Americans have an undeniable and insatiable appetite for athletics. Some are fulfilled by being pennant-waving fans in the stands. Then there are sports nuts that dress up every Saturday or Sunday in the Fall like it’s Halloween, wearing face paint and donning a jersey of their favorite team as if they were about to take to the field and go into battle. Others break out every BBQ utensil they own while picnicking from dawn to dusk. Unless you’re about to leave the stadium, tailgating is not driving too close to the car in front of you. It’s the sports way of life and a weekend reward for millions of football crazies across the country. Where else do people so willingly spend money they don’t have to party so hard? It makes no difference what age the fans are or what socioeconomic level they come from. Their team could be zero and ten, and they’d still drop hundreds to thousands of dollars weekly to be part of the action. How many fantasy leagues are there today? Sports enthusiasts can never get enough to satisfy their addiction to their favorite team.

This book is intended to help provide the recipe to achieve your dream to work in the sports industry. Whether it’s a full-time career or a part-time situation you seek, there are a wide variety of occupations available that can present you an association with the sports world, provide an excellent living, and perhaps a paid-for travel opportunity.

As a long-time professional sports statistician, I can’t tell you how many times when I have shared with people what I’ve been fortunate enough to do over the years, they’ve said, “Wow, you’re so lucky! How can I do that? Where can I get a press credential? Can you get me into the game?” There is clearly an unparalleled lust to be somehow close to the competition.

With sports now a multibillion-dollar commerce (the National Football League alone generates $10 billion dollars annually), the industry has become so vast several thousands of people are required to fill positions of all kinds. This book highlights dozens of them and features interviews with several who currently occupy these jobs.

“This comprehensive guide details “insider information” on how to break into the world of sports in a vast array of professional and collegiate capacities. Chapters detail working at sporting events, in-depth career advice from several notable sports industry experts, and how to go about getting your foot in the door. It also includes a historical perspective of sports and a detailed directory of where to start looking for work in your chosen sports livelihood.”