If anyone had any doubt about the world-changing nature of sport and the huge sums involved in staging landmark sporting events, the Beijing Olympic Games was as powerful a rejoinder as could be imagined. From the vast infrastructure projects to the iconic stadiums, Beijing spared no expense. London 2012’s £9 billion budget seems like loose change in comparison.

What both the Beijing and London Olympics prove is the closeness of the relationship between big business and sport. Once unlikely bedfellows, they are now bosom buddies. Indeed, the United Nations has calculated that sport may account for almost 3 per cent of global economic activity. In the UK sport is thought to generate around 2.5 per cent of GDP.

This close link between sport and business is being validated by MBA programmes with a sport element. Sport management is increasingly featured on MBA programmes – after all, huge projects requiring vast sums of money need the leadership, marketing, project management and financial skills that form the basis of MBA courses.

Among the leaders in the field is the Centre for the International Business of Sport, part of Coventry University’s Business School. The Coventry centre is led by Professor Simon Chadwick, probably as near to a guru as the fledgling sports business area has. Coventry offers MBAs in sport management and international sport management, covering sport law, marketing and sponsorship, broadcasting and event planning.

Examiners call in FBI to crackdown on cheats

Thousands of students are caught up in a probe into websites that reveal GMAT questions

BACKGROUND

• Time to take a moral lead

• The cold, hard facts about global warming

• Teacher's mission

• All in the big-money game

BACKGROUND

• Credit crunch refugees fuel record demand

• Find the silver lining

• Doctors look for words to help NHS recuperate

• Russia’s lessons in capitalism

Other sport business MBA programmes are offered at Leeds Metropolitan University (a two-year course); Birmingham University (a part-time, two to four-year sport management MBA); and Manchester Business School (a global MBA in sport and major events launched last year).

The Manchester MBA is run in partnership with the World Academy of Sport, based at the business school. Former senior figures in the Olympic movement contribute, as well as experts in sport broadcasting, marketing and sponsorship.

More generally, a sport element can be seen in a growing number of business school courses. For example, the senior executive programme at SDA Bocconi, the Italian business school, is a new general management training programme focused on the financial services industry. Participants are given coaching to improve their physical and mental abilities from the AC Milan football team. The faculty includes Bruno Demichelis, a sports psychologist who is director of Milan Lab, the Italian club’s scientific research centre.

So far few business schools have followed the example of San Diego State University. It offers a sport business management MBA in partnership with the San Diego Padres baseball team. The Chelsea MBA may not be far away.

The growing links between business and sport have also spawned a production line of sport-related research coming out of business schools. Leading the way is Professor Stefan Szymanski, associate dean of MBA programmes at Cass Business School, where he is one of the best known commentators and researchers into the economics of sport.

Szymanski’s latest research, carried out with Professor Georgios Kavetsos, of Tanaka Business School, makes interesting reading for all those involved in London 2012. The research proves that winning major sporting championships is not the key to national happiness; it is hosting the competition that puts a smile on everyone’s face.

The research examined data on the reported happiness in European countries from the past 30 years and the success of national teams in the Olympics and major international football tournaments. Szymanski and Kavetsos conclude that hosting major events, particularly big football tournaments, is associated with increased reported happiness in the year following the event.

Szymanski says: “There is much academic research to prove that the economic benefits of hosting major sporting events such as the Olympics are negligible. However, this does not take into consideration the pleasure that can be gained by the residents of the host nation as they welcome the world’s greatest athletes to their country.”