The Undergraduate Sport Business Management Program at UCF is a challenging undergraduate program designed to develop future innovative leaders in the sport business and entertainment management industry. All courses within the sport business minor provide students with substantive knowledge and practical skills that will help students succeed as business professionals. Students in the program learn about and apply finance, economics, management, marketing, accounting, statistics, and legal concepts to the sport business and entertainment management industry. Students in the program also learn about the business side of the sport and entertainment industry by participating in a variety of volunteer, internship and other experiential learning opportunities. The sport business minor has grown from 10 students in Summer 2007 to over 400 students enrolled in classes during the Spring 2016 semester. We invite you to join our team.
The Introduction to Sport Business Management course provides students with an introductory overview of the sport business and entertainment management industry. Students learn and apply sport business management concepts, including substantive concepts in the following core areas: collegiate athletics, professional sport, international sport, sport marketing, sport consumer behavior, public relations in sport, sport broadcasting, sport sales, sport sponsorship, facility and event management, sport finance and economics, sport franchise valuation, sport analytics, legal and ethical issues in sport, managerial leadership in sport organizations, and sport management research.
The Diversity and Social Issues in Sport & Entertainment course provides an overview of various strategic diversity management theories and examines the applications of these theories to organizations in the sport business and entertainment management industry. Students will critically examine the constructs of race, class, gender and other dimensions of diversity within sport, entertainment and society.
The Role of Business Entrepreneurship in Sport & Entertainment course focuses on an examination of the business strategies of successful, innovative entrepreneurs in the sport and entertainment management industry. The course has three primary objectives. First, students study business entrepreneur success stories in sport as well as in the broader corporate culture. Second, students learn about individual leaders in entrepreneurial endeavors. Lastly, students learn how to develop their own innovation skills by working on entrepreneurial projects.
The Event and Facility Management course examines the principles of facility operations and event management in the sport and entertainment management industry, and focuses on the applications of these principles and concepts to organizations in professional, collegiate, and Olympic sport. This class provides students with an in-depth investigation of unique challenges and opportunities routinely faced by business managers at sport and entertainment venues.
The Sport Business and Media course offers an overview of how the media has evolved from radio, network television and magazines into the multi-dimensional world of regional and national cable, the Internet, and various networks with huge rights fees and other new media elements. This class explores the role of new media in everyday life and why old mediums such as newspapers are fading in impact.
The Business Law in Sport & Entertainment course is designed to introduce students to some of the laws, rules and regulations that apply to the sport and entertainment industries and that impact the work setting of sport and entertainment organizations. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the legal issues involved in the operation and management of organizations in the sport and entertainment industries, and to equip students with the skills and strategies needed to effectively work with business executives and lawyers to resolve these issues.
Students have worked, interned, volunteered and/or completed client-based projects for the organizations listed below (along with other sport business organizations). Sport business leaders from program partner organizations regularly visit campus to speak with our students about how to excel as a business professional in the sport and entertainment industry.