Sports Management Systems, A description of the Key Concepts

The first important point to consider is that the vast majority of sport participation is done at an amateur level, at so-called grass roots levels, such as a school rugby team or a Sunday football league at the local park. These participants vastly outnumber the professional athletes that many aspire to be like. This presents many challenges. 

At present the amateur label stigmatises many of the excellent projects that are currently available. Most amateur projects are only kept afloat by the heroic management efforts of dedicated voluntary individuals. It is these individuals that Sport management systems seek to aid through the introduction of business and management knowledge, skills and principles.

Sports management systems (which as far as I know has no acronym) address this through the application of ICT principles mainly;

Communications

Administration

Information management

Finance

These are on the whole areas which consumed the most resources at grass root levels and due to the fact that individual skills are different they were all handled differently from club to club and from volunteer to volunteer. Applying ICT principles provides a clear guideline on how these activities should be approached and means that everyone involved is working towards a common goal in a unified way.

On the whole these Sport management systems are based on internet and mobile technology. There are very clear benefits to this approach, these days everyone has access to the internet. Whereas previously the access to ICT support was restricted by organisations funds now with an internet based system information can be gathered and amended with regular ease. It also makes the purchase of expensive software that can quickly become obsolete a problem of the past.

On the whole, the concept of a Sport Management Systems is clearly designed to aid the participants at a grass root level by providing the support that a professional organisation takes for granted. By doing so provides a bright future for all aspiring athletes and supporters of local sport. 

 

Sport Management - How it started

According to Wikipedia “Sport management is a field of education and vocation concerning the business aspect of sport. Some examples of sport managers include the front office system in professional sports, college sport managers, recreational sport managers, sports marketing, event management, facility management, and sports information.”

In 1957 Walter O’Malley president and chief stockholder of the LA Dodgers Baseball Club anticipated the future growth of organised sport and predicted the need for professionally prepared sport administrators. As a result of this prediction Dr.James Mason from Ohio University created a Masters level Sport administration programme. The course was the first recorded attempt to provide a graduate level curriculum specifically designed to prepare students for jobs in a variety of sport related industries. The idea caught on and currently there is over 158 sport undergraduate management programs and 103 post graduate programs worldwide.

The Council of Europe defines sport as “all forms of physical activity which, through casual (informal) or organised participation aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well being, formal social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels”.

According to Pitts and Stotlar 2002 the term sport management refers to “all people, activities, businesses, and organisations involved in producing, facilitating, promoting or organising any product that is sport, fitness and recreation related”. Sport and fitness is a multi-billion dollar business, involved with all areas of life, education, business and tourism.

Sport Management - The Future

Sport Management in the past primarily focused on recreational facilities in schools and youth centres. In the UK, It is compulsory for all school children to undertake P.E (physical education) lessons as part of the school curriculum. (Teachernet)

However at present and into the future we are seeing a shift away from this focus on sport management. Chelladurai explains that in the future sports management will focus on the following key aspects;

• Social Issues

“Americans find themselves working longer hours and reducing the time previously spent on spent in leisure activities. This ‘time squeeze’ is certain to affect the clientiele of many recreation programs just as it has every other group in our society” (S.J Young). In order to meet the needs of these time hungry consumers businesses must be prepared to adapt to changing market conditions.  There by providing a profitable service which is of economic benefit.

 

• Increased costs associated with consuming sport

Providing a sporting function needs to be profitable for the organisation. As the business focus upon sport becomes more apparent, business aim to reduce costs associated with providing sporting facilities.  Information systems in the future will help managers make strategic decisons based upon its sporting facilities, thereby maximising its efficiency.

 

• Public support for teams

 

For sports management in the future Information Systems will play a vital role such as those offered by Serva Sport. As businesses understand the benefits such systems will be adopted by more organisations as they aim to streamline their existing sport functions and maximise the potential profit they can harness from their sporting facilities.  Chelladurai comments “There is economic significance in sport”; Therefore with companies such as Serva Sport providing information system solutions this will allow the organisation to make strategic decisons based upon providing up to date information from accurate data.

The benefit of providing such a service would reduce overheads and maximise cost efficiency with the savings being passed onto the sport participant. As Serva Sport explain “Attract new members, volunteers and fans to their sport and to their organisation”, thereby making sport attractive and accessible to all and in doing so increase its potential as a viable profitable business function.

Sports Management: Social Implications

This post will focus on the social implications of utilizing software and systems for sports management with relation to Web 2.0 technology which currently exists.

‘Web 2.0 is a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.’ (wikipedia.com)

Today, there are two categories of sports which we have come to know. The conventional sports which we are all aware such as football, rugby, tennis etc. However, given the number of people turning to computers for entertainment purposes by playing computer games, E-Sports are slowly becoming more popular in recent years as many people seek to compete professionally.

‘Electronic sports, abbreviated e-sports or eSports, is used as a general term to describe the play of video games as a professional sport’ (wikipedia.com)

-It is estimated that there are over 5 million volunteers offering their free time to help sports organizations. With the use of sports management software, many of these tasks can be automated such as organizing league tables, contacting team members and more.

