prospects/default.shtml

List of Potential Employers

Source: http://www.dwu.edu/spm/index.htm

California boasts the highest number of sports organizations in relation to the rest of the country. In California’s Central Valley alone, semi-professional and professional teams representing baseball, basketball, football, soccer and hockey, are well represented, in addition to the ever-growing racing industry. In addition to semi-professional teams, the Central Valley offers a plethora of university, community college, high school, and community sports programs, as well as sporting goods manufacturers. The proliferation of sports-related businesses in California offers a wide variety of internship and career opportunities for students prepared to enter the market after completion of a Bachelor’s Degree program in Sports Marketing.

Although Sports Marketing programs are well-represented throughout the Eastern United States, perusal of Business Administration programs in California-based universities indicates a sprinkling of Sports Marketing courses, but a lack of a strong Sports Marketing program.

Only 15 AACSB-accredited universities in the United States offer a sports degree program housed in its School of Business. Of those:

• 11 focus on sports business or management (not marketing).
• two offer MBAs with a marketing emphasis (UK, IU).
• one offers a concentration in sports marketing (Duquesne), and Belk CollegeDean, Claude Lilly, announced this week that UNC Charlotte beginning 2007 will offer a Master of Sports Marketing and Management degree, within the business curriculum. “There’s no denying the influence of sports in American culture and the global economy,” Lilly said. “As the industry continues to grow, there is a need for specially-trained employees to manage the increasingly complex behind-the-scenes operations.”
  Source: Belk College Dean Claude Lilly, Univ. of No. Carolina at Charlotte
  Source: http://www.baylor.edu/business/marketing/

• Approximately 100 students are graduating with MBAs in Sport Management from the USF campus annually. It is interesting to note that in our school, the first semester that Marketing 150 (Sports Marketing) was offered (as a 189T course) was Spring 2005, and the course filled to capacity within 2 hours of the commencement of enrollment. Perusal of current California university programs indicates a lack of Sports Marketing programs.  The current offerings do include a program in Sports Management offered by CSU, Bakersfield, and an MBA program in Sports Management offered through the University of San Francisco, but nothing to date in Sports Marketing.
  
  
• California State University, Bakersfield currently offers an undergraduate program in Sports Management, taught by part-time faculty, after losing the full-time faculty member who developed the program.  A definite void exists in the offering of a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary Sports Marketing program at the university level in California.  Much student interest exists currently on the California State University, Fresno campus, within the Craig School of Business, the Department of Kinesiology and the Recreation and Leisure Studies Department.  The Marketing Department in the Craig School of Business can meet the challenge of developing the best Sports Marketing program in California and we welcome this exciting opportunity.
  

Wages and Salaries

Since Sports Marketing is a new field, the specific statistics regarding the wages and salaries is not provided by official government sources. However, after extensive search we were able to come up with some accurate estimation of similar occupations as close to those in Sports Marketing (SM) as possible. Table 6 represents the information we found.

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