More Programs See Sports World As Matter of Course
More business schools, including some major-league M.B.A. players, are getting into the sports game.
They are creating specialized courses and degree programs to teach students how to make winning moves as managers and marketers in the sports world. The schools hope to give graduates a shot at the growing career opportunities for professionally trained managers in the major athletic leagues, equipment and apparel companies, the media, and other sports-related businesses.
"The sports industry is incredibly large and global, with immense business challenges," says George Foster, a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business who teaches a sports-management class with Bill Walsh, former head coach of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. "A lot of basic business principles are applicable to sports, but our class also covers more specialized issues such as player-owner relations and revenue disparity among teams."
Stanford has expanded its sports curriculum to include customized finance and marketing classes. In finance, M.B.A.s study such issues as sports-team valuation, player salaries and stadium financing, while in marketing, they focus on corporate sponsorship of events like the Olympics, fan loyalty programs, and athletes' product endorsements -- including strategies for dealing with players who behave badly.
Such schools as the University of Massachusetts and Ohio University have long offered sports-business classes, but the rookies in the field see plenty of demand for more courses. Columbia University expects its course on "the economics of the major North American sports leagues" to attract nearly 75 M.B.A. students next spring, up from its initial enrollment of 58 in 2003. Students at Columbia and other schools also have formed sports clubs to bring guest speakers to campus and organize job-hunting treks.
The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School recently moved beyond its few sports-related courses to form a Sports Business Initiative that includes research, conferences and student consulting projects. "We want to be the place doing the highest quality of research and turning out the top-level M.B.A.s with extensive sports knowledge," says Wharton professor Kenneth Shropshire, who is director of the initiative, as well as a former sports agent.
Sports-industry executives are sometimes the impetus for business-school courses. The new "Analytical Sports Management" course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the brainchild of alumnus Daryl Morey, senior vice president of operations and information for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association. "There's growing demand for the M.B.A. skills set at sports franchises," says Mr. Morey, who teaches the course. "A new group of people with money from venture capital, investment banking, private equity and management consulting are purchasing franchises at higher valuations, and they want to bring the discipline of analytical management to the operations of the teams."
San Diego State University has allied most closely with professional sports, forming a partnership with the local Padres baseball club to launch a sports-management M.B.A. this year. The Padres team, which is seeking M.B.A.s for the front office who were trained specifically for the sports industry, provides guest speakers for the classes and offers internships to students.
In some cases, the schools not only are training M.B.A. students to become future sports-industry managers, but they're also providing executive education for players and team officials. Wharton, for example, is teaching NFL players about financial analysis, entrepreneurship and real estate to prepare them for careers after they retire from the game.
Although M.B.A.s realize it won't be as easy to land a lucrative job in the sports field as in finance or consulting, they still aspire to turn their personal passion into a career. Jill Stephenson enrolled in San Diego State's sports-management program to boost her chances of switching from a sports TV-production job to a marketing and business-development career in the golf industry. She fell in love with the game after attending the British Open a few years ago and became "an avid, frustrated golfer."
But she knew she needed stronger finance and accounting skills to break into the business. "Now, I'm looking at sports companies' financial statements and learning how to do budgets," Ms. Stephenson says. She also performed a market-research study for a local golf course to help it determine the optimum prices to charge players.
John Abbamondi, a 2004 Stanford M.B.A. graduate, says what he found especially valuable in his sports classes was "listening to guest speakers like Dusty Baker [manager of the Chicago Cubs baseball team] and Billy Beane [general manager of the Oakland Athletics]. I learned how some of the speakers had crafted careers in an industry that's very hard to get into."