-Sports management software offers a more rapid response then conventional manpower. Repetitive and unproductive tasks can be conducted by the system meaning people associated with the sports have more free time to partake. This may lead to greater retention of staff as they can now focus on their love for sport itself rather then mediocre tasks associated with the operation of it.

-It acts as a support network for volunteers, players and management associated with the sport.

An example of sports management software is TeamSnap

• A new service from Portland based SparkPlug; TeamSnap brings amateur sports management to Web 2.0. Anybody who has coached or managed a sports team knows how much work is involved. Managing team rosters, fees and event schedules is a time consuming chore. TeamSnap aims to simply the management of the various aspects of running any sort of team by providing an online destination, a CRM tool of sorts for amateur sports management

Features of TeamSnap

• Built in support for rosters
• Scheduling
• Player availability
• Payment tracking
• Private forum
• Bulk email sending
• Private messaging
• Photo sharing service
• Statistics
• Refreshment organizing

The management software is currently free during its beta phase with the intention of offering a free version post beta. It offers simplicity for small sports management tasks like local teams and customizability and advanced features suited to larger, more professional sporting events.

The social implications associated with software such as this is that users of it can interact with each through the use of message boards to organize when training will happen, match times, who will be playing on the team and much more. Individuals associated with the sport no longer need to be restricted to meetings to sort out such issues. This software can also act as a marketing tool for the sports team by allowing people to become involved in how the team is performing, look at pictures of players and matches they have played to date as well as share their thoughts etc in chat rooms, private messaging, message board and more.

The social implications of Web 2.0 technology in relation to sports management are quite clear. It helps to free up time for those involved meaning more focus on the sport, makes it simpler for volunteers to communicate with each other, creates a community of interested parties and should reduce pressure in terms of cost management and frustration.

Sports Management, a Business Model

Sports management is “a field of education and vocation concerning the business aspect of sport” (Wikipedia)

In terms of a Business Model, as there is very little specific information on the internet, I will base my concepts of a sports management business model on the concepts that were adopted at Servasport Ltd

Servasport is one of the leading providers of internet based sports management systems in this field. Their mission statement is “To be synonymous with best practice within the management of Sport through the use of Information Communication Technology.”

However to be synonymous with the management of Sport with the use of ICT, Servasport must have devised a business model that they deemed viable. I will devise an idea of this business model under 4 separate headings. Infrastructure, Products they Offer, The Target Customer Base and of course Finance and how this would be generated.

Infrastructure

The first part of a companies infrastructure are their core competencies. At Servasport Ltd, their internet based sports management systems rely heavily on the competencies of a wide range of staff. First of all there are varied range of staff

Business of Sport - The company must have a knowledge of the business model behind sports both amateur and professional. Clients may come from an organisation based on funding and sponsorship, or may come from a professional organisation where much of the business behind sport comes from private investors and sales.

Business Development - Many organisations using Servasports bespoke internet sport management systems will be looking at Servasport Ltd as an investment into developing their sport into a larger organisation. For example Cycling Ireland decided to invest in Servasports to help mainly with rider ranking which before the introduction of this system was a difficult task. Now this task has been made easier with a system that removes the need for ranking to be done by hand and increases efficiency.

Finance & Operations - The company depends on knowing how much to invest and how best to carry out their operations

Technology - As Servasport Ltd is a technological solution to sports management a core competency of the company. A wide range of software engineers must integrate the vision of sports people and the clients in order to create a solution.

Servasport does have some partner companies and organisations who have a vested interest into the systems they develop.

Rackspace are a provider of IT Hosting Solutions allowing Servasport to focus on their core competencies of developing the technology and integrating customers needs with innovative solutions.

Products on Offer

Servasport offer a wide range of products that come in the form of modules that can be added to a customers final web applications

Servasport Modules

1. Event Management
2. Document Management
3. Collaborator
4. Members Management
5. NGB Club Management
6. Members Licensing
7. Member Profiling
8. Club Profiling
9. Communication Centre
10. E-Commerce
11. Content Management
12. Club Management
13. Intranet
14. Club Fixtures & Results
15. League, Cup & Blitz Fixture Management

Servasport Applications

1. Association Management
2. Community System
3. Web Network
4. Resource Management
5. Fixtures & Results Management
6. Event Management

Target Customers

The main customer base for Internet based Sports Management systems include sports teams wishing to make the business element of the sport more efficient. Some of the customers of Servasport include

• Basketball Ireland
• Cycling Ireland
• GAA
• Irish Hockey Association
• Basketball SuperLeague
• University of Ulster
• BCSDN
• Athletics Ireland
• Community Games
• EBMAS Ireland
• Queens University

According to Paul Rouse the University of Ulster Sports development Officer such a system would be interesting to customers of clubs where they need to enable consistency and allow new management and officials to quickly adopt and establish roles within the club.

“With new club officials coming in each year, the Servasport Club system enables consistency in our approach and allows the new offi cials to quickly adopt the system and establish themselves in their role”

From this Servasport Brochure

Finance

Finance for Servasport seems to come from Sponsorships that exist at the various customer clubs. Servasport Ltd is a member of the European Sponsorship Association ESA.

