What does marketing and sales have to do with the sports entertainment industry?

Hi Jordan- there are many career paths within the Sports and Entertainment industries. These are exciting fields (I have worked in both) and you can have a lucrative and fun career. Very competitive but be dedicated and focused.

Marketing and Sales can be different paths or they can converge. Here are a few jobs that relate and a Business or Marketing major would be appropriate:

Marketing Career Paths
Marketing for a movie studio, television network, website, video game, or content company like Netflicks for example. Your focus is on marketing content to the determined target audience and drive viewership, movie ticket sales or interaction with the content. You can also market a team, a stadium, a concert, etc. driving ticket sales and purchase of team merchandise.

Ad Sales Marketing: working within a website, network or content company to help them sell advertising by creating tie ins and promotions that link advertisers to content and provide incentives to purchase media. On the Sports side you can sell league, team or venue sponsorships.

Licensing: lending a show or entertainment property's name and image to products, clothing, etc. in exchange for a licensing fee charged in every item sold. For example, creating Sponge Bob products to sell at retail or Star Wars merchandise. On the Sports side you can develop and sell the right to produce clothing and other memorabilia featuring official team marks and images.

Sales:
You can sell commercial time for a television network or website. You make a commission on the cost of the time/space. You can sell sponsorship of a sports stadium like a baseball stadium or Madision Square Garden (you sell signage, hospitality suites, etc.). You can sell team or league sponsorships which allows a sponsor's products and services to use a team's marks on their products.

I know it seems overwhelming but start looking more closely at all the marketing, licensing and sponsorships that you see in your everyday life. You can start in college by trying to be a campus rep for a product you like or a movie studio. Or look at how your school markets itself to potential students/parents or how do they market their big teams. Who is promoting the upcoming special events and concerts? Is there a campus radio or tv station? If so how can you get involved. Good luck and have fun.

Hi Jordan,

All companies, despite everything, must have a strong sales and marketing areas.

In the sports entertainment industry it isn't different. You have to imagine that the fans are customers, and like any customer, you need manage the relationship with them.

The sports entertainment industry have a lot of opportunities, owing to the fact that the main product is the passion that people have for the sports.

Greetings from Brazil!

I believe that marketing and sales have everything to do with the sports entertainment industry today. View sports as entertainment for millions of customers. The customers need to be marketed to in order to drive more customers and the marketing may be indirectly related to the actual sport or team. For instance, players are marketed through sponsorships of clothing or shoes which helps the customers get to know the players and grow attached to what they like which may ultimately lead to customers coming to sporting events to watch the players that they have come to like based on a commercial for a particular show that player is marketing.

I studied sports marketing in college and worked for two professional teams afterwards. Both organizations relied on various marketing campaigns to drive ticket sales to the sporting event as entertainment for the end customer. I would argue that without marketing and sales there would be no sports entertainment industry.

Hope this helps.