What makes a successful sport admin professional? Is it a high-quality education? The right contacts? Luck, perseverance —or something else? The reality is that success in this field is not made from one skill or attribute, but a variety of them... the sports industry is a multi-billion dollar business, and being successful in this high-stakes field requires professional breadth and depth.
Sport management professionals work in a range of capacities, including the front office of major sports teams, athletic directors at private and public academic institutions, specialists in performance analysis, tournament planners and agents for professional athletes, just to name a few. Ideally, your Sports Administration program will give you that high-quality education, assist you in cultivating contacts, and help you become savvy enough to recognize and jump at good opportunities.
Develop a Solid Foundation
When you work in the sports industry, you’re likely to wear many hats. Consider what a sports agent does. She has to keep her eyes on the best talent around, flying to various sporting events and training sessions to scope out new prospects. She also has to have the sort of business acumen that allows her to negotiate the best contracts for her clients. In many cases, she’s also a relationship specialist –she has to know her clients and their needs well enough to help steer them towards opportunities that will allow them to be as successful as possible.
You will need an education that not only grounds you in the essential range of skills and real-world experience but also one that keeps up with a dynamic and ever-changing field. At the University of Miami, you’ll learn marketing, administration, law, event management, communications, risk and crisis management, sport communications, sports analytics, ethical decision-making, and athletics administration for education leadership.
This solid academic foundation provides sport administration students with the theoretical, conceptual, and practical knowledge upon which they’ll build in their chosen area of concentration. Additionally, through field experience, sport administration students learn the day-to-day complexities of working in the industry. These two facets of education serve as crucial first steps toward a successful career.
Build Your Network
Most professionals know that success comes from a hard work, perseverance, and just the right amount of luck. They also know that you make your own luck. One way to do this is by excelling at what you do and being open to new opportunities. To succeed in the field of sports administration, you’ll need to be open-minded, adept at interacting with people across a broad spectrum of environments, understand the significance of teamwork, have excellent organizational and decision-making skills, and crucially, have a solid ethical compass.
UM’s Sport Administration program cultivates these skills and dispositions through both rigorous academic programs and related educational opportunities. UM’s sports industry conference brings together leading sport business professionals and students to engage in in-depth discussions on a variety of cutting-edge topics. Diverse classmates doing fieldwork in their chosen profession help their colleagues learn the best ways of getting a foot in the door, and professors deeply influence their students’ intellectual and professional dispositions toward the sport administration industry.
A successful sports administration leader will reflect key skills and dispositions. UM’s Sport Administration programs cultivate those across a broad and deep curriculum that is both academically powerful and professionally rewarding. Learn more about the online Sports Administration Program here or you can speak to an enrollment advisor at 888.411.2290
