Sports Management in South Africa

With South Africa hosting some of the biggest sporting events in recent times, this has led to a world-class infrastructure. This has opened up avenues for entrepreneurs to venture into the field of sports management. This article talks about how to start your own business in South Africa, opportunities and growth potential as well as challenges, in setting up a business in sports management.

South Africa has hosted some of the biggest sporting events in the world, be it the FIFA world cup or the Cricket world cup, this has led to major infrastructure being in place. The country’s ability to host an event successfully is recognized the world over.The emergence of the country as a major sports attraction has let to the emergence of Sports management as a major business prospect.

The sports industry is one of the biggest industries in today’s world and places importance on building relationships to retain its competitiveness.Sport management concerns with the business aspect of the sports: sports marketing , event or facility management.

Professional sports management companies have come up in huge numbers in western countries and take care of sports personalities and sporting events. It encompasses all the activities from pre-event planning and preparation to post event prize distribution ceremonies and clean up activities.

With the current rise in the sporting culture an entrepreneur can look forward to start a sports management company. With rugby, cricket and athletics being the 3 major sports attractions of the country, a company can initially concentrate on any one of the three and then expand later on.

Starting up your own company

For individuals looking to start their own business they shouldn’t look further than SEDA.

The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) is an agency of the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). Seda was established in December 2004, through the National Small Business Amendment Act, Act 29 of 2004.
It is mandated to implement government’s small business strategy; design and implement a standard and common national delivery network for small enterprise development; and integrate government-funded small enterprise support agencies across all tiers of government. Seda’s mission is to develop, support and promote small enterprises throughout the country, ensuring their growth and sustainability in co–ordination and partnership with various role players, including global partners, who make international best practices available to local entrepreneurs.

(http://www.seda.org.za/Pages/Seda-Welcome.aspx)

Growth potential

In this multi-billion dollar industry , where a sports management company has various roles to play the growth potential is a lot. With South Africa launching a formal bid for the 2020 summer Olympics and where no African country has ever hosted an Olympics before, there is tremendous chance for Durban to win the rights. This can also provide unlimited potential for growth in such cases.

Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme is the cradle of community sport in South Africa. The programme was launched in 2005. The purpose of the SMPP is to grow communities through sport and to develop sport in the communities and schools through selected sporting activities and the empowerment of communities and schools in conjunction with stakeholders. This provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs to join hands with this program which then opens up further avenues for growth.

(http://www.info.gov.za/aboutsa/sport.htm)Recruitment With a spurt of institutes like Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University which have come up in the country , the task of finding suitable people to work in the organization won’t be a problem.

By Vipulnanda