To give some idea of the scope of Finance from Sponsorship I have derived figures from the ESA webpage in order to give some insight into how lucrative the sponsorship market can be.

Global Spending on Sponsorship exceeds $30 billion a year.

European companies account for approximately 28% of sponsorship spending in Europe.

Conclusion

Servasport and other Internet based management systems have tapped into a market where efficiency and cost effectiveness is the name of the game. Obviously if they can, for an initial investment develop a system that will ultimately reduce the cost for a sport organisation through the introduction of time saving products they will be able to gain money from the sponsorship that is given to the organisation as their product will be seen as a necessary investment by partners of the company, management and sponsors who wish their money to be spent wisely.

Risks or Negative issues involved in Sports Management Software

Sports Management Software

 

What are the risks or negative issues?

-Concept of ICT software platforms for sports management includes the need to generate revenue, provide enthusiasts with information, and provide management and grass-roots volunteers support with administration, cohesive governance and general good organisation.

-Online support for Sports Management software for small-scale users poor. Most available software is free and easy to set-up but lack of tutorials and hard-copy instructions for people unfamiliar with ICT, especially given the voluntary nature of clubs/societies in Universities, schools and communities.

-With the rise of commercialisation and globalisation governing bodies of sports and amateur societies are under pressure attain higher levels of coherence and governance (King Report 2002). This is a move away from ‘kitchen table’ committees, use of sports management software must be open and easily adaptable to this mentality.

-New need for transparency, accountability and work-flow systems which may not necessarily be engrained at levels of voluntary participation in sports management. Grass-roots participation in sports management traditionally not wholly compatible with business models, philosophies and methodologies. ICT Sports management systems must cater for the transition.

-Need for information and time management, communication and administration throughout implementation of new ICT Sport Management systems. Given the disparate nature of volunteers, training in these new methods is essential for cohesive management.

-Growing market, patents important especially with increase of open source software. Need to avoid legal issues like that of easyjet:

 http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2070891/software-developers-warned-legal-risks

-Availability of software and literature to enable ICT to communicate with fans, etc. This heavily out-weighs the availability of Sports Management software designed to ensure smooth and cohesive internal management of sports management bodies.

-Centralised and secure IT software platform is essential, one that is not short-lived. Overhaul of ICT platform every few years is a costly risk. The focus needs to be on the Sport Management rather than IT management, needs good managers to realise this, and given the voluntary grass-roots nature of Sports Management (5 million people in the UK alone) will they be adaptable to change?

-Not a lot of competition on the market at the moment for larger-scale business developers, variation of services likely to increase in future years. Difficult to break in to the market for new developers of management packages.

-Overall idea of centralisation and pro-active uptake of new ICT platforms is essential for reducing costs in all organisations. This idea is no less important for small scale bodies, councils or voluntary societies who need to break through the ‘pain barrier’ of adopting new technologies.

 

 

 

 

More than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds in the UK have a profile on a social network!

An article in the BBC today ‘children flock to social networks’ outlines just how many children within the UK have a profile on social networking sites such as Bebo, Myspace and Facebook. The survey carried out by OFCOM, reveals some staggering figures on the takeup of these social networking sites.

 OFCOM’s survey then says “ Of 5,000 adults and 3,000 children found 49% of those aged between eight and 17 have a profile”.

 The most worrying point that I did notice was that some parents do not seem to realise that children this young require supervison of these sites, without adequate supervison they are effectively putting their children as risk. The article also points out that children should set their profile to private. Interestingly parents do not know how to set their profiles to private in the first instance.

Watch the video report - ’social networking child risk’

Kids being raised by the internet.

Though im loathe to repeat a story from our sensational newspapers today, I will anyway (and from that paragon of responsible journalistic integrity the Daily Mail too!).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=542968&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490

 20 hours a week at the computer? I think thats probably better than 20 hours a week in front of the television. At least with social networking sites there is a degree of social interaction occurring rather than zombiefication in front of the latest “dancing celebrities making over an airport departure gate” bbc show.

Facebook: IM

As much as I hate pushing my last post down the page a bit, I’ve been searching for news to do with social networking which hasn’t been reported by BBC.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/03/facebook_gets_private_and_laun.html

The Guardian reports that Facebook will soon be launching its own Instant Messaging service which will be available to users quite soon. Given the current news stories circulating about the privacy of information people post on their profile pages, which have resulted in them losing their jobs and more, an IM service does appear beneficial. However, it is still difficult to say this is anymore secure as the friends you have via social networking may not be the people you believe.

Bebo acquired by AOL - $850m (£417m) in cash

Social networking site Bebo has today been acquired by Time Warner’s AOL division.   The price paid is in stark contrast to that paid by Microsoft for 1.6 % ownership of Facebook last year at a cost of $240m.

According to the BBC News “Bebo is the biggest social networking website in Britain, the Irish Republic and New Zeland”.

 For the full article go to BBC online