Sports are not just about winning. Sports can be a driver of social change. The late Nelson Mandela once said that “sport has the power to change the world.” He witnessed this when his support of the mostly white South African national team in the 1995 Rugby World Cup had a striking effect on the country recovering from apartheid. “It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does,” Mandela said. “Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.”

Global events like the Olympics display the power of sports and how they can bridge language and cultural barriers. Across the world, sports leagues, teams and their superstars have recognized that sports and social good go hand in hand. Together, they’re doing their best to make the world a better place.

Promoting Health and Wellness

Clearly, participating in sports promotes health and wellness. Athletes can grow in several ways.

Social

Athletes develop key social skills that can help them throughout life. They can learn teamwork and understand the importance of personal responsibility. Time management and organizational skills are also related to participation in sports.

Emotional

Sports can boost self-confidence and decrease stress. Those who participate in sports are less likely to drop out of school or get into legal trouble.

Physical

Of course, athletes improve their physical fitness, strength and coordination. Encouraging long-term healthy living habits is one of the most important benefits of playing sports. Participants can understand just how critical it is to maintain well-being through physical activity.

Making an Impact

Sports organizations have an obligation to their communities. Professional sports make much of their profit via community support. This means it’s in the best interest of teams and players to support those who have supported them. Combining sports and social good can be a way to make a profound impact.

There are countless sports-related charities tackling larger problems. This is especially prominent among professional sports leagues and teams.

Team UNICEF

The sports arm of UNICEF, Team UNICEF recognizes “the unique power of sport.” The initiative focuses on the idea that sports can help break down barriers for children in a variety of ways. Team UNICEF is a leader in sports for development activities around the world, with more sports-based initiatives than any other UN organization.

To accomplish its goals, UNICEF routinely works with the biggest sports stars across the world to inspire youth. With the rank of UNICEF sports ambassadors including David Beckham, Serena Williams, Rory McIlroy, Pau Gasol and many more, the group has used star power to spread its message of growth and development.

NBA Cares

The NBA has made social good one of its most important initiatives. Since the launch of the NBA’s charitable arm in 2005, the league and teams have given $270 million to charity and provided 3.5 million hours of service. NBA Cares is the driving force behind the league’s social responsibility programs and works both in the United States and abroad. NBA players, coaches and employees work alongside various charities including the Special Olympics, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, UNICEF, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and more.

NBA Cares uses the star power of players to its advantage, enlisting the league’s biggest names to participate in programs. Whether serving military members, at-risk children or people living in poverty abroad, the league’s efforts are championed by the stars seen on the court.

Reviving Baseball in Inner Cites

In 1986, John Young of the Detroit Tigers noticed a lack of African-American prospects. After investigating further and contacting then-MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Young was able to start a youth baseball program in Southern California in 1989 with the focus of helping African-American kids discover baseball. Since then, Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) has grown to 200 cities worldwide with more than 260,000 boys and girls playing baseball and softball. Since its founding, more than 200 RBI participants have been drafted by MLB clubs.

NFL Foundation

Established by the 32 clubs in the National Football League, the NFL Foundation serves as the way for clubs to collectively award grants across the country. The primary initiative is “Play 60,” a program focused on encouraging youth to spend 60 minutes outside playing every day. Other initiatives include grants for youth football programs; investment in Heads Up Football, a safety program; and donations to individual athletes’ foundations. The NFL Foundation has donated more than $368 million since 1973.

MLS Works

The official community outreach program of Major League Soccer, MLS Works addresses social issues both nationally and internationally. The group has worked closely with the Hope & Heroes Children’s Cancer Fund, Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish Foundation, UNICEF and many more charity organizations. Recent programs have included donating to local charities with the “Community MVP” program and an effort to advance race relations called “Don’t Cross the Line.” The group also promotes the individual actions of each club, all of which operate their own foundation or charity.

