Kaleb Tkacs became involved in sports management from the moment he stepped foot on Duquesne University’s campus in August 2023.
Tkacs, of Scottdale, joined as a volunteer film crew member with the Duquesne football team that fall. In 2024, he was elevated as a student assistant, overseeing the film crew, and became assistant director of operations and video coordinator last year.
“It’s been a really awesome experience I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else,” said Tkacs, a junior majoring in sports marketing, business analytics and supply chain management. “Twenty years old, and I’m an assistant director.”
An expanding career field and growing opportunities in sports management have Pittsburgh-area universities with sports marketing or similar programs experiencing heightened interest from current and prospective students.
Large-scale events in the city — like the Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball tournament last weekend and the NFL Draft next month — only bolster the collegiate programs for students.
“(Pittsburgh’s) known for education, medicine and the sports teams,” said Ronald Dick, a sports marketing professor at Duquesne. “It’s a real hotbed for sports. The NFL Draft shows that it is.”
Steady growth
Dick said the number of colleges that offer sports marketing programs has grown drastically over the past 40 years.
So have the jobs available.
Dick cited his experience at the Philadelphia 76ers, where he was director of group sales. When he left the NBA team about three decades ago, “there were only 25 full-time benefited employees. Now, there’s more than 250.”
Overall employment in entertainment and sports occupations is projected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations from 2024 to 2034, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 99,700 openings are projected each year, on average.
Jobs include athletic directors, facilities and operations management, sports agents, event or team managers and more.
There are just over 100 students pursuing a concentration or major in sports marketing at Duquesne, Dick said.
At Point Park University, the Sports, Arts, Entertainment & Music Business program enrolls 125 students, said Robert Derda, chair of the department. Forty-five students entered the program this year, the largest number in the past six years.
The Downtown Pittsburgh campus is within walking distance of PPG Paints Arena and not far from PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium on the North Shore. Highmark Stadium, home to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, is across the river in Station Square.
“There’s no doubt our location plays a role,” Derda said. “That gives them a real advantage.”
Sports management students routinely land internships with the Pirates, Penguins, Steelers, Riverhounds, the Cleveland Cavaliers, college athletics and minor league teams.
“Sometimes that leads to jobs, sometimes it doesn’t, but it always leads to a letter of recommendation and a reference. We cultivate those relationships,” Dick said.
Slippery Rock University’s sport management program this spring has just more than 160 students seeking majors, the most in six years, said Brian Crow, program coordinator. There are 40 students seeking sport management minors.
‘Splash in high-profile events’
Location attracts prospective students to sports management degree programs in Pittsburgh, Dick said.
The NFL Draft, expected to draw more than 500,000 people, runs April 23-25 in Pittsburgh.
Point Park students will be on a data collection team or will assist the NFL with surveying fans’ experiences, Derda said. One student will work with the Steelers as an operations intern.
Tkacs and other students worked the Atlantic 10 men’s basketball tournament held last weekend at PPG Paints Arena.
Among all the colleges, students have gotten experience at Super Bowls, national collegiate tournaments, major and minor league sports and more.
At Slippery Rock, students graduate with more than 800 hours of hands-on experience working or volunteering in the field, Crow said.
“The splash in high-profile events does make a difference,” Crow said.
Good job market
Duquesne, Slippery Rock, Point Park and Pitt all run their sport management programs through their business schools. Pitt started its sport management certificate program about eight years ago, said Deborah Good, associate dean of undergraduate programs at Pitt’s School of Business.
“The industry is a tough industry,” Good said. “We thought we could school them in the area of back office operations. They needed to couple their interest in sports with business.”
Pitt’s certificate program couples well with any business major, Good said. The program is capped at 26 students per semester. Courses are usually taught by industry professionals on faculty as adjunct professors.
“The host of industries and companies are all across the board,” she said. “We want to expose you to, yes, there’s major league sports, and here’s all the things attached to that.”
Crow said that, years ago, positions like collegiate athletic directors were typically selected from former athletes. The field has since become more professionalized and formalized, he said.
“Now they are astute people with advanced degrees and financial and personnel management experience,” Crow said. “It shows the growth of the industry.”
The professors don’t see the industry’s popularity and growth slowing down anytime soon. Crow sees expanding job opportunities with more collegiate student-athletes signing brand deals and being paid from third parties for endorsements.
Jobs in sports management are far less likely to be made obsolete by artificial intelligence.
“People have a real thirst for live events,” Derda said. “There will always be jobs in sports.”
Dick predicts the industry’s growth will be seen worldwide.
“It’s only going to get more global,” he said. “It’s not in the 50 states, we’ve exhausted that.”