UCD to launch sports MBA track

James Paton, Rocky Mountain News

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Sports is big business, and students at the University of Colorado at Denver need not look far to see the evidence.

The Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets and Avalanche - four teams with a combined value approaching $2 billion, according to Forbes - play just a short stroll from the school's Auraria home.

So it's fitting that UCD's business school plans to launch a new sports and entertainment MBA program this fall, taking advantage of the proximity.

"We realized there's a critical mass of exciting things going on in Denver, particularly in sports business," said Wendy Guild, the school's director of business development. "Geographically, we're located in a fantastic place."

The Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver was a trailblazer, starting a sports management MBA track in 1994, before the concept caught fire. Today dozens of schools across the country are producing MBAs with sports expertise.

DU welcomes the competition.

"I think what happens is that they all take on a character of their own," said Gordon Von Stroh, who oversees the Daniels College program. "They develop their own personality, and what CU is doing reinforces the trend that sports is a very serious business."

UCD's business school, led by Dean Sueann Ambron, is the latest to play the game. It aims to train MBAs for management jobs at teams, leagues, broadcasters, consulting firms, retailers and other sports businesses, as well as for positions in the realm of arts and entertainment. The Denver Performing Arts complex is next door, too.

"High-finance skills are more and more in demand in these industries," Guild said.

The value of a sports business MBA, like other advanced degrees, is debatable. Students would be naive to assume the program will put them on the fast track to the Broncos' boardroom or get them an interview with billionaire Nuggets and Avalanche owner Stan Kroenke.

"Regardless of what level of degree you have, you're going to start at one of our entry-level positions," said Paul Andrews, executive vice president of Kroenke Sports Enterprises. "You're going to learn the business from the bottom up. From the standpoint of getting your foot in the door, a sports business degree will help you. But you're certainly not going to get in at the director level or the managerial level."

Von Stroh acknowledged graduates should have realistic expectations as they venture out into a crowded and competitive market.

"Denver is a great place to come to," he said. "But you gotta go where the jobs are."

That could mean a junior hockey club in Montana, he said, rather than the Avalanche. Students might end up running a recreation center or a rafting group, not a high-profile pro franchise.

MBAs seeking a sports management gig also will find paychecks that pale in comparison to money they could reel in on Wall Street or elsewhere. While teams lavish money on players, they are not nearly as generous when it comes to office staff, Guild noted.

The average salary for graduates of DU's sports MBA program is $58,600.

"There's an oversupply of people interested," Guild said. "And there's not an oversupply of people who are extremely qualified."

Guild, who has a Ph.D. from MIT's Sloan School of Management, is teaching a sports and entertainment course featuring speakers from the sports business sector. Among the expected guests: Broncos Executive Vice President of Business Operations Joe Ellis, Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor and head of Fox's national cable sports networks Bob Thompson.

Boosting ticket sales revenue, building ties with fans, managing sponsorship pacts and striking naming rights deals are several issues likely to surface, Guild said. Getting players to conduct themselves well is another item on the agenda, she added. Having a team that's disliked by the community can prove costly.

The students will find case studies in their own backyard, with the Rockies, Broncos, Nuggets and Avs. Colorado also is home to the Rapids, the soccer club that has a new arena in Commerce City, and the Colorado Mammoth lacrosse team. The Colorado Crush arena football team, new minor league basketball and hockey clubs in Broomfield, and big college sports programs add to the mix.

Andrews, who also is slated to speak at UCD, said Kroenke Sports in the past has hired several Daniels grads. Many of the company's roughly 300 employees have some kind of business degree, he said. With an emerging program at UCD, Kroenke and others will have another pool of possibilities.

Observers see room for newcomers as the amount of money changing hands in sports rises to new heights.

"Look at just about every segment of the sports and entertainment field," Von Stroh said. "It has become so much more sophisticated and complex. It's grown up in the last 10 years or so, and universities are responding."

patonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2544