Individual Athletes

Beyond the work of their teams and leagues, many athletes participate in social initiatives on their own through their own charities. Last year, the NBA’s LeBron James committed $41 million to help pay college tuition for kids in Akron who fulfill school and community service requirements. WWE superstar John Cena granted nearly 500 wishes with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and holds the record for most wishes granted through the organization. Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid donated more than $83,000 to a newborn in need of brain surgery and $165,000 to fund a cancer center in his native Portugal. These are just a few examples of athletes using their power to make an impact.

Leading Through The Power of Sport

Through the power of sports, individuals can unite and strengthen communities. At Concordia University Texas, we help students gain the skills needed to excel in sports management. Our online Master of Education in Sports Administration prepares graduates to be ethical leaders. The fully online program allows students to maintain their work schedule and personal commitments.

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One of the true beauties of sports is how it can unite people for good. Countless nonprofit sports organizations combine a passion for sports with community outreach and personal development. Nonprofit organizations may use sports to support a cause or to reach out to groups typically unable to participate in athletics. Texas has many nonprofit sports organizations, and these 8 display just some of the amazing work being done in the Lone Star State.

Total City Sports

Founded in 2009 to help the students of central and east Austin, Total City Sports offers affordable athletic programs of all types to kids. The program combines sports with mentoring and discipleship relationships with adult volunteers. With a variety of programs from summer camps to skills clinics to club sports, there are plenty of options for both volunteering and partnership.

Special Olympics Texas

Texas’ chapter of the national Special Olympics organization offers year-round sports training and competition to children and adults with intellectual disabilities. With events ranging from bocce to sailing, Special Olympics has a lot to offer. The organization has an extensive infrastructure in Texas with 19 offices across the state. Volunteers are needed as coaches, officials, competition assistants and committee members.

BALLER Camps San Antonio

This San Antonio basketball nonprofit works to engage incoming middle school students in athletics while stressing the importance of life lessons. The group uses the structure of basketball to teach teamwork, personal accountability and tenacity. Most importantly, each camp is free for students in need.

Texas Adaptive Aquatics

Begun in 1989, Texas Adaptive Aquatics (TAA) offers people with mental and physical disabilities the chance to participate in water sports. This program gives those with disabilities the opportunity to experience the excitement that water skiing, sailing and kayaking have to offer. Since its founding, TAA has helped more than 15,000 citizens with disabilities participate in water sports. All of the group’s activities and equipment are funded or donated by volunteers and supporters.

RISE Adaptive Sports

The mission of RISE Adaptive Sports is “to assist persons with physical challenges to Recover, Inspire, Succeed and Empower themselves and others by providing inclusive adaptive recreational sports programs.” The group offers all of its programs 100 percent free of charge in sports like soccer, rugby and even hunting. By offering an opportunity for people with disabilities to pursue athletic activity, RISE helps them become more active and form meaningful relationships with others.

Angela Stanford Foundation

Founded by LPGA golfer and North Texas native Angela Stanford, the foundation seeks to use golf to improve the communities of her home region. Stanford’s group runs a charity golf tournament and gala event featuring celebrity golfers to benefit the foundation’s scholarship fund for students affected by cancer. The group also puts on a free golf clinic for young people interested in learning the game every year.

Horns for Hope

The University of Texas Longhorns are among the most recognizable names in Texas sports, and their Horns for Hope community outreach program has done tremendous good for the state. Whether it’s the complimentary ticket program for disabled and underprivileged youth, the massive canned goods drive or the constant cancer awareness promotions, the Longhorns have never shied away from giving back. Other initiatives include a reading program, STEM challenge and the “Orange Santa” toy drive.

Livestrong

Started by Texas native Lance Armstrong, the Livestrong Foundation has become a national leader in promoting cancer awareness and general wellness. The group has never strayed away from its sports roots, offering grants for nonprofit youth sports across the country. These grants help volunteer-driven sports initiatives continue their mission to better their communities through sports. Livestrong also uses sports-related events to promote cancer causes.

