Experts told whether a specialized education is needed to become a sports marketer

Sports marketing: diploma or practice?

A sports marketer is a person who helps the club earn money through advertising contracts and is looking for sponsors. It also attracts a new audience to the stadium, works with fans, develops the club brand and increases its commercial potential. All this requires specialized knowledge – it is important to understand the specifics of both the sports industry and the Russian economy and mentality. With the development of sports, the demand for education in the field of sports management and marketing is growing.

Now there are specialized faculties or advanced training programs for sports marketers in every sports university, as well as at many faculties of management, management and economics. For example, at the University of Synergy, HSE, RMA business school, Moscow State University. Lomonosov, Ranchihis, Guu, Mirbis, REU named after Plekhanova, MGIMO and so on. The cost of training is most often an impressive six -digit amount. The main consumers are former athletes who could not reach a professional level, as well as those who plan to work in this area or want to increase the level of knowledge – managers, marketers, journalists, PRAR, economists. Of course, in order to gain knowledge, it is not necessary to go for a diploma: as in other areas, it is easier to find a place for practice in a particular club or company.

Rusbase asked experts about what exactly guarantees success and employment in the field of sports marketing and management.

Russian International Olympic University. Discipline Master of Sports Administration (from 10 months to 2 years, depending on the plan) – 276 thousand rubles. A full -time educational program in the same direction (3 semesters – 39 weeks) – 390 thousand rubles.

School of business and international competencies of MGIMO. The course (1 month, 4 days of study per week) for the management of international communications in sports – 56 thousand rubles. Management in the sports industry (20 months) – 750 thousand rubles.

Rma. Management in game sports (10 months, classes – 3 times a week) – 200 thousand rubles.

International School of Sports Management at Mirbis. 10 months, 500 hours of training – 180 thousand rubles.

HSE. A joint retraining program with FIFA (7.5 months, 570 hours) – 180 thousand rubles.

Sports Management Center for Economic Facility Moscow State University. Advanced training (72 hours) – 45 thousand rubles, retraining (260 hours) – 170 thousand rubles.

I'll start with Disclosure: I have no higher education. Moreover, I did not spend a day at the university at all. My opinion can be motivated not so much by life experience, as it seems to me, how much self -justification.

Firstly, I do not really believe in the power of modern education, which has the ability to quickly obsolete.Secondly, I doubt the effectiveness and, in general, the possibility of accumulating “in reserve” skills, without solving a real problem.

I believe more in education without interruption from production: you solve a certain set of problems. They require additional knowledge and skills that you acquire in the process. In Sports.ru, we work just that. We look more at how much people are charged for self -development, how ready to study than diplomas.

At the site of specialists who are interested in growing in the field of sports marketing, I would rather claim the starting positions in the company where there are interesting tasks and interesting people from whom you can learn.

Over the past four years, experts with education in the field of sports marketing have never come to our department. For me, as the head of the department, the presence of such an education is not crucial. A professional marketer with a good basic education and high -quality work experience is excellent in that he can quickly adapt to business requirements.

It is important that a person shares the values ​​and philosophy of the company, himself is passionate about a healthy lifestyle.

In World Class, another 18 people are responsible for marketing. To improve qualifications, we send employees to specialized courses, conferences and professional forums.

If you want to become a specialist in the field of sports marketing, I advise you to get a good basic marketing education, preferably from the ancestors of the profession. Plus, to strengthen the resume with additional education: DJIT, analytics and the like. I would not put the presence of a diploma at the forefront, rather – the quality of education. Crusts do not guarantee success, but the combination of knowledge and practical skills is very highly valued.

At the interview, I always ask whether the projects that a person are proud of, whether he knows what we are. Education is a basic requirement that is presented to absolutely all applicants. Good resume is 50% success.

What can be alert? Lack of achievements. The list of career history in the form of dates and names of companies is unlikely to impress. Frequent change of work, if you are not a prudeship, will also reduce points. I repeat that a huge plus is examples of successful work with a list of solved tasks and results.

We develop and introduce IT products in the field of sports, so people with a technical or economic education most often come to us. I myself was engaged in football at the youthful level. First, in the Kaliningrad Baltic, then in the St. Petersburg FS Smena, which now became the Academy of FC Zenit. After receiving technical and then economic education, he came to work in IT. First to hire, then founded his company.

My partner and I decided to do what we love and can – the synthesis of information technology and sports.We knew sport from the point of view of the participants, much less from the managers, so we had to fill cones along with the project. In our work, we communicate a lot with managers of sports organizations, and I can say that they often lack knowledge in the field of economics and management. As a rule, these are former athletes or judges who are sure that they are well versed in sports from the inside and this is enough.

Diploma or practice? Both that and that. As a rule, the federations or clubs are somehow funded by the state, getting there is not easy – this is a closed area where people work for a long time. Open vacancies are primarily invited by their friends. Therefore, the presence of vocational education and theory does not guarantee employment – as in any other field. But modern sports managers who have education in marketing and management can pay more attention to a candidate who has a similar education. This simplifies communication.

