BUSINESS OF SPORTS

Establishing Career Pathways for Sports-Related Industry Careers

Sports is one of the most powerful platforms that can create unparalleled career opportunities to marginalized youth.   However, the main goal of “making it” as an athlete is often overshadowed by countless stories of athletes falling short and not having portable skills to “make it” as a non- athlete.   

As such, California is not maximizing the opportunity to create intentional career pathways that go far beyond just playing the sport. Sports create a full spectrum of careers ranging from event coordinator, marketing, sales representative, branding, community relations, financial analyst, facility operations, social media director, sports anchor, writer/editor, photographer, etc. As part of our ongoing efforts to identify solutions to mitigate economic, educational and social inequities for youth of color, ideateLABs in partnership with the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color have launched an exploratory initiative around the Business of Sports, with initial efforts conducting a high-level landscape analysis of current interest, investments and programs currently made by professional sports teams in California. It’s necessary that we bring in different sports teams to further discuss pipelines that will provide opportunities within the business of sports to young boys and men of color.