Myths are widely held false beliefs or ideas about certain concepts. These pre-conceived notions exist everywhere no matter how obvious the practicality is right from the alma mater of that concept, the very root.
When this practice enters a commercial atmosphere, it creates a significant impact on the in and out of all functioning. Please consider ‘in and out’ as a very inclusive apprehension in this case. But the commercial atmosphere now is still at a very safer place where the myths don’t really create a huge impact as such. It is the up and coming or comparatively smaller industries that go through all the scrutiny today. Sports management is one of those, and now we are going to talk about the myths that revolve around the sports management industry
5 Myths about Sports Management:
1. Only a professional sports player gets a job in sports management.
We cannot really blame a layman for believing in this. We get where the logic comes from. Obviously if a person watches Zinedine Zidane managing Real Madrid or Ex India cricketers like Deep Dasgupta or Murali Karthik as commentators on Star Sports, he/she will definitely think that only the big guys get the big jobs.
Here’s what we think about this :
No, these opportunities aren’t limited to those who have played the game. Yes maybe an outsider cannot take Zidane’s spot as a manager, but there are lots of other responsibilities that need to be fulfilled in order to make sure things go smooth behind the screen, and this is where skill is the product in demand. It is a very big industry, there are jobs big and small, and people are needed irrespective of whether they have professionally endured a sport or not.
2. Sports Management = Glamorous Jobs
This thought comes up when people hear about something like how an intern gets a tag of being associated to say, Mumbai Indians while still just working for digital content creation for a company associated to Mumbai Indians, the intern then shows off his/her accreditation card on social media and becomes quite popular among the peers. Sports personalities are equivalent to the Avengers and the X-Men in real life with all the fandom that major sports bring with them and that is what makes being associated with them look glamorous. And this glamour notion gets more reinforcement, and this is just one of the mainstream ways of how the gossip spreads.
Our take :
Sports management is an umbrella term for many career options. Yes, there will be huge opportunities but all of them aren’t supposed to be the same, you could even be working a 9 to 5 desk job in a corporate space in the sports industry, and the chances are not really bleak. It is the versatility of this field of work that people fail to understand.
3. You always get to be around the players
PLEASE DO NOT take up sports management if you think you’re gonna get to chill with the players, roam around, show off, take pictures and boomerangs, etc. This does not happen. Fall in love with the sport and its business not with the players if you want to pursue this line. Yes, jobs like those do exist but they’re no ordinary walk unless you are freakishly determined to get that thing done. But more than 90% of sports jobs today do not satisfy this stereotype. You could be a team doctor travelling with your team and staying in touch with the players but you could also be doing marketing campaigns for a sports retail outlet with no idea about what those players look like in person.
4. You need to have strong knowledge about sports
Yes, the knowledge does help, and in some cases, opens up a few more opportunities but no that is not a pre-requisite to be happily working in the sports industry. This is like any other spontaneous business, people from all sorts of fields are needed as things get bigger, and the sports industry is definitely getting bigger. Event Managers, Service Providers, Engineers, etc. may not know how many times Australia has won the Cricket World Cup but they are still needed and will get work, good work.
5. A degree in Sports Management is similar to a Coaching degree or license.
People do take an interest in sports management in the hopes of becoming a coach or trainer or a practitioner. Well, you might get to work with them, but no, you do not get to take that role with this degree, be it a Bachelor’s or Master’s. It is not what makes you eligible. There are certain lectures that do talk about this aspect explicitly but they’re just lectures and professionally they do not count. We’d suggest you go for a specifically designed program where you get to learn what you exactly want to learn and you will come out what you exactly want to become.
Generalized opinions exist everywhere. And they always will, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about them. Questioning is important, and we are here to help you as much as we can.
These are some myths and generalized opinions about sports management which we think count heavy in people’s minds. Let us know your thoughts on this matter in the comment section below!
Also read: 15 Careers in Sports Management [2020]
Thank you!