FLORENCE — A new graduate program at the University of North Alabama will teach students the business side of the sports industry.

UNA will begin offering the graduate-level program in sport management in fall 2013. The program is a degree-track within the existing master’s degree in health and human performance.

Tom Coats, chairman of the department of health, physical education and recreation at UNA, said the program caters to students who want to stay close to sports as they enter the job market.

“The business of sport and leisure activities offers a variety of career options,” Coats said. “There are jobs in professional and collegiate levels, in facilities management, game day operations, sports marketing and others. For someone who has an interest in sports and wants to be around sports, it is a very big field.”