Search

This paper explores the gendered, disruptive effects and affective intensities of COVID-19 and the ways that women working in the sport and fitness sector were prompted to establish more-than-human connection through technologies, the environment, and objects. Bringing together theoretical and embodied insights from object interviews with 17 women sport and fitness professionals (i.e., athletes, coaches, instructors) in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper advances a relational understanding of the multiple human and nonhuman forces that shape and transform women's wellbeing during pandemic. Drawing upon particular feminist materialisms (i.e., Barad, Braidotti, Bennett), we reconceptualize wellbeing to move beyond biomedical formulations of health or illness. Through our analysis and discussion, we trace embodied ways of knowing that produce wellbeing as a more-than-human entanglement, a gendered phenomenon that can be understood as an ongoing negotiation of affective, material, cultural, technological and environmental forces during a period of disruption and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the most recent data available to analyze the question of position segregation in major league baseball. One of the most consistent beliefs in our popular culture is that in professional sport black Americans have achieved parity with their white counterparts. Surprisingly, given the pervasiveness of this belief, there are relatively few empirical attempts to examine and explain the degree to which parity has or has not been achieved. Our paper examines the extent to which equality of opportunities exist in professional sport by looking at the game of baseball. The paper is a replication and extension of the pioneering study conducted by Loy and McElvogue (1970). We also include in our analysis variables that help predict salary differentials for players by race. The results of our research suggest the following: (1) position segregation still exists in professional baseball with white ballplayers disproportionately overrepresented in the infield (or central positions) and black American ballplayers disproportionately overrepresented in the outfield (or peripheral positions); (2) measures of skill (e.g., home runs, hits, and at bats), not race or playing position, are the only significant predictors of salary; and (3) black ballplayers have a higher median salary than white ballplayers. In our conclusion, we offer several explanations of these relationships and findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the authors' views on the most striking feature of sport in many universities in the United States and its commercialization and the degree to which athletes have been transformed into professional entertainers. The giant stadiums, television contracts, and other trappings of commercialism which are commonplace at some schools in America are simply not found in European universities. Likewise, the practice of seeking out talented athletes and offering them a variety of financial inducements to play college sports, i.e., professionalism, appears to be peculiar to higher education in America. The major purpose of this paper will be to examine what impact, if any, this transformation of college sport Into a highly rationalized form of commercial entertainment has had on the way that athletes experience college and university life in the United States. It is important to recognize that college sport Is not a homogeneous entity. In some schools, football and basketball have become university run businesses which generate millions in revenue and make profit maximization their primary concern. In other schools, vestiges of the older amateur or "British" approach to sport still remain.

A myriad of issues relating to professional sports require knowledge about the determinants of attendance. As sports expand as a cultural phenomenon, legal battles over franchises, player compensation and rights, and public subsidies for sports stadiums will intensify. While attendance at sporting events plays a crucial role in deciding sports controversies such as these, there is a paucity of theory explaining attendance at professional sporting events. Even though baseball is considered the national pastime, relatively little is known about the determinants of baseball attendance. This paper is an attempt to fill that gap through building on the baseball attendance research of Roger Noll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport leagues have been critiqued for their cartel-like behavior, monopsony power, and many occupational health risks to athletes. Athlete-owned sports leagues are an alternative way of organizing professional sport that may benefit athletes and the industry. This article examines the viability of athlete-owned leagues by reviewing theory and research on worker-owned firms and applying the findings to sports leagues with athlete ownership, with a focus on the Premier Lacrosse League. Five criteria are shown to affect the viability of worker ownership: heterogeneity of interests, capital-labor ratios, time horizons, motivation and efficiency, and conflict with capitalists. When applied to the sport industry, athlete ownership is likely in sports like beach volleyball and skateboarding but unlikely in sports like American football and soccer. Athlete-owned sports leagues have some benefits when compared with capitalist-owned leagues, but they will struggle in markets with incumbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the list of articles, topics contributors, and the statement of purpose, published in January 1, 1977 issue of the "Journal of Sport and Social Issues." Some of the topics are as follows: Sportsworld Revisited by author Robert Lipsyte; Professional Sports Team Ownership:Fun, Profit and Ideology of the Power Elite by Johathan Brower; Apartheid Sport: South Africa's Use of Sport in its Foreign Policy by Richard E. Lapchick; Shea Stadium: Economics Laboratory by David Norflus; Philosophy of Sport by Harold VariderZwaag Sports and Society: A Search for Heroes by Donrier and Dorinson; and Sports Sociology InfonBatlon Retrieval Systems. Some of the contributors are Robert Lipsyte who wrote sports for the NewYork Times for 14 years. He was the Sports of the Times columnist. He is the author of several books, including NIGGER and SPORTSWORLD. Jonathan Brower teaches sociology at california State University at Fullerton. He is one of the leaders in the field of sports sociology, has his own radio show, and has written several articles and many professional papers.