Nonprofit Sports Organizations and Making a Difference Through Sport

Sports will always be a popular method to execute community outreach and personal development programs. At Concordia University Texas, we offer an online Master of Education in Sports Administration that can help you combine your passion for sports with making a difference in the lives of others. The fully online program allow students to maintain their personal and work responsibilities while pursuing their career goals.

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What has driven this immense growth of fantasy sports? How is this growing field affecting the larger sports business landscape? And how can sports professionals become involved in the booming business behind fantasy sports?

The Birth of Fantasy Sports

The dictionary definition of a fantasy sport is “any sports competition with imaginary teams which the participants own, manage, and coach and with the games based on statistics generated by actual players or teams of a professional sport.” While the vast majority of fantasy sports players today use the Internet to organize and run their teams, the first fantasy sports competitions involved pen, paper and the scores from a newspaper.

Early History

According to Sports on Earth, the roots of the fantasy sports played today were developed by Wilfred “Bill” Winkenbach in the 1960s. Winkenbach had been playing an early precursor to fantasy golf throughout the 1950s, but launched the first fantasy football league in his native Oakland called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League. Winkenbach was at one time a part owner of the Oakland Raiders, and word spread about the league. By the 1970s, the game was making appearances in newspapers across the country.

Emergence of Rotisserie

A massive leap in fantasy sports occurred in 1979, when writer Daniel Okrent devised what would become the fantasy baseball format used by many today. Okrent and the nine friends who joined the first iteration of the league met at a French restaurant in Manhattan called La Rotisserie Françoise, which is how the name “rotisserie baseball” was born. Okrent’s league was also the first on record that used an auction draft format.

In 1980, The New York Times wrote about the league, which helped boost the popularity of fantasy baseball. The trend increased throughout the 1980s with the publication of a rotisserie league guidebook in 1984. By 1992, USA Today began a weekly column on fantasy baseball. The newspaper was already considered a top source for players thanks to its full box scores published daily.

The Internet Boom

A huge reason why fantasy sports have grown so much in popularity is because of the Internet. The easy access to news, sports statistics and tools to organize competition made the barrier to entry far lower. Throughout the 1990s, fantasy sports began to migrate online through various websites and news outlets.

One of the first big players was Commissioner.com. It launched in 1997 and was a fantasy commissioner service via subscription, first for baseball and then for other sports. The site was then sold to SportsLine. When CBS purchased SportsLine in 2004, Commissioner.com became the fantasy sports engine behind one of the largest broadcast stations.

In 1999, Yahoo became the first major company to offer fantasy sports games for free to all comers. ESPN quickly followed, and the two became among the most popular offerings. In 2002, the NFL cited the first study that proved fantasy play was driving TV ratings. The NFL began running promotional ads for fantasy football featuring current players and changed the trend of sports leagues viewing fantasy sports negatively.

By 2003, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association reported 12 million people playing fantasy football alone. These players were spending $150 a year on average, making it a $1.8 billion industry.

How Fantasy Sports Have Affected the Sports World

Today, fantasy sports and their real-life counterparts have become truly intertwined. This has led to not only the discussion of fantasy sports on broadcasts, but also to the spread of fantasy sports into every part of the sports business. These relationships are growing and evolving, and they are making a big impact on the sports world at large.

Spending on Fantasy Sports

As always, money plays a major role in driving the sports world. Citing data from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, Forbes reported that 32 million Americans spent an average of $467 annually playing fantasy sports as of 2013. That’s $15 billion in total playing, with about $11 billion flowing toward football alone. This means that more is spent on fantasy football than the $10 billion the NFL makes in revenue.

The growing specialty of daily fantasy sports is one of the biggest examples of how fantasy sports pump money into the larger sports industry. The two largest DFS companies, FanDuel and DraftKings, spent $206 million in national television advertising from the beginning of 2015 to the end of September 2015. This was one of the highest advertising rollouts of all time, and most of these ads showed up in sports-related programming.

