There is much benefit in being able to see the future. To the one who has that particular ability, the opportunities are limitless; the capacity to create wealth and fame beyond imagination. But in order to know what will happen years from today or decades into the future requires a gift that we call clairvoyance and not just too many people have that.
There is another way though of seeing and that is the skill of studying patterns and analyzing the trajectories of present events hoping that it will lead to a clue or a fact that will make one declare that though the future is uncertain there are some things that can be expected. An example of this skill can be found in a letter written by Walter O'Malley the chief stockholder of the Brooklyn [now Los Angeles] Dodgers Baseball Club.In 1957 O'Malley wrote a letter to Dr. James Mason, a faculty member at Ohio University in anticipation of the need for professional sports administrators and he said: I ask the question, where would one go to find a person who by virtue of education had been trained to administer a marina, race track, ski resort, auditorium, stadium [.
..] A course that would enable a graduate to read architectural plans and engineering plans; or having to do with specifications and contract letting. There would be the problems of ticket selling and accounting, concessions, sale of advertising in programs, and publications, outdoor and indoor displays and related items..
. (as cited in Parks & Quarterman, p. 5) What is so impressive about this is the fact that it was written in the late 1950s – before the sports industry became a billion dollar business.The ability of this visionary to look ahead has greatly benefited the world of sports.
According to Janet Parks and Jerome Quarterman, the said letter paved the way for the creation of a master's-level sport administration program at Ohio University in 1966, which in turn provided a graduate level curriculum that will help prepare professionals in sports management among other thing (Year, p. 5). Using that mode of thinking and applying it again to the world of sports management, the proponent then asks the question, “What is the future of Sports Administration?” In other words what can be the expected development or changes in this field?What can be expected? Based on the review of related literature there are at least five concepts or ideas that repeatedly show up when comparing studies made by some respected sports management consultants and these are listed as follows: a) Sports Development; b) Technology; c) Ethics; d) Social Responsibility and e) Education. An Emphasis on Sports Development David Watt believes that there would be greater emphasis on the process of sports development.
This in turn will result in the need for a sports development officer in an organization or locality. He then quotes Ian Thomson for a definition of the term, “Sports development is a process whereby effective opportunities, process, systems and structures are set up to enable and encourage people in all or particular groups and areas to take part in sport and recreation or to improve their performance to whatever level they desire” (as cited in Watt, Year, p.65).In the near future there will be a clamor for more focus in this area of expertise and there will be a demand for more sports development officer.
Based on the definition the primary role of sports development and the sports development officer is to creatively find ways to sustain the spectacular growth of the industry. Technology, Ethics and Social Responsibility Parks and Quarterman claims that there will be three major areas of contemporary management that sports administrators have to contend with in the future and these are: rampaging technological development, ethics and social responsibility. It is easy to predict that technology will continue to improve and that its reach and influence will spread out to every nook and cranny until everyone will no longer be immune to “high-tech”.In this line of reasoning Parks and Quarterman believes that in the future there will be a greater need for something they termed as “high-touch” in response to the increasing role of technology in the lives of those who work in the sports industry. The authors reasoned out that sports administrators would have to understand that not every problem or need can be addressed by a simple touch of the button.
Sports administrators then must learn the art of reaching out to members of the organization and be able to have an added skill which to discern underlying problems that could never be detected by any electronic gadget. With regards to ethics, Parks and Quarterman stress the need for future sports managers to have the ability to understand ethical principles and moral psychology and not just merely be contented with knowing the business aspect.And finally, the future requires for a heightened sense of social responsibility from sports administrators. “For example, professional childcare services will become routine in sport facilities. Sport mangers will become more conscious of environmental concerns and will incorporate this understanding into their business practices. Sport managers of the future will use previously untapped and under tapped target markets, such as women and people of differing ages, abilities and sexual orientation” (Parks ; Quarterman, p.
18).Finally, this paper comes full circle. In the beginning it was pointed out that a visionary by the name of O'Malley saw the need for a course in sports management; and thought he has made an impact in this area, there is much more to be desired. One can expect upgrades in the current educational programs that will cater to future needs of the sports industry. According to Shilbury, Quick, & Westerbeek the future requires more rigid training in this area of expertise and they assert that: Increasingly both the sport industry and educational institutions have realized that sport can no longer be managed by individuals or groups who do not come equipped with certain skills.Modern management of sport is more than just a response to traditional actions or present realities.
It encompasses a vision for the future This vision is based on a well-rounded curriculum cognizant of the need to integrate sport industry knowledge with the fundamentals of management, marketing, accounting and finance, and other business studies. (year, p. x) Conclusion A visionary is not needed to declare that the nature of sports administration will change in the future. As discussed – using the works of management consultants and scholars in the field of sports – there are five major areas that sports managers will have to learn to handle in order for them to become effective in the coming years and decades.
These areas are in a) Sports Development; b) Technology; c) Ethics; d) Social Responsibility and e) Education. The sooner the sports administrator learns to the intricacies of this issues, the better equip he/she is in tackling the problems coming his/her way
