Sports Business & Sports Law BA (Hons)

Understanding Sports Business

The sports industry is a multi-billion pound commercially driven industry and within the last three decades its growth has been spurred by an increase in media exposure and commercial capital. Innovations in technology have also played their part in transforming the leisure enthusiast/spectator into a more closely targeted global consumer who demands to be entertained (sports entertainment). However, this commercial boom also fuels the debate that sport still exists primarily as a participatory provision that plays an essential role in supporting the societal functions of local communities.

This module explores the historical growth of sport as a business and social phenomenon and introduces students to core management functions of the industry such as marketing, media, finance, sponsorship, stadium events, human resources, legal and contemporary issues. Students will analyse the development of sport and the governance of elite and grassroots organisations within the sporting framework.

Introduction to Law

Sports law is now widely recognised as a discrete jurisprudential category of law. Nevertheless, it has its foundations in the traditional areas of law such as contract law, tort law, criminal law, employment law and European Union law. It is also a category of law heavily influenced by legislation and judge made law. Recognising that most students will come to the programme with limited legal knowledge, this module introduces students to the sources and institutions of the English and European Union legal systems and systematically explains the workings of the law so as to prepare them for study on the sports specific modules that follow. The module not only covers the key substantive areas of the law, but it also introduces students to key legal skills including legal research, legal writing, legal referencing and legal etiquette.

Managing Money

This module seeks to develop an awareness of and an understanding of the source and purpose of financial accounting information within the organisation and an understanding of the structure of the main financial statements. It is also designed to encourage students to develop skills necessary to be able to use financial information for planning, control and decision making.

Introduction to Sports Law

“… contrary to mythology and many misconceptions, and also many wishes within sporting administrative and playing circles, the law of the land does not stop at the touchline or board or committee room”, Edward Grayson.

This module provides the intellectual foundations to the study of sports law by examining the historical and contemporary debates concerning the relationship between sport and law. The module provides an introduction to how sport is regulated in the UK and Europe and how sport organises itself. It provides key definitions, such as the meaning of the specificity and autonomy of sport and it reviews how the decisions of sports governing bodies can be challenged in court or subject to Alternative Dispute Resolution.

The module also provides some conceptual underpinning to the study of sports law by, for example, examining claims that the volume of sports related case law and statute combined with the development of discrete legal doctrines unique to sport has contributed to the emergence of a new legal category commonly referred to as ‘sports law’.

Managing Sports Organisations
The management of consumer orientated sports organisations is heavily reliant on the service and quality of delivery to each consumer. This module will examine organisational theory in relation to the operational issues faced by managers of sport organisations. It will introduce students to concepts of operations management, service delivery and quality that modern sports business managers are required to implement in order to create and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
Students will examine concepts of operational management from a sport business perspective and will analyse key concepts of service delivery and the effectiveness of managing people within the sports industry.

The Regulation of Safety & Deviance in Sport

Sports governing bodies are faced with many challenges relating to safeguarding the safety of those connected with sport and maintaining the integrity of sporting competitions. Many of these challenges stem from the deviant behaviour of sports participants, spectators or those seeking to criminally exploit sport. This module explores these issues by critically examining how the sport’s governing bodies and the law of the land (1) regulate misconduct and negligence by sports participants on the field of play (2) address spectator safety and public order issues (3) combat threats to the integrity of sport such as match-fixing and doping.

Financial Reporting

This module looks at:
•The conceptual and regulatory framework for financial reporting;
•Financial Statements including those of business combinations; their interpretation and analysis;
•The nature and purpose of financial management in the business environment;
•Methods used in making short and long term financial decisions.

Legal Issues in the Governance of Sport

Building on the introduction provided in Level 4, this module critically examines the regulatory framework affecting the governance choices made by sports governing bodies. In this regard, the module critically reviews how decisions of governing bodies can lead to legal challenge and in what forum. The module explores the claim that as sport has ‘specific characteristics’ it should be free to determine its own organisational structure and rules free from legal intervention. To illustrate, this the module examines a range of governance choices that can give rise to complaints from stakeholders including: rules regulating access to competitions; rules on club relocation; rules on club ownership; club licensing rules; international match calendar and player release rules; cost control measures such as regulating players’ pay, salary caps and Financial Fair Play; player agent regulations; the Fit and Proper Persons Test and the Football Creditors’ Rule.

Strategic Management

This module develops an understanding of strategic management as applied to the football context and strategic information systems planning in different organisational and environmental contexts. It provides theoretical concepts and relevant tools for undertaking strategic analyses, considering strategic choices and making strategic recommendations. A variety of football contexts will be explored including professional and grassroots arenas.

Dissertation

This module aims to provide students with the opportunity for independent learning through the completion of an individual, extended research project. The project requires a high level of individual application and commitment to research and enquiry. It provides students with the opportunity to identify, reflect upon and explore a topic that has implications for their own professional development.

Employment Law & Sport

This module explores the web of contractual relationships that operate within sport. An athlete, manager, coach and support staff are usually employees of clubs. Other athletes may be self-employed but are still engaged under a contract. These parties may also find themselves contractually bound by the rules of a governing body and athletes may also enter into contracts with agents. This module navigates through this complex web of contractual relations and explores how a unique a system of public and private regulation applies to sport. It examines who is considered an employee, how contracts are negotiated, what terms appear in contracts, how parties to a contract can be disciplined and how contracts are ended.

Regulating the Business of Sport

Sport is big business but the right to exploit its commercial value is not unfettered. This module explores how, under English and European Union law, an event organiser is able to exploit the commercial value of sport whilst also protecting its rights from infringement by third parties. Them module places this legal discussion in a multi-disciplinary context by examining the historical commercialisation of sport and how that contributed to the juridification of the sector and why and how some sports adopted various business models, for example the development of the Premier League and the Champions League. The module examines whether the specificities of sport preclude the application of UK and EU law to these business practices or whether the law should treat sport in the same way as any other economic activity.