In fact, Mr. Abbamondi says, the connections he made with classroom speakers like Mr. Beane led to his current job as director of salary and contract administration for Major League Baseball. He was all set to join a consulting firm but at the last minute learned about the baseball position. "It turns out," he says, "that my Stanford classes touched on a lot of things I deal with in my job, from player valuation to TV contracts." MBA 课程涉足体育世界
越来越多的商学院，包括一些知名 MBA 学院都开始涉足体育比赛领域。
他们设立了专业课程和学位项目，教授学生在担任体育领域的经理或营销人员时如何取得成就。这些学院希望毕业生获得更多职业机会，成为大型体育俱乐部、体育设备或运动服装公司、媒体、以及其它体育相关业务的职业经理人。
斯坦福大学 (Stanford University) 商学院教授乔治?福斯特 (George Foster) 说，体育业范围广大，遍及全球，面临巨大的商业挑战。他同美国国家橄榄球联盟 (National Football League) 旧金山 49 人队 (49ers) 的前主教练比尔?沃尔什 (Bill Walsh) 在一个体育管理班中任教。他说：“许多基本商业规则在体育行业都适用，但我们的课程还涉及更加专业的问题，如选手同俱乐部的关系以及运动队之间的收入差异等。”
斯坦福大学充实了体育课程的内容，增加了定制的金融和营销课。在金融方面， MBA 学生学习运动队估价、选手工资和运动场融资等问题，而在营销方面，他们重点学习奥运会等体育赛事的企业赞助、体育迷的贵宾计划和运动产品审批等，也包括处理表现不好的选手的策略等内容。
马萨诸塞州立大学 (University of Massachusetts) 和俄亥俄州大学 (Ohio University) 等学校很早以前就提供了体育商业课程，不过新进入该领域的学校仍然预计此类课程将有大量需求。哥伦比亚大学 (Columbia University) 预计，它开设的“北美主要体育协会经济学”的课程明年春季将吸引大约 75 名 MBA 学生，高于 2003 年最初注册的 58 人。哥伦比亚大学和其它大学的学生还组建了体育俱乐部，邀请嘉宾到学校演讲，并组织求职活动。
宾夕法尼亚州大学 (University of Pennsylvania) 沃顿商学院 (Wharton School) 最近更进一步，成立了沃顿体育商业组织 (Sports Business Initiative) ，开展研究、会议和学生咨询项目。沃顿商学院教授肯尼思?施罗普希尔 (Kenneth Shropshire) 说：“我们希望成为进行一流质量的研究、并能输送具有广博体育知识的高水平 MBA 学员的场所。”他是沃顿体育商业组织的主任，曾担任体育经纪人。
有时，体育界的管理人士推动了商学院体育类课程的诞生。麻省理工学院 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 新开的“分析体育管理”课程是该校校友达里尔?莫里 (Daryl Morey) 的创意。莫里教授这门课程，他目前担任美国国家篮球协会 (National Basketball Association, 简称 NBA) 波士顿凯尔特人俱乐部 (Boston Celtics) 的运作及信息高级副总裁。他说，体育商业领域对 MBA 技能的需求不断增加。手握来自风险投资、投资银行、私人资本运营公司和管理咨询公司资金的一些人正在寻找收购具有较高价值的业务的机会，他们希望将分析管理的知识用于运动队的运作中。
圣地牙哥州立大学 (San Diego State University) 同职业体育组织的关系更加密切，该校同当地的教士队 (Padres) 棒球俱乐部结成伙伴关系，在今年推出了体育管理 MBA 。教士队俱乐部为课程提供嘉宾演讲，并为学员提供实习机会。目前该俱乐部正在为一线部门寻找专门为体育行业培训出来的 MBA 毕业生。
有时，这些学院不但培训 MBA 学员成为未来的体育行业经理人，还为运动员和俱乐部管理人员提供管理课程。比如，沃顿商学院就在为美国国家橄榄球联盟的运动员提供金融分析、企业家和房地产培训，为这些人退役后的职业生涯做准备。
尽管 MBA 学员认识到，在体育领域找到高薪工作不象在金融或咨询领域那么容易，但他们依然渴望将个人的热情投入到职业生涯中。吉尔?斯蒂芬森 (Jill Stephenson) 申请了圣地牙哥州立大学的体育管理课程，希望能够获得从体育电视节目制作转向高尔夫运动营销和商务开发职位的更多机会。自几年前参加了英国公开赛后，她就深深喜爱上这项运动，成为了一名痴迷的高尔夫爱好者。
但她清楚，要想进入该行业，她需要学习更多的金融和财务技能。斯蒂芬森说：“现在，我正在研究体育公司的财务报表，并学习如何做预算。”她还为当地的一个高尔夫球场进行了市场研究，帮助制定向高尔夫爱好者收取的最优价格。
斯坦福大学 2004 届 MBA 毕业生约翰?阿巴蒙迪 (John Abbamondi) 说，他觉得在体育课程中尤其有价值的是听到了达斯提?贝克 (Dusty Baker) （芝加哥小熊队 (Chicago Cubs) 经理）和比利?比恩 (Billy Beane) （奥克兰运动家队 (Oakland Athletics) 总经理）的讲座。他说：“我了解了这些嘉宾是如何在这个非常难以进入的行业中打拼的。”
阿巴蒙迪说，实际上，他同比恩等演讲者的联系帮助他担任了美国职业棒球联盟 (Major League Baseball) 薪酬及合约管理主管的职位。他曾一心一意要进入一家咨询公司，但在最后一刻却获得了这个职位。他说：“ 结果证明，我在斯坦福大学学习的内容涉及了许多我在工作中遇到的问题，从选手估价到电视合约等等。”
