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The Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball team has enjoyed strong fan support over the years as the Bulldogs play in front of sold out crowds each time they take the field. The problem is not the ability to sell tickets, but the high frequency of “no-shows.” Ticketing Director, John King, must consider the big picture when formulating a plan to solve this problem. There are many areas within the athletic department that contribute to this problem, and can help “right the ship” as John described it. The goal is to solve the problem with frequency of attendance at home baseball games from multiple aspects. Many areas within the athletic department factor into this process: 1) fundraising and development, 2) ticket office, 3) marketing department, and 4) promotions department.

The current exploratory study determined the prevalence of the sport management academic degree being offered in top-ranked institutions as based on U.S. News & World Report rankings. A focus on the differences of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees being offered, or not offered, was placed on national universities and liberal arts colleges because of the prevalence of these institution types and their educational settings. Additionally, the study aimed to determine if relevant indicators predicted a sport management degree being offered at a top-ranked national university and liberal arts college. Results indicated significant differences, with sport management degrees being offered at a higher frequency in national universities than liberal arts colleges. However, the sport management degree was largely not offered by the majority of top-ranked institutions. Notably, ranking, enrollment, and public/private institutional status did not predict sport management degree offerings at a liberal arts college. However, a national university had an increased likelihood of offering a sport management degree as enrollment increased and ranking increased (i.e., moved closer to 150). Altogether, the project highlighted that while the sport management academic discipline has certainly grown since its inception, growth has not really occurred at top-ranked higher education institutions, especially liberal arts colleges.

Claire Monroe was challenged to increase a minor league baseball team’s revenue and was in charge of developing a marketing plan to target female baseball fans. This would be a new target market for the team. The increasing female fan base can create revenue for baseball franchises through ticket, merchandise, and concession sales, as well as connecting with sponsors who specifically target female customers. Although there are many gender similarities in regards to fan avidity, there are important differences between the sexes in terms of motivation, media, and merchandise needs. Claire must research the target audience, analyze marketing research data, and make recommendations to increase female attendance to have those women spend more money on baseball-related items.

This study examined satisfaction levels with graduate sport management programs in the United States. A 26-item graduate degree program satisfaction instrument was developed and administered electronically to a sample of current students and alumni from seven sport management master’s degree programs yielding a 54.31% response rate (N = 302). Respondents generally indicated high levels of satisfaction with their decision to pursue a graduate sport management degree, but were significantly less satisfied with the specific school they attended. Respondents indicated the most beneficial courses included current topics, sport and society, sport marketing, and sport ethics, whereas the least beneficial courses included statistics, international sport, and research methods. Students who earned their undergraduate degree in business were consistently less satisfied with how well their graduate program taught them various sport management skills compared with students with undergraduate degrees in sport management, sport-related studies, or other majors.