Everything You Need to Know About
Getting a Sport Business Degree

Moorestown, New Jersey
Sports Sales Manager, HBC Event Services

Why Neumann for Sport Business?
I had a choice to make; I could either keep looking for entry-level sales-based jobs, or I could go back to school to invest in my future and my career. In my job searching, most jobs—especially the ones in sports-related fields—all seemed to be asking for a master’s degree as the minimum qualifications. 

MS vs MBA? 
A full-time MBA program required me to go back to school full-time—full credit load, studying, and very little time to work. The MS at Neumann was the perfect opportunity to gain the education I was looking for while being able to continue working.

What stands out about Neumann? 
Every professor came from the sports world and brought with them a deep understanding of what to expect upon graduating, what employers are going to be looking for, and how what we learn will matter when we graduate. Every class had a specific focus that required students to truly understand the work that was being asked of them, why it was important, why it mattered to organizations, and what we could—and did— gain from it.

One of the things that was most eye-opening for me was how truly connected the world of sports is. I came into the program as merely a sports fan. I had my teams and leagues that I cared about and could talk at length about them. Sports, to me, was topical; what were the highlights, player talking points, social trends in the leagues etc. I carried this approach into my classes. One of my professor’s earliest pieces of feedback was that I was approaching topics as a fan. I needed to look deeper. 

From there I shifted my focus and started to look at sports as a business, not just as entertainment. Every decision by every player in every sport in every league makes decisions based on business. Every sports organization—from youth sports to the Olympics—makes decisions with so many things in its orbit of focus.

How did the MS impact your career? 
I began my job at Valley Forge Sports due to the connections I made in my class with Dr. Lanzillo. That happened two months into the program. That alone made the MS program worth it to me. Beyond that, that job introduced me to the far-reaching sport tourism industry; an industry I am and hope to continue to be a part of going forward. An industry, that as it turns out, a professor of mine was a part of for a long time. Imagine my surprise when I went to a conference and saw her representing an organization that I became very familiar with and eventually would go on to work for based on her recommendations and positive referral.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Associate Financial Analyst, Exelon

Why Neumann? 
Everyone at Neumann had been very supportive of my academic journey as an undergraduate student, and the courses and coursework that the sport business program offered differed from what I studied as an undergraduate. I liked how the program diversified the content in their courses and how the coursework could be applied directly to the professional world, both inside and outside of the industry. Being able to cover topics like risk management, data analytics, and many others with one degree was important to me because I wanted to be able to learn as much as I could. In addition, the support I received from the faculty and staff at Neumann helped me make connections in the professional world that have allowed me to be able to explore everything I was interested in.

What kind of hands-on experiences did you have at NU?
I was able to do an amazing internship with the Enterprise Sponsorships and Experiential Marketing team at Citizens and their Ballpark Banker program at Citizens Bank Park. I worked Phillies’ home games and special events that the Phillies or Citizens were a part of. In this internship, I was able to put everything I was learning in the classroom to practice. Classes like partnership activation, event and facility management, and data analytics helped me excel in this role and gave me the background knowledge I needed to be able to understand how I could best contribute. Everyone at Citizens was amazing, and even after the internship, I was able to build my network and make lifelong connections with some of the people I worked with.

What’s special about Neumann’s Sport Business program? 
I would say that the most eye-opening element was how unique everyone’s sports business experience can be. I had vastly different internships and projects than everyone else, but what we learned helped everyone’s experience. Most people think working in sports means you have to be a professional athlete or sell tickets, but there is so much more that I didn’t know was out there before starting this program. There are many roles and career paths within sports that many people don’t notice or think are there, but are pivotal in keeping the sport industry alive.

Did your graduate experience influence your career? 
My graduate experience influenced my current role and future plans significantly. In my current role, graduate school allowed me to broaden my perspective and look at the way we approach things differently. Learning how to better use Excel, market products and events, and how to better understand and utilize a community’s wants and needs have expanded my horizons in terms of roles I’d be interested in pursuing. I was able to adapt every assignment to focus on something I’m passionate about.

Leaders are the stewards of organizations and are frequently faced with challenges that impact their ability to make ethical decisions, shape organizational culture and influence organizational behavior. This course will allow students to explore their own belief systems and reflect on how that may impact their ability to be leaders in sport business. This course weaves together specific skills that all leaders should strive to develop, including “storytelling,” ethical decision making, the ability to navigate through organizational politics and how to build a learning organization.

This course seeks to blend the themes of management and analytics to prepare future sport industry leaders in the interpretation and application of financial data to drive decisions. Emphasis will be placed on budgeting (including capital budgeting), forecasting, facility financing, economic impact analysis, and ROI.

From determining how to price club memberships to development campaigns and ticket pricing strategies, understanding the balance between price and consumer value is integral for sports business industry professionals. Understanding what data to collect, how to interpret the results and then effectively market the right message are critical for everything from amateur and community based sport programs to professional sport operations. Topics will include fundraising and development, dynamic ticket pricing, retail, merchandising, CRM and media buys.

The communication landscape is shifting regularly, and the impact of technology on the communication function is immeasurable. Sport business professionals require an understanding of how consumers interact with their brands and organizations in the evolving digital media sphere. Class-based projects will center on strategic and crisis communication, via storytelling, visuals and text along with distribution channels, segmentation, demographic characteristics and application.

Whether hosting a youth tournament, or staging a global sporting event, sport business professionals need to understand the complex nature of planning and executing events in concert with venue management. Areas to be addressed include staffing, volunteer management, event timeline creation and execution, stakeholder and vendor relations, and assessing economic impact. As an in-class experience, students may be tasked with designing and implementing an event, or working in concert with an existing event.