Sports Management Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The key gives Event sponsorship as the most popular form.

Sponsoring an event, such as a tournament, a race or a series, often with naming rights ('title sponsorship'), is the most common form of sports sponsorship. It gives the sponsor a clearly defined property, concentrated media coverage and on-site branding and hospitality, with less risk than tying the brand to one athlete or team.

Individual athletes, teams and leagues are also sponsored, but each is a narrower and less common form than event sponsorship.

Answer: C

PR is best described as Low cost, high credibility, low control.

Public relations works through publicity in the media, which is not paid for like advertising, so it is low in cost. Because the message appears as news or comment by an independent source, audiences find it more credible. But the organisation cannot control what journalists finally write or when, so control is low.

Advertising is the opposite: high cost, high control and lower credibility. The other combinations misdescribe PR on at least one of the three.

Answer: D

The model used most is Press Agentry.

James Grunig and Todd Hunt described four models of public relations: press agentry/publicity, public information, two-way asymmetric and two-way symmetric. Press agentry, one-way publicity aimed at getting attention, often with little regard for complete truth, was estimated to be the most widely practised of the four.

The two-way symmetric model is presented as the ideal, but it is the least practised, and the public information and asymmetric models fall in between.

Answer: B

Inspiring the staff reflects Leadership skill.

Leadership is the ability to influence and motivate people towards a goal: setting a vision, encouraging commitment and inspiring the team to give its best. That is exactly what inspiring the staff describes.

Negotiating is reaching agreement with others, project management is planning and controlling tasks and resources, and budgeting is financial planning; none is primarily about inspiring people.

Answer: B

Dynamic pricing means prices that change based on demand and other factors.

Under dynamic pricing, ticket prices rise or fall in real time with demand, the opponent, the day of the week, the weather, the team's form and the number of seats left, much as airline fares do. Many professional sports clubs now use it to fill seats and raise revenue.

Fixed prices are the opposite, and group discounts and early bird offers are separate pricing tactics with set rules.

Answer: B

Putting plans into action is the function of Directing.

In the classical functions of management, planning decides what is to be done, organizing arranges the people and resources, directing guides, leads and motivates people to carry out the plans, and controlling checks performance against the plans and corrects deviations.

So directing is the stage where plans are actually executed through people, while the other three come before or after it.

Answer: C

The key gives assignment of personnel in accordance with competence and suitability.

Supervision is concerned with people at work: placing the right staff in the right duties according to their competence and suitability, guiding them and checking their work. Assigning personnel this way is a general supervisory practice that applies to every programme.

Communicating with participants, crowd control at large events and the safety of people and property are specific operational tasks of event management rather than general supervisory practices.

Answer: A

The platform not commonly used for live updates is the Newspaper.

A printed newspaper appears once a day, so it reports results and analysis after the event; it cannot give live, real-time updates.

Radio and television broadcast live commentary and coverage, and social media carries instant scores, clips and updates during the game, so all three are used for real-time sports communication.

Answer: B

A broken promise under a contract is a Breach.

A breach of contract occurs when a party fails to perform a term of the contract without lawful excuse, for example a player who leaves before his contract ends or a club that does not pay agreed wages. The other party may claim damages or other remedies.

To disaffirm is to cancel a contract one is entitled to avoid (as a minor may), a waiver is a voluntary giving up of a right, and a release of liability is a signed agreement not to sue for injuries.

Answer: D

The correct matching is a-iv, b-i, c-ii, d-iii.

• Stakeholder's principle: include consumers, users, special interest groups and employees in planning.
• Continuous improvement: periodic audits, reviews and opinion surveys with user groups.
• Cross-functional principle: cross-functional teams or task forces plan together.
• Competition principle: recognise competitors' programmes, facilities and perks.

Each principle is named after what it requires, so the other codes misassign at least two of them.