Your Guide to a Career in Sports Management: What to Expect

What is sports management?

Sports management is a broad career field that covers every aspect of managing sports teams, athletes, sporting events, and facilities. Sports management is an essential part of collegiate and professional sports, as teams tend to operate as businesses. A good sports management program can reach fans, boost ticket sales, support athletes, and ensure a smooth game day.

Sport management can be an exciting career path for people who want to combine their passion for athletics with business know-how.

Keep reading to discover what sports managers do, the qualifications they need, and how much they earn.

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What does a sports manager do?

Sports management encompasses many roles, including coaching a team; representing pro athletes as an agent; running an athletic program at a middle school, high school, recreational center, college or university; managing professional sports teams; managing a facility; or coordinating events.

Your duties will vary, depending on your role, the organization you're a part of, the level of the sport, and the geographic location. To give you an idea of what you can expect, here's a list of projects and tasks you might be responsible for:

• Leading public relations between your team, coach, other staff, and the media

• Accounting and finance for the team, including managing accounts, income, budgets, and debts

• Arranging travel plans for the team for away games

• Monitoring ticket sales and coming up with ways to improve them

• Scheduling events involving the team or athletes

• Seeking sponsors, partners, and brands that want to work with your team or athletes

• Making important everyday decisions for sports organizations

• Digital and traditional marketing

• Ensuring event facilities and stadiums operate smoothly

• Analyzing contracts and other legal documents

• Hiring and managing coaches and other personnel

• Promoting teams, athletes, events, and merchandise through digital and traditional marketing

• Ensuring teams have the right equipment and uniforms

• Enforcing rules and regulations set by the school, league, conference, or organization

Sports management jobs

In most cases, becoming a sports manager encompasses multiple career options. Each one requires unique degrees, experience, and skills. Each one also has unique requirements when it comes to education and skills needed.

1. Athletic director 

Athletic directors typically work at the collegiate level, though some may work for high schools with extensive sports programs. A bachelor's degree is generally required, but some larger programs may require a master's degree. 

As an athletic director, you might hire coaches, set budgets, coordinate with the school's academic departments, raise team funds, and ensure a team has everything it needs, including equipment, uniforms, and transportation to away games. 

You'll also ensure your school follows all rules and ethics set by the conference in which your teams play. You’ll also ensure all facilities and venues are in top shape for games and practices. People who work as athletic directors must have a mind for numbers, be organized, and be able to communicate with coaches and other staff.  

2. Facility manager

Rather than manage a team or organization, facility managers are in charge of the venues where teams play and practice. That means keeping up with day-to-day activities at that location and ensuring everything is ready for game time. You'll likely manage facility staff, make decisions about new designs, maintain facility upkeep, ensure the facility stays clean, and possibly even handle ticket sales. 

Facility managers must be good leaders with excellent decision-making and strategic skills. This is one area where experience can matter as much as your education. 

3. Event coordinator 

While facility managers take care of the physical facility, an event coordinator arranges the events that will take place there. Some of these job duties may overlap, depending on where you work. Responsibilities include marketing, ticket sales, scheduling, contacting the media, and coordinating with the facility manager to ensure everything is ready for events. 

Depending on where you work, you may also be responsible for some non-sporting events. Event coordinators must be great problem solvers and multitaskers. People skills are also a must.  

4. Sports agent

Sports agents represent individual athletes as they navigate their careers. They might help them get drafted, negotiate contracts, handle sponsorships,  and handle their public relations. Essentially, you are your athletes' guide through their careers. Your ultimate goal is to help them achieve as much success as possible. Sports agents must be team players who want to win. They must be great negotiators and excellent communicators. Many have advanced degrees, or even law degrees, and may be required to become licensed to work in various sports and leagues.  

Take a peek at how to recruit clients as a sports agent in this video from Case Western Reserve University course on Becoming a Sports Agent:

What do sports managers earn?

Sports managers have unlimited earning potential, ranging from entry-level positions to highest-level executives for professional sports. It all depends on which area of sports management interests you and where you land a job.

According to Glassdoor, sports managers in Canada make an average pay of $58,175 annually [1]. Agents for athletes make an average annual pay of $57,568 [2]. 

Meeting, convention, and event planners make an average yearly pay of $56,737 [5]. This career path is expected to experience a labour surplus through 2031, as Job Bank Canada expects to see 13,000 incoming workers trying to fill just 12,400 job vacancies [3]. 