This money has a major effect on the operation of teams and leagues. Each of the major sports leagues offers its own fantasy solutions on its website, hoping to capitalize on the popularity. Current players are also allowed to appear in endorsements featuring fantasy sports, and the relationship between leagues and fantasy sports has been very collegial.

Media Coverage

Fantasy sports have also changed how leagues are presented, both in broadcasts and other media. Today there is an entire industry of fantasy sports media, both among outlets that already cover sports and those focused on fantasy sports alone.

ESPN, CBS and others have dedicated fantasy “experts” who cover their prospective sports in relation to fantasy sports. They have dedicated coverage on websites, with dedicated columns and reporters. There are shows that cover sports from just the fantasy angle. The NFL and DIRECTV even broadcast an entire game-watching experience ideal for fantasy football called “RedZone.”

The fantasy revolution in general has changed sports coverage, from mentions in broadcasts to the way that injuries are reported. If a sports event has a potential effect on fantasy, it will likely be mentioned and covered from that angle.

Industry Investment

The recent growth of daily fantasy sports has highlighted a trend toward industry investment. Leagues, teams and other stakeholders in the sports industry are making investment deals with fantasy sports companies. Among the major sports leagues, only the NFL has not invested in either DraftKings or FanDuel.

DraftKings has received investments from Fox, the Kraft Group (owners of the New England Patriots), Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer. FanDuel investors include NBC Sports, Turner Sports (TNT and TBS), the NBA and several team owners.

These investments are proving that sports entities want a larger portion of the fantasy pie and that they’re willing to pay big money to get it.

Future of Fantasy Sports

There is little doubt that fantasy sports are here to stay. But what role will they play in the future of the sports industry?

In-Stadium Partnerships

One issue that professional teams are having is a slight decrease in fan attendance that could be attributed to a need to follow fantasy sports more intensely. Fans want to be able to know what’s happening across the sport, and teams want to create an environment where fans can stay connected.

Many teams have cultivated in-stadium partnerships for fantasy lounges dedicated to allowing fans to both follow their teams and attend the games. Most of these fantasy lounges are dedicated to daily fantasy sports.

Legal Challenges

While daily fantasy sports continues to grow rapidly and thrive, it has begun to face legal challenges in courtrooms across America. Some states have taken up the question whether competitions taking place on sites like FanDuel and DraftKings are legal under the laws prohibiting sports gambling.

While these legal challenges are having an effect on daily fantasy, the game continues to grow. Some states have ruled in favor of the websites, and they retain their large presence across the sports business landscape. There is little doubt that daily fantasy is here to stay.

Understanding the Sports Industry

As the sports industry continues to grow, driven in part by the popularity of fantasy sports, job seekers have more opportunity.  At Concordia University Texas, students in the online sports administration program learn the fundamentals of the business of sports. From marketing to management, our program is designed to help give you the skills and credentials you need to enter this exciting and rewarding field. Turn your passion for sports into a career by learning more about our Master of Education in Sports Administration degree.

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Home runs, touchdowns and points are all statistics that the average sports fans fully understands and can talk about regularly. But much of the time, this doesn’t tell the whole story. As teams look to gain an edge against competitors, they have begun to use advanced statistics and sports analytics to better understand performance. With the advent of incredible new technology, stats are not only easier to compute quickly but also easier to understand by coaches, players and fans alike.

The Emergence of Sports Analytics

For decades, professional sports have mostly evaluated players and performance via simple statistics and scouting. Often based on tradition, pro scouts learned from seasoned scouts and used the same evaluation techniques. The same can be said for statistics. While some stats changed over time, they remained relatively simple. This all changed with the arrival of Billy Beane.

