CWU to offer new Bachelor of Science in Sport Management

Central Washington University will offer a new Bachelor of Science in Sport Management beginning with the 2017 fall quarter.

Approved Friday, March 31, by the CWU Board of Trustees, the new program—just the fourth offered by a university in Washington—will allow students to combine classroom learning with practical experience through internships. Through the Department of Physical Education, School Health and Movement Studies, the new major is designed to meet entry-level areas of need in what is the sixth largest—and growing—industry in the United States, based on data from the Society of Health and Physical Educators.

Graduates will be prepared for careers in collegiate and professional-level athletics administration, coaching, facilities management, media, promotion and sponsorship, and physical activity and sports program administration for cities and communities.

“Our students studying sport management can pursue careers in a variety of arenas, including collegiate, professional, and Olympic sports,” said Brian McGladrey, the program’s director. “However, they could also pursue careers in sport marketing and management, with sport communications and news media firms, in corporate sponsorship and advertising, with sporting goods firms, and at arenas, stadiums, civic centers, and other similar businesses.”

The sports industry now generates more than $213 billion in annual revenues and is expected to continue to rank among the largest and most diverse industries in the nation, with career opportunities extending into and, likely, expanding even further in the future. Since 1980, educational programs in sport management have grown in number from just three to more than 300 nationwide.

“Besides traditional sports, the sports industry now involves newer alternative, action, and extreme sports—skateboarding, boogie boarding, ice climbing, snow kayaking—and new professional sports, especially for women,” McGladrey noted.

The bachelor of science degree in sport management will include a core curriculum with specializations in sport coaching, focusing on the basics of sport coaching (typically at the youth, interscholastic, or collegiate levels); physical activity programming, to learn effective physical education teaching as well as leadership and recreational-management skills, and sport business, offered through the CWU College of Business, allowing students to explore the application of marketing, organizational management, law, leadership, finance and other business principles, and related aspect as they apply to the sport industry.

Media contact: Robert Lowery, director of radio services and integrated communications, 509-963-1487, Robert.Lowery@cwu.edu

April 5, 2017