SLTS100 Assessment 2: Sport Management Blog-blake lawrie 9828613

                                                                                                Blake Lawrie 9828613

SLTS100 Assessment 2: Sport Management Blog                                                                                                                                     

Week 1

Sports management is a broad term that relates to any business activities at all levels of the sport sector.  These activities occur in a multitude of disciplines, including business, finance, human resources, sport physiology, psychology and public relations. Sports management is a growing field in Australia and the world as the sports become more and more professional. Sports management is unique as it involves many different roles, some specialised and some general, however many of these roles follow same structures and philosophies as other business management areas

Week 2

Sport management occurs across three sectors; non-profit, government and professional.  These 3 exist independent of one other but also rely on the success of each other.  This can be seen in Australian society where sport is held in such a high regard commercially, politically and socially. The government invests money in non-profit and professional sport sectors, the non-profit sector supplies the professional area with future players and managers and the professional sector brings in money for the government through attracting people to events within the region.

Week 3

Sport organisations use a variety of business structures to operate effectively, depending on a variety of factors. Sport organisations are unique to other business organisations in that there are often many conflicting objectives within the organisation. A common clash is the quest for off-field success and the objective to maintain a viable off field structure.

Week 4

What makes sport management unique is the strategic decisions that are made to support the various facets of sport organisations. The organisational structure and the strategic decisions that a sporting club/business adopts is key to success as we have seen at clubs around the world, one prime example is Glasgow rangers that were forced nearly into liquidation because of poor structure, decision making and irresponsible leadership.

Week 5

Each sports organisation differs in goals and operations, as such they each have different people working within. Human resources is the management  of people with the correct skills into positions  that are suited to their qualities.

week 4-blake lawrie

This week we looked at the uniqueness of sports management and the strategies that associations, clubs and managers use. Strategies need to reflect the objectives and capabilities of a sport organisation, so sport managers need to have an intimate understanding of the organisation and its environment. (blackboard, 2012). Sport managers need to balance on-field and off-field as well as balancing operations of the organisation with opportunities of organisation. An in-balance can lead to the demise of a cub, as was seen at Gold Coast united football club.  The strategy management process consists of 5 principles: 1. Strategy analysis (internal/external), 2. Strategy direction ,3. Strategy formulation, 4. strategy implementation and 5. strategy evaluation. To help understand I am going to attempt to carry out a SWOT analysis on my local cricket club. A SWOT  analysis is part of strategic analysis and is essential in examining an organizations strategic position from inside and outside. It identifies the strength , weakness, opportunities and threats that an organization faces.

East Fremantle Cricket club SWOT analysis

Strengths:  strong player base, recent on field success, young committed committee, steady  revenue through bar proceeds.

Weakness:  dissent among leaders at club, old and run down club rooms, lack or co-ordination with junior club

Opportunities:  long term sponsorship,  proposals for construction on club room redevelopment

Threats: harsher restrictions on trading hours,  new club established in near suburb that could potentially poach juniors

Week 4: Uniqueness of Sports Management and Planning, Swinburne university of technology, viewed  26/11/2012) 

week 3-blake lawrie

This week we looked at the organizational structures employed by sporting organisations.  We looked at the 4 types of models that are used, simple structure model that is very basic and obviously has low departmentalization and formalization. This model is used in smaller, non-profit sporting bodies. I am on the board at my local cricket club and we are closest to this structure, we have a president that we all answer too and we each have our own individual roles to carry out.  A more department orientated structure is the bureaucratic structure model which is used by Australian sport commission. Will come back to this. Third model is the matrix organizational structure which groups individuals into departments according to functions and products. This model uses specialist working together in one team and reporting to a higher figure. This structure means there can be multiple boss’s which can be disconcerting at times.  Lastly, the team structure model which is fairly new. This model decentralizes decision making and involved group of teams formed to perform a variety of tasks.  Which structural model an organisation uses depends largely on 4 factors; size, strategy, technology and environmental uncertainty. Back to the Australian sports commission (ASC). They deploy a bureaucratic model which isn’t surprising as they are run under the control of the national government.  The ASC is headed by CEO Simon Hollingsworth with a governing board containing former athletes, business people and journalists; each with extensive, first-hand knowledge of Australia’s sporting landscape. In 2011/2012 the ASC was re-structured into 3 divisions which are then structured into their own bureaucratic structure. The AIS primary responsibility is leading the strategic direction of high performance sport in Australia. The Sports Development is focused on planning, funding, supporting and servicing relationships with national sporting organisations to assist in the implementation of whole-of-sport plans and to develop the sports’ capability and capacity. The role of the Corporate Operations is to provide business capability and services to support all divisions of the ASC to enable it to deliver on its strategic plan.

REFERENCES

Australian sports commission, viewed 27/11/2012, http://www.ausport.gov.au/about/structure

week 2-blake lawrie

Week 2

This week was focused on the sates involvement in the three sectors of sport and how the structures implemented by government can influence the success and sustainability of sport, not just in Australia but around the world. We delved further into how the three sectors differ and how they are similar. I would like to focus on the state’s role in sport on a professional level.  Defined by the text, the state is the structures that rule and govern societies.  The question that is to be answered is why do governments, particularly in western culture, spend so much effort, time and money into a social pastime? Sport, especially in Australia is used as a social tool to bring the population together and build nationalism and national identity. Encouraging participation in sport through funding can help other areas that the state is concerned with, like the health sector. A physical active population is a healthy population, and that means less money required for public health.  In certain societies sport is used to display the strength of the government. China and Cuba are two such countries that have spent a lot of money in an attempt to display this. The have used sport not only as a means of making its citizens physically and mentally fit, but also as a means to show the superiority of their style of government(communism) over western democracy. The display is evident ton the world stage at the Olympics. The Olympics is the pinnacle of athletic performance and the states involvement in Olympics is massive. We discussed the London Olympics and how important it was to London and Britain. The support by the state allowed for massive re-building of infrastructure not only for the Olympics but for the city itself following the Olympics. London like must Olympics is also used to promote the culture of the host nation to the rest of the world.  Sport has always the passion among many populations around the world, nowadays it has gone to a totally new professional level where billions of dollars are invested on it and its stars. It impact on economies and societies around the world is ever growing and the states interest in supporting its growth is vastly important at all 3 sectors of sport.  

week1

Week one was a general introduction to the topic of sport management. Through the readings I learn what sport management is, why is it important in the business world of today, what makes it different from other management areas, the three areas of sport management (professional, government, non-profit) and what type of sport managements fall under these. I wold to focus focus on sport marketing page 10,. It really interests me how sport is used as a marketing tool to sell not only sport related products but also to sell products that are unrelated to sports. The advertising industry has cashed in on the public appeal and broadcasting coverage of professional sport. Huge dollars are spent on advertising at grounds and on commercials during coverage. A 30 second ad in super bowl costs   3.5 million on average  . Also professional players who are adored, known, trusted by millions of fans are used as the face of brands and their products.  They are paid millions to endorse the brand and be an ambassador for the product. If they don’t meet expectations of the product then they face losing lucrative deals, i.e.-tiger woods, lance Armstrong.  Because professional sports people are recognisable and adored consumer/fans will buy the product they endorse. Sports fan are very loyal to their club and players and this is key for brands that use sportspeople as they will stay loyal to the product if their favourite player stays loyal to the product.