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Purpose: This paper aims to propose an analysis of financial regulation practices, identified thanks to an extensive benchmark carried out in eight European professional sports leagues. Design/methodology/approach: Between 1970 and 2018, 81 French football clubs went bankrupt. The paper proposes an analysis of financial regulation practices in eight European professional sports leagues to enhance the prevention of bankruptcy of French football clubs. Three research questions are addressed: What are the financial and accounting disclosure practices in the main professional leagues? What assessment tools are employed to evaluate the financial risk and budgetary feasibility? What financial support measures exist for clubs and how are insolvency proceedings initiated by clubs? To identify financial regulation practices in professional sport, a selection of leagues was made based on their economic importance, specific regulatory tools used, and their approach to financial difficulties and the handling of insolvency proceedings. Findings: Through an examination of financial regulation practices in other leagues, three main findings are highlighted: The significance of required financial documents and deadlines varies depending on the competition organizer; some leagues utilize ratio-based assessments rather than relying solely on opinions from financial oversight bodies; certain leagues have established assistance processes for troubled clubs as opposed to punitive measures resulting in administrative regulations. Practical implications: This study proposes new financial regulation modalities to prevent the bankruptcy of French football clubs. Firstly, a reform management control is suggested. Secondly, the engagement of stakeholders in bankruptcy prevention is recommended. Lastly, the implementation of a dedicated policy to support clubs facing difficulties is proposed. Originality/value: The French football federation and the professional league are important actors in the European football. Many bankruptcies are noted in these championships and since the COVID crisis, the financial situation of the clubs has deteriorated, pointing to a strong risk of bankruptcy in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The introduction of professionalism in 1995 posed serious challenges for Rugby Union in Ireland, Scotland and Wales given their limited fan bases and broadcast markets. It led to the creation of a new league, the Pro14, with teams from all three countries. The paper asks whether the Pro14 has been a success and whether it might offer lessons for other sports. It thus seeks to extend the knowledge base on professional team sports and derive lessons for management of professional sports leagues in small countries. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyse Pro14 performance using a range of metrics, including attendances, competitive balance and team performances, in European competitions. The authors also analyse the limited financial data available for Pro14 teams. Findings: Pro14 teams have competed successfully in European competition, offering support for claims that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European soccer. The Pro14 has increased attendances through specific measures and increased broadcast income through geographic expansion. Many Pro14 teams have struggled financially. Several English and French rugby clubs have also experienced financial problems, suggesting that European rugby may need to introduce financial fair play rules (FFPs) similar to soccer. Practical implications: The paper has implications for the Pro14 and its member clubs, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European football where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could improve competitive balance in European competitions. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the academic discussion on professional team sports, particularly Rugby Union. The paper has implications for Pro14 clubs and league organisers, particularly with reference to competition design. It may also have lessons for European soccer where some have suggested that mergers of smaller country leagues could reduce the dominance of larger country leagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the players' contribution and economic value in the soccer industry. Media visibility records provide us with comparable metrics to identify talent and make hiring decisions – these records can jointly capture sport (on-field) skills and other attractive (off-field) abilities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a valuation method that applies media visibility appraisals to estimate "theoretical values" of the transfer fees paid for hiring soccer players. The estimations are performed by analysing the evolution over time of the media exposure of about 5,000 individuals of more than 200 clubs. Findings: The study's empirical results reveal that, along with sport performance, the players' media status also affects their economic valuation, which explains why the clubs – in search of greater economic returns – fiercely compete for the most popular players. The paper also identifies the main factors determining the players' economic value. In predicting the players' transfer fees, some variables are statistically significant: individual media visibility, media visibility share of the player within his team, contract duration, status of the hiring team, years of experience, player's age at the end of the contract and the domestic league of the hiring team. Originality/value: Professional sports provide reliable measures on individuals' performance that may help in the hiring process of workers. This paper identifies gifted soccer players while taking into account their skills as media leaders and the economic implications. Insofar as players' talents determine their teams' sport and economic achievements, the transfer fees paid for players must then be seen as a crucial factor. Measuring individual talent and being able to translate this talent into productivity levels entail serious methodological and empirical challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Competitive balance is critical for the survival of athletic leagues. A relationship between "uncertainty of outcome" and fan interest has been found in many sports all over the world. This paper examines competitive balance in professional netball in Australia and New Zealand by contrasting two competitions: the ANZ Championship, an elite Australasian competition that began in 2008 but was disbanded in 2016 as there was a perception of dominance by the Australian teams over their New Zealand rivals; and its Australian domestic replacement, Suncorp Super Netball, which started in 2017. Design/methodology/approach: Competitive balance is gauged in three broad ways: match result concentration, which looks at the evenness of each season; team dominance, where comparisons are made across several seasons; and within game equality, which examines the results of individual games. Findings: Several methods are used under each heading, with the results surprisingly showing that measured competitive balance was similar in the two competitions. Originality/value: In sports management, quantitative analysis or sports economics, there are few published papers on netball. This is the first research to examine competitive balance in netball, and the findings have important ramifications for this women-only game, as it competes against other purveyors of professional sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyses English Premier League (EPL) and English Football League (EFL) championship clubs during the period 2002–2019 to anticipate financial distress with specific reference to footballs' Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected for 43 professional football clubs competing in the EPL and Championship for the financial year ends 2002–2019. Analysis was conducted using the Z-score methodology and additional statistical tests were conducted to measure differences between groups. Data was split into two distinct periods to analyse club finances pre- and post-FFP. Findings: The results show significant cases of financial distress amongst clubs in both divisions and that Championship clubs are in significantly poorer financial health than EPL clubs. In some cases, financially sustainability has worsened post-FFP. The "big 6" clubs – due to their size – seem to be more financially sound than the rest of the EPL, thus preventing a "too big to fail" effect. Overall, the financial situation in English football remains poor, a position that could be exacerbated by the economic crisis, caused by COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: The findings are not generalisable outside of the English football industry and the data is susceptible to usual accounting techniques and treatments. Practical implications: The paper recommends a re-distribution of broadcasting rights, on a more equal basis and incentivised with cost-reduction targets. The implementation of a hard salary cap at league level is also recommended to control costs. Furthermore, FFP regulations should be re-visited to deliver the original objectives of bringing about financial sustainability in European football. Originality/value: The paper extends the evidence base of measuring financial distress in professional team sports and is also the first paper of its kind to examine this in relation to Championship clubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper provides a conceptual discussion of the bidirectional relationship between knowledge management (KM) and intellectual capital (IC) in a specific subset of knowledge-based organisations, i.e. professional sport organisations. Through the review and conceptual discussion of two relevant research themes, i.e. KM strategies for IC value creation and IC codification, this paper aims to highlight research