Sports Business Simulations FAQs
Q: What does SBS do?
A: Sports Business Simulations produces online business simulations of sports organizations for use in the classroom. It also presents sports business related content in its website. The objective is to mix sports education with e-learning and sports culture in one online nexus.
Q: How do I sign up my class to use the simulations if my school goes by purchase order?
A: The process works like this:
1. Go to "Sign Up For Sims" and there click on the e-mail link to send an account request to SBS.
2. The e-mail should explain the name and address of the college or high school, the professor's name, how many students are in the class, when the class is set to start using the simulations, and when the class ends.
3. SBS will send an invoice to you via e-mail. Once received, address the check to Sports Business Simulations for the appropriate dollar amount.
4. Send SBS a list of the names (first and last) of the students that will be using the simulation.
5. SBS will set accounts for each student with usernames and passwords delivered to your e-mail address for distribution.
Q: How do I sign up my class to use the simulations if I just want to use a credit card?
A: The process works like this:
1. Go to "Sign Up For Sims" and click on the link "Buy SBS Memberships."
2. You will be taken to our Kagi.com shopping cart. There you can purchase multiple memberships with your credit card.
3. In the "comment" section, explain the name and address of the college or high school, the professor's name, how many students are in the class, when the class is set to start using the simulations, and when the class ends.
4. Send SBS a list of the names (first and last) of the students that will be using the simulation.
5. SBS will set accounts for each student with usernames and passwords delivered to your e-mail address for distribution.
Q: How do I use the simulations in my class?
A: For a detailed explanation please read the page called "SBS In The Classroom."You can see the page by clicking here: "classroom." Also feel free to e-mail question to Dan Rascher, Professor of the Sport Management Program at the University of San Francisco and SBS Vice Chairman, at dan@sportsbusinessssims.com or Zenophon Abraham, CEO of SBS at zennie@sportsbusinesssims.com
We also encourage you to have your students develop a comfort with a dialog about sports business issues by reading and contributing to the blog columns of our SBS Personalities.
Q: What modeling paradigm are the simulations based on?
A: The simulations were built with the System Dynamics approach to simulations as expressed in the FML programming language developed by Forio Business Simulations. The founders of Forio and SBS are all experts in System Dynamics.
Q: What is System Dynamics?
A: System Dynamics -- or "SD" -- is a modeling paradigm developed by Jay Forrester at MIT in the late 1950s. SD is really a way of thinking where one attempts to make connections between events causing an outcome, by identifying variables that accumulate, like population, and variables that cause change in the accumulating variables, like birth rates and death rates. Then SD asks the model builder to identify "feedback" relationships, which may cause in this example population to stop growing beyond a certain point. For example, another variable can be introduced where the total population's growth is constrained, like a building's capacity, or an individual's intolerance to overcrowding.
The intent of SD is to mimic as much of the actual dynamics of a problem, event, or organization in the real world. There's an old joke which goes like this: an economist was writing an equation set to describe milk production, when a System Dynamics expert walked over, looked at it, and asked "Where are the cows?"
Models expressed in this way can become rather complicated. The Oakland Baseball Simworld consists of over 900 variables.
Q: How is the Oakland Baseball Simworld different from the XFL Simworld?
A: The XFL Simworld is a very simple but effective SD model of about 50 equations. It's designed to mimic the macro level fiscal and socioeconomic behavior of the real XFL Football League. By contrast, the Oakland Baseball Simworld was developed to copy the actual fiscal and socioeconomic behavior of the Oakland Athletics Organization at a detailed, real, micro level. Simply, the simulator was designed to be used by baseball executives in testing and evaluating real business strategies. Thus, it's always growing as SBS installs new variables and controls to create the ultimate business simulation for Major League Baseball.
The engine developed for the Oakland Baseball Simworld is so powerful that it can represent any of the 30 MLB teams with little modification and calibration.
Q: Can SBS develop a simulation for my sports team?
A: Yes we can. We wish to build simulations in the branding of the organization and for not just internal use, but as part of the team's marketing, Internet, and PR efforts. For more information, contact SBS.
Q: What else can SBS do for my stadium development team?
A: SBS can build online economic impact or stadium fiscal simulations that can be accessed around the world. This is particularly helpful, when your stadium design team is divided by geography yet needs to have an online resource to evaluate different financing strategies using various scenarios. Your custom SBS simulation can be the tool for an online conference of team members located in different parts of the globe.
SBS can also prepare economic and statistical studies for your needs.
Q: I see a number of photos of writers and athletes. What's that all about?
A: Our SBS Personalities write about various sports business topics. We also sponsor up-and-coming professional athletes, with a concentration on women's sports and female athletes, like Rachel Sears. You're invited to read and reply to our blogs. The idea of the blogs is to cause a "mesh" between sports education and sports popular culture, so that students become more interested in learning about the sports business.
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