Sports Management, Foundations and Frameworks Series

Sports management is the business running alongside the game, and this book explains how that business actually works. Teams sell for billions while losing. Leagues cap their own spending on purpose. Cities hand owners hundreds of millions for stadiums that rarely earn the money back. Understanding why any of that happens takes a different set of tools than watching the games does. Ten chapters move in a deliberate order, opening with a map of the whole industry across professional, collegiate, interscholastic, Olympic, and recreational sport, and closing with the analytics and leadership structures inside a modern front office. No finance or business background is assumed. The chapters work through: - Closed franchise leagues versus promotion and relegation - Governance and law: FIFA, the IOC, the NCAA, antitrust rules, baseball’s 1922 exemption, Title IX, and the anti-doping system built around WADA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport - Drafts, salary caps, luxury taxes, the NBA second apron, and tanking - What drives ticket demand, how variable and dynamic pricing work, why large and small markets share revenue, how monopsony power shaped the athlete labor market, and what the research says about publicly funded stadiums - Club financials, franchise valuation, private equity ownership stakes, and Financial Fair Play - Fan segmentation, brand identity, merchandise and licensing, community programs, and crisis communication - Media rights and sponsorship, including the unwinding of the cable bundle, streaming deals, category exclusivity, activation measurement, and betting partnerships - Agents, collective bargaining, contract guarantees, injury insurance, and the name, image, and likeness rules that changed college athletics in 2021 - Venue financing, lease negotiation with cities, game-day security, Olympic and World Cup bidding, tracking data, and decision rights in the front office Written for three main groups: - Students in sport administration, sports business, and related degree programs - People trying to get into the industry, whether through ticket sales, sponsorship, analytics, operations, or law - Fans who want to understand the stories reported next to the scores Career pathways, credentials, and entry points get their own treatment in the first chapter, along with an honest account of how competitive entry-level hiring has become. Every chapter ends with discussion questions, and example answers are included so you can check your own thinking. A timeline traces how the business grew over the last century, a glossary defines the vocabulary that runs through the industry, and a recommended reading list points you toward what to read next. The valuations and contracts in today’s sports market will become outdated. The frameworks behind them will not.