Managing Sport Events

Whether it’s a local event, state championship, or international competition, running a successful sport event requires the knowledge and skills to plan, organize, promote, lead, and communicate. Managing Sport Events presents the principles and practices related to effective event management, taking readers through the entire process from event conception through postevent evaluation.

Merging research findings with best practices, Managing Sport Events is an essential text for sport event management courses and combined sport event and facilities management courses. In each chapter, key principles of event management are presented and reinforced through examples from the sport industry. Case studies from a variety of sports and settings offer a balanced, practical perspective for handling all levels of events. In addition, each chapter features a profile of an industry professional providing insights from event managers working in venues.

This text also includes learning activities that challenge students to assess existing events and consider how they might manage these events differently based on information from the chapter. Numerous checklists, templates, and worksheets throughout the text demonstrate a variety of tools for successful planning and implementation of events. The accompanying instructor guide offers detailed suggestions on incorporating the text into a combined facilities and events course as well as activities and guidelines for implementing a semester-long event management project.

Managing Sport Events prepares students to enter the field with the conceptual skills to immediately engage in event production and evaluation. It also offers current industry professionals a reliable reference and professional development resource. Readers will find a comprehensive discussion of what it takes to produce a successful event:

• Event conception and development

• Key planning areas, including staffing, budgeting, marketing, promotion, sponsorship, and legal and risk management

• Key operational areas, including services, logistics, and on-site management

• Postevent duties and considerations

Managing Sport Events integrates the traditional business segments of sport management with the unique requirements of event management. From a local youth soccer tournament to the Olympic Games, Managing Sport Events is an essential resource for current and future professionals working in parks and recreation, tourism and hospitality, and sports at the high school, college, amateur, minor league, professional, and international levels.

T. Christopher Greenwell, PhD, is a professor in the department of health and sport science at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. He has taught event management since 2002 and published several articles on unique aspects of the service environment at sporting events and how these can be used as an effective marketing tool.

Greenwell has direct experience as an event manager, having planned and coordinated the event management, promotions, and game operations for all athletic events in an NCAA Division I athletic program. Events under his management set attendance records in men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and women’s soccer. Greenwell was also an event volunteer for major events such as the Ryder Cup, NASCAR, and the World Equestrian games.

Greenwell and his wife, Donna, reside in Louisville. In his free time, he enjoys watching mixed martial arts and playing fantasy football.

Leigh Ann Danzey-Bussell, PhD, is an assistant professor of sport management at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. She has taught event and facility management courses since 2006. In 2008 she was named Outstanding Professor of the Year as recognized by Sigma Phi Epsilon, Gamma Chapter at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

Danzey-Bussell has over 25 years of experience working in the sport industry in various capacities in NCAA Division I, II, and III and NAIA programs as well as in the nonprofit sector. She has served as the executive director of Team Clydesdale International, Inc., a nonprofit organization responsible for hosting national and world championships in various events. She also worked as the media relations coordinator for the United States Golf Tour. Danzey-Bussell worked as a sport information director responsible for event management and promotion at the University of Alabama, University of South Alabama, and Northeast Louisiana University. Danzey-Bussell serves as one of the co-chairs of the North American Society for Sport Management Teaching & Learning Fair and is a member of the Finance Committee for the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport.

Danzey-Bussell has volunteered for local, regional, and national sporting events including American Heart Association Heart Walks, Southeastern Conference gymnastics championships, two NCAA Final Fours (Indianapolis and Atlanta), NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, and the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis. She also served the University of Alabama as the Alumni Chapter President for the state of Indiana for 10 years.

Danzey-Bussell enjoys attending and watching sporting events, sharing movies with her family, and cooking. She and her husband, Timothy, and daughter, Sophie Grace, reside in Carrollton, Georgia.

David J. Shonk, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he conducts research in sport event management and has taught a course in sport facility and event management. Shonk has worked as a meeting and event planner in both professional sport and the nonprofit sector since 2003. During that time he was responsible for planning a range of conferences, tours, and events including concerts, on-field promotions, and special events, such as the Carolina League All-Star Game. He also worked as marketing director of the Salem Professional Baseball Club and director of development at DECA, Inc.

In 2011, Shonk founded the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Sports Commission, where he serves as the executive director of this all-volunteer organization. He is also a member at large of the North American Society for Sport Management Executive Council.

Shonk lives in Harrisonburg with his wife, Jennifer, and their children. He enjoys coaching his children’s sport teams, traveling with his family, and staying fit with cardio workouts.