gaps useful to future research. Design/methodology/approach: The authors apply a systematic literature review method to analyse 66 management and accounting studies on KM and IC in sport organisations. Internal and external validity tests support the methodology adopted. Findings: The authors provide a conceptual model to explain how KM strategies about IC investments can be optimal, i.e. they create value for all the stakeholders but also suboptimal, i.e. they create value only for a group of stakeholders. Next, they provide evidence of the opportunistic use of the codification associated with IC investments that impair financial reporting information transparency and mislead managers and investors. Practical implications: The results are informative for managers, regulators and policymakers to mitigate the inefficiencies regarding KM and IC codification and decisions. Originality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of the bidirectional relationship between KM and IC in knowledge-based organisations by focussing on professional sport organisations in which KM and IC have played an important role for a long time. It also includes future avenues for advances in managing, measuring and reporting IC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The comparatively high salaries of professional players during their active athletic career should allow them to accumulate an adequate level of precautionary savings for a financially autonomous post-sport career. However, not all players succeed in accumulating sustainable financial assets. Therefore, the question arises how professional players' financial precaution within the social setting football is shaped. As no empirical analyses have yet been carried out on this issue, the study study examines football players' precautionary practices and motives. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 German (former) professional football players. The authors used qualitative content analysis to analyse the data, expanding the analysis to include reconstructive elements to create different precautionary types. Findings: The results reveal that players deal with both career-specific as well as precaution-related risks quite heterogeneously. Accordingly, three precautionary types characterised by distinct forms of precautionary saving practices are identified. The authors also find that although the players are aware of the uncertainties and risks related to their professional football careers, it does not say much about the concrete implementation of adequate precautionary practices. Practical implications: The findings contribute to a better understanding of precautionary saving practices among football players. Social implications: Moreover, the findings contribute to a better understanding of precautionary saving practices not only specifically among (former) football players, but generally among individuals that face high occupational career risks and earn high salaries to develop preventative concepts and approaches to sustainable financial planning. Originality/value: This paper is the first empirical study that analyses precautionary savings practices of the specific population of elite athletes in high income sports professional football. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Over the past decades, analyses of the functioning of professional sport leagues have been done from various angles: economic, financial and sociological; in some cases, comparisons were made between North-American and European leagues. The purpose of this paper is to look at this reality from a different angle, i.e. human capital management, by showing how different the models from both continents are.Design/methodology/approach Based on an identification of the major elements associated to human capital management in professional sport leagues in North America and Europe, this paper compares competitive and coopetitive strategies using an original framework based on consortium sourcing and pooling dimensions.Findings The paper underlines the benefits that North-American professional sport leagues get from acquiring players using a consortium sourcing perspective (coopetition). In Europe, the most powerful clubs use their financial resources to get the best players; as a result, it is always the same clubs with get the best results (competition). In the long run, the European approach might result in less attractiveness to TV viewers, and less revenues for TV networks.Originality/value This paper helps to understand the differences between professional sport leagues in North America and Europe; it also discusses the risk associated to the adoption, without any adjustment in the human capital management, in Europe of the North-American model based on a coopetitive perspective. This dimension is seldom mentioned in articles dealing with professional sport leagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of designing league regulatory mechanisms given the multi-dimensionality of competitive balance and the proliferation of empirical measures. Design/methodology/approach: A three-stage approach is adopted. Firstly, a taxonomy of empirical measures of competitive balance is proposed, identifying two fundamental dimensions – win dispersion and performance persistence. Secondly, a simple two-team model of league competitive balance is used to explore the dispersion–persistence relationship. Third, correlation and regression analysis of seven empirical measures of competitive balance for the 18 best-attended top-tier domestic football leagues in Europe over the 10 seasons, 2008–2017, are used to (1) validate the proposed categorisation of empirical measures into two dimensions; and (2) investigate the nature of the dispersion–persistence relationship across leagues. Findings: The simple model of league competitive balance implies a strong positive dispersion–persistence relationship when persistence effects increase for big-market teams relative to those for the small-market teams. However, the empirical evidence indicates that while leagues such as the Spanish La Liga exhibit a strong positive dispersion–persistence relationship, other leagues show little or no relationship, and some leagues, particularly, the English Premier League and top-tier divisions in Belgium and Netherlands, have a strong negative dispersion–persistence relationship. The key policy implication for leagues is the importance of understanding the direction and impact of dispersion and persistence effects on the demand for league products. Originality/value: The variability in the strength and direction of the dispersion–persistence relationship across leagues is an important result that undermines the "one-size-fits-all" approach to designing league regulatory mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a number of promises typically made by owners of professional sports franchises in the USA that are also typically ignored or underevaluated by public bureaus and their elected principals using the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York as a case study. Ex post subsidy outcomes are evaluated against ex ante subsidy promises in order to draw lessons that can inform and improve subsidy debates elsewhere.Design/methodology/approach The case study adopts a pre-post strategy drawing on data from multiple sources over a period of up to ten years in order to triangulate the narrative and build credibility. The franchise owner's ex ante promises and financial projections were obtained from various media including newspaper, video and interviews between December 2003, when the arena was publicly announced, and September 2012, when the arena opened. Data on ex post outputs were obtained from financial documents and government records covering periods from September 2011 through June 2016.Findings The franchise owner is found to have exaggerated the arena's financial condition, under-delivered on its employment promises, and exaggerated the scope and timeliness of ancillary real estate development. Only promises of event frequency and attendance levels, measures of the public's demand for the facility, have been met during the first three years.Research limitations/implications Because the evaluation is a case study, causal conclusions cannot be drawn and some aspects of the Barclays Center context may not be applicable in other jurisdictions or subsidy debates. In addition, the case study does not evaluate an exhaustive list of the promises franchise owners make.Practical implications Franchise owners have a financial incentive to overpromise public benefits, since subsidy levels are tied to what the public is perceived to receive in return. This case study demonstrates that the public sector should not take owners' promises and projections of public benefits at face value. Moreover, the case study reveals that the public sector should put more effort into ensuring ex post policy and data transparency in order to facilitate benefit-cost analyses of such subsidies.Originality/value The data required to evaluate promises, other than economic development ones, made by franchise owners are not systematically collected across state and local governments in the USA, making large-n studies impossible. Case studies are underutilized approaches in this area of public affairs, and this paper illustrates their usefulness. By focusing on a single facility, an evaluation of the franchise owner's less acknowledged and arguably more important promises about the facility and its local impact is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this paper, Fantasy Sports (Hereafter FS) is conceptually classified as a concept of gamification for professional sport leagues. From a sporting perspective, FS is often criticized because such online activities may be at the expense of physical activities. Otherwise, gamification can ultimately lead to economic advantages for sport leagues. To further empirically analyse this supposed juxtaposition, an empirical study