PhD, Associate Professor A.V. Kozlov¹
Аssistant E.A. Grishatov¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.A. Budarnikov²
Senior lecturer I.V. Arkhipkin^2
1Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow
²The Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, Moscow

Objective of the study was to develop the content of the academic Sports Club Management discipline for students of economic universities based on the operational management theory.
Methods and structure of the study. As part of the study, an analysis of the contents of the disciplines chosen by various economic universities, in particular the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth, and Tourism.
The Sports Club Management discipline was developed during the study. The students of Experimental Group 1 (EG1) were trained based on the sports management theory, those of Experimental Group 2 (EG2) – based on the operational management theory and sports organization management theory. Based on the fitness club model representation from the standpoint of operational management, we evaluated the knowledge of future managers of the fundamentals of sports organization management and the level of formation of managerial competency.
Results and conclusions. The evaluation of the theoretical knowledge of the EG2 students showed that 32.7% of subjects scored more than 90 points, which corresponded to the "excellent" mark, 44.2% scored from 76 to 90 points – "good" mark, 21.1% scored from 60 to 75 points – "satisfactorily" mark. The results obtained in EG2 indicated a better level of mastery of the discipline as opposed to EG1.
The authors conclude that the integration of operational management into the university economic disciplines, under which sports manager training programs are implemented, will not only clarify the content of the sports management theory and purposefully develop in future managers knowledge in the managerial activity within the physical education and sports sector in the form of a system, in a holistic and integrated manner.

Keywords: educational process, academic discipline, sports management theory, fitness club model.

References

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2. Trachuk A.V. [ed.] Operatsionny menedzhment [Operations management]. Textbook. Moscow: KNORUS publ., 2017. 360 p.
3. Brown Matthew T., Rascher A., Nagel Mark S., McEvoy Chad D. Financial management in the sport industry. Second Edition. New York: Publishedby Routledge, 2017. 599 p.
4. Masteralexis Lisa P., A. Barr Carol, Hums Mary A. Principles and Practice of  sport management. Sixth edition. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company, 2019. 734 p.