| Sport management involves any combination of skills related to planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, and evaluating within the context of an organization or department whose primary product or service is related to sport or physical activity (De Sensi, Kelley, Blanton and Beitel, 20003). Sport managers carry out these skills in a variety of organizational settings (for example): college sports; professional sports; amateur sports (Olympics); sport marketing and management firms; sport communications and news media firms; corporate sponsorship and advertising firms; sporting goods firms; arenas, stadium, and civic centers; community recreation sports programs; social service agency sports programs (YMCA, YWCA, JCC); private club sports programs; and military sports programs. According to Park house (2005), the most recent research on the economic impact of sport identifies it as a $213 billion-a-year industry, making it the sixth largest industry in the United States (“The answer is,” Sports Business Journal, p.23, December 1999). |