In June’s SBJ Jobs Roundtable, Len Perna, chairman and CEO of TurnkeyZRG, suggested an MBA, JD or economics degree might better serve candidates than a sports management degree. However, it is not a matter of being either-or.

In my experience, a sports management degree creates the foundation needed to break into the industry and to understand the ecosystem of sports; an MBA provides the analytical and hard skills needed to make calculated decisions, while advancing professional development.

Both are essential to the future of industry leaders in sports.

I have a sports management degree from California State University, Long Beach. I graduated in 2021 at a time when sporting events still required masks and social distancing. Internships within the industry were scarce. But through intentional relationship building (a soft skill often undervalued) with adjunct professors, I secured an internship with the Los Angeles Lakers. While the degree itself introduced concepts like “ticket drop count” and landmark cases such as O’Bannon v NCAA, the true value of the degree was the proximity to professionals already in the field — a field students like myself were attempting to break into.

By cultivating relationships again as an intern instead of student, I landed my current position at sports and live entertainment........

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