Sports marketing jobs all focus in some way on promoting a particular sport or athlete so the general public not only knows about them, but invests in them. This may mean working for a professional sports team, an athlete, working at a college or university, or even working at a specific venue or arena. A person interested in sports marketing jobs may work as an agent for a particular athlete, an advertising employee for a sports team, community relations crew, ticketing and accounting, and so on.
Many sports marketing jobs are not directly focused on advertising or marketing, but the job functions may include such practices. A sports announcer, for example, is primarily focused on narrating the game as it happens, which is, in a sense, an indirect way of marketing the team, the game, and the players. The sports broadcaster must be very familiar with the game, the players, the team, and even the city or locality in which the sports team plays to effectively deliver entertaining and accurate commentary. The broadcaster may also be responsible for promoting special events, giveaways, contests, and so on.
Community relations personnel include sports marketing jobs aimed at encouraging the residents of a city or town to support a team or player, invest in the team by buying tickets or other merchandise, and become excited about the team or players by coordinating events, giveaways, appearances, and so on. These people may end up interacting directly with the general public or working behind the scenes to organize events. Many positions within this department may exist, from entry-level positions all the way up to management, and upper management will report directly to the manager or owner of the team, arena, and so on.
Game-day operations are sports marketing jobs in a sense as well. Each employee will represent the sports organization as well as the venue as they interact with customers. Everything is coordinated during a sports event, and employees must run the scoreboards, coordinate events, act as mascots, sell goods to fans, print programs and schedules, and so on. Uniforms for the players as well as employees of the team and the venue must be made and maintained, as these are some of the most valuable marketing tools available. While some of these jobs may not directly correlate to marketing or advertising, a person can take an entry level position and work his or her way up through the system to obtain a marketing job.
