Whether you are playing or watching, sports are fascinating and can provide the adrenaline boost that we miss daily. Many of us have played certain sports and dreamt of playing them at a higher level. However, no matter how interested you are in a particular sport, your skills can fail to capitalize on your dream because of a lack of athletic capabilities. Still, if you want to live your dream, careers in sports management are a great option as they do not require you to be athletically gifted.
You can consider developing your interest in sports and business thinking to where you can make a noble profession out of it. In this blog, we will guide you through sports management and some career options that can help you justify your love for sports.
What is Sports Management?
Careers in sports management can be fruitful, where you can help athletes, coaches, sports venues, and sports events develop strong teams and sports programs by assisting and managing them. Individuals in sports management can work in a variety of areas and functions, and you can branch out into new professions depending on your interests. For a sparkling career in sports management, we’ve compiled a list of options for you to consider, along with average salaries and responsibilities.
Careers in Sports Management
- Sports Event Coordinator
- Average salary: $60,225 per year
- Roles and Responsibilities: A few of the essential roles are planning, organizing, and coordinating events, facility inspection, ticket sales promotion, security maintenance, data research, media distribution, problem-solving, negotiation skills, and delegating work to staff.
The sports event coordinator should be able to quickly adjust to changes and settle disputes. In this profession, the capacity to multitask is essential, as are great communication abilities.
- Sports Marketing Coordinator
- Average salary: $44,574 per year
- Roles and Responsibilities: Some of the key responsibilities are developing advertising campaigns, helping facility promotions, calculating advertising budgets, marketing athletes, understanding a variety of marketing and advertising strategies, and coordinating marketing efforts with various departments.
A sports marketing coordinator aids the marketing manager in implementing marketing campaigns. Courtesy of the number of people they speak with daily, a marketing coordinator must have impressive communication skills.
- Fitness Manager
- Average salary: $47,812 per year
- Roles and Responsibility: Some of the primary roles are training and managing fitness staff, keeping financial records, managing budgets, maintaining fitness equipment, delivering a variety of fitness programs, handling emergencies and complaints that arise from the business, maintaining high standards of customer service, and increasing profitability.
Working with health clubs, hotel chains, corporate fitness centers, and educational institutions are a few of the options available to a fitness manager. Fitness management is one of the best careers in sports management in the long run.
- Public Relations Manager
- Average salary: $55,445 per year
- Responsibilities: Some of the principal responsibilities are taking charge of teams, venues, or individual athletes’ public relations, public speaking, preparing news releases, marketing the business, creating website content, damage management, constructing clients’ images, and managing the relationship between clients and the public.
Professionals in sports public relations are concerned with the image of the brand they represent. Their primary goal is to establish and maintain a positive image for the brand, organization, or athlete they represent.
- Athletic Director
- Average salary: $59,118 per year
- Roles and Responsibilities: A few of the major roles are handling public relations, developing and maintaining budgets, scheduling travel, addressing events including injuries and sports team decisions, and, most times, directing an athletic department staff.
An athletic director is the head of a college, university, or high school athletic department who oversees all or most of the department’s daily operations. Athletic Director is one of the most convenient careers in sports management with an adequate amount of responsibilities.
- Business Development Manager
- Average salary: $68,294 per year
- Roles and Responsibilities: Some of the important roles include handling a business development team that will work on things like growing a fan base, cultivating partnerships with sponsors and supporters of the team or league, doing market research, and ensuring revenue growth.
The business development manager will directly contact the marketing and advertising departments. He/she also interacts with a variety of departments and leads a development team to promote client satisfaction.
- Marketing Manager
- Average salary: $63,209 per year
- Roles and Responsibilities: Some major responsibilities include advertising athletic events, developing relationships with brand representatives, and pursuing sponsorship opportunities for teams and sporting events by connecting them with companies and advertising opportunities.
A sports marketing manager is in charge of players, teams, and events marketing campaigns. They are typically employed by marketing agencies and progress through the ranks after years of expertise.
- Facilities Manager
- Average salary: $58,539 per year
- Roles and Responsibilities: A facilities manager’s day-to-day responsibilities include event planning and coordination, leasing, buying and selling properties, supervising sports facility workers, redesigning and developing facilities, and other managerial duties.
Sports stadiums, facilities, operation, coordination, supervision, planning, staffing, regulations, management, and arenas are all under the control of sports facilities managers. Most facilities managers will have great communication and leadership abilities, as well as strategic and operational talents.
- Operations Manager
- Average salary: $67,055 per year
- Roles and Responsibilities: Some of the key responsibilities are establishing budgets, managing staff needs, timing events, hiring entertainment, training employees, overseeing music selections, and primarily ensuring that events operate successfully.
An operations manager oversees the running of a sporting event in a sports facility, as well as everything that occurs prior to, during, and after the game. Another important component of an operations manager’s job is to preserve profitability by supervising budgets.
- Contract Negotiator
Average salary: $83,630 per year
Roles and Responsibilities: A few essential responsibilities include handling marketing and endorsements, developing trustworthy relationships with clients, recruiting athletes, signing contracts with athletes, complying with rules and regulations, understanding business ethics, maintaining contracts, and negotiating and successfully signing a contract between a client and an organization.
A contract negotiator is a professional who works with teams to negotiate contracts for their athletes. This is one of the most effective careers in sports management with a whopping salary.
Staying Connected to Sports
Obsession with sports is valid and not being able to play your favorite sport can be harsh. But with so many careers in sports management, you can very well give it a chance if you’re passionate about it. Just evaluate the things you are or can be good at, keep in mind which career option will suit you best, and decide accordingly. A career in sports management can turn out fruitful with a suitable and familiar environment and can be the career that will keep you happy.
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