I'm considering majoring in Sports Management and I was wondering if anyone has any good information on it for me, or any suggestions? Lists of respected colleges? Numbers on job opertunities? Any help (or opinions) would be nice guys.
Check out this week's Street and Smith Sports Business Journal. You might need to check out their website and see if you can order it from them. It has a list and bios on all the Sports Management programs.
Just to throw out there on near me - not an endorsement because I know nothing of how good it is. http://www.ycp.edu/departments/html/sport-mng.html York College of PA. Small school.
I also know State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland, and Brockport (which are both close to home, for me) offer programs. Cortland seems to have a good program, I'm just looking into if I can transfer after getting my Associates in General Ed, or something of the sorts.
I would look into getting your regular Business degree. I was looking into that as well when I was looking for my undergrad, and I found that the sports mgmt degree is the same as going for a regular degree. Where you get your experience in sports management is through internships. If you work on campus for your athletics dept as a student asst they will be able to hook you up as well. I'm going back for my MBA in the fall, i went through all of this a few years ago and was in sports marketing for the past year in maryland. I know brockport is suppose to be good for sports mgmt though. But I still would say go to school and get a degree in business instead. (I graduated from Buff State with my business degree). Like what was mentioned before street and smith's business journal has a listing of schools, but I would tell you to look for your masters degree and get 2 or them, one MBA and one MSA. Canisius offers both of those courses in Buffalo. Good luck Cheers
As Much as a Sports Management degree is similar to a Business degree, what about all of the Sports Management classes? I was looking through Cortland's classes and almost half were sports specific. I'm thinking I might go Brockport and double major in Business and Sports Management. It shouldn't be a tough double major with so many similar classes. I would love to do internships with the Rhinos, USOC, and maybe the Metrostars or some NBA team. Sounds fun to me.
Internships Has anyone done an internship with a pro sports team? How was it? What did you do? Did it pay, or was it volunteer? If paying, what did it pay? Any other information for me?
I'm hoping to transfer to a school in Philadelphia and I narrowed it down to TEMPLE.... I'm going there for Radio Broadcasting/Journalism.....but I did notice that they have a Sports Broadcasting degree as well... Just thought I'd give you another option...
Sports Information and Communications I actually considered majoring in Sport Management, but instead took the route of Sports Information and Communications...this is my current major at Ithaca College in New York. I'm only a freshman so I haven't done any real internships but I will be in the very near future. I know that Ithaca College is a very respected school in terms of Sport Management and Sports Information and Communications...many internships will be given to you based solely on the fact that you go to Ithaca. I just recently finished the class Introduction to Sport Management that all students majoring in either Sport Management, Sports Information and Communications, and Sports Studies had to take. It's certainly a very up and coming area and it's definitely one that's also very interesting. If you have any questions about anything don't hesitate to let me know...if you want I can keep you updated on any internships I'll be doing or whatnot. Jeff Lemieux
Re: Internships I've used interns before. You can expect no pay unless you are bringing in some money through sales of tickets or sponsorships in most cases. I've had interns do outside sales (best training) for tickets and sponsorships and paid them a small stipend plus commissions. Its about learning, not making money at this point - plus soccer teams need go-getters. Bringing in money is a sure way to get yourself noticed. I've had interns work in media, calling the local sports people and getting them used to dealing with media. It also opens a lot of doors and one of my interns left us for a Media job with an ECHL team. While with us he worked on the media guides and programs. Website work would also be good. We had another intern come on board as a media assistant, and he ended up making money by working the locker room us and for a baseball team. Found out he loved being an equipment manager and has made a career out of it. Hope it helps,
My uncle teaches there. Get a business degree and in the summers, work for a low-level minor league team in any sport. Understanding business will take you a long way, and practical experience in how pro sports really works is invaluable.
Excellent advice. I'd recommend taking some courses in Sports management if offered, as well as the necessary business law classes.
In that case, I guess I will probably go to Roberts Wesleyan College here in Western NY, and cross-register at Brockport a few classes every year for basic Sports Management classes, and get a Business degree. Being so close, I could look to Intern with the Rochester Rhinos, I would love to intern with the USOC in Lake Placid too.
Rhinos and Rattlers would be good. Might lead to something with the Amerks, as well. Syracuse is getting a new A-League team next season.
Yea, the whole Rochester sports group and USOC would be my first two choices when I have to do an internship. Anything in the MLS would be very tempting also.
As few pro sports teams as there are in the US, I'm surprised "Sports Management" is offered as an undergrad degree. I would think maybe as a Masters, if that. I mean nothing wrong with it if you can get a job in the field, and I suppose if you ended up being the Sporting Goods Manager at Wal-Mart, you'll still kinda have to manage a "team"--of helpful senior citizens and highschoolers.
Heywood, We have minor league baseball, soccer, hockey, and even basketball. Plus collegiate programs all over the place. I'm sure I'm missing some other opportunities as well.
Yeah, it's not just about professional sports (even though there are hundreds of professional sports teams), but college as well. There are plenty of opportunities for Sports Management majors, even though, as mentioned, they might be just as well served getting a degree in something else and taking some Sports Management classes, and combining that education with some practical minor-league experience (they make you, er, let you, do so much more in the minors than if you had an internship with an NFL team or something).
I graduated from Ball State in Indiana in '98 with a degree in Sports Administration that I thought would do a good job in prepping me for a career in sports. It was a good basic program, but it was more geared towards college and high school positions and not pro...along with what others have posted, I would certainly concentrate on business courses, some law, finance, media...pretty much a melting pot of areas so that you can be multi-faceted when looking for internships and jobs. If you can do many things, clubs and teams might be more inclined to look at you harder if you offer them a lot of options. You might want to compare programs as well to see what offers the best choice as far as what you are looking for. As for an internship, I was lucky enough to work at DC United during Bruce's last season. I was in Operations and had a great time, but worked my tail off. There were a lot of perks, but I made one fatal mistake...I served my internship with one semester of school to go. My advice would be if you can get an intership during your whole run in college, great, but if you have to do one for credit, like I did, I would wait and do it during the summer after you have completed every class. This way, if you do an awesome job and they want to offer you a job, you can take it and not have to finish school and potentially miss an opportunity. Good Luck...
Jerlon, if you do decide to go with the double major route, I would advise you to go with fields that are dissimilar, in order to broaden your expertise. The more variety you have on your resume, the more valuable you will be to potential employers. I've seen suggestions for English, Communications, and Journalism, which would all be good. As an example, I started out a Marketing major, and eventually doubled in Spanish just to round out my resume. As it turns out, the Spanish degree has been personally rewarding, and has opened more doors than the Marketing degree.
let me add to this. Kenn mentioned psychology - excellent choice in anything you do. Spanish - in soccer this is HUGE Business major - management is the main thrust, and lots of marketing. Keep us posted how you do.
Question Hello BSers after 4 years in my history dept. I've decided I really want to get in the Sports Management/Administration field. Its been calling my name for a long while now and something I can't ignore anymore. In the Spring I will Graduate from Santa Clara University in CA with a Major in History and Minors in Comm, Poli Sci. Should go to Graduate School? Work for free somewhere? I'm a bit confused on what should be my next step, Any help would be great. Thanks, Mike in San Jose
First you need to get some direction in your life, is it Hartford or is it San Jose? as for the change - I think it would be tough to make that jump into sports without some business degree at the moment. If you could get a volunteer position with a club, even if part-time or game day staff you could work your way into a job.