SportBusiness.com

CAREERS IN SPORT have traditionally been unstructured compared to many other sectors. Being in the right place at the right time with the right attitude has been as important as formal qualifications.
But there are signs that this is changing. The availability of more relevant and sophisticated sports specific education and training is taking a hold and changing the attitudes of the sector to formal career development.
In the USA, for example, there are already many more than 50 college or graduate level degree courses on sports business-related subjects dotted around the country from Arizona to West Virginia - and new courses are being introduced every year. Even the Ivy League has got in on the act with Columbia University currently the only such school to offer a graduate sports management programme.
On paper, this looks like a growing trend, but how deeply has it permeated the bedrock of the sports industry?
A search of the internet – the first port of call for most smart young things looking to enter the job market – reveals that a degree of some kind is a must for most sports marketing and management employers, but ownership of a sports sector qualification is not yet, perhaps, a trump card in job interviews.
The IMG website gives it to you straight. In its FAQ’s for prospective job applicants, the sports marketing giant responds to the question, ‘What should I major in to work for IMG?’ with an answer that reads like a thumbnail sketch of current industry attitudes.
“Although some positions do require professional training, accreditation or qualifications such as lawyers, accountants, etc., there are often positions that do not require a specific degree.” IMG states. “It might be helpful for a person responsible for selling media rights to have a technical background. Legal and accountancy qualifications and experience can form a solid foundation for many commercial and management positions.
With the exception of entry-level positions, candidates are typically required to have some relevant work experience.”
This final comment will resonate well beyond the corridors of IMG’s headquarters in New York and Cleveland. On the NFL’s website, for example, there were some plum jobs up for grabs this summer, such as Vice President, Marketing & Client Services for the Washington Redskins and Youth Marketing and Fan Development Coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens.
The former required: “A College degree and six-plus years work experience in sports-related marketing, events and/or media” but would prefer a “Graduate degree and/or experience with professional sport.” The latter required: “A Bachelors degree and two-four years experience in marketing, promotions and sales, preferably in the sports area. Must have event management and organisation experience.”
As these job ads suggest, experience to go with an impressive academic record is key. And this is one area where sports marketing and management degrees can provide real value - even at entry level.
As Brian Smith, HR director with Octagon Marketing North America, explains, work experience should be integral to the well-planned academic course. “There are some fabulous courses out there such as the Warsaw Sports Marketing Centre [at the University of Oregon] and the University of Massachusetts which have had tremendous success in providing interns on NBA programmes,” says Smith.
“When I look at a resume and see a psychology degree I would not be dissuaded by that, but thereafter work experience is highly weighted. For example, an internship in a league or sports agency would be of significant relevance to the job.”
Smith adds that there is another small advantage that sports management graduates may hold over their rivals: “Applicants with sports management qualifications form a small percentage of the total [seen at Octagon], but those we do see are a little more prepared. This industry is unique – it’s competitive, fast-paced and people work long hours – and they sometimes have a little more knowledge of what it takes.”
Nevertheless, Smith stresses that no applicant should rely on university experiences, however specialist or hands-on. “The resume is one thing, but the interview is very important. In this industry the attributes we’re looking for are about cultural fit and being able to work hard as part of a team.
“We want people to stick round - and we have our own mentoring and learning programmes to groom our employees for future success. We hear a lot of people say I want to work in sport because they love sport but that’s only half the answer. Overall, we’re looking for the right person on education, experience, but also fit.”
Are the Universities capable of providing the depth of training required by the likes of Brian Smith?
According to Lucas Rubin, programme director of the sports management degree at Columbia University, the jury is still out. Columbia graduates its first class – a class of just four - in October so does not yet have any significant data with which to work, but Rubin offers this overview: “Most programmes are not very rigourous so, in many cases, there is insufficient time depth/data to assess their relative success. Earlier programmes - such as Ohio and Amherst - have demonstrated success and have quite good and well-deserved reputations.