Social identity theory is used to explain behaviors, thoughts, and feelings associated with group membership. This study focuses on the New Orleans Saints National Football League (NFL) team and its effect on citizens of its host city as well as fans from the surrounding region. While a large body of research shows little evidence that new stadiums and professional sports teams make a significant economic impact on the region, some findings have shown that sports teams can provide intangible benefits. These intangible benefits are often related to the positive associations fans of the team have by considering themselves a part of that particular in-group. This study applies social identity theory to the New Orleans Saints’ fan base and discusses the reactions of the team’s fans during the 2009 Super Bowl–winning season as reported in national, regional, and local publications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Home teams win over 50% of sporting contests. The sociological appeal of this is the assumption that home advantages are partly the result of the support fans provide, with the collective inspiring teams to performances above normal achievements. Recent changes in professional sports suggest that home support may not be as strong as once expected as structural conditions producing the home advantage have shifted. Distancing of players from fans via free agency and rapid salary escalation, coupled with marketing designed to create national publics, can produce declines in the home advantage. Levels of home advantage have decreased over 20 years, and now, an increase in crowd size reduces the home team's chances of winning. Teams can still garner support from home crowds, but professional sports are less likely to be representations for local communities; the social bases of the home advantage have been eroded by economic forces and league marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic impact studies have been an important component of the debate surrounding the merits of subsidizing professional sports teams. However, various studies have arrived at remarkably different conclusions about the size of a sports team's economic impact on the region in which they are located. The purpose of this study is to determine the causes of the wide variance of economic impact estimates between different studies. A meta-analysis was used on the 13 studies to determine the causes of the differing impacts. Although some of the variance is due to understandable differences in the size of the geographical region and sports team in question, differing assumptions about whether the expenditure of locals should be included accounted for a substantial variance in the impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the value dimensions of professional sport to the community as perceived by the spectators. Three stages were conducted: (a) formulation of the Community Impact Scale (CIS), (b) test of measurement properties, and (c) application of the scale. The initial scale was formulated by identifying 70 value areas of professional sport through a literature review. Each was phrased into bipolar statements using a blend of semantic differential and Likert-type 5-point scales. Five professors tested the content validity. A random sample of professional sport spectators (N = 224) participated in testing and applying the scale. Construct validity was tested through a factor analysis. Eight factors with 45 items were determined. The resolved scale displayed acceptable internal consistency. An application of the CIS revealed that 5 demographic variables (age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, education, and occupation) affect the perceptions of spectators on the community value of professional sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of newspaper journalism, sports reporting is frequently viewed as a part of the occupation "conceived out of journalistic wedlock." Sports journalists have been criticized for hackneyed writing, cheering for the home team, gladly accepting "freebies," serving as a source of scrapbook material for the stars, an unwillingness to report in-depth issues, and a host of other sins. Some critics, as well as members of the public, consider sports journalism to be "the toy department" of the news media. These criticisms raise questions about the role of sports journalists and their proper place in journalism. This survey of upper-level sports journalists investigated the movement toward increased professionalism in sports journalism by focusing on minimal educational requirements as means of attaining professional status. Despite the lingering stereotypes about sports journalists, there is evidence that newspaper sports journalism is changing and becoming serious. Sports journalists were once quite different from their colleagues in news, features, or opinion. While professional and college-level sports always had business, legal, social, and other considerations, these seldom found their way into sports reporting.