Master of Science Degree in Sports Management

The course introduces the students to sport and the management process focusing on the historical evolution of sport, the professional sport management environment, the structure of the sports industry. The Course exposes students to; Sport Events Management including; sport event bidding, the event planning process, event implementation, event evaluation, event marketing and sponsorship, event impacts and legacies; the Sports Facilities Management Process including-facility planning, site and design development, personnel issues, facility administration, emergency plans, marketing, developing revenue streams, and facility scheduling and operating; Sports Equipment Management including-procurement, inventory management, maintenance, adaptation and safety issues; The principles and procedures involved in the management of Individual athletes, sports teams, sports leagues, sports organizations and international sport, including the organization of Olympic sport. Students shall be exposed to the use of strategic analysis tools like gap analysis to compare the facilities, events, equipment, athletes, team league and sports federation management practices used in the Zimbabwean sports industry with the global best practices.

This course provides an extensive overview of financial management and economic issues in sport. The course covers such financial management topics as; budgeting and the preparation and analysis of financial statements for the purposes of planning, administering, reporting and evaluating the financial performance of sport-related entities including auditing. The course also examines general concepts, theories, and principles relating to financial management in sport organizations. Specific areas of emphasis include public funds management, tax, facility financing, valuation of professional franchises, the financial structure of sports entities including; contractually obligated income, subscriptions and affiliation fees, sponsorship revenue, broadcasting rights revenue, naming rights revenue, merchandise sale revenue, jersey rights revenue, stock market issues, athletes transfer fees, leases and lease negotiations and fundraising. The course also explores the general economic principles as they apply to the sports industry focusing on: Economic theory and sport; Industrial Organization of Sport (revenues and costs, monopoly, importance of leagues, price discrimination, game theory applications: television contracts, recruiting, doping, cooperative, competitive, and collusive behavior among participants); Public Finance and Sport; Labour economics of sport including player productivity and compensation; Nonprofit-Amateur Sport. Students shall be exposed to the use of strategic analysis tools like gap analysis to compare the financial management practices and economic adaptation procedures used by Zimbabwean sports entities with global best practices.

The course is designed to present a comprehensive examination of basic marketing principles, functions and concepts as applied to sport-related enterprises. The course reviews the principles of the marketing mix in the context of sport. Topics to be covered include; the dimensions of sports marketing, segmentation of the sports customer, sports marketing research, the nature and characteristics of the sports product, the role of pricing, promotion, place (distribution), packaging, people and physical evidence strategies in the management of sport, sports consumer behavior, marketing strategy, practical and theoretical issues relating to brand management in sport organizations. This course covers the principles of sports sponsorship and critically examines various sports sponsorship objectives, responsibilities, including planning, processing, sales strategizing, activating and evaluating procedures as well as; sponsorship risks like ambush marketing. Other important topics include ticketing, corporate social responsibility, merchandising, endorsement, naming rights and franchising. Students shall be exposed to the use of strategic analysis tools like gap analysis to compare the sports marketing practices used by Zimbabwean entities with the global best practices in sports marketing.

The course explores the application of corporate governance principles to the management of sports enterprises. The course covers such topics as; the role and nature of corporate governance, corporate governance mechanisms, corporate governance models, corporatization of sport, principles of good governance in sport, governance and ownership structures and the role of governance boards and stakeholder management in sport, regulation in sport, comparison of key governance factors between business corporation and sports organizations. In addition, this course examines the application of ethical issues in sport. Topics to be covered include; fair play, sportsmanship, olympism, ethics of competition, racial and gender equity in sport and the impact of ethical lapses in sport (doping, match fixing, corruption, deviant behavior by athletes and fans, and issues related to cheating in youth and student sport etc.).

Students shall be exposed to the use of strategic analysis tools like gap analysis and other relevant tools to compare the corporate governance practices in the Zimbabwean sports industry with the global best practices in sport corporate governance.

This course aims at equipping students with the skills needed to conduct research using a variety of research methods and techniques. Students shall also be exposed to publications in the area of sport management with a view to increase their capacity to critically evaluate published information. Areas to be covered include: Research Purpose (exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research); Research Philosophy (Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology); Research Paradigms (Positivism, Interpretivism, Pragmatism); Research Approach (deduction, induction, and abduction); Research Designs (Survey, Case Study, Experimental Research, Ethnography, Grounded Theory, Action Research, Appreciative Enquiry, Mixed Methods (Convergent Parallel, Exploratory Sequential, Explanatory Sequential, Imbedded. Transformative, Multiphase); Population and Sampling; Data Collecting Procedures (Questionnaires, Interviews, Focus Group Discussions, Free Thought Listing, Experimental Procedures, Observation); Data Analysis (Quantitative data analysis procedures using SPSS, Starter etc., and Qualitative Data Analysis using NVivo, Atlas TI etc.); Ethical Considerations; Research idea and problem formulation (research topic, statement of the problem, research question, objectives, Research Proposal writing); Literature Review; and Academic writing (use of academic writing, editing and antiplagiarism software, Dissertation and Manuscript writing, referencing styles).