Outside of the industry, there is an overall trend towards completion of an advanced degree and more specifically towards professional degrees (i.e. applied, professional MS degrees, in many cases supplanting MBAs), so this fits into a larger overall pattern.”
But one thing Rubin can guarantee is that work experience during the course is key to getting the right job afterwards. “It’s essential - the sine qua non,” he says. “We promise to make them better at their jobs, more efficient managers, but not to get them jobs. In our experience many, perhaps most, prospective students put the proverbial ‘cart before the horse’ and believe that a programme can get them a job - and a highly coveted job at that.
“In our experience the best students are already working in the industry, and are developing relationships with their employers and peers while working towards their degrees (and, consequently, meeting their “fellow managers” in other sectors in the classroom).
Furthermore, students getting recommendations for study by their employers make for the best, most dedicated students. Students not working must demonstrate that they are working on their own towards getting a job in the industry - volunteering, part-time positions, informational interviewing.”
This relevance of experience allied to theory is key at all levels of a sport business education. A new foundation degree course in sports event management starting this September at the University of Bath, for example, highlights its vocational outlook. Students will be encouraged to devote at least one day per week in work placements, says the programme’s curriculum leader, Lucia Sdao.
“We believe in work-based learning,” Sdao explains. “We went to local and national sports business employers and asked them what they wanted, which means it’s very vocational in outlook. Someone like Andrew Wells [founder of Bath-based Paragon Event Management] wants practical skills, not the theory.
“Event management is about organising an event, from catering to the toilets to setting up a remote office. Applications for sports-related degrees [of all kinds] in the UK are up 17.9 per cent this year and with London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 on the horizon, there should not be an oversupply of graduates.”
David Maralack, leader of the Sport Management Postgraduate Programme at the University of Cape Town in South Africa agrees with this approach. His students have played an active role in volunteering at major sports events in South Africa and recently engaged in the organisation of the World Rope Skipping Championships in Cape Town.
Students are also required to be placed in a sport organisation or company as part of an internship. “Sport is a cocktail of entertainment, pure sport endeavour and business principles,” says Maralack. “Therefore, our starting point to teaching sport management is that you have to live and experience the passion of sport before you can be an effective sport manager.”
There are three components to the course:
1. In class lectures on national and international sport federations and associations, including the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). Numerous leaders in the industry, sport federations and associations present lectures in class on the national and international landscape of sport.
2. The second component balances experiential learning in a structured fashion as in the example of the World Rope Skipping Championships. This forms part of a controlled out of class learning which gives practical exposure to students to the various concepts and models of sport management. In this module, students are required to complete four projects that are devised jointly by faculty and leaders in the industry. Examples are (a) an event evaluation of the World Rope Skipping Championships [Business of Sport module] ; (b) developing a strategic plan for aspects in the preparation for Football World Cup 2010 [Strategic Management Planning module]; and (c) evaluating the South African Olympic team preparation, from a sport management perspective, in conjunction with leaders at the Sport Science Institute of South Africa.
3. Students are required to be placed in a sport organisation or company as part of an internship. “This has proved to be the most valuable learning experience for the students and allows prospective employers to evaluate students for potential future employment,” says Maralack. “One company has already approached us to employ a number of our students prior to completion of their studies.This is the exception, but it provides evidence that experiential learning has great value to both the student and the prospective employer.” Indeed, overall, the job-finding results from students who have finished the course have been good - with 60 per cent of graduates from 2006 in direct sport industry employment and 75 per cent from 2007 employed in sport organisations or involved in marketing companies where some part of their responsibilities are sports related.
But does such vocational training need to be institutionally-based? Not according to Dr Lynn Lashbrook, who runs 17 courses as president of the Portland-based sports job courses company, Sports Management Worldwide.
“Our philosophy is that you have to have a ticket for the game to catch a foul ball. We get a lot of people from different skill sets that want to get into sport, but can’t quit their day job so they train online. College education is expensive and, in my opinion, does not produce the required skills sets.”
