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Ever heard of an MBA in Sports Management? Well if you
have tic-tac-toed between the options of Marketing, Systems, HR,
Business Management despite your inherent passion for a Sport, here’s a
spark of better hope for you. Also if the latest news reports on Sports
Marketing are anything to go by, it spells quite a bright career
prospect even in India. Though we swear by the religion of
cricket, other mass sports like Soccer, F1 and tennis as well as the
noveau riche pastime i.e. Golf, have created inlets into the people’s
interest set. The CII Sportz.com Conference 2005 held recently at New
Delhi laid emphasis on bridging the wide chasm between the Corporate
world and sports. With the revolution of successful sports idols and
Corporates interest in patronizing sports seeping in, the sports
marketing jobs are on the brink of increasing manifold. First, let us
take a close look at the concept of Sports Marketing :
Sports Marketing Career has a two-pronged meaning:
Sports Marketing refers to the process of planning and facilitating
exchange of sports related property e.g. sports events. It also refers
to marketing of non-sports property using sports as a facilitating
medium e.g. brand endorsements by sport celebrities. These definitions
create a platform to fathom the various Sports Marketing jobs that can
vary from organizing sports events, Sports celebrity management,
Sponsorships, CSR activities etc. and pose quite a challenge to the
large untapped field of sports marketing. In a nutshell, a sports
marketer handles the business angle of sports and unearths various
opportunities to promote sports and sports-related activities. Now let’s
understand these various types of sports marketing jobs :-
Sports-event Manager jobs
Events are an excellent medium of patronizing sports especially in the
form of large – scale contests. E.g. Procam International is an out and
out sports events organizing company that garners sponsorships from
relevant Corporates and conducts events like Indo-Thai boxing, Bacardi
Beach Volleyball etc. at National and International level. Even tourism
departments, major companies, sports associations initiate projects of
interest to them. You can be on the production / marketing team for the
project depending on your area of interest.
• Sports-event Marketing jobs
Let this not confuse you. Sports event marketing is basically
approaching the correct corporate / organisation and garnering
sponsorships from them to execute a sports event. This involves doing
some homework like ground -research, preparing the marketing plan,
contacting and meeting the short-listed Corporates and trying to sell
the concept to them.
• Manager / Sports agents Jobs
If you have seen the Million Dollar Baby, you know what we are talking
about. Each celebrity, be it Bollywood or sports, has a manager…an agent
of sorts who ‘manages’ the celebrity’s career, who facilitates the
transactions between the sportsperson and the sponsor. The agent is
responsible mainly for marketing the sportsperson, creating contracts
and negotiating, handling the media relations etc. The agent also looks
into the latest trends and decides the best lucrative options for the
athlete / sportsperson.
If a Sourav Ganguly and Sachin appear in a host of ads selling anything
from colas to mobile services or a Sania Mirza sweating it out in a
Taaza Tea commercial, it’s thanks to their Celebrity management agent
who got them the brand endorsement deals and the extra ‘pocket money’.
Meanwhile its good business for the agent who does get his share of
commission depending on the kind of deal.
Are you ‘fit?’
A PG in Sports Management is a star attraction for a good Sports
Marketing job. Post-graduate in sports management requires minimum 40%
in any Graduation discipline. Graduation is Physical Education (P.Ed.)
or similar in course in a favourite sport is an added advantage.
Currently, only two recognized universities offer Post Graduate Diploma
in Sports Management (PGDSM) viz Alagappa University, Tamil Nadu and
Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education and Sports Science, New
Delhi. Admissions to these institutions begin in June / July and are
advertised in leading newspapers. Besides these acquired skills, one
requires good communication skills, business acumen and enthused energy
and passion for at least one sport.
~
author Lata S. Batra. Copyright©2005
indianchild.com.
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