简体中文
हिन्दी
Português
Español
U-M center studies business of college and pro sports
U-M center studies business of college and pro sports
ANN ARBOR—Richard Wolfe’s doctorate is in business and his passion is sports. It’s at the intersection of those two fields where the Michigan Center for Sport Management focuses, says Wolfe, director of the center. Sports is big business—trade publication Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal estimated the sports business industry at more than $200 billion annually. Current projects of the Michigan Center for Sport Management include:
· Image matching, in which sponsors are matched with appropriate sports teams and events. The center’s research tags sports teams as “saints” and “sinners” based on team and player behavior and reputation and finds that frequently, corporations sponsor athletic programs that project very different images from what the corporations want to cultivate. U-M researchers are developing an approach to assist prospective sponsors in finding appropriate sports properties that match their desired images—and sometimes, the appropriate image is a sinner.
· Developing an index of intercollegiate athletics performance that goes beyond success on the field by incorporating such things as graduation rates of student athletes, program ethics and gender equity. The goal is to give campus leaders a tool to assess their athletics programs that goes beyond win-loss records.
· Examining the theoretical and empirical research on the rationale for, and outcomes of, public investment in facilities for sports. Justification for such facilities appears to be quite different from the reasons for similar investments in the arts, and researchers hope to compare and contrast the sports and arts models. Researchers involved in these initiatives include Wolfe; David Moore, associate professor of kinesiology; Michael Johnson, professor at the U-M Business School; and Jay Gladden, associate professor of sport management at the University of Massachusetts. To further advance research and establish corporate relationships, the center has hosted two professional workshops: "Sport and Organizational Studies: Exploring Synergy," attended by leading American and Canadian business and sport management researchers and "Sport Management: Benchmarking Excellence," attended by executives of Palace Sports and Entertainment of Auburn Hills, Mich. The center also provides hands-on experience for master’s students studying sport management. Using a model that reinforces concepts learned in core classes through practical application, students have worked on projects for leading sport organizations, including IMG Motorsport and Palace Sports and Entertainment. Wolfe and Kinesiology Dean Beverly Ulrich have high aspirations for the relatively young center, established in 2001. “We want to be the center people turn to for guidance and support in solving sport management and marketing problems,” Ulrich said.
Related links:
Michigan Center for Sport Management
Center program description and faculty International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, April 2001, in which Wolfe co-authored a paper titled “Sponsorship of Intercollegiate Athletics: The Importance of Image Matching.”