Lashbrook adds: “One of our most successful courses is for training to be a sports agent and with that we actually have an agency we can put you in to gain experience. Another successful course is on sport business management. With the right ticket sales training, students can bring value to the teams they work with: if you can go in and make a difference to revenue, then you’ve got the job.”
If vocational learning can certainly enhance entry into the commercial side of the sports sector, perhaps the case for sector–specific training is even more compelling at federation and organising committee level, where young graduates are needed to take up a range of administrative roles.
Certainly, FIFA considered there to be a scarcity of such talent when it set up the FIFA Master postgraduate sports executive programme in 2000.
Coordinated by the International Center for Sport Studies (CIES), and taught by three prestigious European universities - De Monfort University (Leicester, UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan, Italy) and Neuchâtel University (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) - 25-30 skilled professionals are selected every year to take part in the one-year, full-time course, which covers all the major issues that sports organisations face.
“FIFA felt there was a lack of sports managers,” says CIES Development Officer Marcel Cordeiro. “But not just in football, which is demonstrated by the fact that 80 per cent of graduates will get sports industry jobs with federations, but also sponsors like MasterCard and Coca-Cola.
“Increasingly, it’s getting easier for our graduates to get jobs in the industry and this has built up the overall credibility of the programme in a short time frame.”
Students apply for the course from all over the world. The class of 2008-2009, for example, was selected from 170 applications, with around one third from Europe and more than 29 per cent from Africa. North and Central America accounted for around 15 per cent, as did Asia, Oceania and South America.
But the course is not for the typical post-graduate seeking his or her first job. “The students are between 24 and 39-years-old and only a small percentage currently work in football and most don’t have a job in sports,” says Cordeiro.
“At the end of the course, the older guys tend to get middle to high-level jobs, and the younger students get starts in organisations like the IOC, UEFA and with commercial partners. At the Asian Football Confederation, for example, 10 per cent of staff are graduates of this course and they take on new people every year.”
Cordeiro also points to the ‘very active’ Alumni Association, which helps place students in jobs after the course. “As a former student myself, I can tell you that it’s not just a great experience, but really does open doors.
The progress of our alumni is key to our reputation. It makes you feel part of a special family during your studies, and well after graduation.”
Of course, if a programme as well-connected as the FIFA Master didn’t work there really would be no hope for sports business related training. But are programmes like this the exception or the rule? Looking for a recruitment sector viewpoint, SportBusiness asked a couple of recruitment consultants with expertise at the high end of the business how success at degree level plays with their clients.
“At the top end, academic background is not a key differentiator but it is an indicator of intellect and brain power and people at the top do tend to be the brightest,” says Paul Nolan, formerly Human Resources director at the English Football Association, and now founder of recruitment firm Nolan Partners.
“At the bottom end, it’s such a competitive world and there are so many more people than there are jobs that employers need some differentiators otherwise you’re left with a cast of thousands. The FA recruited several people from The Football Industry Group MBA at the University of Liverpool. At least you know, they’re empathetic and have a head start on some of the business issues.”
Meanwhile, Chris King, director with Sports Recruitment International, acknowledges that different countries take very different approaches to university study. “In the UK, you go to university to get a degree, while in the USA, it’s more of a vocational decision and the start of following a particular career path.
“If I was advising a graduate who wanted to work in this industry, I would say do an International Marketing degree, with one year overseas, which will open your eyes to the world and give you the opportunity to learn a language, which could be very important.
“In my view, the top credential to be a success as a sport business professional is mental agility - an ability to absorb and communicate information whether it’s in ticketing, sponsorship or media.
“You need to be able to understand things and make judgements. This can be demonstrated to an employer by a degree, but you don’t have to have a degree.”
So back to the start: is being in the right place at the right time with the right attitude as important as formal qualifications?
“It still is the single most important thing, hands down,” says Columbia University’s Lucas Rubin. “As is hard-work, dedication, perseverance and not being discouraged.”