EMERGING AND NICHE SPORTS LEAGUES

The creation and maintenance of sports leagues is a nuanced and complex endeavor. This course examines the format, hierarchy, membership, governance, and operational efficiencies of several sports leagues that have been launched with varying levels of success. Through a combination of lectures, case studies and guest speakers, students will learn about the ideation, funding, legal aspects, marketing, media strategy and monetization of these businesses, both domestically and globally. Students will gather data about emerging sports leagues of the past and present and conduct research on the leagues of their choice. The culminating project in this course will be an original proposal by student groups of a new sports league, addressing all of the aforementioned dimensions in a formal presentation to potential ‘investors.’ Students will present their proposal via online video conference for instructor feedback following the block week. This course is ideal for students who have an interest in the structural and operational decisions that affect the success and sustainability of sports leagues and their members.

This is an elective course for the M.S. program in Sports Management; students in the program may take this course when allowed by their curriculum requirements. Students outside of the Sports Management program may take this course upon approval of the Academic Program Director.