The University of Guelph is putting a twist on a program that trains students to potentially reach the front office of their favourite sports franchise.
The bachelor of commerce in sport and event management course, launching in fall 2025, will be fully online.
“We know that sport management is a high-demand program, no matter how you run it, whether on campus or online,” said Ann Pegoraro, a management professor and the Lang chair in sport management.
“Students love the program, students are interested in getting a business degree that focuses on sport, so we took those two factors together and said ‘is there a way we could take our existing on-campus program, build a similar one online in a way that would augment what we do on campus.’”
The in-person version of the course launched in 2020, and just graduated its first cohort.
U of G is one of just two universities in Canada to offer a bachelor of commerce in sport and event management.
The cap for the in-person program is around 130, but the university fields about 800 applications a year.
Pegoraro said the online course will be separate from the existing in-person course, but isn’t sure what the cap will be. She added she doesn’t see the online program ballooning into super large classes.
An issue the university has run into is professional athletes who can’t relocate or make it to campus regularly are looking for flexibility.
Pegoraro said since the two programs are offered separately, a student would have to transfer in order to move from online to in-person.
“We’re looking to Ontario students to come to campus for the most part, and anyone else in the country that wants to have that on-campus experience,” she said.
“We’re thinking beyond the borders of our province, to across the country where there isn’t sport management programs, and certainly not business ones. Sort of meet with students where they are, and where they might want to learn closer to home.”
It also allows students to learn on their own time through eight semesters of courses.
There is also a sport and event management co-op for over 20 months.
The U of G website noted some co-op experiences can include “supporting the hosting of a national championship, event marketing for professional sports teams, and measuring the economic, environmental and social impact of sports and events.”
Pegoraro said graduates have “numerous” choices for places of employment.
“You can do most anything that a regular business degree student graduate can do, and then you have specialized knowledge around sport as an industry as well,” she said.
She said there are professional teams, but also amateur sport organizations that can take on students.
“We have seven NHL teams, we have coming women’s sports in the WNBA franchise, the PWHL,” she said. “There’s a myriad list of places for students to go, from community sport organizations all the way to professional ones.”
