The Datum Report

Occupation 1224 · Managers, directors and senior officials

Leisure and sports managers and proprietors

Half of full-time leisure and sports managers and proprietors in the UK earn more than £36,026 a year, and half earn less.

Leisure and sports managers organise and proprietors, direct and co-ordinate the activities and resources required for the provision of sporting, artistic, theatrical and other recreational and amenity services.

How people enter it

Both graduate and non-graduate entry is possible. Off and on-the-job training is provided. Apprenticeships at level 3 and NVQs/SVQs at levels 3 and 4 are available in relevant areas. Professional qualifications may also be required for some posts.

What the work involves

• organises timetable of activities/schedule of programmes
• ensures that facilities are kept clean and in good condition and that appropriate health and safety requirements are adhered to
• keeps abreast of new trends and developments in recreational activities and arranges exhibitions, theatrical productions, concerts, demonstrations, etc
• advises on the facilities available and promotes publicity in relation to shows, games, races, new theme parks, etc
• determines financial, staffing, material and other short and long-term needs
• recruits, supervises and trains staff
• ensures custody of all cash receipts and organises regular stock checks

Also called

Amusement arcade owner · Cinema manager · Football ground manager · Leisure centre manager · Theatre manager

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for leisure and sports managers and proprietors, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 8 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Hotel and accommodation managers and proprietors · Publicans and managers of licensed premises · Restaurant and catering establishment managers and proprietors · Travel agency managers and proprietors