My experience suggests that those who have experience in implementing real projects can best advance themselves in the labor market, not even large and successful. You can participate in projects as a volunteer or become an assistant to the leader who, having received good impressions of joint work, will be able to advance your ideas further. From the open market, specialists are rarely taken, most often – from partnerships or contracting companies. The sports market is not so big, many know each other. The higher your personal value for the organization, the more chances to find a job where you want.

I advise you to start reading the classic works of foreign authors to expand the horizons: the theory of sports marketing, management and the Olympic movement. Russian sport has its own characteristics: by and large, the main client has a state, as it finances most clubs and federations. This leaves an imprint on the entire sports industry, which cannot be directly compared, for example, with the American, where the entire sport is private and completely different culture of consumption of sports spectacles. I recommend visiting forums for specialists. There is a forum on sports marketing Marspo, IT-technologies forum in sports-it Sportforum, conferences on the topic of sports infrastructure, business breakdowns. Subscribe to Facebook “Sports Management” and “Sports Marketing” – there are many active specialists who want to share and exchange experience.

In general, in Russia there is a lack of knowledge in sports marketing and management, so professionals are trying to unite, and the largest cases must appear in sports or business media.

People with a specialized education of a sports marketer or manager rarely come to our company. Most often these are journalists, PRAR, people from IT, who are interested in the sports industry and want to realize themselves in it. I always look only at experience and ideas.If this is, I will not even ask a question about education.

I had a rather classic path. I combined work with my studies at the journalism department of St. Petersburg State University. In journalism, PR and marketing, there is nothing more important than practice. Therefore, from the first year he worked in the editorial office of St. Petersburg “Soviet Sports”, in the fourth year he moved to Moscow to the federal edition. He studied in full -time and periodically came to St. Petersburg – the teachers walked towards. Now, as I understand it, it is impossible to combine work and study in this mode – orders at universities have become much tougher.

To everyone who wants to realize themselves in sports management and marketing, I would recommend not to start with a specialized education, but immediately from practice. Form a short list of a dozen companies, clubs or federations where you would like to work. Think about who you could be interesting and where people work aimed at the result. And send them a letter with self -presentation and ideas. You will definitely answer one of ten letters. And if your ideas are adequate, this story may well have a continuation.

Unfortunately, the global problem of the industry is the lack of fresh effective personnel. Most positions work either “their own” or people with soviet thinking. People with brains, a sense of taste and ambitions gradually also appear, but so far rather as an exception. I really want them to be much larger, because the potential of sports in Russia is huge.

They say that we are an unsportsmaning country. But, for me, this is far from the truth. During large football tournaments or Olympiads, more or less all monitoring sports. Another thing is that in Russia there is no daily culture of sports consumption, as in the same Balkans or in England. Sports managers of the new format, who are still not enough, should create this culture.

With the renewal of personnel, everything is very difficult not only because of employers. The level of most people who receive education in sports marketing and management is very low. Such education is often naive boys and girls who are used to watching sports as fans and want to turn their hobbies into work. If such a study is not combined with work or a full internship, it makes no sense in it.

What to do in the first place? Read everything that is available on the topic. But not the theory of marketing, it is almost useless in the Russian context, but what clubs and sports brands in the States, Europe, Asia come up with. Look at our Sport Connect (we do in partnership with the Interros and RMOU group) – there we talk about the best practices in sports marketing and management. Prove yourself with the help of such stories. And transfer all the experience to the Russian market.

I graduated from the Omsk Pedagogical University. By the specialty, I am a teacher of geography, and by nature-“man-yula”, which is interested in any movement.

It all started with the university.In a few months, we created a student council from scratch and, thanks to the energy, turned into the most famous faculty of the university. Then I was elected editor-in-chief of the university newspaper. Before defending my diploma, I already worked in the PR department of a small consulting agency for five thousand rubles a month. Then there was a need for new knowledge – I went to conferences, master classes in Internet marketing, sales. Thanks to friends, I was able to visit them for free. But I'm not one of those who cram or look for a ton of information before doing something. My element is to take on unfamiliar work, where the main process of learning and problem solving takes place in practice.

Less than a year later, I managed to get an interview at HC Avangard. I saw a friend's ad on social networks, threw off my resume. I applied for an online store manager position. Now I can admit that there were practically no skills for that job. I think burning eyes and self-confidence played a role. On experience stuffed cones, made mistakes, corrected. Sometimes it seemed that I was being held only for perseverance. I lacked knowledge and acquaintances. What did you do? I took a break, thought about where to start, and solved problems.

The main source of information for me is competent people. Sometimes I called companies under the guise of a buyer and asked about everything.

Three years ago, I studied at the Omsk branch of the Synergy University for 35 thousand rubles, majoring in Marketing and Sales Management, where I systematized my knowledge of classical marketing.

At Avangard, we launched an online store, which was praised by both fans and colleagues. A year and a half later, I was faced with the task of opening an offline point. Another 10 months later – the second store. Then there were personnel changes in the club, and I was called to the marketing department of the Moscow HC CSKA. At the moment, I have not worked in my specialty for five years.

If you want to achieve something, then you take it and do it. It doesn't matter who you are – a teacher or a pilot. In Omsk, as in Moscow, there are courses, seminars, business coaches. But they all have a ceiling – this is not the original source. Therefore, I advise you to always communicate with practicing managers and marketers.