VALEN Armor: Sports

The Warsaw Sports Marketing Center is a leading think tank for the sports business industry.

Uniting faculty members across multiple disciplines, the Warsaw Center provides a platform for both research and education focusing on the $500 billion dollar sports industry.

At the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, students enjoy an immersive, focused experience that blends classroom instruction with real-world practice. Students don't come to learn marketing and finance principles and apply them to sports, but rather they come specifically to learn marketing and business principles in the context of sports. That's a big difference--and it's what makes the Warsaw Center so original, and why its graduates go on to become leaders in the sports industry for adidas, the NBA, Nike, Octagon, Visa International, and other leading brands.

The Warsaw Center is also a leading industry think-tank for sports business issues. Whether it's at the NBA, NHL, Nike, or ESPN, the Warsaw Center name is well known and respected, bringing open doors, firm handshakes, and smiles. Our affiliated faculty members have published research on topics ranging from stadium finance to consumer behavior and sponsorship, and they are frequently tapped by leading media organizations to offer perspective and insight on the sports industry's top stories. Faculty and staff have been featured in or on ABC's "Nightline," ESPN's "Outside the Lines," CNBC's "Money Talk," Forbes, Businessweek, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times ,and USA Today. Whether it's sports sponsorships, marketing, merchandising, or stadium financing, students can leverage their passions to explore, take risks, and view issues from traditional and emerging perspectives, helping to shape and focus the future of the sports industry.

Rankings and Recognition

• Sports Illustrated called the Warsaw Center the nation's top sports business program in its "America's Best Sports Colleges" special report, October 7, 2002.

• The Wall Street Journal grouped the center in the top five programs of its kind in a September 16, 2006 article.

• In 2007, The SportsBusiness Journal called the Warsaw Center “the premier sports marketing think tank.”

• ESPN The Magazine partners with our MBA students every year to compile its Ultimate Standings, a ranking of professional sports teams based on how much they give back to fans in exchange for their money, time, and emotion.

Notable alumni:

Evan Tanaka, CEO of Valen.

Javier Tafich, GM, Seattle Mariners