executive mba hockey brochure

EXECUTIVE MBA THE BUSINESS OF HOCKEY

» cover photo:

Brian BurkeCo-founder, Business of Hockey InstitutePresident of Hockey Operations, Calgary Flames

“This will be a badge of honour for people working in the industry, to say ‘I have my Executive MBA from Athabasca University.’ If I’ve got to pick between two people, I’m going to take the person who’s fi nished this program.”

A two-phase approach toe� ective hockey management ... 8

The AU online Executive MBA ... 10

The Business of Hockey Institute ... 4

Flexible, portable, and organized — how it all works ... 6

Athabasca University (AU) is one of four research-intensive, publicly funded institutions in the Province of Alberta. AU reports to the Government of Alberta through Advanced Education. Its quality assurance mechanisms and program proposals are reviewed by the Campus Alberta Quality Council.

AU is accredited in the United States through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), one of six regional organizations in the US that accredits universities.

AU is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS), and the Canadian Federation of Business School Deans (CFBSD).

The global entertainment industry is fast-paced, lucrative, and competitive. All professional sport franchises and entertainment businesses are looking to win fans’ time, attention, and money.

It’s not enough to be an exciting game with talented athletes. In today’s sports world, branding, operational e� ciency, and fi nancial savvy are almost as critical to team success as recruiting the best players.

Athabasca University has collaborated with the Business of Hockey Institute to develop an elite, graduate level, hockey specifi c MBA to elevate the business side of the game.

For the fi rst time in hockey’s history, a program is in place to develop the leaders in the boardroom, rather than on the ice.

This hockey-specifi c Executive MBA will bring industry leaders, managers, executives, and academics together to debate, exchange ideas, conduct research, and collaborate.

A team devoted to your success ... 12

Course descriptions ... 14 Admission options for business degree holders ... 18

Admission requirements and how to apply ... 19

Hockey’s future depends on eff ective management and strong leadership.

The idea of an elite MBA focusing on the business of hockey was fi rst conceived by Ritch Winter, sports agent, and Brian Burke, President of Hockey Operations for the Calgary Flames. Together, they worked to make this program—the fi rst of its kind in the world—a reality.

Hockey competes in a complex and challenging global market for fan attention, loyalty, and participation.

There is more at stake here than maximizing game day revenue. Teams, leagues, and governing bodies need talented managers and executives with broad strategic and operational capabilities. They need smart and capable people who can shape opportunities and develop strategic advantage.

Leading agents, top management minds, and hockey executives have worked hand-in-hand with Athabasca University to create the hockey-specifi c courses within an Executive MBA; a unique blending of the Athabasca Executive MBA and the Business of Hockey Institute’s Certifi ed Hockey Professional designation.

Developing the Business of Hockey

Ritch WinterCo-founder, Business of Hockey InstitutePresident, Wintersports Ltd.

“This program is essential for anyone building an off -ice career in professional hockey.”

business.athabascau.ca/hockey-mba 4

FOUNDERS

Brian Burke, LLBPresident of Hockey Operations,Calgary Flames

Ritch Winter, LLBPresident, Wintersports Ltd.

CHAIR

Herb Pinder, LLB, MBAPresident, The Goal Group

DIRECTORS

Jim BagshawVice-President, Advertising, Sponsorship andMarketing, Calgary Flames

Craig ButtonHockey Analyst, TSN

Peter Mackinnon, OC, QCInterim President, Athabasca University

Craig MacTavish, MBASr. Vice President, Hockey Operations, Edmonton Oilers

Nevin Markwart, MBA, CFAEntrepreneur

Michael Mauws, PhD, ICD.DExecutive Director, Business of Hockey Institute

Norm O’Reilly, BSc, MA, MBA, CA, PhDFox Professor of Management, Ohio University

Brad RobinsChairman, The Robins Partnership

Ron RobisonCommissioner, Western Hockey League

Scott Smith, BEdChief Operating O� cer, Hockey Canada

Fred Steer, CAExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial O� cer, Montreal Canadiens

Brian Yaworski, QC, ICD.DPartner, Davis LLP

AU has partnered with the Business of Hockey Institute (BHI), a non-profi t think tank dedicated to improving the business models of professional and amateur hockey organizations through education, research, consulting, and advocacy. It has developed a series of courses within AU’s online Executive MBA program to address the unique needs of the hockey industry.

Certifi ed HockeyProfessional (CHP)

The CHP identifi es individuals who have studied and have experience with the business of hockey. As part of its mandate, BHI has launched a new credential, Certifi ed Hockey Profesional (CHP).

The CHP is only awarded to managers and executives who have completed the specialized hockey management curriculum o� ered by AU.

BHI Board of Directors

Hockey. Travel. Family. Grad Studies.We can’t make it easy, but we can make it possible.