is presented. Design/methodology/approach: In the empirical study, participation and non-participation in a sport league-related FS league are analysed and the study uses a divided sample (N = 319) for a one-factor Welch-ANOVA. FS effects on sport practice (engaging in doing sport) and usage (engaging with sport) of FS players as well as on gaining and retaining fans are investigated. Findings: Results demonstrate that participating in gamified FS experiences increases sport usage while not harming general sport practice. Furthermore, FS participation increases consumption capital as well as sport fans' loyalty and word of mouth (WOM) towards the league brand. Building on the results, league brands should foster gamified FS applications to retain their fan base and acquire new fans. Originality/value: The authors' theoretical contribution indicates the importance of FS as a gamified application and essential marketing tool for professional sport leagues. By introducing the terms sport practice and usage, the authors bridge the traditional logic of sport consumption with innovative approaches around engagement in and with sports. The results refute the prejudice that FS leads to less physical activity due to time substitution or displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Existing studies of the finance of English Association Football (soccer) have tended to focus on the sport’s early years, or on the post-1992 Premiership era. The authors examine a case from the turbulent 1980s charting the struggle for economic survival of one club in a rapidly changing financial, economic, political and demographic landscape. The purpose of this paper is to examine not only the financial management of a football club during this time, but also the interventionist role of the local authority during this turbulent period.Design/methodology/approach The authors investigate the financial difficulties of a sport business, Middlesbrough Football and Athletic Company Limited, examining the broader economic context, drawing on unseen archival sources dating from the 1980s to analyze the relationship between club, local and national government and the regional economy.Findings They not only examine the financial management of the football club but also analyse the interventionist role of the local authority in supporting the club which had symbolic value for the local community.Practical implications This paper is relevant to policymakers interested in the provision of local sports facilities and the links between elite sport and participation.Originality/value The authors show that professional sports clubs are driven by a different institutional logic to state organizations and the findings enable them to define these differences, thereby refining Thornton et al.’s (2012) typology of institutional orders. Furthermore, the case study highlights practices involving informal partnership between state and sport that the authors label as shadow hybridity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Turnover of employees is a key challenge for companies. The same is true for sports clubs that must set appropriate incentives to decrease their athletes’ turnover intention. As salary caps and team budgets restrict monetary incentives, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of organizational support on turnover intention of professional team sports athletes.Design/methodology/approach The paper applies a combined approach of qualitative and quantitative research and considers the specific requirements of European professional team sports. First, a qualitative study investigates organizational support in team sports and identifies relevant non-monetary incentives. Second, a quantitative study tests the effects of the identified organizational support incentives on turnover intention using a unique data set of professional team sports athletes. Third, a moderation analysis measures possible effects of age.Findings Through the qualitative study, three relevant non-monetary incentives could be identified in the context of professional team sports: integration of family (IOF), second career support, and private problem support. The subsequent quantitative study of football, ice hockey and handball athletes assesses the effectiveness of the identified incentives. All three incentives negatively influence athletes’ turnover intention, while IOF has a substantially stronger negative effect on turnover intention for younger athletes.Originality/value The findings indicate the importance of organizational support to decrease athletes’ turnover intention. Although money is relevant, sports clubs also need to address non-monetary incentives to decrease their athletes’ turnover intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Professional road cycling has the capacity to be a major worldwide spectator sport, but has yet, in the eyes of many, failed to realize its full potential. There is a growing awareness that profound reforms are crucial for the sport’s future success. The purpose of this paper is to explore the conditions which the sport must address, and define a new business model for professional road cycling.Design/methodology/approach The paper uses qualitative data to screen professional road cycling’s current business model, and to present a coherent vision on the changes needed to reform the sport. Information was gathered from archival material and from talks with stakeholders.Findings The paper presents a blueprint for the future of professional cycling. It identifies 6 vital building blocks and 25 specific action points, beginning with the idea that professional road cycling needs a stable business model that produces a valuable core product.Originality/value Professional road cycling is is conservative by nature and changes are extremely difficult to implement. This contribution presents a glimpse of one possible future for professional cycling, if cycling’s policy makers acknowledge the need for profound reforms of the sport and are willing to make the necessary changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Sponsorship sales in professional sport is an area of increasing attention and growing investment, but the sport management literature offers only limited research about sales strategies and tactics. As a result, practitioners and academics alike have called for investigation in the area. In response to this need, the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore sponsorship sales in professional sport.Design/methodology/approach Sponsorship sales professionals working for sport properties in the four major North American sport leagues were surveyed on a variety of sponsorship sales-related variables and factors.Findings A total of 92 sponsorship sales professionals responded to the study, for an estimated 15.3 percent response rate. At the time of the data collection, the 92 respondents worked in the National Football League (NFL) (37), Major League Baseball (MLB) (16), National Basketball Association (NBA) (18), and National Hockey League (NHL) (21). A series of practical, conceptual, and comparative results are presented, highlighted by turnover as a problem, the importance of activation/servicing in sponsorship sales, and the high level of investment clubs are making in sponsorship sales.Research limitations/implications First, on “coverage,” the authors acknowledge that variations in the data can be linked, to a large extent, to reporting issues due to the nature of the study, the data, and the sample. Variations in sponsor number or training, for example, are not necessarily indicative of weaknesses in the industry, but occur because of strategic differences among properties. Second, it is important to note that not all properties had personnel respond to the study. Consequently, the figures presented in this study might be a function of the individual personnel who responded rather than a true average figure for a particular league. Third, in terms of the sample, this study deals with a very specific context in the four North American major sport leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL). Thus, one should be careful in generalizing to minor professional, collegiate, Olympic, or other sport contexts.Practical implications The finding of this paper states that the turnover of sponsors may be a structural issue and is certainly related to the demand for the particular property (Seaver Marketing Group, 2010). Driven by a number of factors, including technology shifts to digital channels and increased sophistication by the sponsorship sales departments of professional sport properties, a shift in the activation and service paradigm is reported and extended to the specific context of sponsorship sales.Social implications Results show that sport properties in the North American major sport leagues have a strong commitment to sponsorship sales by the organization (commitment of resources), by sport personnel (who support the business side), and by their sponsorship sales professionals who report satisfaction, motivation, and support from their property.Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical research study specific on sponsorship sales in professional sport, thus providing direction for practice and future research on an issue of high importance to the sport industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus an empirical investigation on the financial ramifications of regulatory policies on American professional team sport leagues, while at once including the inseparable effects on the outcomes of contests. The authors conduct a comparative analysis of the impact of alternative regulatory mechanisms adopted by American professional team sport leagues, and their implications for the league performance.Design/methodology/approach The paper conducts a comparative analysis of ten years of financial and contest data from Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Hockey League (NHL). Using relative measures of payroll and profits for the two leagues, the authors test hypotheses on the impact of the market-based payroll taxes of the MLB with the strict payroll limits imposed by the NHL and their relationship to both financial and contest outcomes of the two leagues.Findings The comparison of MLB and NHL shows that market-based tax incentives are more consistent with the league financial objectives than strict, enforced mandates, suggesting that comparatively higher profits are associated with the MLB’s approach when compared to the strict bounds imposed by the NHL. Conversely, the comparison of player costs in the NHL and MLB reveal no distinguishable features based on the alternative regulatory methods.Originality/value This paper provides an initial, valuable assessment of different regulatory mechanisms on the on- and off-field (-ice) performance of MLB and NHL. Given that MLB has adopted market-based tax incentives to regulate payroll (the competitive balance tax), and the NHL has imposed strict payroll limits (hard salary cap), the authors at once consider MLB’s innovative revenue-sharing system alongside the NHL’s more conventional and restrained method of revenue redistribution, and their implications for performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Floorball is a Swedish sports innovation which emerged and started to be played about 40 years ago. The purpose of this paper is to explore value capturing in this relatively new sport and the various contributions made by different actors towards market development of the sport.Design/methodology/approach The research utilizes a theoretical framework of value capturing in professional team sports for research. The analysis is based upon 13 semi-structured interviews with representatives from three groups, “players/coaches,” “board members and “manufacturers/retailers.”Findings All economic actors within the research framework contribute to various extents to the market development of the sport, yet they all need to cooperate, exemplifying that innovation for market development and value for the sport can only be co-created.Research limitations/implications The sample is taken from the Swedish market and may, thus, be considered biased.Practical implications All economic actors within the research framework contribute to market development of the sport to various degrees, yet they all need to cooperate, exemplifying that innovation for market development and value for the sport can only be co-created.Originality/value This paper provides unique insights into the development of floorball as a “new” sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Talent compression is the labor market phenomenon where the average productivity differential between participants declines and has been used to explain the overall increase in competition within some professional sports markets. A finding that competitiveness is uniquely driven by talent compression is consistent with Rottenberg (1956), who argued that resource distribution is independent of factors that are invariant to labor productivity. Design/methodology/approach: Rather than incorporate MLB team roster turnover as many of the past studies have done, we prefer to measure of all-star turnover in membership. Problematically, movement from an MLB team to an MLB team is limited by rule, finances and the fact that there are very few teams competing for player services. In contrast, All-Star membership is typically costlessly chosen by many millions of fans, league players and managers. In this way, All-Star voting should be invariant to many of the factors that affect movement from an MLB team to an MLB team. Findings: In the end, we find that a close association between all-star turnover rates and the makeup of MLB's labor pool. Originality/value: The paper offers a new measure of player mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to recommend opportunities for professional sport leagues in the USA and Canada to apply the art and science of revenue management in order to minimize potential losses and maximize profits.Design/methodology/approach The evolution of current key revenue management concepts is presented from their initial stages to their current level of implementation. In addition, the literature regarding the strongest business models is reviewed and examined in the context of current successes and challenges across the major sport leagues in North America.Findings Five revenue streams in sports organizations are identified and analysed. Five key elements for revenues are highlighted as strategic tools used to maximize effectiveness in achieving revenue management goals. A series of recommendations is made to best use revenue management including careful negotiation of television contracts, the use of dynamic pricing models, maximization of partnerships and sponsorships, acceptance of new approaches to food and beverage and accessibility of sport merchandise to customers.Practical implications At the regional, national and international levels, sports organizations should review their current business practices to identify areas to improve their revenue management in light of the recommendations in this paper.Originality/value Although the use of the concept of revenue management in sectors of tourism has evolved since early 1970s, its application in professional sports is relatively new. Therefore, this paper provides value to professional sports organizations to optimize their profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Rugby union’s late move to professionalism in 1995 has led to concerns about the financial development of the game. The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge base on professional team sports in the UK by analysing the financial and sporting performance of rugby union clubs.Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained by dissecting the annual accounts of nine English Premiership rugby clubs between 2006 and 2015. Analysis was performed using the performance assessment model, which analyses both financial and sporting areas of performance and is devised through statistical analysis procedures to provide a holistic measure of overall performance for each club.Findings There is financial disparity amongst clubs that has widened over the period of the study. In terms of sporting performance, the data suggest that competition is more equal, something that is less evident in other UK professional team sports such as football and rugby league. Correlation analysis reveals that overall performance varies over time in cycles.Research limitations/implications The study has implications for the clubs competing in the English Premiership and for the league organisers themselves, particularly with reference to regulatory procedures such as raising the salary cap and increased broadcasting deals.Originality/value The paper has demonstrated the importance of balancing multiple performance objectives in professional team sports and has expanded the academic discussion on the financial health of professional team sports in the UK, particularly with reference to the financial health of rugby union where research has historically been scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show how one of the biggest phenomena of the twenty-first century is the internationalisation of professional sports and how premier league football epitomises this. With the influx of foreign players, managers and now owners, European League Football has become big business. This paper aims to provide a theoretical analysis of the management implications of foreign players in the English Premiership League football - renamed the Barclays Premier League to suit the needs of its major sponsors. Design/methodology/approach - The approach adopted is purely qualitative in nature, evaluating the top Barclays Premier League teams and the impact of globalisation on their reconfigurations since the early 1990s to date. The study draws mainly from a review of the extant literature on sports and management, as well as a critical analysis of media reports. Findings - Globalisation has emerged as a new force that has changed the way corporations are managed. Financial services, retail and information technology firms have all responded to this new wave - and so also has sports. Unfortunately while sports have the potential to teach lessons on management strategy, management researchers seem to have relegated sports to the sociology and psychology disciplines. Practical implications - The Barclays Premier league football provides a unique environment for management decisions and processes to occur in a range of markets and at varied levels. However, the globalisation of professional sports has received relatively very little attention in the academic literature - especially in the field of business and management. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the scant literature on the management implications of football by highlighting how globalisation has affected and reconfigured professional sports using the influx of foreign players into the English football league as a point of departure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of brand love by studying its intensity and the nature of extreme forms of it, rather than its presence or absence. The love of a sports team is a type of brand love and is a valuable context to study of brand love intensity because the intensity of love can become more extreme than for products; it has two distinctive features that are theoretically, management and policy relevant; and it is an under-researched context in marketing that is socially and economically significant. Design/methodology/approach: The authors empirically develop and test a multidimensional hierarchical higher-order measure of the intensity of team love and a model of its drivers and outcomes using a sample of supporter club members of a professional sports team who vary in their intensity of love for the team. Findings: The results support our measurement model and its distinctive features, especially the importance of the perceived two-way bond fans have with their team. While overall intensity of team love is not related to social influence or on-field performance, as hypothesized, they are related to sub-dimensions of team love, reflecting its multidimensionality. As hypothesized, the intensity of team love and social influence are related to the intention to renew club membership even with increased costs and poor performance and social influence is directly related to word of mouth and game attendance. Research limitations/implications: The research is limited to the club members of one sports team in a particular sport in one country and one cultural context. Future research opportunities include: extending it to other sports and brand contexts, refining the methodology and addressing other issues highlighted by the research. Practical implications: The results indicate the limits of management control of team love intensity because it develops over time independently through social processes. However, firms can help facilitate these processes. The social dimensions indicate the need to develop socially, as well as individually-focussed relationship management strategies. Most devoted fans are valuable customers, but some hardcore elements can be dysfunctional and sabotage the brand. Social implications: Sport is personally, social and economically significant in most cultures and love of a sports team love can be an important glue that binds people and communities. However, the existence of extreme hardcore fans and heated rivalries can also be divisive and pose challenges for social policy. Hence, the need to better understand the factors driving more extreme forms of team love to better inform the development of social policy. Originality/value: The authors focus on the intensity of brand love rather than its presence and absence as in prior research. The authors develop and test a new hierarchical measure of sports team love intensity and a model of its drivers and outcomes. The sports context is under-researched in marketing but reveals the important role played by dimensions that are obscured in studies of product brand love – its social nature and the perceived reciprocal relation with devoted fans. The results contribute to developing extended theories of brand love, open up new research opportunities and have management and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The addition of products to the core of matches by professional sports teams (PSTs) has received much coverage. However, there has been limited work as to how their stadiums are used to stage non-sporting events. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how clubs in the English Football League (EFL) use their venues to diversify into other markets. Design/methodology/approach: Secondary sources were used to categorise the teams who played in the EFL by: average division turnover, stadium capacity and stadium age. Semi-structured interviews were held with a member of the commercial teams of 21 clubs. Findings: Clubs use their stadiums to supply a range of products and working with partners is commonplace. These products are targeted at a range of stakeholders, such as supporters, the local community and regionally based organisations. In addition to their own efforts, increased geographical coverage for clubs usually develops in three ways: via internal marketing by local organisations who use the facilities, agents who market the stadium for the club and the EFL who market the league/clubs holistically. Research limitations/implications: The use of a stadium allows PSTs to diversify by providing new products for new markets. In this instance it has led to the development of capabilities in areas such as conferencing, funerals and weddings. Originality/value: This is one of the first papers to examine the capabilities developed by PSTs that lie outside the staging of matches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose American taxpayers heavily subsidize professional sports leagues and teams through direct and indirect public funding to build professional sports stadiums. Today, the proportion of public funding to build professional sports stadiums is greater than private contribution. In last 20 years, almost all of the 100 professional stadiums opened have received some form of direct or indirect financial assistance from local, state and federal government. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach This paper investigates and documents most often used methods of stadium financing in recent years along with the historical shift from privately built stadiums to public funded stadiums in the span of 65 years. This paper also briefly reviews the literature evaluating the impacts of public spending for professional sports stadiums. The vast literature on the topic reveals that economists and city planners agree that public subsidy to build expensive professional sports stadiums cannot be justified on the grounds of perceived economic development.Findings Over the years, funding mix to build professional sports facilities has changed dramatically. Local government has been coming up with various financing strategies involving new and old instruments.Originality/value The findings also suggest that share of local and state government has gone up in recent years compare to federal government share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Academics have studied the finances of football clubs, but not the financial situation of professional football players. To fill this gap in literature, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the financial situation of individual players, the causes of financial problems and the probability of encountering financial difficulties.Design/methodology/approach A survey has been conducted of 102 players of five clubs in the Belgian first division. Based on this unique data set, a multivariate nominal logistic regression model allows the causes of financial difficulties to be identified. A derived classification model is estimated in order to predict the probability of professional players encountering financial problems.Findings About one out of four professional players is confronted with occasional financial problems. Next to the use and investment of income; personal, family and career status factors have a peculiar impact on the individual financial situation of professional sports players.Practical implications The results allow better identification of professional players likely to incur financial problems and better assisting them avoid problems.Originality/value Given the gap in the sports management literature, the findings from the econometric approach provide both researchers and practitioners with new insights into financial management issues of athletes. The findings may help athletes, their managers and club managers in their decision making. Future research can further build on these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Professional sports organizations have a long tradition of utilizing stories as part of their marketing efforts. However, as the media landscape has undergone considerable change as a result of information and communication technologies, most notably through social media, the conditions under which storytelling evolve have altered significantly. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explain how storytelling in the sports sector becomes integrated in social media. Design/methodology/approach - A conceptual review in three sequential steps is carried out. First, extant literature on the role and effects of storytelling is reviewed. This is followed by a review of the interplay between storytelling and the contemporary media landscape, with a particular focus on social media. Third, the authors link both literatures and, by doing so, illustrate the dynamic interplay of storytelling and social media in the sports sector. Findings - The conceptual review shows that storytelling can enact four sequential roles that are characterized by varying degrees of co-creation which, in relation to extant literature, has strong implications for the manageability of storytelling from the perspective of professional sports organizations. Originality/value - Based on the identified sequential roles that storytelling can enact in social media, this paper contributes to the field of sports marketing by depicting how the dynamics between storytelling and the social media landscape exhibit a shifting degree of manageability with regards to storytelling from the perspective of professional sports organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Today's economic climate has fueled intense competition for entertainment dollars, including those spent on professional and intercollegiate sports. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight and demonstrate the use of the Six Sigma methodology as a way to improve event attendance in a sports marketing setting. Design/methodology/approach – The research utilizes the define-measure-analyze-improve-control (DMAIC) sequence to evaluate customer requirements and develop recommendations. Surveys, focus groups, and descriptive statistics comprise an important set of tools utilized to accomplish this aim. Findings – The paper concludes that Six Sigma can be readily applied to a sports marketing setting by explicitly demonstrating the steps employed to reverse a four-year decline in attendance for a collegiate men's basketball program. Originality/value – The paper is unique in detailing the use of Six Sigma, a traditional quality improvement methodology, in a sports marketing setting. It also highlights the unique elements associated with fully implementing a Six Sigma project in such a seasonal setting as an athletic enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose |!