{"id":2853,"date":"2018-10-19T13:39:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T17:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=2853"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:37","slug":"on-the-syllabus-sports-as-a-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2018\/10\/on-the-syllabus-sports-as-a-career\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Syllabus: Sports as a Career"},"content":{"rendered":"
Seton Hall offers a wide variety of options for students looking for a career related to the big business of sports.<\/div><\/div>\n

Even before Seton Hall began programs in sports media for the next generation, the school produced dozens of writers, broadcasters, editors and announcers, some of them joining the biggest names in the business.<\/p>\n

Peyton Adams grew up a passionate fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. By her sophomore year at Seton Hall, the Medford, New Jersey, native had chosen sport management as one of her majors.<\/p>\n

But perhaps Adams was always destined for a career in sports. \u201cFun fact about me, my parents named me after Peyton Manning,\u201d she says of the legendary NFL quarterback whose distinctive name caught the attention of her mom.<\/p>\n

Years after her name linked her to football royalty, Adams says she talked sports with a neighbor who said, \u201c\u2018Wow, you should go into sports; you really know your stuff.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve never really considered it.\u2019 I\u2019ve grown up with it, I know a lot about it, but that never struck me, just because I had never thought about the opportunity, and it\u2019s not a huge female industry. So it wasn\u2019t really anything on my radar.\u201d That changed. And fortunately for Adams, she attends an ideal school for students pursuing a life in sports.<\/p>\n

Led by Charles Grantham, former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, the Center for Sport Management at the Stillman School of Business offers students opportunities in everything from NBA marketing to finance work for the NCAA. Guided by longtime Sports Illustrated editor and Professional-in-Residence B.J. Schecter, the College of Communication and the Arts is launching a specialization in sports media. And Seton Hall Law provides guidance for future attorneys who want to work as NFL agents or NHL lawyers.<\/p>\n

Sports have never been bigger, so opportunities abound in these disciplines. One Forbes article revealed the sports business could be worth more than $73 billion by 2019 \u2014 and that\u2019s just in North America. Tough competition exists for the jobs, but that\u2019s where strong college programs like those at Seton Hall play a role, producing professionals who can excel.<\/p>\n

Of course, challenges persist. Print and digital media have undergone dramatic shifts, and thousands of jobs have disappeared. Yet the desire for sports news only grows, creating fresh chances for those who can stand out with their skills or innovations.<\/p>\n

Schecter says, \u201cI make no bones about it that it\u2019s going to be difficult, and I tell that to parents at open houses when they ask me, \u2018Why should my son or daughter go into journalism or media? Isn\u2019t it dying?\u2019 And I say it\u2019s not. It\u2019s just taking on a different form. We\u2019ve just got to figure out what those opportunities are. And I\u2019ve always believed if you\u2019re the best at what you do and you can stand out from the crowd, you\u2019re going to be really successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Business of Sports<\/strong>
\nInterested in sport management? You better be more than a fan. \u201cThis is why we push students to pursue a double major,\u201d Grantham says. \u201cYes, you have the passion for sports, which is important. Because often, you\u2019re going to start at the low end of the employment pyramid, and you are going to have to work up. But the point is, being a fan is not enough. It\u2019s our objective to prepare students in the functional areas of business.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Grantham talks to high school students, he discusses the past, when sports franchises measured their worth in millions of dollars and owners hired a buddy to handle marketing or finances. Today, as
\ncontracts and salaries explode upward, franchises and leagues count their money in the billions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have lawyers, you have to have business people, you have to have finance majors,\u201d Grantham says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got MBAs. In order to run an efficient, effective business in these sports, I want people who will be specialized in their knowledge. That\u2019s why, when I talk to young people, I talk about finding a university where the business school houses the sports management. Today this is not recreation; this is not phys ed; it\u2019s business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his career, Grantham negotiated with powerful figures, including former NBA Commissioner David Stern. Now he brings Stern and others in for talks or symposiums. In the classroom, Grantham confronts issues such as NFL player protests and payment for college athletes.<\/p>\n

Grantham also teaches the art of negotiation and dealmaking. \u201cNegotiations are about discussion,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about face-to-face, it\u2019s about resolving issues, it\u2019s about compromising, it\u2019s about understanding how to collaborate.\u201d He notes that these lessons might not sink in during his students\u2019 junior or senior year, \u201cbut it may happen after they get into the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peyton Adams got a taste of the workplace with internships, including one in group sales with the New York Mets, where she learned about ticketing systems and working with honorary first-pitch events. Proving Grantham\u2019s mantra about needing to be more than a fan, Adams \u2014 who also majors in economics and marketing \u2014 thinks about working on the non-game-day side, where she\u2019d be involved off the actual field of play.<\/p>\n

