Sport Management

In recent decades, sport has come to play an increasingly central role in society. Sport has an amazing capacity to unify people and create national and international points of reference in people’s minds; it is also among the areas that engage the largest number of volunteers.

Sport has developed to be a high-priority area, as demonstrated by the realization of big and small events, such as the Danish Superliga football tournament and international sport events in different countries.
Professional sport revolves around big and small international events, whose broad appeal cements the role of sport in society.

However, sport is about much more than what happens on the field or on the track. With the entry of big money and professionalization many sports clubs face the challenge of striking the right balance in the transition from being associations to being professionally run companies.

In this course, you can combine your interest in sport with skills that enable you to handle sporting events and take part in the management of a sporting organization. With an emphasis on the practical aspects of sport management, the course includes the active involvement of commercial sport organizations and offers you unique insights into the world of sports and an overview of future job opportunities.

The purpose of the course is to offer an introduction to and understanding of sport management, the particular characteristics of sporting organizations and the tasks involved in the management and development of sporting organizations.

The course covers the following topics: Sports history, strategic sport management, the sport industry, sport marketing, sport economics, media and sports, fundraising, trends and developments in modern sport management, HR and talent management, the structure of the sport industry, ethics and doping, legislation related to sport, sport and consumers/fans and internationalization and globalization in sport.

The student will have:
• Knowledge of particular characteristics of the sport industry and sporting organizations
• Knowledge and understanding of sporting organizations in practice The student will be able to:
• Acquire specific insights into and reflect on strategic sport management, organizational structures and culture in sport businesses
• Critically reflect and advise on the practical pros and cons of applying a particular form of management or governance, recruitment, budgeting and sales methods (strategy) in a particular situation The student will be able to:
• Demonstrate theoretical knowledge of sport management and account for the key theories and concepts of the field
• Demonstrate how theories and concepts are applied in practice and offer specific examples of this

Local programme elements offered as elective courses:
Elective courses must total 20 ECTS credits of the total ECTS credits of the programme. It is possible to choose between 9 elective courses, which are described in detail in the following.

The programme offers the opportunity to choose one elective course of 10 ECTS credits and two elective courses of 5 ECTS credits during the 4th semester.

The selection of elective courses takes place by students consulting this elective course catalogue. Afterwards, students submit their preferred electives in a form sent out by the study administration. Students will receive this form via email.

Each student must indicate two preferences for 10 ECTS courses and three preferences for 5 ECTS courses. The student must choose the elective courses before December 1st. Students who have not submitted the form with their choices before the deadline will automatically be assigned elective courses.

NOTE! It is not a first-come, first-served system; the allocation of elective courses will only begin after the deadline for submitting the form.

If the number of students who wish to take a course exceeds the maximum enrolment for the course, the study administration will allocate the spots. Every effort will be made to ensure that students receive their 1st or 2nd choice whenever possible.

The program's Coordinator can be contacted for questions regarding course selection or the selection process: mije@zealand.dk

Most elective courses are taught in English as they include international exchange students. Therefore, some of the following course descriptions are in English. Three courses are offered in Danish, and their descriptions are provided in Danish