If you want to turn your passion for sports into a career, you're in luck. When it comes to the business side of sports management, the field is growing and there are many avenues to choose from.
The field of sport management is so much larger than many people think, says Janice Robinson, a professor with the department of business, IT, and management at Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario. Students typically come into the program with a focus on professional sports; however, they are introduced to amateur sport, sporting goods, sport facilities, college and university sport, community sport, and sport and event partners.
Career opportunities include event planning, sales, marketing, facility management, and finance, she adds, with average starting salaries of about $30,000ÔÇô$40,000.
Universities and colleges across Canada offer both undergraduate and graduate programs specializing in sports management.
Consider Durham's one-year postgraduate certificate program. It focuses on many different career opportunities in many different sectors of the sport industry, Robinson says. It includes areas such as sales, event planning and management, corporate communications, social media, computer applications, finance, law, and trends in the industry. The second semester consists of a 500-hour internship.
Chantel Crockett graduated from Durham's program this past spring and works as a booking and events coordinator at Mattamy Athletic Centre. You take courses in all areas of the sporting world, she says. It doesn't focus on just marketing or sales.
Students come from backgrounds such as kinesiology, history, political science, marketing, and law, Robinson notes. Each of these individuals brings something different to the classroom. Their passion for sport unites them.
After completing an undergrad in psychology, Meaghan Green earned a postgraduate college certificate in sport business management from Algonquin College in Ottawa in 2009. I saw this program and I thought it aligned with my personal life, she says.
Green, who serves as communications coordinator with Algonquin's athletics department, says the program helped shape her career in sports marketing. It was pretty concentrated around the business of sports. We took things like finances and communications.
Crockett too is passionate about sports. I was always involved as a spectator, she says. A family friend played in the NHL. My part-time job throughout university was working at a golf course.
Another benefit is the opportunity to meet a ton of people, Crockett adds. I've done events with Wendel Clark and Johnny Bower. I've met the Argos. You get to help them bring their A-game and bring in fans to support them.
In terms of challenges, Sarah Kennedy, a second-year student at the University of New Brunswick's MBA program in sport and recreation management, says the field is seen as a men's dominated world. It makes you feel like you have to be twice as good.
However, it's not as much an old boy's club anymore, she adds. Robinson notes that Durham's program, for instance, attracts an even number of males and females.
Crockett also warns that it's not a nine-to-five job. For example, I worked from 8 a.m  to 3 a.m. for an event, she says.
She highlights the need for organization and time management skills. You work with people with schedules as crazy as yours, she says. You need to adapt to that. However, once you embrace what you do, it shouldn't be a problem, she adds.
Just ask Kennedy, who aspires to break into sports marketing and event planning once she graduates from UNB. I've played sports my entire life, she says. It's my chance to continue my passion and be paid for it.
Photo: Meriel Jane Waissman/iStock