Glassdoor reports that facilities managers made an average pay of $84,563 annually [4].

What qualifications do you need to become a sports manager?

While you don't have to be athlete yourself to work in sports management, you'll need experience, sports management expertise, and other qualifications to succeed. Qualifications will vary, depending on your role. In some cases, you'll need a degree in sports management, while in other cases, a degree in marketing, business, finance, law, communications, accounting, or public relations will be most appropriate. 

Let's explore some of the qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in sports management

Many sports management jobs require a bachelor's degree, even if that degree is not necessarily in sports management or a related subject. Even if the job doesn't require it, it can make you more competitive. Bachelor's degrees in business, marketing, finance, communications, public relations, or law also look good on your resume and may help prepare you for your career.

Many schools offer sports management degrees. Some programs even offer concentrations within that major, such as:

• Athlete development

• Sports law

• Organizational management

• Sports project management

• Sports media

• Sports marketing

• intercollegiate athletics

• High-performance coaching

Some concentrations are sport-specific, such as racquet sports. As a sports management major, you'll likely study many other topics that can help your career, such as ethics, psychology, business, and marketing.  

Advanced degrees in sports management 

Depending on your goals, you may go on to earn an advanced degree in sport management. Doing so can enhance your resume, make you a more attractive candidate, and offer more career options in a particular niche. Here are some examples:

• If you're interested in the accounting side of sports management, you might look for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program with a concentration in sports management.

• If you're interested in working at the college level, you might find a master's degree with a concentration in intercollegiate athletic administration.

• If you're interested in becoming an agent, sports attorney, or high-level executive in professional sports, you might earn a law degree with a concentration in sports management or another sports-related topic.

Sports management experience

While degrees can be valuable assets in this field, it's also important to gain relevant experience. Consider internships, volunteer opportunities, and entry-level jobs in sports management to give you a solid foundation to build upon. Some examples include fundraising for a local sports team, coaching a recreational league team, or assisting team coaches.

Licensing and certification 

In most cases, you don't need any licensing or certifications to work in sports management, but there are some exceptions. Certain leagues and geographic locations may require you to become licensed to be a sports agent. Athletic trainers at most levels may also be required to be licensed by their province. 

Consider certificate programs in disciplines related to your sports management goals. Here are some options on Coursera:

Sports management skills

As with all other aspects of the job, the specific skills you'll need to bring to the table depend upon the job that interests you most. However, some human skills are universal across all sports management careers.  

1. Ethics 

As a sports manager, you'll need a strong sense of ethics. Ethics in sports are essential. From cheating scandals to using performance-enhancing drugs, teams and athletes sometimes do things they shouldn't to win. Also, a team or athlete's character can significantly impact a community of fans. As a leader in an organization, you'll want to set an example, create a positive reputation, and make just decisions as they arise. 

2. Decision-making

Speaking of making decisions, you'll make many of them as a sports manager. Many require quick, confident answers. Others will require you to analyze data and develop the best possible solution. You must be comfortable doing both. 

3. Communication

Almost every sports management career will require you to have excellent written and oral communication skills. You might interact with athletes, coaches, stadium staff, organization personnel,  the media, lawyers, agents, other sports managers, vendors, and many others daily. You may be required to persuade others to make decisions, so you must also be confident in your communications. 

4. Teamwork 

You may not be an actual athlete or player, but you're still an essential part of the team. It takes everyone to make game day a success, especially at the college and professional levels. Everything you do professionally should be to advance that organization. 

5. Positive image of sports 

It may seem like a no-brainer, but being a sports fan is highly beneficial if you want to pursue a career in sports management. Not only do you need to be passionate about the particular sport in which you work, but you need to see how sports benefit society. 

6. Drive to win 

Once again, you must be a competitor, even if you aren't competing on the field. You need to want your team, athletes, and organization to win as much as they want. 

Explore sports management with Coursera

Taking online courses can be a great way to build job-ready skills, discover career options, and build a more competitive resume for your sports management goals. Learn how to recruit and represent athletes, build an agency or work for one, and more in Case Western Reserve University's Becoming a Sports Agent course. Learn ticket pricing strategies, brand positioning, social media marketing, and more in Northwestern's Sports Marketing course.