Temple Takes Your Sports Career to the Next Level

When athletes hit a performance plateau, they don’t give up—they change their game. Whether it’s a new training regimen, new techniques, or a new style of playing, the pathway to the next level requires evolving your approach. 

The same goes for the business world, and especially the business of sports. Sometimes the best way to advance your career is by investing in your training and expanding your skillset, so you can jump from the cubicle to the corner office and beyond. Temple University’s Executive Master of Science in Sport Business (EMSSB) can get you in the game with the training you need to reach all-star status. 

If you want to break through to the C-Suite or find a way to the front office, the EMSSB can help you up your game and accelerate your career. With a robust curriculum that balances MBA-level business classes with sports industry management courses, the program empowers candidates to elevate their business acumen, from strategic decision-making to communication skills. 

Upon graduation, EMSSB students are equipped with tools and abilities they can apply to any industry and are part of an alumni network that stretches far beyond the world of sports. EMSSB graduate Erica Vanstone ‘19 is now the CEO of Women’s Flat Track Derby, Inc (WFTDI) and is working on many fronts to shape the growing world of professional roller derby. 

“I came to roller derby as an announcer and later became a skater,” says Vanstone, “And two months into the EMSSB program I was promoted to WFTDA’s Interim Executive Director. I really dug into the analytics-based curriculum, and that has helped us put together solid strategies for projecting sales in the most uncertain time of our lives: the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Whether you already work in sports or are looking to find your foothold in the industry, the EMSSB can push your career forward. Temple designed the program for working professionals, who can complete the degree—which is entirely online—in as few as 13 months. There are also flexible options for scheduling and personalizing your coursework to meet your specific career goals. 

Each class is grouped into cohorts that unite diverse professionals from a multitude of industries and business experiences, which stimulates peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. All courses are taught by dedicated Temple faculty members with extensive experience in business and sports, and students complete coursework in the distinguished Fox School of Business that provides an outstanding foundation for success in any industry. 

“There’s a bit of a mystique around business degrees, and I think part of it stems from learning skills like statistics,” says Vanstone. “It’s taught me to be as flexible as possible with planning and to keep seeking out new information. Now at WFTDI, we run multiple sales scenarios in our budgets, and continue to narrow down the models and improve projections as we get more data.”

Sports and business intersect in myriad ways, which is why the EMSSB emphasizes universal business skills and personalized coursework, to allow candidates to focus and pursue their own pathway to the same goal: getting to the executive level. 

“I was not only the only person in my cohort coming from an amateur sport, but I was also the only one actively working in a women’s sport, and a contact sport at that,” Vanstone says. “There’s so much room to innovate in sports right now, especially in the space of women’s sports. My approach has been: learn what you can and find a part of the industry that doesn’t yet have what you can bring to the table.” 

Members of each cohort stay together throughout the duration of the program, creating a tight-knit circle that forms the foundation of a new sports industry network—one that graduates can draw upon for the rest of their careers. Beyond the classroom, students can leverage Temple’s relationships with teams, brands, and businesses locally and globally through the Center for Industry Engagement; access the university’s Sports Industry Research Center; and tap into an all-star advisory board of high-level professionals from inside and outside of sports. In this way, the EMSSB provides both the education and career guidance graduates need to apply their skills and accelerate their careers.

If you feel stuck on the bench professionally, Temple can give you the edge you need to break through to a senior-level position. The Executive Master of Science in Sport Business teaches skills, offers you experiences, and forges connections that will benefit you in any industry—sports or otherwise—and help you advance wherever your career path may lead.