|#8211; The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between national diversity and team performance. Research on US teams involved in a task of low interdependence (baseball) is replicated with a Japanese sample to investigate possible cross-national differences. The paper also presents a new quantitative measure of diversity. Design/methodology/approach |!|#8211; This study uses quantitative research based on archival data. Regression modeling is applied to professional sports data from Japan. National diversity of teams is operationalized using a new approach to Blau|!|#39;s Index. Findings |!|#8211; A negative relationship was found between national diversity and team performance in Japan. No significant results were found for age diversity. The results for national diversity are in contrast to research conducted on similar teams in the USA. Practical implications |!|#8211; The findings provide evidence of cross-national differences between US and Japanese teams. Findings are also directly applicable to managers in the growing field of international sports management and sports business. Originality/value |!|#8211; Globalization has resulted in the internationalization of the professional sports industry. This paper is one of the first international studies of professional sports teams that span the East-West divide, to provide insights on international team performances. Findings from this cross-national comparison of US and Japanese teams contribute to organizational research by reinforcing the need to consider national context in diversity research. Educators will find that use of professional sports allows students to easily relate to the findings of the study. Managers are offered direct evidence that team dynamics related to diversity are different between US and Japanese teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose ? The aim of this study is to demonstrate suitability of the continuous improvement framework and use of benchmarking method in the context of sports. Design/methodology/approach ? This study uses non-financial performance measures that are indicative of performance and are closely related to the desired outcomes. Use of such measures seems necessary in the sports and appropriate in relation to professional sports organizations' recruiting, attendance, and profit maximizing objectives. Analyses of this study are based on data of National Basketball Association (NBA) games over three basketball seasons. Findings ? The results indicated significant correlation between attendance and winning percentages. Furthermore, the results suggest that a team can improve its winning percentages by changes in the roster that help it emulate superior teams. Comparing teams that advanced in a given season and reach the playoffs with those that did not, revealed the more important skill factors for success in the NBA. The results also indicated that some players' skills might be more critical for a given team in reaching the playoffs. Research limitations/implications ? The results presented in this paper are influenced by the NBA's basketball rules. Because basketball rules are not the same for all leagues and such rules change over time, the findings are time-specific and should be considered in that light. Additionally, the research design used in this study must be modified for other professional sports. Originality/value ? This paper provides an example for application of continuous improvement framework to professional sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - In the highly saturated sports industry where sport teams represent a complex offering loaded with intangible and tangible attributes, it is important to implement appropriate marketing strategies that will ultimately contribute to the development of strong brand equity. In this paper, the authors focused on the relationship between brand variables and marketing activities on the development of brand equity. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to study the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of marketing promotional activities and the impact on the brand equity. Design/methodology/approach - Respondents (2,400) were recruited through an online survey and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings - The survey revealed that the congruence between the brand personality and the promotional activities has a positive impact on its evaluation and on brand equity. In addition, the results showed that consumers who consider the financial strength of the team as an important factor evaluate more positively the value of congruent and incongruent promotional activities. Practical implications - Brand managers should maintain consistency between their brand personality and their promotional activities in order to maintain and increase their brand equity. Originality/value - The results contribute to the literature by investigating the impact of brand personality on the evaluation of promotional activities. Also, it examines an important factor (financial consciousness) that could influence how fans react in front of an incongruent promotional activity. This research brings a better understanding of the impact of brand personality on marketing strategies and brand equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The authors contrast Beckett and Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) baseball card valuations. Also, the authors contrast the Bill James statistics for winshares (WIN) and reference.com statistics for wins above replacement (WAR). Design/methodology/approach: This study examines the impact of analytics on Topps 1957 baseball card values. Findings: The authors' examination of variables that influence Topps 1957 baseball card values yields similar results for mint and very good rated cards over the early period (1982), pre-strike (1989), post-strike (1998) and recent (2009) periods. In single variable and multiple regressions, Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF) membership and New York Yankee (NYY) nostalgia coefficient are significant at the 5% level or higher for mint and very good rated cards over all reported periods. The Brooklyn Dodger (BD) parameter is significant at the 5% level or higher in single variable regressions for all reported periods and for 1982 and 1989 for multiple regressions. Reflecting a lack of nostalgia, the New York Giant card coefficients are statistically insignificant over all periods. Also, the authors see a lack of negative bias for Black-player cards. The authors observe that Black-player card coefficients are positive and sometimes statistically significant. This indicates a positive relationship between Black-player cards and prices. Originality/value: This is the first study to examine the impact of WINS and WAR analytics on baseball card values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which dynamic pricing is utilized in North American professional sports. While industries such as airlines and travel services have employed dynamic pricing for decades, professional sports is only now starting to adopt it.Design/methodology/approach The authors survey and interview high ranking executives and managers in North American sports organizations. A total of 72 managers and executives from the four major North American professional sports leagues as well as other sport properties were surveyed. Descriptive statistics and a basic regression provide insight into perceptions v. actual practice among sports organizations.Findings While most sports organizations perceive high usage of dynamic pricing within their organization, current procedures lag. Nearly 70 percent of respondents believe that their organizations frequently or always apply business analytics to dynamic pricing, but only 30 percent update their prices daily. Fully 50 percent of organizations do not automate decision-making processes, which is a hallmark of dynamic pricing. The perception of constant use of analytics in dynamic pricing intensifies as job title increases.Originality/value As one of the initial surveys looking at the usage of dynamic pricing in North American professional sports, this study provides a glimpse into both the perception and the reality. It suggests that there is still ample room for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-effects of on-site sponsorship on online sponsorship effectiveness in communities. The research evaluates how members' commitment to a sports-oriented community and attitude to brands providing sponsorship developed through sponsorship on-site, and sponsor-community fit, influence the effectiveness of online sponsorship measured as the intention to purchase the same brands online through sponsoring banners displayed on the community web site. Design/methodology/approach -- Data were collected through a web-survey from a self-selected sample of 272 respondents belonging to non-professional sports communities. By drawing on the principal tenets of the theory of reasoned action, the authors developed a theoretical framework and tested it through a structural equation model to evaluate the role of attitude to sponsor brands developed through sponsorship on-site, and its antecedents, on the intention to purchase the same brands online through sponsoring banners exposed on the community web site. Findings -- The attitude to sponsor brands developed through sponsorship on-site affects the intention to make online purchases of the same brands through sponsoring banners exposed on the web sites of non-professional communities. On the other hand, antecedents of sponsorship on-site, that is, sponsor-community fit and commitment to the community, affect the intention to purchase the same brands online through sponsor banners displayed on the community web site, with attitude playing a different mediating role. Practical implications -- The research contributes to sponsorship literature by establishing the existence of cross-effects of on-site sponsorship on online sponsorship effectiveness and providing insights into the central role