Question 1
Definition of Sports
A sport is a skillful, competitive, organized and entertaining activity that requires fair play, strategy and commitment whereby the winner can be defined by objective means. It comprises of a collection of separate activities such as mind sports activities, competitive activities such as Olympic sports and non-competitive activities which are used for recreational purposes. Each sport is well-defined by different events such as physical events and degree of skill and performance. Other sports such as beauty pageants and body building do not have a skill or well-defined criteria. Generally professional sport is the major source of entertainment. Sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, and observe standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.
The main professional sports league include the Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football league (NFL) and the National Hockey League (NHL). The Major League Baseball comprises the American League and the National League. The NBA comprises the Eastern conference and the Western conference . The NFL includes the American football conference and National Football conference. The NHL encompasses the Eastern conference and the Western conference.
The Major League Baseball (MLB)
In this league, there are teams that play the National League and the American League. Its constituent includes thirty teams; one Canadian team and twenty nine American teams. In MLB, the teams play a total of one hundred and sixty two games every season within a period of six months. These games take place from April to September The MLB also manages the tournament of world baseball classic in collaboration with the international baseball federation. The constitution of the major league baseball governs the MLB by maintaining and hiring the television contracts, labor and the umpiring crews.
The National Basketball Association (NBA)
This is the professional basketball for men that take place in North America. Like MLB, it is made up of thirty teams; twenty nine in the US and one in Canada. It divides these teams in two conferences. The two conferences have three divisions that have five teams each.
National Football League (NFL)
This is a football League in America that is made up of thirty two teams that are divided into the conference of American football and the conference of National football. It runs for seventeen weeks from Labor Day to Christmas. The teams that manage to win the NFL super bowl always walk home with the trophy of Vince Lombardi and several other awards that recognize the coaches and players. Sunday afternoon is the period that these games take place, while some games may take place on Thursdays and Mondays. During the regular season, each team may constitute fifty three players, but only forty six of these players are known to be active. Teams have the salary cap.
National Hockey League (NHL)
Just like the MLB, NBA and NFL, this league operates the ice hockey for thirty club members. Seven of the thirty franchise clubs are in Canada, while twenty three are in the US. The NHL has its headquarters in New York that is regarded as the professional ice hockey. At the end of the every season, the champions of the league are usually awarded the Stanley Cup. The NHL brings several professional players across the globe and currently it has players from twenty countries. While most of the players of NHL have been mostly Canadians, in the last four years Americans and Europeans have increased in numbers.
Question 2
Sporting activities usually occur in settings that have favorable weather conditions. Locations that have extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes are not favorable for sporting activities. Therefore, the weather ought to be conducive for the sporting activity. Sporting activities also take place in nations of political and economic stability. Nations that experience civil wars and hunger or death are not favorable for sporting activities. This is because sports are meant for entertainment and it is impossible to entertain a nation that has civil wars or a country where people die of hunger or diseases.
Question 3
Athletics director
Athletics directors conduct and organize athletics programs. They also coach athletics teams and staff. They supervise the selection and buying of athletic apparatus, care and maintenance of athletic facilities and equipment and provide a budget. They ensure that every sports functions within the budget framework. They schedule the contests and hire officials.
Field Marketing Director
Field marketing director is a representative of the marketing department. They assist both the sales and marketing department in planning, evaluating, managing and developing the marketing plans. They also do the budgeting of the sporting events.
Sports Administrator
This is the owner or the executive director of the sports team. The sports administrator organizes and manages the sporting events. They also determine the location of the sporting events and do the budget for the entire event .
The Couches
These are the professionals responsible for training the team. They guide the entire team on the specific tasks that they have to do to ensure that they beat their opponents. They assign each athlete or player a specific task based on their skills.
Financial Planner
These professionals control the finances of the sporting events. They allocate the necessary resources that are necessary for certain sporting events.
Product licensing manager
These professionals are responsible for licensing the product or the brand, which is the sporting team.
Question 4
a) The task clusters of sporting managers include the general management duties, organization management and information management. The general sport managers deal with the finances of sporting events. They ensure that all funds are allocated for the successful completion of the sporting events. The organization management involves the successful planning and organization of the sporting events on time. Information management involves gathering information and passing information about the sporting events. This information may include advertisements and informing the team and couches of the upcoming events.
b) The competency of the sports managers overlaps the ones of the other positions because he or she is expected to set achievable goals. Creating an environment where the sports people are motivated to excel and exercise their talent. Their competence is usually expected to meet the level of performance set to be achieved.
The skills required for general managers are educational skills. Managers ought to be graduates of Managerial schools and must have experience with management. They must also have experience in financial management. Organization management requires experience in organizational management. Information management requires experience in advertising and communication.
Question 5
A successful sports manager must be a person who is committed to his or her and in reading this will help in being updated with the rapid changes in sports
Decisiveness: the sports manager is expected to able to make very tough decision about the sport he or she is managing this decision will determine the future of the sport.
Self confidence: this will help the manager to be able to predict the future and preparing for it.
Trustworthy: this characteristic go together with honesty, the manager must be trustworthy to be able to establish a good rapport with the players and helps in dealing with confidential matters of the team (Kiesel, 2008).
Openness’s to other people’s ideas, this will facilitate sharing of new ideas whereby everybody will benefit from the exchange of ideas.
Sensitivity and openness to change the manager should be able to assess the emerging issues in sports this will help him or her adapt to new situations with ease.
Professional characteristics
Sports managers must develop technological skills. These skills include report writing skill, good communication skills that include constant flow of oral and written communication that will help him or her communicate efficiently to all including the team official.
Sports managers must be able to multi-task. This helps the manager to handle the multi-sport environment of games. The sports manager must be well organized to provide a systematic program that work effectively.
Develop crisis management skills in case of any problems that may occur he or she is able to solve it immediately.
The sports manager must possess high ethical and professional standards.
Question 6
After reviewing the websites, one can learn that professional preparation, education, and career planning can bring a huge success in sports management. Once one is fully educated about sports management, he can recognize the major sporting events that take place in the world and have the theoretical idea of how to manage the sporting event. For example, an individual who studies advertising in sports can have an idea of when, how and what to advertise for a specific sporting event. Sports often take place in seasons and this knowledge can help the sporting managers prepare financially before the sporting events begin. This makes the sporting managers allocate the resources that are necessary for every activity that takes place.
Question 7
Globalization offers great opportunities to the sports manager to get players all over the world such as in the football field people have travel worldwide to play for other countries because of their skills. This facilitates interaction between the continents. It possesses a challenge in sports, for example, the globalization of football industry has created a concentration of resources in hands of few big European and South American clubs.
Social responsibility includes the environmental issues in the sports. It creates opportunities to sports managers such as providing positive information rather than control over participants, providing sustainability awareness. The manager gets the power to unite and captivate sports people within communities creating an environment which contributes to social capital.
Ethics has created opportunities to the sports managers to practice gender equity and helped them to deal with race and class issues.
Question 8
The first college sports club was a boat club created by the Yale University in 1843. According to the intercollegiate sports, an average colleges or universities can play is 20 different sports and offers a variety of intramural sports in United States. These sports have principles that govern them such as gender equality, sportsmanship, and high ethical and academic standards.
Interscholastic sports
This includes competition between schools. It includes schools at middle and junior level in the United States. It also had elementary level which varied between different communities they are included intramural competition which were rare. The objectives of school sports is to enrich the schools experience within the context of the educational mission of schools
Professional sports
In professional sports the sports people earn a great deal of money which makes them to take it as a career, devote their training time necessary to increase their skills and also helps to boost the popularity of the particular sport such as athletics and football.
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