Careers in Business Management > Sports Management > Overview

What is Sports Management?

Sport management is a field of education and vocation concerning the business aspect of sport. Some examples of sport managers include the front office system in professional sports, college sports managers, recreational sport managers, sports marketing, event management, facility management, and sports information.

Sport marketing (or sports marketing in the United States) refers to the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sport products (e.g., teams, leagues, events, etc.) and the marketing of non-sports products (e.g., cigarettes, beer, long-distance phone service, etc.) through associations with sport.

The first sports management firms, which managed endorsement deals and contract negotiations for professional coaches and athletes, began forming in the 1960s and early 1970s with Mark McCormack's International Management Group (IMG), Bob Woolf (Woolf Associates), and Donald Dell's ProServ.