Beyond the Classroom: Michigan Sport Management Takes on Manchester and London

By: Joe Koch

March 18, 2026

Photo Credit: Kelli Donahue

One of the best parts about the Sport Management program at the University of Michigan is all the experiential learning outside of traditional standard. This January, that experience took place in the United Kingdom, visiting both Manchester and London for a week-long adventure. Throughout this visit, various venues, sport clubs, and businesses were observed from a new perspective that brought students a new way of thinking and learning what life was like on the other side of the world. 

Prior to the visit, we began with a little bit of research and a lecture to introduce what we were going to see and the basics of what sport in the United Kingdom was like. The group of 17 students had started to grasp what this visit would look like, seeing the differences in the British Model of sports, both from an organizational and recreational level. Whether it being the open-league structure within football/soccer or the repurposing of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, we all saw the differences that we were going to learn about when visiting. 

Once arriving into Manchester, it was a quick turnaround directly from the airport to go to Old Trafford to see the infamous Manchester Derby and instantly, the environment shocked us all. The sea of red and black surrounded the stadium with a small corner reserved for Manchester City fans surrounded by police officers to ensure they were protected from all the home fans without any issues. This was the first situation we noticed that was completely different from the United States model, as many fans for a Michigan vs. Ohio State game often sit right next to each other. The game resulted in a 2-0 Manchester United upset, creating one of the best sports atmospheres all of us have ever experienced. It was going to be hard to beat the match, but we realized that was going to be the start of such an amazing week. 

Monday, we visited both Co-op Live and the Etihad Campus with Manchester City. Sara Tomkins, the Sustainability & Community Director of Co-op Live, showed us around the venue and showed what a venue designed for concerts and performances is like and how it differs from a typical sporting venue. Co-op Live has a priority of maintaining sustainability, and through a ranging amount of efforts, Sara showed as to what makes the place so special. 

After the visit, we walked to the other part of campus to Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City. This was a little different compared to the other visits we did throughout the week, as we got more of a typical lecture learning about what East Manchester was like as a city prior to the stadium being built and the club moving there in 2003. The town was extremely run down, as it developed initially as an industrial part of Manchester, but that slowly declined to get to where it was at such a low rate for educational, living conditions where it got to be practically inhabitable. However, the Commonwealth Games and later on, Manchester City, really changed that entirely to slowly build to the dominance that they have today in a flourishing part of Manchester. 

Our next portion of the trip took place in London where we would spend the rest of the time there. Tuesday consisted of meeting Wasserman/The Team in their London office. This experience encompassed hearing about how they tackle their clients, particularly within the soccer industry, from a variety of different perspectives. Here, we learned about the analytics, public relations, and creative efforts, all of which their team excels at, proving why they have such a strong presence within the sport. All of their information and presence with their clients alongside their knowledge related to player performance shows Wasserman’s dedication towards client insight and an area that we got to hear a lot about. 

With us seeing so many differences already, Wednesday consisted of a lecture at Loughborough University, learning about British Sport with professors Michael Naylor and Russell Seymour, as well as hearing from fellow Michigan and SBA alumni, Caroline Sanborn. During our lecture while at Loughborough University, we learned about the mission behind all elements, which we found out was completely different compared to the model in the United States. Obviously, the professional sport model is way different with the promotion and relegation systems, but a big takeaway was that a huge part of English Football was sponsored very similarly to American sports. It’s only about £40 per match to attend each match for season ticket holders, which the overall process for getting such season tickets was unbelievable, some waiting 25 years to finally get them. Behind this, though, is the mission of British Sport; “investing in sport and physical activity to make sport in England a normal part of life for everyone” was incredibly shocking, knowing how commercially driven the North American model is on a revenue-generating scale. This really caught my attention because as much as we say it is this way in the United States, all the club sports where travelling across the country has now become regular, and a costly investment for sure which is impacting many families. We also heard from Professor Seymour about the sustainability that Loughborough University is researching and being the only University that offers a postgraduate degree specializing in sustainability. 

Following our visit at Loughborough University, we then visited another SM alumni with Garrett Wallace who is the Business Performance and Process Manager at Diageo. We learned primarily about Diageo’s strategy with Guinness in football. Being the most popular beer brand in the United Kingdom, all the efforts Diageo puts in through the variety of departments was really engaging and interesting to hear about, all of which connected with all of us really well. 

The rest of our visit included hearing from the partnerships team from Arsenal, Google’s marketing team talking about the Google Pixel - which included some very unique features I might add, as well as hearing from the operations team at NBA London. All of these visits were a good accumulation of the experiences we saw from various sport entities and a great way to wrap up the learning experience. 

To finish up the trip, a lot of us students had a memorable experience learning about cricket at Lord’s Cricket Grounds, the home of where the sport truly started and grew. We actually learned how to play as well! After a very competitive match, my team (unfortunately) lost but it was one of the best experiences that we all shared together. With an alumni dinner following the match, all of us truly got everything out of this trip. 

Year after year, this trip has always meant so much to both the Sport Management program and the Sport Business Association, and so we can’t say thank you enough to all the people that made this trip possible. It provides something that we typically don’t get to see in the classroom, and travelling across the world to such an iconic city known for all their sports properties made this experience one that all of us will remember!