With revenue in excess of $375 billion a year, the sports industry is hardly a small player in the world of business.
But until recently, business schools have payed little attention to the growing industry.
Enter the Wharton Sports Business Initiative -- a new program established this February by officials to link together top-level executives, students and faculty to examine and improve the sports industry.
The initiative comes at the end of a five-year effort by Legal Studies Professor Kenneth Shropshire to create a program focused on the sports industry.
WSBI also hopes to offer more executive education programs, like the one organized this past weekend for NFL players.
The NFL program is part of the league's and the players union's joint effort to provide education for its members so that they can prepare for their post-football lives.
With the average NFL career at only three and a half years, and the average salary at $1.25 million, a pro football career is often not enough to provide long-term financial security. Also, NFL contracts are not guaranteed, which poses even further problems to young players who suffer career-ending injuries.
This is why the NFL's Tuition Reimbursement Program provides for the reimbursement of up to $15,000 per player per year to attend either the Wharton program or a similar one at Harvard Business School.
And it is not just the marginal players who are taking advantage of the program. Of the 36 players who attended the workshop, eight have made the Pro Bowl in their careers, including Eagles defensive back Brian Dawkins, who helped lead the team to the Super Bowl in February.
The workshop focused on personal investments and opportunities for retired players to become entrepreneurs.
Aside from the NFL program, WSBI also has other goals.
WSBI Senior Fellow Charles Grantham said that the initiative will focus on a wide array of problems which face the sports industry, "from the owning and operating of shoe companies to the signing of contracts."
The initiative's 13 faculty members plan to create a number of programs to facilitate this goal including speaker series, independent study opportunities, mentoring, conferences and forums.
Another goal of the program is to create a Wharton Sports Brand Index, an annual ranking of the top brands in various sectors of sports including shoes, teams, apparel and individual athletes, as well as a journal devoted to analyzing sports issues.
Until now, only student clubs have tackled the area of sports business on campus.
Lucas Poelker, a senior in Wharton and outgoing president of Wharton Wide World of Sports, said that he believes the program will add dimension to an area formerly lacking in the school.
"Before the initiative, there wasn't really much out there besides us," Poelker said.
He added that due to the club's lack of resources, they weren't really able to bring in a lot of speakers or experts in the field.
"Most of the speakers we got were through personal contacts," Poelker said, adding that he hopes the initiative will help the club to bring in more speakers from the industry and facilitate better contacts.
