Globally, Sports is a big industry which contributes billions to the global economy and offers millions of jobs. Worth nearly $22 billion, the American sports industry employs one per cent of the total population. The sports industry employs 2 per cent of the total population in the UK and 4 per cent in Australia. The situation of other developed countries of the world is not different. In developed countries, a good number of people earn their living directly from the sports industry.
SPORTS INDUSTRY
The Sports Industry is a mixture of 20 different sectors as defined by Sijin B T, sports management guru and the founder of SMRI.
SPORTS DOMAIN
Based on academic and career perspectives sports industry can be classified into 6 different domains. Sports Performance, Sports Coaching, Sports Management, Sports Science, Sports Engineering and Sports Culture.
SPORTS CAREERS IN INDIA
Until the advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the only sports-related jobs we Indians knew were coaches, officials and physical education teachers. But IPL changed the Indian sports. Even though India is slow in adopting professional sports, the sports industry is growing fast by increasing the demand for Sports management, sports engineering, and sports science professionals. Professional sports is the torch bearer of the sports industry. The beginning of professional sports leagues such as the Indian Premier League, Indian Super League and ProKabbadi accelerates the overall development of the Indian sports industry.
The following infographics show the employment prospects of the Indian sports industry.
The growth of sports management began in the 1960s when Mark McCormack, the father of sports marketing founded the IMG (International Management Group), the brain behind IPL and ISL. Walter Francis O’Malley, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team in Major League Baseball (MLB) was the first to realize the need for specially trained professionals to manage sports leagues and teams. In 1957, he met his friend, Dr Clifford Brownell, a professor at Columbia University. Brownell shared this with James Mason, who was doing doctoral research under him. After completing his doctoral work, James Mason completed his research, he designed the world’s first sports management curriculum and in 1966, the world’s first sports management course was started at Ohio University in the USA. Sports management professionals today work in many different areas of the sports industry. Once just passion for sports was the driving force behind sports. But, today passion for sports and awareness of modern sports management strategies are driving the sports industry to greater heights.