All of your course activities take place in one online environment you can access on your laptop, home computer, work computer, tablet, even your smart phone if need be. Some courses do have physical

textbooks, which will be sent to you, but otherwise, everything you need to read, discuss, collaborate, and submit work will be organized in one spot.

Organizing your life to attend a traditional bricks-and-mortar school at set hours can be next to impossible. At Athabasca University, you can schedule your school hours to fi t the rest of your life, and your program travels with you, wherever you go.

Time Commitment Core courses are completed in a pre-determined sequence, and are each eight weeks long. The program can be completed in two-and-a-half to three years; you have a maximium of fi ve years to complete all requirements.


You control when and where

You are expected to contribute 20 to 25 hours to your studies over roughly fi ve to six days per week, but when and where are completely up to you: early mornings, over your lunch hour – what works for you works for us.

Paced

Too much fl exibility can be as challenging as not enough. AU’s courses have set start and end dates, and include a workplan with assignment deadlines and requirements for group work and collaboration within each course to keep you on track.

Asynchronous

Asynchronous learning means you are never required to be online at a certain date and time. We have students and academics across Canada and around the world engaged in learning and teaching 24 hours a day.

Online/Offl ine

Whether you are in Vancouver or New York, at home, at the arena, or mid-fl ight, you can engage with others and never worry about missing a lecture. Our robust learning environment allows you to work on or o� ine, so you can draft your work remotely and upload once you can connect to the Internet again.

Athabasca University Executive MBA students are experienced managers with interesting and diverse backgrounds that span many di� erent industries, sectors, countries, cultures, and geographic locations. This diversity of opinion and life experience adds depth to the program’s curriculum, and helps students understand how theories can be applied in a variety of contexts. Peer-to-peer learning is key.

How AU MBA online courses work

Accelerated Route for Business Degree HoldersIf you have an undergraduate degree in business, you may qualify for our accelerated admission route—see page 18.

Michael Mauws, PhDExecutive Director, Business of Hockey InstituteProfessor, Business Policy & Strategy

“Through our collaboration with the Business of Hockey Institute, we’re bringing together the best minds in hockey, business, and academia to make hockey as competitive in the boardroom as it is on the ice.”

Phase OneDeveloping a global management perspective

Phase TwoHoning in on the unique demands of hockey

Core management principles apply to every organization and industry. For your foundational studies, you will discuss issues and collaborate with AU’s other Executive MBA students, all of whom are talented middle or senior level managers from a diverse range of industries and sectors.

Strategic Management

Human Resource Management

Financial and Managerial Accounting

Marketing Management

Managerial Economics and Quantitative Analysis

Operations Management

Comprehensive Exam

In phase two, you move into courses that delve deeply into hockey related issues, opportunities, and operating environments.

Four advanced core courses solidify your holistic, organizational view of the senior management function.

Information Technology Strategy - Hockey

Corporate Finance - Hockey

Strategy and Organizational Analysis - Hockey

Managerial Ethics and Decision Making - Hockey

The last six courses* have been developed in collaboration with the Business of Hockey Institute on topics unique to hockey.

The Business of Hockey

Marketing Hockey Strategically

Integrated Marketing Communications for Hockey

Game Day Management and Marketing

Hockey Operations

Managing Franchises Strategically

* Students completing these six courses are eligible to earn the Certifi ed Hockey Professional (CHP) designation from BHI.For students already possessing a Business degree, completion of these six Professional Education Program courses may be su� cient to receive the Certifi ed Hockey Professional (CHP) designation. Refer to pages 18 and 19 for further details.

Course descriptions start on page 14.

The launch of the AU online Executive MBA in 1994 broke down the barriers of time and space for both learners and faculty. Because of our unique delivery system, we are able to recruit the best academics for our courses from virtually anywhere.

Our students are all talented managers and executives from a broad cross-section of industries, companies, and geographic locations, who bring an exceptional diversity of experience, perspective, and expertise to the online classroom experience. As a student in the Executive MBA, you will join these students for your foundational (phase one) studies, as their varied experiences will add depth to your own.

“The AU online Executive MBA is designed to provide a high-level organizational view that enables students to confi dently assume the role of strategic decision maker. This holds as true for the business of hockey as for any other industry.

Our goal is to provide the best possible environment for integrating theory and practice. We do this by focusing on real business problems and building on the knowledge and expertise of both teachers and students through discussion and collaboration.”

The AU online Executive MBA

Anshuman Khare, PhDMBA Program Director and Professor, Operations ManagementAthabasca University Faculty of Business

The secret to our success is the same today as it was when we fi rst introduced our program over 20 years ago: an online environment that facilitates richer interaction than a traditional classroom.

