With the NBA All-Star weekend officially to a close, now is the perfect time to consider exploring the business of basketball as a career.
And there’s no better place to learn about the fundamentals of the game that’s at the core of Canada’s sports industry.
Cheri Bradish, a sports marketing professor at Ryerson University, has up teamed with the Toronto Raptors to build a course around the business of the game.
Bradish co-teaches the course with Raptors executive Teresa Resch and says the course, titled “Global Sports Marketing: The Business of Basketball,” is the only one of its kind.
According to Bradish, it’s quite rare for a professional sports team to partner with a local university to work on a semester-long academic project this specific. So for basketball fans and ex-players who are looking to get back into school, it might just be the perfect opportunity to explore this industry.
When it came time to determining when to offer the course to third and fourth-year undergrads, Bradish said there were a number of circumstances to make this winter the opportune time to begin offering the class.
First, the NBA all-star weekend was being held in Toronto for the first time ever; Bradish said she knew the entire basketball industry’s attention would be on Toronto, making it the target for basketball related marketing campaigns.
Secon, the Raptors now have their 905 farm team located in Mississauga, which would work as the students’ case study focus.
As the Toronto Star reports, “much of the class’ research and hands-on work deals with researching the best way to sell the D-League team to a local market historically unkind to minor league sports.”
“They’re operational strategy and marketing cases,” says Bradish. “They’re somewhat hypothetical but allow the students to dive into a marketing strategy.”
Students are required to attend class twice a week, with the first class solely devoted to theory and assigned readings.
Students are required to attend at the school’s larger lecture hall for the second class, where Resch moderates panel discussions involving basketball executives from Toronto and beyond.
For those looking to break into the sports industry but lack the skills and physical talent, this is the perfect opportunity to be involved in something that they’re passionate about.
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