Some risks were obvious from the very beginning: club Celtics very poorly acted, badly coped and has unsuccessfully been presented in the market. «At us was a lot of work», - the professor speaks. But he has preferred to trust in the intuition, having made calculations of risks, having employed excellent professionals and having given to them the power. «If you make it, you can succeed», - Grausbek adds.

Game of Celtics have not changed for a night, but gradually the belief of professor Grausbeka and its partners has been rewarded. Last June a team in a duel with club Los Angeles Lakers has won first champion's title NBA since 1986.Tickets sales have increased after a victory (despite the fact that  since then they have fallen as sports is not completely protected from financial crisis), and professor Grausbek  says, that  partners «were made the informal proposal» in 600 million dollars for a team soon after a victory, but they have refused.

Sport fields

In business school Kelley School of Business Wayne Winston, working as a «the teacher on management and technologies of decision-making», also prospers thanks to sports. In the book «Mathletics» (which  is planned to be released at the end of 2009), he considers application of MBA techniques  taught to MBA candidates, such as the analysis of probability and statistics, in sports business. As he said, they can be applied concerning a number of sports questions, such as pricing of tickets, marketing and a team, and even what quantity of sausages in the hot dogs to order for game.

Professor Winston also is the adviser of one more NBA team - Dallas Mavericks. There he uses the techniques for the analysis of the given competitions of a command to define the best players, the best combinations, corresponding wage levels and many other things. Mathletics  is applied on its classes at  Kelley, and the professor hopes, that economic recession will lead to  schools realising of possibilities of sectors which are behind frameworks of financial services.

In Wharton School of Business the belief of teachers in sports business extends on students. Five years ago the school has started the project of a scientific centre of researchers Wharton Sports Business Initiative under control of professor Ken Shropshire who considers, that his problem is to make schools perceive business in sports as seriously as in a banking.

This project gives specialised programs for a number of clients, including National Football League (NFL). Stretching a hand, students of Wharton schools help the players approaching to the termination of the sports career and «to an exit from game», training them to establish communications, to put up money and to carry on negotiations concerning the position after the termination of game practice. The professor Shropshire considers: «Many of these players have rather modest education or are newly-baked graduates of the college, therefore the listed skills are absent». This year he hopes to continue Wharton school program, for the first time having held contest of the business plans based on sports business.

If you are not a sportsman, support a sportsman


Some MBA candidates respecting sports take out the enthusiasm for school frameworks. One of them - John Wirtz, who received MBA in University of Nebraska, now he is the chief executive of new company Agile Sports Technologies. Being studied at  Nebraska University, he has developed  program that was embodied in «Hudl», the software package offered by  Agile company which includes video, the schedule of games, presentations and selection of players for viewing online by players and managers. Confirming the views of the professor Shropshire, the project has initially been financed at the expense of the prize-winning money received at competition of business plans. In three years ten teams have subscribed for this software, including  NFL team New York Jets.

However business possibilities in sports are limited. Professor Vinston notices, that in America only 200 professional sports teams exist, and as he said, they hire on the average only two employees in a year, and this amount because of economic recession, most likely, still becomes less. To MBA graduates who wish to take root into the sports industry, he advises to brake: «Any team does not take them for work only to analyze statistics, - he considers, - the promising candidate should give data which will show improvement in competitive activity and profit, and then to find public for this work. Only then you take».

«The people concerning sports, can work on exacting clients, - Mr. Virts informs, - they know, that their activity is in a view and can be easily estimated, and it can toughen a state of things. But there is a place for the new enterprises, and it can be found behind frameworks of professional large-scale monopolies».

In January, for example, Agile company has let out the Hudl version for sports teams of higher educational institutions and colleges. By present time teams of various sports directions of 60 institutes from 20 states have subscribed for the given program. «The sports industry involves keen people, - considers Virts. - But if you work as assiduously, as the professional sportsman, you will achieve success». And in a situation when improvement in sphere of financial services is not expected shortly, graduates MBA will wisely arrive, if begin to search for possibilities in nonconventional and, probably, more pleasant directions.