Boulder Brighton Director delivers session

Tom Bauer, Director of Boulder Brighton, visited the University to speak to first year Sport Management BSc students.

Tom’s session was part of the Finance and Economics module which is delivered by Richard Burgess-Gamble, lecturer and Director of Finance for Brighton Students’ Union.  This is the third time that Tom has delivered his session citing that “he loves being able to pass on his experience and knowledge to the next generation of sports business owners and managers”.

Boulder Brighton, an indoor bouldering centre, opened its doors in 2013. Tom and co-Director James Gomez  are both passionate about rock climbing and have climbed all over the UK and Europe. Having used countless different indoor climbing walls around the world they say “we think we’ve built our favourite”.

During the session Tom talked about the financial challenges of setting up a sports business, how he financed the project and the expenditure required before the centre could open.  He presented his business plan which analysed the main sources of revenue and the main costs associated with running the centre.

He also provided a wealth of hints and tips he has gained through his own experience and he demonstrated how the financial theory learned on this course can be put into practice.

Student Hannah Foden commented: “Tom enlightened my peers from the course with his enthusiastic storytelling of misfortunes and achievements when starting up his business.

“He was very clear about his goals when creating the business and elaborated on the strategies and tips we could take away for future experience in starting a business within the sports industry too.

“As a passionate team sports player myself, I have never acquired the thrill of physical activity through climbing like bouldering, yet I came away with inspiration to try it!”

Our Sport Management students can try climbing on the university’s climbing wall – just one of the many sport facilities on the Eastbourne campus: