The Role of Sports Economics in the Sport Management Curriculum

Transcription

1 The Role of Sports Economics in the Sport Management Curriculum Brad R. Humphreys University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism June 2005 Abstract Sports economics has emerged as a clearly defined field in the past five years, and sports economists have recently begun taking positions in sport management programs. Here, I explore the sports economics-sport management nexus. A survey of sport management programs and their curricula reveals that sports economics is not widely required by sport management programs, despite the inclusion of economics in sport in widely accepted sport management curricular guidelines. Sport management programs have recently experienced trouble filling vacant positions, and new Ph.D.s in sport management do not have adequate research preparation. Taken together, these factors suggest that the trend of sports economists working in sport management programs may increase in the future. Paper presented at the 80th Annual western Economic Association Conference session on Sports Management: Theory. Address: Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, 104 Huff Hall, 1206 South Fourth Street, Champaign, IL 61820; phone: (217) ; fax: (217) ; Internet: brh@uiuc.edu. Maya Skowron provided valuable research assistance on this project. 1

2 Introduction Sports economics is a new and rapidly developing field in economics. Since the founding of the Journal of Sports Economics in 2000, sports economics has developed from an unconnected set of research questions pursued by economists working in labor economics, urban economics, industrial organization, and other areas to a clearly identifiable field of study in the discipline of economics. The next five years saw the publication of three sports economics textbooks and a corresponding growth in sports economic courses offered by economics departments and other academic units. Beginning in early 2006 the International Journal of Sport Finance will begin publication, representing a second field journal in the area. The last two job markets have featured advertisements for sports economists in Job Openings for Economists and the number of such advertisements appear to be increasing. Some observers have noted a similarity between the current state of sports economics and the state of health economics in 1982, when the Journal of Health Economics began publication. Over the last five years, another clear trend has emerged. Sports economists have begun to migrate from positions in economics departments to sport management programs in increasing numbers. Sport management programs appear to be a natural academic home for sports economists. Economists bring a discipline based line of research to sport management programs. Central issues in sports economics like the determination of wages in sports labor markets, the effect of regulations like Title IX on intercollegiate athletic departments, and labor relations issues in unionized industries, and others, are important to sport management researchers and practitioners. Articles written by economists regularly appear in sport management journals like the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Marketing Quarterly, and the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, among others. In this paper, I investigate the implications of the growing presence of sports economists in sport management programs, the extent to which sports economics has been integrated into the sport management curriculum, and what this might mean for the future of both fields. One important factor that I believe will play an important role in shaping the future 2

3 relationship between sports economics and sport management is the lack of qualified sport management Ph.D.s being produced, documented by Mahoney et al (2004). The mismatch between growth in undergraduate and graduate enrollment in sport management programs and the low level of production of new sport management Ph.D.s may lead to even more sports economists working in sport management departments in the future. I also offer some thoughts on the distinction between sports economics and sports finance, as my survey of the current state of the sport management curriculum suggests that these two descriptors appear to be substitutes in many sport management programs. The State of US Sport Management Programs In order to understand the role of sports economics in sport management programs, I first wanted to know something about the current state of sport management programs. How many sport management programs currently exist? What are the characteristics of colleges and universities that offer sport management as a degree program? Where are these programs located within colleges and universities? In order to answer these questions, I collected some data on sport management undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States. An initial source of data on sport management programs is the Integrated Postsecondary Education System Data (IPEDS). These data are drawn from annual surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Education s National Center for Educational Statistics. IPEDS is an annual census of enrollment, finances, staffing, and other factors at US institutions of higher education. IPEDS contains data on the number of degrees awarded, called completions in this data, by major and gender of student, so IPEDS is an important source of information on sport management programs. Because of the increasing number of years that undergraduate and graduate students take to complete degrees, data on the number of majors might be a better indicator of instructional activity than degrees awarded, but IPEDS does not contain enrollment data at a detailed enough level to estimate the number of sport management majors. 3

4 Sport Management Degree Production The IPEDS data identifies degrees awarded by major using the Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) taxonomy for program specialties in higher education. CIP codes are six digit identifiers for majors; sport management falls in CIP code ( Sport and Fitness Administration/Management ). This category first appeared in the CIP taxonomy in 1991, suggesting that sport management has only recently become an identifiable academic discipline. The most recent completions data available are from academic year Table 1 summarizes the available data on the number of colleges and universities that reported granting degrees in sport management since Table 1: Universities Awarding Sport Management Degrees Year Level of Degree Number of Institutions 1992 Bachelors Degree Bachelors Degree Bachelors Degree Masters Degree Masters Degree Masters Degree 43 According to Stier (2001) the first sport management program was founded in 1966 at Ohio University and by 1988 there were 75 undergraduate programs and 58 graduate programs. Stier (2001) also states that there were 193 sport management programs in 1993, but the IPEDS completions data suggest that only 65 colleges and universities granted undergraduate degrees, and only 9 granted masters degrees, in The reason for this discrepancy may be that many of the sport management programs reported by Stier (2001) actually granted degrees that carried some other designation, like Parks and Recreation or Sport Studies. Degrees with a designation other than sport management would be counted 4

5 all of these cases. The Future of Sports Economics in Sport Management The conditions for a significant expansion of sports economics, and sports economists, into sport management appear to be quite favorable. Enrollments in sport management undergraduate and masters programs rose rapidly in the past decade and the trend appears to be continuing. Sport management programs have had trouble attracting qualified faculty. Recent surveys suggest that experts in the field predict that sport management research will move in a direction that favors economic-based research into sports. Sports economics is a growing field. The founding of the Journal of Sports Economics and the continued growth of sports economics sessions at conferences have induced many economists to develop sports-related research agendas. The research skills required to do sports economics research applied microeconomics and econometrics are relatively common in the discipline, so additional growth in the number of active researchers in sports economics is possible. Thus there will probably not be a shortage of sports economists in the future. Also, an increase in the number of sports economists working in sport management programs will help move sport management in the directions identified by Danylchuk and Boucher (2003) and Costa (2005). Research in sports economics is informed by economic theory, meeting Costa s (2005) goal of adopting more theory from parent disciplines, and also brings rigor to sport management research. Economics can also be considered part of the core business courses, and many economics departments are located in business schools. Including more sports economists on the faculty of sport management programs will move sport management closer to achieving both of these goals. There are several factors that might limit the growth of sports economics into sport management. Clearly, one factor limiting the number of full-time economics positions in sport management programs is the number of courses that an economist could offer in a department of sport management or a related interdisciplinary department that offered a 21

6 degree in sport management. Many departments would be unwilling to hire a full time tenure track faculty member who could only teach one or two courses in the department. However, my perusal of sports finance texts suggests that it would not be difficult for an economist to develop and teach a course in sports finance at the undergraduate and graduate level. And a statistics based research methods course would be similar to an econometrics or economic statistics course. A second limiting factor might be the home of many sport management programs. From Table 3, many sport management programs are housed in departments of physical education, kinesiology, movement science, or health. These departments may be composed of lab scientists that have little knowledge of economics, or the role economics plays in business and public policy schools. Such faculty may be unwilling to consider economists when making decisions about job candidates, especially since many sport management searches do not conduct preliminary off-campus interviews. This may also be true in sport management programs housed in departments of physical education. Finally, economics in sport might be revised out of the SMPRC sport management curricular guidelines. Economics in sport is already not listed as a core content area in the SMPRC graduate curricular guidelines. Stier and Schneider (2000) found that sport management professionals were less enthusiastic about the inclusion of economics in sport in the undergraduate curriculum. If sport management programs take this result seriously and respond to industry preferences, sport in economics could be eliminated from the undergraduate guidelines as well. This would limit further growth of sports economics into sport management. References Case, R, (2003) Sport Management Curriculum Development: Issues and Concerns, International Journal of Sport Management 4(4): Danylchuk, K. and R. Boucher, (2003) The Future of Sport Management as an Academic 22

7 Discipline, International Journal of Sport Management 4(4): Fried, G., S. Shapiro, S. and T. DeSchriver, (2003), Sport Finance, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Howard, D. and J. Crompton, (2004), Financing Sport, second ed., Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology, Inc. Mahoney, D., M. Mondello, M. Hums and M. Judd, (2004) Are Sport Management Doctoral Programs Meeting the Needs of the Faculty Job Market? Observations for Today and the Future, Journal of Sport Management, 18(2): Schneider, R. and W. Stier, (2000) Sport Management Curricular Standards 2000 Study - Graduate Level, International Journal of Sport Management 1(3): Stier, W., (2001) The current status of sport management and athletic (sport) administration programs in the 21st century at the undergraduate and graduate levels, International Journal of Sport Management 2(1): Stier, W., and R. Schneider, (2000) Sport Management Curricular Standards 2000 Study - Undergraduate Level, International Journal of Sport Management 1(1):