Moneyball and the Birth of Sports Analytics

While Billy Beane certainly did not invent sports analytics, he was among the first to actively use analytics in a professional management setting. After serving as a scout and assistant general manager for the Oakland Athletics for eight years, Beane was named general manager of the A’s in 1998.

Beane was revolutionary for using sabermetrics — the empirical analysis of baseball — to find efficient players who Oakland could acquire at value. Rather than spend millions of dollars on a player Oakland couldn’t afford, Beane focused on players with strong on-base percentage. Beane’s actions and influence were immortalized in Moneyball, the best-selling book by Michael Lewis that followed the 2002 Athletics. With a fraction of the payroll of teams like the New York Yankees, the A’s won their division and made the playoffs.

The Sloan Conference

After the publication of Moneyball, the sports world and stats aficionados became fascinated with the prospect of advanced statistics and sports analytics. This resulted in the formation of a sports analytics community, with its largest event becoming the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

The Sloan Conference was founded in 2006 by students from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. The students and well-known sports professionals who advise them have helped the Sloan Conference grow from a small event attended by 175 people in its first year to a massive convention featuring thousands of attendees.

Everyone who is anyone in sports analytics attends the event. The conference attracts professional sports teams from leagues across the globe and plays a significant role in the sports analytics movement. In 2012, Fast Company called the Sloan Conference the third most innovative company in sports.

No longer are advanced statistics relegated to online sports message boards and academic communities. Sports analytics are commonplace, used by sports writers, broadcasters and fans. With thought leaders in the media paving the way, fans have been able to grasp sports analytics fairly quickly. While there are plenty of fans still unaware of the full impact of the stats revolution, it will no doubt play a bigger role in the future.

How Leagues Use Analytics and Technology to Their Advantage

Sports analytics have allowed professional leagues to integrate the new wave of stats and technology differently. While the NFL has a product that may be less conducive to advanced statistics, the MLB and NBA have both opened their arms to the revolution. By providing large amounts of data to both their teams and the public, they are fostering the growth of sports analytics.

NBA and SportVU

The NBA is at the forefront of the statistical revolution, mostly thanks to SportVU. This system of cameras hangs from the rafters in basketball arenas and collects data at a rate of 25 times per second, following each player and the ball on the court. This measures everything from how far each player has traveled during a game to how many opportunities at a rebound they had.

Four NBA teams began using the system at the start of the 2010-11 season. After the successful test, the league spread the system to all 30 teams at the start of the 2013-14 season. Now, every single game is cataloged using the system and is integrated for use in television broadcasts.

But the biggest innovation has been the ability to make this data widely available to the general public. All of the statistical data the SportVU cameras capture is available freely to the public on the NBA’s stats website. This has made the work of amateur and professional statisticians far easier and is causing untold growth in basketball statistics.

MLB and Statcast

Professional baseball joined in the player tracking business with the unveiling of Statcast in 2015. This system combines cameras and radar technology to measure everything that’s happening on a baseball field. It spits out statistics on pitching, batting, base running and even fielding. The statistics are all based on distance, position and speed, but also can help break down what happens during a baseball play.

Like the NBA, the MLB is making Statcast available to the general public for free. This is helping fans quantify the performance of their favorite teams and players beyond the traditional statistics. The system is also a big part of many baseball broadcasts, with experts analyzing each play.

Most important, Statcast provides defensive statistics on players. This has always been the area of baseball for which statistics have been unable to quantify performance fully. The MLB hopes that the availability of defensive information will lead stats enthusiasts to develop a better way of measuring defense.

Effects of Sports Technology and Analytics

The melding of sports technology and analytics has only begun to have a wider impact on the entire sports industry. Years from now, the effects will likely be far greater and different than what we expect now. The following are three game-changing impacts.

Public Consumption

Technology has made it easier for statistics to be shared. The sports analytics community is incredibly present on the Internet, with countless websites dedicated to the discussion and interpretation of advanced statistics. While most of this helps the fans get involved with sports on a deeper level, like intensifying fantasy sports competition between them, it has also helped teams educate fans on what happens in front offices. In essence, they are better fans and better lovers of the sport.

