Like to be down in front—courtside, ringside, or on the sidelines at the 50-yard line? If you’re not game to be a player, mascot, or coach, you can still catch all the action up close and personal as manager of the team. Sports management lets you participate in—and cash in on—the exciting world of sports from a business standpoint. In this major, you’ll learn about sports themselves (perhaps focusing on one or two in particular) plus the psychological principles at work behind them and how sports fit into our society. But you’ll also gain a strong foundation of knowledge in the field of business, examining how the worlds of business and sports interact and how you can make those interactions more profitable and beneficial for every person and interest involved. The way we think of sports has drastically changed over the years; these days few people would say that a sport is “just a game.” Indeed, sports provide serious entertainment and big business in this country, and sports managers are crucial to ensuring that the players, fans, coaches, and financial backers coexist peacefully. (Or, as close to peacefully as possible.) You’ll learn how to market sports effectively and how to plan events, diving into the areas of sports publicity, coaching, and administration. An interdisciplinary field, sports management encompasses elements of economics, accounting, marketing, psychology, law, and communications. Students who major in sports management go on to pursue careers as agents, managers, publicists, and many other positions in the sports industry. Sports management is a broad field, and the knowledge you acquire about both business and sports makes for a whole arena of action-packed possibilities.

Preparation

Sports managers must be fantastic communicators, so take courses such as English and languages that will strengthen your writing, reading, and speaking skills. Any business courses your school offers will be helpful, but it’s more important to build up a strong foundation in a variety of disciplines, including math and science. Of course, any experience you can get with your school’s sports teams—as team manager, statistician, fan, or player—will give you more insight into this exciting field and give you a head start on your studies.