In each course, students work in groups of eight to ten under the guidance of an academic coach who facilitates active discussion and collaboration by guiding conversations and providing insights or tools to help clarify points or themes.

In this unique environment, interaction between academics and students is extremely high. Ideas, insights, and skills are shared on a daily basis; views are exchanged and arguments advanced. This is a crucial ingredient of a graduate-level management education that is extremely relevant to the real world of business.

IT HelpDesk

The HelpDesk provides you with the resources and assistance you need to work e� ectively in the online learning environment. HelpDesk sta� work extended hours to help you with your initial setup, and any time you need technical assistance.

Learning Services

Learning Services is responsible for the editing, design, and distribution of all learning materials for the Executive MBA. They ensure you have all the proper course materials and required applications for successful completion.

Student and Alumni Relations

This group works to ensure you are happy with your AU MBA experience and remain connected with our university after you graduate. They arrange events, send news updates, and manage social media e� orts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more.

Core Faculty

Core faculty members for AU’s Executive MBA are tenure-track professors who conduct research, lead academic disciplines, develop courses, and teach within AU’s masters and doctoral-level programs.

Academic Coaches

Academic coaches work with small groups of eight to ten students in each course, ensuring a high standard of student - academic interaction. Coaches have academic qualifi cations and signifi cant industry expertise; many are full-time professors at other universities.

Admissions Coordinators

You are assigned an admissions coordinator upon acceptance into the program who works with you throughout your program to help you manage your schedule and ensure you meet your degree requirements.

A team devoted to your success

“Our faculty are driven by a passion for excellence and a desire to see each student realize his or her full potential. I am continually amazed at the extraordinary level of new knowledge created by each student cohort as they move through the program. The calibre of people involved — students, faculty, academic coaches, and sta� — is among my greatest source of pride in my role as Dean of the Faculty of Business. The Business of Hockey Institute is bringing an interesting new depth of expertise into our knowledge pool.”

Deborah Hurst, PhD,Dean, Faculty of BusinessAthabasca University Faculty of Business

Phase One: Developing a global management perspective

Phase one courses concentrate on the management areas that make a di� erence to organizational performance.

Throughout each course, students integrate theory and practice by focusing on real business problems and connecting the program to their experiences in their own organizations.

The Hockey cohort starts every year in May. The application deadline is Febuary 15.

Strategic Management

Strategy involves critical thinking, analysis, planning, and decision making that will have important implications for the organization’s competitive advantage. In this course, students evaluate their organization’s internal resources, analyze their industry, and explore concepts and techniques critical to identifying and exploiting sources of profi t.

Human Resource Management

Managing and motivating people are critical tasks for management, particularly in the context of rapidly changing and competitive organizational environments. The primary area of focus is strategic human resource management, interrelated areas of organizational behavior, organizational theory, and industrial relations.

Financial and Managerial Accounting

Running any type of organization would be practically impossible without an understanding of fi nancial and managerial accounting principles. Students gain an understanding of how to use accounting information for planning, operating, investing, fi nancing, and management control decisions.

Course Descriptions


Marketing Management

The fundamentals of contemporary marketing and the role marketing plays in various organizational settings are explored in this course. Through readings, cases, discussions, and assignments, students examine components of a marketing strategy and how that strategy links to the rest of the organization’s business.

Managerial Economics and Quantitative Analysis

Rigorous introduction to an economic way of thinking will enhance students’ ability to analyze business situations and strengthen their critical decision-making skills. This course will provide a rich set of tools and techniques to apply to a wide range of strategic business situations, as well as a solid foundation in microeconomic analysis.

Operations Management

This course is designed to introduce students to the dimensions and techniques of operations management, whether in service, manufacturing, health care, or government. The overall goal is to provide students with the ability to provide additional value to their organization’s core operations.

Comprehensive Exam

Using a case study method of assessment, students are evaluated for their applied understanding of their Phase One coursework. Through their approach to a specifi c case, students demonstrate how they have integrated knowledge of the six subject areas.

An AU Executive MBA helps you answer tough questions for your organization: How do we gain market share? How else can we monetize this? How do we measure e� ectiveness? Can we do things smarter?

Once you’ve been through the MBA program, you still ask these questions but approach them as opportunities you know you can solve. The AU MBA will broaden your perspectives and change the way you think.

Information Technology Strategy – Hockey

Students assess the role of IT in supporting and creating organizational strategy to manage and enhance on- and o� -ice performance and increase organizational e� ectiveness. They gain a full understanding of the IT infrastructure in their hockey franchises/clubs based on best-in-class IT developments in the sports and entertainment industry.