of commitment and attitude developed on-site. Managerially, non-professional communities emerge as attractive targets for multiple sponsorship investment owing to their on-site and online social interaction that offers managers an opportunity to exploit sponsorship cross-effects. Originality/value -- The study contributes to the scant body of knowledge on the cross-effects of on-site sponsorship on online sponsorship and provides insights into the importance of communities as a beneficial target of sponsorship investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In response to increasing competition for consumer attention, sport governing bodies have innovated short-format, action-oriented versions of traditional sports to attract new fans. This article explores how sport governing bodies (SGBs) manage the need for innovations to both conform to existing stakeholder expectations whilst offering novel benefits in comparison to competition (i.e. legitimate distinctiveness). Design/methodology/approach: Created by the English Cricket Board (ECB), The Hundred competition was used as a case study to explore the conformity-differentiation tension through a legitimacy lens using document and media analysis. Findings: Seven themes were created to explain how the ECB managed legitimacy tensions: rule modification, team creation, scheduling, game-day experience, broadcasting, gender equity and sponsorship. In each theme, differentiation and conformity were traded-off by the ECB to prioritise pragmatic legitimacy with broadcasters and sponsors. Practical implications: For sport management professionals, the Hundred demonstrates the commercial value of differentiating new sporting events from competitors via hybrid broadcasting partnerships, embedded gender equity and designing game-day experiences that attract hard-to-reach consumer demographics. Originality/value: SGBs must trade-off legitimacy between sources when innovating to survive, and when faced with conflicting expectations, commercial imperatives determined whether to conform or differentiate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Local authorities around the world provide different forms and different amounts of direct and/or indirect assistance to professional sport teams, which in most cases are owned by private business entrepreneurs. Findings from various studies indicate that professional sports teams do not make a significant contribution to a city in terms of its economy, tourism or even image. The purpose of this paper is to explore and question, from a local public policy standpoint, the justification for financial assistance from the local authority to privately owned professional sports teams that provide a public service or a public good. Design/methodology/approach – In order to shed light on the process, a two-staged study was used: an examination of the financial subsidies of ten cities in Israel, focusing in particular on Herzliya, an affluent community north of Tel Aviv. In the second stage, a representative sample of Herzliya's adult residents (18 years old and above) was surveyed with regard to the city's current policy on sports and the policy they would like to see enacted. Findings – The findings show that both public officials and professional sports officials place subsidizing popular sports rather than professional sports higher on their priorities. The study concludes that the combination of a number of processes has brought about a democratic deficit. Originality/value – Lack of transparency and the exclusion of the public in decision making processes has led to a democratic deficit in the local authorities. Once it was armed with empirical information and included in the decision making process, the public was able to reallocate the budget to meet its needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of perceived environmental quality of the stadium on fans' future intentions to attend a game by highlighting the moderating effect of team loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: Using latent moderated structural equations modeling, this study tested the direct impacts of stadium factors on consumers' desire to stay and revisit intentions and the moderation effects of team loyalty based on Mehrabian and Russell's environmental psychology behavioral model. Findings: The results showed significant direct effects of team loyalty and desire to stay on revisit intentions. The stadium environment influenced desire to stay and revisit intentions only by the interactions with team loyalty. More specifically, higher loyalty led to higher desire to stay and revisit intentions, whereas fans' positive experience of stadium environment intensified the effect. Originality/value: The authors highlight the significant role of desire to stay on revisit intentions by incorporating the cognitive-affective system of human behavior. In addition, this study provides essential information for identifying the interaction effects of environmental factors and team loyalty on consumer behavior in sport settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting on the websites of football clubs based in five European countries with different levels of football corporatisation. Design/methodology/approach: The study examines CSR reporting on the internet by football clubs based in five European countries. Multiple regression analysis is used to analyse some factors which influence reporting and test a set of hypotheses. Findings: The findings suggest that clubs from countries in which the level of corporatisation is higher disclose more CSR information. Also, clubs with higher public visibility disclose a higher variety of CSR information. Originality/value: This study adds to the scarce research on CSR reporting in professional sports leagues by providing new empirical data and by extending prior research comparing such practices within different international frameworks of CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine factors influencing the audience demand for televised post-season games of the Korean professional baseball league. Design/methodology/approach -- The data were collected from a total of 129 games -- the entire postseason games from 2008 to 2016. Two dependent variables representing audience demand for televised baseball matches, obtained from the third-party television audit company AGB Nielsen, were regressed on a series of match-related and unrelated antecedent factors associated with each match. Pooled OLS regression with wild bootstrap standard errors with 100,000 replications was applied in the analysis. Findings -- Regarding match-related factors, higher television ratings and the greater numbers of television viewers were associated with matches with greater significance, outcome uncertainty and score sum. In terms of the match-unrelated factors, the broadcast platform appeared to be the most powerful predictor of both television ratings and the numbers of viewers. Other than the broadcast platform, night matches, matches with full stadium occupancy and team values showed positive impacts on both the television ratings and the numbers of viewers. Practical implications -- The sales of media rights and sponsorships are the major sources of revenues for professional sports leagues, and the size of these two streams of revenues is in proportion to the size of the audience demand for television and other media. This study provides valuable insights to the sports marketers of professional sports clubs and leagues by establishing proper understanding of the determinants of the audience demand for televised sports. Originality/value -- The characteristics specific to each professional league and country play unique roles in determining the antecedent factors of audience demand for televised sports; this study is one of the few attempts to examine Koran professional baseball league. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cricket Indian Premier League (IPL) was set up in late 2007 and played for the first time in 2008. The IPL is probably the first time in the history of professional team sport that an Asian league has become stronger than a European one. This paper examines the IPL's first year of operation, comparing its organisation with Major League Baseball and the English Football League. The paper concludes that the IPL has more in common with Major League Baseball, although it has, in some respects, proved more flexible than both in its mode of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to contribute to the internet marketing literature by examining the impact of flow on consumers' satisfaction, aroused feelings, website loyalty and word-of-mouth behaviours. Design/methodology/approach - A self-administered online questionnaire was used for data collection through a market research firm which randomly selected individuals of its online panel. Participants were asked to recall a recent encounter with their preferred professional sport website and refer to that website regarding their answers. Data were gathered from 400 consumers from a variety of professional sporting teams. The variables under investigation in the study were measured using established scales from the marketing literature and adapted to the context of the study. Findings - The results indicate that a compelling online experience related to sporting team websites as represented by flow experiences appears to be a driver of positive aroused feelings, higher satisfaction levels, as well as website loyalty and positive word-of-mouth of sport consumers. Research limitations/implications - The sample of the study is restricted to consumer evaluations from a specific website-service context being the professional sport sector. The empirical relationships between flow, aroused feelings, consumer satisfaction, website loyalty and word of mouth reported in the study are tentative in the sense that they are based on cross-sectional data. Practical implications - The study provides important