Teaching the business of sport (beyond the disciplinary boundary)

Sport is watched and played by millions of people all over the globe, every day. Despite its central place in contemporary popular culture, sport, beyond its commercial applications, has generally been neglected by most of the academy as a ‘serious’ scholarly subject. In this chapter, the authors set out a robust defence for the study of sport in business and its cognate disciplines. They argue, first and foremost, that sport warrants scholarly focus both as a case study for the testing and application of theories from other disciplines (including business), and secondly, the appropriateness of sport as a valuable academic discipline in tertiary education. It addresses two key questions: what economics/business analytics can do for sports management?; what social science can tell us about how to manage sport?