Corporate Finance – Hockey

This course introduces principles and theories that are essential to the fi nancial management of organizations. It provides analytical frameworks and techniques to support short-term and long-term fi nancial decisions, with special emphasis on the fi nancial problems and challenges faced by managers in hockey organizations (e.g., foreign exchange, risk management, insurance).

Phase Two: Honing in on the unique demands of hockey

Strategy and Organizational Analysis – Hockey

This course helps students identify and understand the general, specifi c, and international dimensions of hockey organizations’ internal and external environments and how to respond to them.

Managerial Ethics and Decision Making – Hockey

This course encourages integration of ethical awareness and social responsibility into managerial decision making. Key business decisions pertaining to both the hockey executive and hockey operations sides of the business can be analyzed through an ethics and social responsibility lens.

Executive MBA phase two courses, tailored to the hockey industry



This course explores the trends and forces that are defi ning and infl uencing the business of hockey. It also explores the forces that determine success o� the ice with particular focus on franchises’ competitive advantages within the league and within local markets.


The bulk of the revenues of hockey franchises derive directly and indirectly from ticketing sales and ingress spending. Fans attending and following games and their geographical markets di� er. For this reason the focus of this course is on identifying, understanding, and targeting the fans, viewers, and spectators with the greatest potential to increase a franchise’s profi tability and valuation.


Students are introduced to integrated marketing communications (IMC) to facilitate the building, maintaining, and leveraging of their franchises’ brand equity. The goal of IMC is to ensure consistency in the communication of the brand across all media and platforms, including advertising, promotion, communications, public relations, social media, and saies.

Game Day Management & Marketing

This course examines the opportunities and challenges associated with the successful production of live hockey games. The majority of franchise revenues derive from home games. With a defi ned number of home games, it is essential that the game-day operations and long-term revenue potential of each game be maximized.

Hockey Operations

Hockey operations represent the bulk of a franchise’s expenses and have the most signifi cant long-term impact on revenues and team equity. As a result, hockey ops have the biggest impact on a franchise’s bottom line both directly (salaries) and indirectly (competitive advantage). It is essential that every hockey executive have an understanding of hockey operations and the trends that are a� ecting them.

Managing Franchises Strategically*

Students learn how to formulate, implement, and evaluate business strategies for achieving hockey organizations’ medium and long-term objectives. Unlike the Hockey Operations course which focuses on making hockey teams more competitive on the ice, this course focuses on making hockey organizations more competitive in the marketplace.

* This course includes a fi ve day, in-residence component, which will usually take place in New York or Toronto.

Working alongside your peers from other teams, leagues, and countries, you can discuss the topics that matter to you and interact with the world’s leading practitioners and academics, regardless of where they may be in the world.

CHP Professional Education Program courses

Admission options for business degree holdersIF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE in business, you may be able to complete your Executive MBA more quickly by applying for our accelerated admission route.

Executive MBA (accelerated admission) and Certifi ed Hockey Professional (CHP) designation

Certifi ed Hockey Professional (CHP) Professional Education Program

If you already have an MBA or an undergraduate degree in business, completion of the CHP Professional Education Program courses alone may be su� cient to receive the Certifi ed Hockey Professional (CHP) designation.





Hockey Operations


Orientation (one week online)

Making Strategic Choices

Managerial Ethics and Decision Making

Two Executive MBA elective courses plus:





Hockey Operations



To be accepted into the Executive MBA, you must have:

an undergraduate degree from an accredited university plus at least THREE years of management experience, OR

an accepted professional designation and at least FIVE years of management experience, OR

at least EIGHT years of management experience.

To be accepted via the accelerated route, you must have:

an undergraduate degree in business, completed within the past 10 years

overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.0

at least three years of managerial experience

AdmissionsYOUR APPLICATION PACKAGE

WILL INCLUDE:

1. Your detailed resume

2. University transcripts and/or proof of professional designation, if applicable

3. Three references attesting to your management experience and readiness for graduate studies

4. A brief essay

5. A completed online application form

6. A $200 AU MBA application fee and, for the accelerated route only, a $250 transcript evaluation fee.

7. An $800 CHP application fee

Athabasca University Executive MBA

Scholarships and BursariesSubstantial scholarships and studentbursaries will be avaliable beginning in the spring of 2016. Visit business.athabascau.ca for details.

Business of Hockey InstituteCertifi ed Hockey Professional (CHP)

Entry into the Certifi ed Hockey Professional (CHP)Professional Education Program component of the Executive MBA is highly competitive. Admissions committees within BHI and AU will review all applications and select a small class based on a comprehensive review of the applications received. Complete details are available online.

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EXECUTIVE MBA THE BUSINESS OF HOCKEY

Athabasca University Faculty of Business

Phone: 1-800-561-4650 (toll-free in North America) Email: [email protected]

Website: business.athabascau.ca/hockey-MBA

executive mba hockey brochure

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