Sydney
How lucrative it is working in the sports entertainment industry?
I am asking this question because I am trying to find information about different careers that interest me. And I was wondering if anyone can help me figure out how to support myself in society? #sports
2 answers
Mauricio Castillo
Mauricio’s Answer
But because it's such a growing field, opportunities spring up in a variety of specialties. Your job is to seek out these opportunities and see which match up with your skill set. It's not enough to just be a fan of sports and knowledgeable — you have to prove yourself an asset to the company's goals.
One piece of advice I learned early on when trying to break into the field: Never be afraid and always be willing to put pride and ego to the side. I've made some great connections off just sending an email or a LinkedIn message or even a DM on Instagram to people who either work in the field or work in a company I wanted to apply for. Be willing to put yourself out there, and always, always keep up the grind!
suraj nayak
suraj’s Answer
Over the past 20 or 30 years, the major trend in sports has been the tremendous growth in revenues, primed by televised broadcasting of games. This innovation led first to increased advertising sales, then to sponsorships, and then to stadium naming rights. Player endorsements provide a human (or superhuman) face to these sports-marketing efforts. Over time, teams and leagues have become much more business-minded, and revenues have increased many times over. This transformation has fueled the need for business people to wheel and deal, and squeeze as much money out of every sporting event or deal as possible.
However, sports consumers (whoops, make that "fans") are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the transformation of sports into a money-making machine, one that has encouraged player hubris, corporate intrusion, and a general disregard for the fans. Older fans have voted with their, um, backsides, by keeping them at home rather than seating them in stadiums. And younger people have moved toward "action" sports more to their liking, such as snowboarding and BMX, as these are exactly the kinds of things they like to do themselves.
As consumers retreat, corporate sponsors are forced to be more selective in their campaigns, usually by targeting as closely as possible the demographic they are after. They are also demanding more from sponsorship deals. Valuation services is a growing segment of sponsorship, since it attempts to quantify and evaluate the return on investment of any such deal.
As we move into the digital age, it's getting more difficult to cleanly break down the industry into traditional categories. One reason for this is the proliferation of new forms of entertainment-DVDs, the Internet, and the like. Another reason is that many film, television, and music companies have united to form entertainment conglomerates.
While the landscape of the industry is changing, for the purposes of this profile we break entertainment into three traditional categories: television, film, and music, and then follow these up with a look at sports entertainment as its own standalone category.