What is Sports Management?

Sports Management encompasses all aspects of the business of sport, including sports sponsorship relationships, team and league equity issues, labor and personnel management and a wide range of ethical and social issues that impact business professionals working in both professional and amateur sports organizations.

Getting Started:

Before beginning research, spend some time thinking about the topic at hand and how to develop a search strategy for finding information about it. Some things to consider include:

• Will the topic require a historical context? For example, doping in sports.
• Will you need biographical information for specific players, coaches or team managers?
• Does the topic have a legal perspective?
• Is the topic limited to a specific sport, or will you need to look at the issue across a number of sports?

Finding General or Background Information on Sports Management:

For some topics within Sports Management, you will be able to use general or subject encyclopedias for background information. Search Bowman Library's online Encyclopedia Britannica for information on the history of a particular sport. Searching ROSIE for "sport encyclopedia" will provide you with titles and call numbers of reference works about sports. Two examples are:

• Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport -- R GV567 .B48 2005 v.1-5
• Sport Psychology: The Key Concepts -- GV706.4 .C39 2002

Finding Sports Management in Books:

Searching ROSIE Using Keywords:

It’s often best to begin searching ROSIE with a word search. As with any search strategy, brainstorm for synonyms and ideas related to your topic and begin by searching with those. For example, "sports", "athletics", and "baseball" or "basketball" are all terms you might use. Remember that you’ll also probably gather some results that aren’t appropriate for your topic. When you find appropriate books, you can link to their subject headings for a more focused search.

Searching ROSIE by Subject:

Searching by Library of Congress Subject Heading allows you to do a more precise, focused search for your topic. Some subject headings that may be useful in doing sports management research include:

Sports administration
Collective bargaining sports
Sports marketing
Athletics
Baseball
Women athletes

Browsing Call Numbers:

Because books are arranged on the Library’s shelves by subject, browsing the library stacks in the call number area suggested below can also be useful. You may also browse the shelves virtually by using the Call Number search in ROSIE.

Within Sports and Sports Management, nearly all titles will fall within the class GV.

Finding Articles About Sports Management Using Research Databases:

Bowman Library subscribes to many Web-based databases where you will find newspaper, magazine and scholarly journal articles. Ones that are particularly useful for researching Sports Management are listed below. See Searching Electronic Resources Effectively for guidelines on making the most of your search.

American National Biography - Use for researching historical American sports figures such as Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb.

Biography Resource Center - Use to research contemporary sports figures such as Michael Jordan or Pele. This database is a compilation of several biography resources and will include short biographical sketches as well as in-depth biographies and articles from magazines.

Congressional Quarterly Researcher - This database includes in-depth research provided to Congress on important and controversial issues. Congressional Quarterly will include research on such topics as drugs in sports and the influence of money on sports.

Corbis Images for Education - This database of images spans all areas of the curriculum. For Sports Management, it can be useful for images to accompany research, such as the uniforms of a specific team or sport at a given time in history.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Use as a beginning research tool to get basic information or history on a particular sport or individual.

Historical New York Times - Dating to 1851, this database can be used when researching the history of a sports franchise, such as the Brooklyn Dodgers, or a particular event in sports history, such as the 1981 baseball strike.

Newsbank - This collection of national and global newspapers can be used to access newspaper articles on regional sports issues or controversies.

ProQuest - ProQuest includes newspapers, magazines and journals from a broad spectrum of subject areas, including such subjects as sports, ethics and the business of sports.

SBRNet: Sports Business Research Network - SBRNet provides market research and industry news covering the sporting goods and sports marketing industry. Data is provided by the National Sporting Goods Association; the U.S. Department of Commerce; various sports governing bodies; and full-text articles from 14 magazines and newsletters.

 

Selected Free Web Sites:

The following Web sites have been selected by Bowman Librarians as examples of sites appropriate for college research. Keep in mind, however, that free Web resources are rarely filtered, often making it difficult to determine the content's accuracy. Use our guide Evaluating Web Resources to help you review the authority, currency and objectivity or bias of every site you use.

• The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles Digital Archives
  http://aafla.org/search/search.htm
  The AAF Archive contains over 30,000 PDF documents that are searchable in fulltext
• International Olympic Committee
  http://www.olympic.org/uk/index_uk.asp
  The IOC site is the official source for information on all Olympic sports, athletes and the Olympic Games.
• North American Society for Sport Management
  http://www.nassm.org
  The NASSM actively supports professional development, research, study and scholarly writing in the field of Sports Management.
• International Association for Assembly Managers
  http://www.iaam.org
  The IAAM represents leaders in the area of large facility management such as convention centers, auditoriums, sports venues and university complexes.
• Positive Coaching Alliance
  http://www.positivecoach.org
  Positive Coaching Alliance was started at Stanford University in 1998 with the goal to transform the way youth sports are coached. The site provides access to information about the organization, its philosophy and mission.
• Women’s Sports Foundation
  http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org
  Advocates for women’s sports and health issues such as Title IX enforcement, equality in coaching and sports administration and proper nutrition for the female athlete. Includes a database of topical questions and answers from experts.

Citing Your Sources:

Be sure to check with your professor on which citation style is required. Bowman Library provides the following resources to assist with citation format:

For online resources, see How to Cite Your Research for links to MLA, APA and Chicago citation styles.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers - LB2369 .G53 2003 (Located in Library Permanent Reserves).

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association - BF76.7 .P83 2001 (Located in Library Permanent Reserves).

The Chicago Manual of Style - Z253 .U69 2003 (Located in Library Permanent Reserves).

Have Questions?

• Explore WOODIE for help with Research.
• Ask a Librarian. We are here to help!