Sports MBA

GC-1502 | 619-594-6023 | [email protected]
Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Sports MBA program is an intensive, accelerated MBA degree focused on the dynamic business of international sports.

The program provides its graduates a thorough understanding of the skills crucial for professionals to succeed, while building a broad network of relationships in the sports-rich landscape of Southern California.

America's Finest City

12 Months of On Campus MBA Classes

International Trip to Dominican Republic

Students study statistical analysis, organizational behavior and leadership, financial management, and business strategy, along with sports economics and marketing, in classes taught by seasoned, professional educators. Coursework is heavily international in scope. The program includes an overseas excursion to study sports business in the Dominican Republic and frequent guest lecturers with global experience.

The Sports MBA program offers students 12 months of accelerated class time at SDSU Main Campus, focusing on critical business skills, with an additional six months of supervised consultancies worldwide. Classes are offered in a cohort format to foster strong relationships among classmates, upon which graduates can draw throughout their careers. Total cost of the Sports MBA program is approximately $49,000 USD.

What do our Alumni Say?

"The SDSU SMBA program was critical to my transition from investment banking into the sports industry."
Erika Singal (SMBA, ‘10)
Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships, Los Angeles Lakers

"The SMBA program provided me with mentors in the industry, hands-on experience in sports, and the business acumen to feel comfortable entering the business side of sports."
Sarah Limberg (SMBA, ‘17)
Sr. Marketing Manager at Fanatics, Inc.

"As somebody who was already working in sports, the SMBA program took my knowledge and skills to a new heightened level."
Roberto Castro (SMBA, ‘11)
Director, Team Member Experience, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park

Sports MBA News

Business Administration Curriculum

Sports Business (39 units)

BA 623 Statistical Analysis

In this course, taught by former Associate Dean Dr. Jim Lackritz, students look at issues facing sports organizations through a statistical lens; for example, how to predict concession stand wait times at sporting events or how to evaluate athlete performance. Dr. Lackritz combines his own research in sports business with texts like Moneyball to provide Sports MBA students with the foundational tools for thinking critically about current issues in the sports industry.

BA 624 Organizational Behavior & Leadership

Dr. Amy Randel challenges the Sports MBA cohort to think critically about all aspects of interpersonal communication and organization within the workplace, and how varying approaches can affect work performance and cohesion. Students directly apply these skills to the sports industry through the course’s final project in which students provide analysis and offer feedback to a sports organization.

BA 625 Financial & Management Accounting

In Dr. David DeBoskey’s course, students learn the Accounting language with the expectation that when they finish the course, they’re capable of making sound financial decisions in management roles. The CFO of the San Diego Padres serves as an annual guest speaker for the class and class projects include financial statement analysis of sports industry sectors of the students’ choosing.

BA 629 Financial Management

Financial Management I is the first of two courses that expose students to the fundamental principles of corporate finance, taught by Professor Frank Ryan. This course discusses how managers use financial statements, engage in financial planning, value cash flows, understand risk, make long-term investment decisions, and how to make both long- and short-term financing decisions. Once the groundwork has been laid, students apply these principles to analyze sports business topics such as franchise valuation, stadium financing, personal seat licenses, athlete salaries, and more.

BA 627 Sports Marketing

Sports Marketing is taught by visiting professor, Dr. Vassilis Dalakas (@DrSportBusiness), who provides an in-depth introduction to the principles of marketing, and how they apply within the sports business realm. To teach sports marketing effectively, Dr. Dalakas focuses heavily on corporate partnerships and sponsorship in the world of sports, and specializes in fan behavior and the fan experience using real-world examples throughout, including an annual corporate partnerships consulting project with a sports organization.

BA 626 Sports Economics

Sports Economics, taught by Associate Dean Dr. David Ely, uses the sports industry to illustrate the applications of microeconomic principles, macroeconomic concepts, and analytical tools used in business decision-making. Students learn to apply industrial organization theory to analyze sports business models, and related issues when evaluating local markets for teams, and calculating the value of sports franchises. Course discussion topics include stadium financing, ticket pricing, team relocation, player salaries, athlete representation, and arena naming rights deals.

BA 628 Operations and Supply Chain Management

Throughout this course, Dr. Helio Yang shares her broad range of knowledge on topics related to the design, execution and management of operations and supply chain systems. The course teaches students to model solutions related to project scheduling, inventory management, demand forecasting, and queue management. Group presentations for this course provide students the opportunity to research how sports business organizations manage issues related to their operations and supply chains.

MKTG 729 Sustainable Marketing - A Market Research Approach

Marketing professor Dr. Erlinde Cornelis’ course focuses on sustainability, diversity, and inclusion in sports and marketing, taking a marketing research approach to investigating and solving these issues. The course requires students to think critically about economic, environmental, physical, and social sustainability in sports and business in general, while they simultaneously develop their ability to consume and create marketing insights by understanding and executing the marketing research process. As part of the course, students learn marketing research tools such as Qualtrics and SPSS and utilize these tools in the course’s culminating marketing research projects.

