20653023 Entry # 9

Besides jokes sport industry is growing fast. And with upcoming Olympics in China why don't we read article about MBA in ...sport. Yes. And it's not a typo. What kind of course is MBA in sport and what kind of people are interested in it? You can find answers to those questions below.
And while reading, just think that probably 20 years ago combination of words "MBA" and "sports" was very unusual. But time creates blue oceans and smart people won't hesitate to discover and develop it.
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Management schools develop MBA courses for the fast-growing business of sports
By Frances Childs
LONDON: Are Olympic sports a business? For Stefan Szymanski, an economics professor with a special interest in the economics of sports, the answer is clear, at least in regard to the country that plays host to the games.
"The Olympics are not a profitable venture," said Szymanski, head of MBA programs at the Cass Business School at City University in London. Governments spend massively to build infrastructure, "but economically they are not profitable for the host country."
"Once the Games are over there is no real use for the facilities," said. "Simply put, sport is not a very good way of funding economic development."
Still, the Olympics generate a multibillion-dollar web of sponsorship, advertising and broadcasting deals and pose mighty management challenges; not surprising, then, that in November last year Manchester Business School, a leader in British business education, jumped on the bandwagon, announcing the introduction of what it described as an "Olympic MBA."
Formally titled the Global MBA for Sport and Major Events, the course is targeted at sports industry leaders.
"The sports industry, like other specialized sectors, demands unique skills," said Nigel Bannister, chief executive of the school's worldwide MBA programs. "One only has to look at the scrutiny Olympic committees are now under as they seek to implement very large budgets and complex projects. Any mistake is magnified under the glare of the global media."
Olympics aside, Manchester is only the latest business school to meld sports into its programs. Liverpool, Coventry and Warwick are among others that cater to professional sports' appetite for business skills and expertise.
The introduction of these courses reflects the growing importance worldwide of sport within an expanding leisure and entertainment industry, Szymanski said.
"Wherever economic growth is fastest, spending on sport is growing fastest," he said. "The richest countries spend the most on sport, but countries where the economy is expanding, China and India for example, are also increasing their spending."
In Britain, the business of sports is most visible in soccer, with many of the biggest clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa, now owned by billionaires from abroad. Russians, Americans and even a former Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, count British clubs in their business portfolios.
Gone are the days when club scarves, rattles and copies of the team uniform were the main spinoff merchandise sold through approved retail outlets. Now, a Manchester United supporter can sign up for a Manchester United mortgage - offered in conjunction with Britannia Building Society - open a Manchester United savings account and buy a Manchester United insurance policy on his home and car.
The University of Liverpool, in the heart of another soccer-mad city, was the first to recognize the sporting world's need for business skills, introducing an MBA in Football Industries in 1997.
"Football was beginning to expand into the world of commerce partly as a result of the large increase in TV rights," said Rory Miller, the program's first director, who now teaches its module on football and finance. "There was also the expectation of profits from pay-per-view and pay TV. At the same time the rapidly growing commercial receipts of the clubs through sponsorship and merchandising were leading to new attitudes and a search for management recruits with business rather than football experience."
The course at Liverpool recruits about 25 students each year. Generally, Miller said, they are not from sporting backgrounds but are young professionals looking for a midcareer change from jobs as diverse as law, accountancy, marketing and journalism.
Charles Greenwood, now strategic planning manager for Nike UK, completed the Liverpool MBA 18 months ago. "The course was fantastic," he said. "I wanted to move from a career in financial services to one in the sports sector, and that's what I've done."
The Liverpool MBA consists of core business modules in finance, marketing and human resources management. For the football industries option, students add modules dealing with topics like sports law, sports marketing and sports finance.
Similarly, Coventry Business School offers an MBA in sport management. Again, students study the core MBA modules - finance, marketing and human resources management - before specializing with a sports module. The sports management course has been running for the past six years, with a yearly intake of 10 to 20 students.
Both Coventry and Liverpool recruit globally, and this diversity is reflected in the jobs that their students take after graduation. Students who completed the Coventry MBA last year have found jobs in sports consultancy and marketing in India and Spain, and in China working with the Olympic organizers. Several Liverpool graduates are working with UEFA, the umbrella organization for European soccer, in management roles.
The possibilities offered by sports to the world of commerce were recognized several years ago by John Neal, a performance coach who works with Ashridge Business School in Hertfordshire.
Ashridge runs a course, Sport Business Initiative, during which business executives and top sports coaches work side by side, learning from one another. Neal, who devised the course, believes that sports and business people have much to learn from one another.
"We set the course up eight years ago, initially to provide strategy and management skills to top level coaches," Neal said. "We worked with the England rugby team coaches in 2002-2003, and the program was so well received that Wales Rugby also wanted to get involved. "
While the course was designed for coaches who wanted management skills, "subsequently we've been approached by businesses who think their executives can learn from top coaches," Neal said.
The course, which runs for 10 days over 10 months, leads to no formal qualification. "It's not a tick box course. It's impossible to accredit a course like ours - it's too free flowing," he said.
"Students develop their own learning pathways and are subject to very honest feedback and evaluation from other students on the course."
Neal says that senior executives find the course valuable, "because in competitive sport we don't have time for silly games. We cut to the chase."
Evaluations by coaches gave them "totally honest feedback, which they often haven't had for some time," he said.
The Manchester sports management course, run in conjunction with The World Academy of Sport - a body which provides education to world ski-ing, world cycling and world netball - also targets senior executives.
Students mostly come from The City, corporate industry, or consultancy and marketing, although some are aiming to develop careers already established in the sports sector.
One such is Paul Davies, a performance manager for the British Paralympic Association, who is currently enrolled in the course.
"The sporting event management MBA gives me the opportunity to network and rub shoulders with people from all walks of business life," Davies said. "Doing the MBA has given me a good opportunity to broaden my own experience but also to experience other business opportunities."
Choosing to do the MBA was, for Davies, partly about learning new skills and partly about networking - an aspect that many MBA providers emphasize.
"An MBA is a very expensive degree to obtain, and jobs in the sports industry tend to be hard to come by," said Szymanski, of the Cass Business School. "In this industry, contacts count for a huge amount."