It is all about the numbers in sports

Hidden somewhere on the field of play or the announcer’s box is someone charged with a very special job: Watching each and every run, pitch, ball, fight or play and recording it all in the official scorebook. In most sports all details are (or should be) recorded. Then, after the game, the scorekeeper calculates statistics such as batting average, aces, wind speed and many other mind-numbingly-precise details.

Not only do these statistics give something to talk about during the inevitable timeouts in the game (“Player X has shot 10 times at the goal, and got 35% of his shots blocked”), they also provide invaluable information for the coaches, the players and the fans. The stats are reviewed and rehashed, posted and celebrated over (or maybe not..). Statistics matter in basically every sport.

They matter in the management of sports too. Knowing that a certain percentage of sponsors are reacting on your applications is valuable information. It is also important to know how the numbers of athletes change each year, and not to forget about the number of volunteers involved in your sports organization.

Sure, you can get lost in the numbers, but there are a few basics every sports administrator or manager must track on a regular basis:

1.    How many meetings did you call for over a year and who attendance?
2.    What are your financial numbers, and did your team stay within the forecasted budget?
3.    How many website visits/page views did you get? How many pages do they view? Do they come back?
4.    How often do you send out press releases? Which medium does the best coverage, and how does this compare to last year?
5.    How are you using your financial sponsorships, and how often should you report back to your sponsors?
6.    What is the performance of your athlete(s), and how do they compare with last year?

There are many aspects that you can measure, but tracking these statistics isn’t enough. You have to DO something with that knowledge, and review it again and again over time, looking for patterns and trends. You need to know as much about your sport organization as those commentators know about the home team.

This article is taken  from the ebook “10 Management Lessons to learn from Sports”. You can freely download it HERE.

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