Convenience

Sports leagues and teams are using technology to measure sports analytics more conveniently. Technology like the SportVU camera system used in every NBA arena is allowing teams to gather data and synthesize it faster than ever before. Teams use this information and give it to fans on a scale that would have been impossible just a decade ago.

Improved Decision-making

The most important effect is the revolution in decision-making for teams. All teams have an analytics director or staff, compiling the advanced statistics to help the team. While each team likely uses its own combination of statistics, these complex measurements are being used to improve teams more and more. And by all accounts, sports analytics are making players and teams better. With the breadth of information, front offices can make better decisions and teams can win more games.

The Future of Sports Technology and Analytics

It’s imperative that those interested in a career in the sports industry understand the growing role of sports technology and analytics. At Concordia University Texas, students in our online sports administration graduate programs learn about all of the emerging trends affecting the industry. With real-world knowledge provided by experienced professors, you can gain the skills you need to turn your passion for sports into a successful career. Learn more about our Master of Education in Sports Administration today.

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Sports are deeply ingrained in the culture of our country. From college sports to the ‘Big 4’ professional sports leagues, and from the Olympic Games to the football World Cup, there’s something about this sweat-inducing, adrenalin-pumping activity that captures the collective imagination of the nation.

But what we sometimes forget is that sport is also a big business in our country much like it is across the world.

The Big 4

According to Plunkett Research, Ltd., the leading provider of industry sector analysis and research, the combined annual revenue of the ‘Big 4’ leagues in America – National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB) – is a whopping $23 billion!

Billion Dollar Baby

Include the revenue that comes from selling sporting equipment, licensed merchandise, sporting goods, ticket sales, sports-related advertising and endorsements, and you have the ingredients that add up to create a multi-billion dollar industry.

Employment Opportunities

Given how huge this industry is and the variety of sectors it encompasses, it should hardly come as a surprise that a significant portion of the workforce in countries like ours derive their livelihood from sports-related professions.

It’s not just the athletes, officials, coaches and scouts, umpires and referees, and those working in sports equipment stores and sporting and recreational facilities we’re talking about. The burgeoning growth of the sports industry has accelerated job opportunities in fields like ‘sports administration’ or management, too.

Sports Administration – The new career on the block 

While there is a tendency to mix up sports administrators with agents and managers who represent professional athletes, the truth is far from it.

The truth is that with the sports industry growing at the pace that it is, a plethora of new opportunities have opened up in the realm of ‘sports management’. There are a whole lot of career paths that sports administrators can choose from (depending on their individual interests and skill sets).

Sports Management Education

Universities and colleges across the U.S. have been quick to latch on to the immense opportunity presented by the growth in the sports industry by offering both undergraduate and graduate-level courses as well as MBA degrees – with concentration in sports management– to interested candidates.

According to this article appearing in Chicago Tribune, the number of sports management programs rose from 20 in 1980 to 300 in 2010 in the U.S. alone (with 25 to 35 being available at the Master’s level).

The aim of these degrees is to arm students interested in making a career in sports administration with industry-specific knowledge that gives them a competitive advantage over those who have a more generic educational background.

The M.Ed. in Sports Administration offered by Concordia University Texas is an effective tool for students to turn their passion for sports into a lucrative career. By focusing on various facets of the sports industry (including human resource management and sports law), the online M.Ed in Sports Administration program provides graduates the skills needed to succeed in the sports industry.

Industry Outlook

According to a report published by PwC, the global sports industry could reach $145 billion in terms of revenue by 2015. Another PwC report that looks specifically at the North American sports market predicts that the industry will grow from $56.9 billion in 2013 to an unprecedented $70.7 billion by 2018.

It’s time to ask yourself if you’re ready to be part of this electrifying and promising industry on a continuous growth trajectory!

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