MGT 729 Strategic Leadership in International Sports Organizations

This course features an international excursion to the Dominican Republic led by Sports MBA program director Scott Minto (SMBA ’06). Since 2009, Sports MBA students have studied abroad in the D.R. for part of their summer semester to observe and evaluate the impact that Major League Baseball and its teams have on the country.

MKTG 762 Integrated Marketing Communications

Taught by Dr. Joe Belch, Senior Associate Dean and co-author of the leading textbook in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), this course focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of marketing strategy for sports organizations and companies. Students create a comprehensive Integrated Marketing Communications plan for a sports organization as a culminating project in the course each year.

MIS 691 Business Intelligence

Taught by Dr. Kaveh Abhari, this course, which serves as an introduction to the field of business intelligence (BI) and data analytics, is focused on teaching students how to use BI tools to understand, analyze and solve complex business problems. The course covers topics such as descriptive, predictive and web analytics teaching students to use tools such as Tableau, Power BI, RapidMiner, Google Analytics, and AWS QuickSight. Students use real life data sets from sports business and develop business reports showcasing their insights.

FIN 617 Financial Management II

In Professor Frank Ryan's second course within the Sports MBA curriculum, students build upon the foundation set by Financial Management I. They are expected to understand the impetus behind major financial deals in the sports world, such as stadium financing and franchise valuation. The students also apply their skills by forming management teams and competing in a semester-long business simulation.

BA 630 Strategy

Dr. John Francis leads this course, which studies the theories and trends that shape the evolving relationships between sports organizations and their fans. With examples drawn from all segments of sports business, this course is intended to give students a foundation of basic business principles that can be applied to the sports industry.

Experiential Learning

Events Worked by our Students

Farmers Insurance Open logo

Mountain West logo

Padres logo

PGA TOUR Executive Women's Day at the Farmers Insurance Open
Farmers Insurance Open
US Women's National Team vs. Republic of Ireland
US Men’s National Team vs. Canada – International Friendly
NCAA Sweet 16 Western Regional in Anaheim
SuperBowl LVI, NFL Honors, NFL Annual Awards Show, SuperBowl Tailgate
Mountain West Conference Tournament
Women in Sports and Events (WISE) Power Play Event
121st US Open at Torrey Pines
Paycom Wooden Legacy Tournament
Tropical Smoothie Cafe Bowl Game

SMBA students at Farmers Insurance Open volunteer talk

Sports MBA students in front of statue of skater at Vans HQ

IRONMAN SuperSEAL Olympic Triathlon
Perfect Game All-American
FootGolf San Diego Tournaments
USA Rugby Tournaments
MLB Spring Training – San Diego Padres
Rock 'n' Roll Marathon – Carlsbad 5000, San Diego 5K Run
Special Olympics South Bay Area Games
Supergirl Surf Pro
ATP Open San Diego
AVP Beach Volleyball – Huntington Beach Open
San Diego Wave FC Press Conference
San Diego Loyal Holiday Drive

Red Bull Wings for Life World Run
Mexico vs. Chile International Friendly
Sports Business Journal Intersport Brand Engagement Summit
Fox Sports San Diego – MLB All-Star FanFest Activation
Under Armour – MLB All-Star FanFest Activation
Stand Up to Cancer – MLB All-Star Game Activation
Dew Tour – Long Beach
Self Shape Surf Festival
SurfAid Cup
Holiday Bowl 5k & Parade

Consulting Projects

Our students learn to apply the business principles they learn in the classroom and hone their presentation skills with real clients in the sports industry through consulting projects including developing marketing plans, organizational analysis reports, and pitching new ideas for corporate sponsorship. Previous clients have included:

Pittsburgh Penguins
Oakland A’s
US Olympic Training Center
SDSU Athletics
Victus Advisors
Monumental Sports and Entertainment
Farmers Insurance Open
LAFC

Students giving presentation

Students and staff sitting in Honda Center for presentation

Navigate Research
TGR Live
Challenged Athletes Foundation
Nixon
Anaheim Ducks
Athena Racing
Hookit
SurfTech

International Case Study Trip

Dominican Republic Trip

Every year since 2009, Sports MBA students have spent approximately ten days as a group on site in the Dominican Republic. This trip is one of the most memorable experiences of the year for Sports MBA students. The excursion is tied to an academic course in Management and is led by program director, Scott Minto (SMBA ’06). The concept of the trip is to develop students’ global competencies through a complete cultural and language immersion in a developing country. The class prepares extensively for the trip, reading books about Dominican baseball and culture and studying Spanish.

Final Semester with a Sports Organization (6 Units)

After completing the 12-month classroom portion of the Sports MBA curriculum, students are prepared to work with a sports organization on a full-time basis. The MBA candidates have a faculty mentor oversee their work during their final semester, with the goal of providing their host organization with a comprehensive consulting report on a specific sports business field at the end of the term. The course work is completed remotely and classes do not meet during this term, so students are encouraged to pursue full-time job opportunities and many choose to pursue an opportunity outside of San Diego.