Sport Management

This module provides a comprehensive exploration of research in the context of sport and exercise. It emphasizes the interconnections between research philosophy, design, methodology, and data analysis, equipping students with the skills to critically evaluate and conduct research. The module covers both quantitative and qualitative traditions, offering a balanced understanding of their applications, benefits, and limitations in addressing diverse research questions within sport and exercise. The quantitative elements will focus on such things as: experimental design, surveys and statistical techniques, such as descriptive and inferential statistics. Students will learn to apply tools like correlation, regression, and ANOVA, essential for hypothesis testing and evidence-based conclusions. The qualitative elements will focus on such things as: interpretivism, interviewing and ethnography, and different types of qualitative data analysis, such as thematic analysis and grounded theory approaches. Students will also learn how to review existing research and design a research project that is feasible, methodologically robust and ethically sound.

Sport is often produced and consumed by the organisation of events, which are hosted in stadiums, arenas and other sport facilities. This module examines the operation and project management of these venues and events. Venues range from stadiums and arenas for spectator sport and places for participation, including recreational, training, performance and academy facilities. They can be sport-specific or multi-sport. The sport event market comprises grassroots activities through to mega events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games and FIFA World Cup. The management of venues and events is therefore paramount to sport and to the organisations that own, manage and control sport.

This module provides students with an opportunity to engage with the sport industry through an industry placement. Specifically, this module provides the opportunity to observe practitioners in action and to learn in a practical real-world setting. Experience in the field of study is an essential ingredient in preparing an individual for employment either during the period of study or after graduation. Students will have the opportunity to see how knowledge and skills acquired in lectures and tutorials can be applied and also to relate theoretical concepts and skills to situations in sport or exercise-related settings.

This module focuses on the history and the social development of sport. Looking back at sport’s past, students will examine the heritage of sport by analysing a range of historical and historiographical evidence, methods and practices. This is designed to develop a contextual knowledge of the different forms, meanings and purposes of sport and the periods and places in which they have occurred. The inter-relationships between sport in the past and sport in the present are examined in terms of continuities and changes. This leads on to the study of sport for development and how sport (and its cultural heritage) can be used as a tool for positive social, cultural, health and economic change within a variety of settings around the world. Sport for development has gained increasing recognition from both academics and practitioners around the world and aims to develop sport projects with the aim of meeting wider social development objectives.

This module provides students with the opportunity to plan and execute an independent research project that critically addresses a specific management-related issue within sport and exercise contexts.

Strategy explains how organisations generate and sustain performance through the management of resources in a changing competitive environment. In sport, there are numerous examples of sport organisations that have implemented successful strategies, but also organisations that have experienced failure. This module critically applies relevant strategic management models and theories to facilitate the analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation of corporate, business and operational strategy. It also explores leadership, organisational culture and performance management in the sport industry.

This module critically examines the complex commercial and cultural interconnections between sport and the media. Global media corporations exert a significant degree of influence over sport. Commercially, the media form a vital channel of communication for sport to reach sponsors and advertisers. The media – through rights acquisitions – also invest significantly in sport and have a degree of power over how sport is scheduled and portrayed. Culturally, the media audience consume sport as entertainment through a mix of different mainstream and new media channels. For many fans, the multi-screen consumption of sport has become the norm. A range of media analysis techniques will be used to reveal the mediatisation of sport (i.e., how it is filtered by media corporations) in a variety of specific media-sport texts (including live coverage, highlights, previews, documentaries, films and promotional materials).

This module provides students with the opportunity to integrate knowledge gained from operational and theoretical perspectives of sport and apply this to a sport management project. Students will engage in projects that bring together real-world industry problems and sport theory. The sport, exercise and health sectors are made up of thousands of small-to-medium size companies, including commercial and social enterprises, some of which will grow into large organisations. This module will also explore working in these entrepreneurial environments. Sport relies on creative and innovative solutions to enable sport organisations and individuals to achieve their sporting and commercial objectives. Students will therefore also learn how to develop and launch an innovative sport product or service.