Do you want to become a sports accountant? If you enjoy both sports and finance, working in the accounting department of a professional or college sports team could be your dream job. What do you need to do to find such a job or others in that field?
You Need Your Accounting Degree
The first thing that you need to do is to obtain your accounting degree. For entry level jobs, an two or four-year degree may be all that you need to get your foot in the door. However, you may need an advanced degree such as an MBA in Sports Management in accounting if you want to work as a salary cap guru for a team or want to negotiate contracts as a player agent, according to The Chronicle.
Learn the Lingo
Whether you are working in the sports world or working for a bank, you are going to need to learn accounting lingo. When a player signs a contract, the media constantly refers to terms such as signing bonus, amortized over the life of the loan and deferred money. It is critical that you understand that a signing bonus represents guaranteed money, amortization means that the amount is spread out over the life of a contract and deferred money is money that is paid to a player after he is no longer with the team. It is important to know what these things are, because these tools make it easier for teams to stay under the salary cap or help them manage their cash flow from season to season.
Apply for Listed Job Openings
Many people who work as accountants within a sports team got their start in an industry other than sports. Since most of the skills that you learn in school and practice each day in an accounting job are transferable to the sports accounting world, getting a job is a matter of building your resume to the point that you become a viable candidate for such a job. This means that you could spend years working for an investment banking firm or as a self-employed accountant and you would still be qualified to become a sports accountant.
Accountants Can Perform a Variety of Duties
A sports accountant does not necessarily spend all day in an office making sure that accounts balance or tax forms are sent out on time. Depending on your skills, you could spend several nights a year out to dinner with famous athletes helping your team negotiate a team friendly contract or creating policy that helps the team become more competitive. If the owner of the franchise doesn’t want to spend to the cap, you could make an objective case as to why your team needs to do so. Depending on how much the owner trusts you, you could become the reason why your team opens the checkbook and signs a player who leads the team to a championship.
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Those who want to become a sports accountant need only an accounting degree and the ability to keep a sports franchise profitable. If you can do that, the team’s owner and other executives will eventually find you to be an important part of what everyone hopes will be a successful team both on and off the field.
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