Sports Business Opportunities: Fan to Fortune!

Are you a sports geek! Starting a business based on professional sports could put you in the big leagues.

The sports industry is "glamorous; it's more exciting, if you're into drama and excitement and visibility. And it's simply more fun." The sports-industry crowd is much more fun, and more satisfying [to be a part of], than the corporate sector for Sports lovers.

In the corporate world, you're working on what the client needs done, and you often don't feel that great about the product you're working on. But when it's related to sports, because most of us here enjoy sports 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we feed off that satisfaction. And so even though it's a business, suddenly it becomes a much more interesting one when it's spun around a sporting event.

There are a hundred dozen ways to explain the appeal of sports--and yet no way to explain it. You either get it or you don't.

But one thing is for sure: "Sports" is plural; it's almost always about the team. There are a few exceptions, like golf and tennis, but most sports are a group effort. That's why fans always shout "We won," instead of "You won." But as some entrepreneurs know, you can be part of a winning team without being able to pitch a 95-mile-an-hour fastball. You don't even have to paint your face green and scream like a lunatic in 25-degree weather. You can be part of a team by starting a business in the professional sports industry.

Sure, you can focus your company on college sports, where everybody is making money, even the players--or do you think free college tuition and other perks aren't forms of money? Or you might make a mint with a business aimed squarely at the high school or kiddie sports crowd. But arguably, your best point spread comes when you can attach yourself in some way to professional sports, where there are more teams and fans, and where there's more money. In part, that's because it's an ever-changing, ever-evolving industry. There are a lot of barriers of entering professional sports, citing a base of established competitors, many of whom are running lean by outsourcing their operations. But on the plus side, "there's differentiation and specialization," more so than in other industries. For instance, there is a very successful an entrepreneur who sells briefcases, watches and other leather-made gifts, all manufactured from old major league baseball gloves. That type of innovation is rooted in the history of the sports industry.

And so if you want the best odds to create your own winning team, you may hit a home run by starting a business based on professional sports.

How to Be a Contender

Innovation, market trends, manufacturers, distributors--there are a lot of terms thrown about in the sports industry that you'll also hear in the corporate sector. So while it's obvious, it still needs to be said--a sports-related business is a business.

So you love sports, and you love the business world, but you're not sure what type of sports business you want to start? Here are but a few ideas:

• Sports fantasy camps:  These are growing in popularity-they let fans experience what it's really like to play on a professional cricket team, basketball team, baseball team or what have you; generally, some sort of former professional athlete is on hand to give an aura of authenticity.
• A sports magazine: You could look for an underserved market with a growing fan base and start putting a magazine together.
• A Web site devoted to a sport: You could sell officially licensed products and books on the sport and offer chat rooms, scores, articles and information about said sport.
• Finding and buying a sports-related franchise: For example: The Alpharetta, Georgia-based company, which had 50 franchises across the world, specializes in training athletes--helping them increase speed, power and agility, while preventing sports-related injuries.
• Sports-themed restaurant or bar: Who doesn't like to eat? For other ideas, simply think of the business first, and then apply sports to it. If you've always wanted a video production company, you could specialize in producing sports documentaries; if you're interested in printing, you could produce inspirational sports posters and sports-themed greeting cards; if you've always dreamed of creating snacks or drinks, veer toward sports drinks and energy bars; if computer games are your thing, specialize in developing sports video games. The list goes on and on.
• Teaching classes in sports entrepreneurship and sports events tourism: This is again a upcoming and trendy business opportunity.