This module aims to:

Provide students with a detailed understanding of the core components of a set of financial statements in terms of assets, liabilities, equity, income, profit and costs;

Provide students with the ability to examine the regulation of sporting institutions and the challenges in developing and implementing financial controls;

Provide students with the opportunity to critically assess a set of financial statements and comment upon the financial strengths, weaknesses and risks associated with an individual sports based business;

Develop students’ ability to value a sports business/institution using a variety of methods;

Provide students with basic analytical tools to understand economic problems using sports economics as a laboratory;

Explore the causes and consequences of a managerial change on ‘sports performance’ (business and athletic);

Enable students to accurately predict the demand for sport as req uired in management practice.

(LO1) Students will be able to demonstrate detailed understanding of the components of a balance sheet and critically evaluate their interactions and consequences for sports business organisations.

(LO2) Students will be able to demonstrate detailed understanding and critical interpretation of the components of a profit or loss account/income statement and the concept of breakeven and profitability.

(LO3) Students will be able to critically evaluate the importance of cash to a sports-based business and how cash flows differ from profits.

(LO4) Students will be able to analyse and explain, using financial and non-financial metrics and relationships, the accounts of a sports-based business/institution.

(LO5) Students will be able to value a sports-based business/institution using differing methodologies and analyse the risks involved in such models and methods.

(LO6) Students will be able to evaluate the motives, benefits and drawbacks of having financial controls in relation to sports businesses that are different from those of other industries.

(LO7) Students will be able to interrogate and critically evaluate key contemporary issues regarding sports business and associated industries based on economic data and analysis.

(LO8) Students will be able to critically analyse and synthesise a range of (possible conflicting) ideas derived from sports economics through formal and informal written and verbal communication mediums.

(LO9) Students will be able to use secondary data and economic principles to suggest, and justify alternative courses of sports business practice.

(S1) Commercial awareness
Students will demonstrate commercial awareness through development of a detailed understanding of financial statements and how they are linked to external stakeholders and sporting performance.

(S2) Verbal and written communication
Communication skills will develop the ability to discuss and explain the financial and economic issues covered in seminar tasks. Written communication skills will be developed through the assignments.

(S3) Numeracy
Numeracy skills will be developed through the use of ratio analysis and KPIs when reviewing and summarising financial statements. Additionally, students will develop skills in the quantitative/ statistical analysis and interpretation of economic data.

(S4) IT skills
IT skills will be used when using spreadsheets for economic modelling and to analyse financial forecasts.

(S5) Research skills
Developed through secondary data collection and synthesis.

(S6) Ethical awareness
Ethical awareness skills will be developed by looking at a number of issues e.g. Corruption in sport, the legal and institutional rules in relation to financial controls and how some involved in the industries seek to circumvent these rules.

The module will be delivered over twelve weeks, comprising ten teaching weeks plus two enhancement weeks. The approach to teaching and learning will combine the use of large group in-person and asynchronous lectures, small group seminars (or workshops), scheduled seminar preparation sessions, and cross-programme contemporary issues sessions.

Lectures (total of 14 hours) - Each week will include at least a one-hour scheduled lecture, except for four weeks (scheduled at the beginning, mid-points and end of the module), which will be delivered as two-hour, in-person, live lectures. One-hour lectures could also be delivered live and in-person but may alternatively be provided online or asynchronously (including appropriate scaffolding and online supporting material) at the discretion of the module teaching team.

Seminars (total of 12 hours) - Each module will include six two-hour seminars. These seminars will be interactive small-group in-person workshops.

Seminar prep aration (total of 6 hours) - Each seminar will also include a scheduled one-hour preparation session, enabling students to engage in relevant preparation activities, as deemed necessary by the module teaching team.

Contemporary Issues Sessions (total of 4 hours) - The module will also include two two-hour contemporary issues lectures or events that are directly relevant to the module and broader programme of study. These may include a lecture from a member of faculty on their research, an external industry speaker or a member of the advisory board and will be organised by the Director of Studies in coordination with module teams.

Self-directed learning (total of 164 hours) – Students will engage in self-directed learning in a wide variety of ways throughout the programme. This will include engaging in scaffolded independent learning tasks set outside the classroom on the virtual learning platform, independent reading from essential and recommended sources (e.g., jour nal articles, textbooks, industry reports, practitioner publications), assignment development and preparation, formative online quizzes, case study analysis, simulation-based tasks, and self-directed group activities. Staff responsible for the module will also provide weekly office-hours and dedicated assessment and feedback sessions for students to seek individual support and formative feedback on their independent learning and progress.

Core components of financial statements: assets, liabilities, equity, income, profit and costs.

Concept of profitability and breakeven in relation to private and non-profit making sport organisations.

Differences between profit and cash flows.

Analysis of financial statements within sports-based businesses using financial metrics and key performance indicators to identify financial and non-financial trends.

Regulation of sporting institutions and the challenges in developing and implementing financial controls.

Corporate governance and ownership models: sporting relative to financial performance from a multi-stakeholder perspective.

Methods of valuing a sporting business.

Valuation of Business Infrastructure (financial measures and models).

Introduction to sports economics.

The American and European models of sport.

Modelling sport & TV audience.

Analysis of players' behaviour.

Causes and consequences o f managerial change.

Corruption in sport.

Data presentation and visualisation.