Still, fandom plays a role. During a sports franchise class she took, students followed one team. Adams chose the Philadelphia Eagles, researching how they made money through tickets or TV revenue, analyzing the salary cap, organizational structure and expanding the fan base. Early in class, the students wrote papers that \u201cdidn\u2019t quite go in-depth,\u201d Adams says, and Grantham asked for rewrites. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018I want you guys to really understand the business side of the industry. \u2026 Big money will be so essential in your guys\u2019 life, especially if that\u2019s what you decide to go into.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A Broad View of Sports Media<\/strong>
\nDiscussing Seton Hall\u2019s nascent sports media program, Schecter says, \u201cNobody else right now is positioned to build a program like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the editor and publisher of Baseball America who spent 20 years at Sports Illustrated, Schecter anticipates Seton Hall\u2019s program will help figure out what the next iteration of media will be and how the industry can innovate, including how it can tackle the challenge of prompting people to pay for online content.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just writing or broadcasting or podcasting or editing,\u201d Schecter says. \u201cIt\u2019s business. \u2026 Everything that goes on in college sports \u2014 Title IX and pay-for-play, all of that.\u201d The new program will also have crossover with offerings in the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, which is connected to the United Nations. \u201cSo it\u2019s interacting with the U.N. and [viewing] sports as a catalyst for peace and prosperity, as the Olympics represents,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s much deeper than traditional sports media.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 2018 spring semester, approval for a sports media minor passed through the University\u2019s academic committees. This media offering would attract students like Elizabeth Swinton \u201918. A TV broadcast major who served as sports editor for The Setonian, Swinton\u2019s writing earned awards from organizations like the New Jersey Press Foundation. But her high school stressed math, science and engineering. So at Seton Hall, \u201cI didn\u2019t really know I could write until I joined a newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinton took an Introduction to Sports Media class and a Sports Reporting class, the latter being \u201can in-depth dive into sports journalism,\u201d she says. At Seton Hall, Swinton learned \u201cby being immersed in the atmosphere of where I want to end up,\u201d including covering Pirates games where \u201cyou\u2019re surrounded by media members of all the different outlets, and you\u2019re in the same environment. You\u2019re walking the same path as them, the same for the NBA Draft or the BIG EAST Tournament.<\/p>\n

I learned to understand what it takes to navigate a game or media event. And I backed that up in class with what Professor Schecter would tell us about how to go about interviews, or how to navigate a locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before Seton Hall began programs in sports media for the next generation, the school produced dozens of writers, broadcasters, editors and announcers, some of them joining the biggest names in the business. ESPN broadcaster Bob Ley \u201976 is one of the most respected journalists in sports who is also the network\u2019s longest-serving broadcaster. Jim Hunter \u201982 has been the Baltimore Orioles\u2019 play-by-play man for radio and TV for two decades. Longtime baseball writer Ed Lucas \u201962 was struck by a baseball as a child and went blind, but went on to a remarkable career as a sportswriter and gained fame covering the Yankees.<\/p>\n

And then there are recent grads like John Fanta \u201917, the do-everything broadcaster during his days at Seton Hall who became host of BIG EAST Shootaround, a weekly online basketball show featured on Fox Sports GO and the conference\u2019s Facebook and Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n

Rule of Sports Law<\/strong>
\nPeople marvel at the athleticism in sports, celebrate the victories and agonize over the defeats. And, if you\u2019re a lawyer, you savor \u2026 contracts? That\u2019s the case with Andrew Richman, J.D. \u201916, an attorney with the influential Endeavor agency, where part of his work involves sports-related marketing for several Fortune 500 companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people want to say that lawyers aren\u2019t creative,\u201d says Richman, who graduated from Central Florida before arriving at Seton Hall Law. \u201cBut coming up with solutions to some of these problems is creative, and we\u2019ve got to come up with something that makes both sides work. \u2026 I love the business aspect of it also and the negotiation that goes into it. No two deals are the same and everyone has their position. I try to understand the other side, where they\u2019re coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

People who go into sports law are certainly fans, but, as law professor Brian Sheppard explains, \u201cI think most students are savvy enough to know that if you\u2019re really a sports nut, law school is rigorous enough that you probably should have at least a pretty healthy interest in the law, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, the law is connected to everything surrounding the games people love. Agents don\u2019t have to have a law degree, but \u201cI think a lot of athletes draw comfort\u201d from having an agent who went to law school, Sheppard says. \u201cIt can really make you more marketable.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help with the marketing of its own students, Seton Hall takes advantage of nearby New York City in a way few schools can. The law program allows qualified students to work for companies for credit \u201cso long as we get both written assurance and a cooperation agreement with them so that we can be sure the students are getting real legal work and a real learning experience,\u201d Sheppard says. \u201cWe want to make sure it\u2019s a true, educational, mentor-mentee type situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richman experienced that during his two-semester \u201cexternship\u201d with Excel Sports Management, where he worked on endorsement deals for athletes such as NBA stars Kemba Walker, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaw school is good for learning how to think like a lawyer,\u201d Richman says, \u201cbut the actual experience and being in the situation is how you become a lawyer. \u2026 Learning the experience firsthand and then being able to see the deals and see how they\u2019re put together, see how they\u2019re negotiated and the complexities and the payment structures and the bonus package. There\u2019s no substitute really for the skills that I learned on the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for students eyeing a sports career, there\u2019s no substitute for a Seton Hall education.<\/p>\n

Shawn Fury is an author in New York City.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seton Hall offers a wide variety of options for students looking for a career related to the big business of sports.<\/p>\n

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