implications for flow theory development and implications for internet marketing strategy, especially for professional sporting teams. Originality/value - The paper adds to the literature by investigating the relationship between flow and consequent outcomes of encounters and experiences of sporting team websites. Little research has addressed flow, and its effect on aroused feelings, consumer satisfaction and website-related loyalty intentions, especially in the domain of professional sport websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies five types of insolvency in English football: clubs that have failed to cope with relegation; failed to pay monies due to the UK government; seen 'soft debts' become 'hard debts'; lost the ownership of their stadium; or have been 'repeat offenders'. As the second of a three-phase research project, the paper concludes with an indication of the final phase research and implications of the findings so far for other professional sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual model to examine the relationships among e-service quality, consumer satisfaction, attitudes towards the web site and behavioural intentions in the context of content-driven web sites. Design/methodology/approach - Data from an online survey of 518 consumers were collected with the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling technique used to empirically test the model. Findings - Findings suggest that positive evaluations of e-service quality influences positive levels of consumer satisfaction, consumer attitudes towards the web site and behavioural intentions within the specific service context of content-driven professional sports web sites. Research limitations/implications - The study specifically focuses on content-centric web sites within a single service domain being professional sport. Future research can apply the framework to other service sectors on the internet, as well as to other cultural settings. Practical implications - The study suggests that practitioners can use the model developed in this study to assist in allocating resources to the essential, or under-performing, e-service quality attributes needed to drive positive consumer satisfaction, attitudes and behavioural intentions. Originality/value - The paper proposes and empirically supports the idea that e-service quality influences consumer attitudes as well as consumer satisfaction and behavioural intentions in the context of content-driven (professional sports) web sites. Moreover, the results of this study provide managers with a useful framework to manage content driven e-services, as well as for researchers interested in the issue of managing e-service quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the notion of "symbolic purchase" which has long been documented in the management and marketing literature. In particular, self-congruity theory has been examined in various domains of consumer behavior. However, little attention has been paid to the area of sport. In sport business, licensed-merchandise (i.e. team apparel) has become an increasingly important revenue source and it strengthens fan identity and brand loyalty. Therefore, based on the self-congruity theory, the aim is to investigate the effect of self-image congruence on sport team-licensed merchandise evaluation and purchase. Design/methodology/approach - A proposed model incorporates self-image congruence (SIC), perceived quality, and purchase intention of team-licensed merchandise. The reliabilities of the scaled measures were established in a pilot study (n = 66). Data (n = 260) for this study were collected at two professional basketball games using a convenient sampling method. Findings - The results of the structural model indicated that the model fits the data well and constructs of self-image congruence and perceived quality combined explained 43 per cent of the total variance in purchase intention. The findings revealed that both SIC and perceived quality had a direct positive effect on purchase intention while perceived quality also acted as a mediator between SIC and purchase intention. Research limitations/implications - The findings imply that SIC can be useful in predicting sport fans' quality perception and purchase decisions on the team-licensed merchandise. Future studies need to replicate this study in different regions and using different sports (i.e. soccer, baseball, etc.). - Originality/value - The findings extend the literature by incorporating self-image congruence and perceived product quality in the purchase decision-making process. This is the first known effort to apply self-congruity theory in the spectator sport consumption context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: For centuries, people have raised money for many purposes, and funding projects utilizing the Internet began to spread in earnest after 2010. However, there is a notable lack of research on crowdfunding projects, especially those involving sports. Given this background, this study's objective is to compare whether motivational factors may work differently depending on crowdfunding type and to analyze the impact of such factors on investments. Design/methodology/approach: This study was conducted using stimulation through artificially modified newspaper articles to measure crowdfunding motivation and investment intention. To clarify research questions, this study applied multiple regression analysis. Findings: Findings indicate that philanthropic motives and interest in projects influenced the intention to decide on funding and often had positive word-of-mouth effects. In equity-based projects, philanthropic motives and a desire to be recognized acted as drivers for both behaviors. In reward-based projects, philanthropic motives determined investment intentions, and recognition motivation and interest factors influenced word-of-mouth intention. Originality/value: This study investigated the motivations and consequent intentions for crowdfunding in the field of the professional sports industry, which had substantive future implications for the business of sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the process of change in existing professional sport organisations as they initiate a women's team. Design/methodology/approach: Three Australian Football League clubs with licenses for professional women's teams were examined, with semi-structured interviews held with three key department managers from each club. Findings: The findings suggest organisations adopt either a community-focused or commercially focused approach, the selection of which is a response to the interplay of institutional pressures (e.g. league demands), resource demands (e.g. human and financial) and the strategic choices of a few, key "idea champions". Originality/value: This study provides insight into the approach change taken by clubs as they introduce a women's team into their existing organisational structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Professional sports have emerged as a lucrative business, with many opportunities for sports marketers to flourish. As this paper will show, professional sports teams unite to produce a league product that, while initially is produced to provide entertainment for spectators, is now sold to four distinct groups: first, fans who support leagues by attending games, following games on television and other media, and purchasing league- and team-related merchandise; second, television and other media companies which purchase the right to show games as a programming option; third, communities which build facilities and support local clubs; and fourth, corporations which support leagues and clubs by increasing gate moneys, purchasing teams outright, or providing revenues through sponsorships or other associations. As a result, professional sports leagues provide a unique environment for marketing decisions and processes to occur, in a number of markets and at a number of levels, and should continue to be a growing segment within the broader, global, entertainment industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Experiences of high quality games between top-class sports teams could influence sports fans' decision to attend the domestic sports games. For example, soccer fans who watched the World Cup games between the best national teams are likely to be disappointed with the performance of their domestic league teams after the World Cup event, while more people might be attracted to watch a soccer game because of their increased interest in soccer games. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the international sports event (i.e. the World Cup) influences the demand of the domestic sports league games in the non-hosting country. Design/methodology/approach - To test these antithetical hypotheses, the authors collect the Chinese Super League game-level data from 2004 to 2011. For analysis, the authors propose two empirical models rigorously developed based on previous sports marketing theories. Findings - The findings are surprising compared to previous studies for the hosting countries or countries that performed spectacularly during the World Cup tournaments. The authors find that the international event negatively influences the attendance of domestic games. Specifically, it gives salience to the competitive quality of a match and helps enhance the impact of star players. Furthermore, the authors find evidence of dynamic effects of the international event. Originality/value - The study contributes to the previous sports literatures by expanding our understanding of the effect of international sports events. Particularly, the results shed light on international events' impact on the domestic sports league demand in more general conditions based on its influence on people's behavior, rather than focusing on the effect caused by facility development or dramatic performance during the international event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]