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Governments in many countries are increasingly interested in using community sport as a vehicle for improving public health through physical activity (PA) promotion. This has been associated with an increasing interdependence between the community sport and health policy sectors. However, there are no empirically grounded studies which have examined this directly and systematically in England. By examining Sport England's Get Healthy, Get Active (GHGA) initiative, this paper presents novel evidence derived from interviews held with strategic policy-makers from Sport England and a professional football charity (Everton in the Community), and 67 men who engaged in one of the GHGA funded programmes, Active Blues. The findings reveal how the increasing interdependence between community sport and health policy has been characterised by tightly contested and congested relations of power at local and national levels. Although Sport England was the lead organisation which coordinated and was accountable for community sport, it was nevertheless highly dependent on organisations outside of the sector, including health organisations, to deliver their community sport goals. This was indicative of the relatively vulnerable and marginal position which Sport England, and sport policy, occupied in the policy landscape and the associated generalisation of interests from sport to public health. The policy spillover from more powerful policy sectors such as health, to comparatively less powerful ones like community sport, raises questions about the degree to which government can realistically expect to achieve their formal community sport and health policy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organizational field that constitutes English rugby union has undergone substantial change since 1995. This paper builds on earlier work by O'Brien and Slack (2003a) that established that a shift from an amateur to a professional dominant logic in English rugby union took place between 1995 and 2000. Utilizing ideas about institutional logics, isomorphism, and diffusion, the current paper explores how this shift in logics actually evolved. Data from 43 interviews with key individuals in English rugby union form the main data source for the study. The results show that isomorphic change in accord with a new professional logic diffused throughout the field by way of three distinct diffusion patterns: status driven, bandwagon, and eventually, the social learning of adaptive responses. An initial period of high uncertainty, intense competitive pressures, and sustained financial crises resulted in unrestrained mimesis in the first two seasons of the professional era. However, this gave way in the third season to increased interorganizational linkages, coalition building, and political activity that promoted normative and coercive pressures for a consolidation of the game's infrastructure and future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1995, the organizational field that constitutes English rugby union has undergone considerable transformation. Utilizing ideas about changes in actors, changes in exchange processes and interorganizational linkages, changes in the legitimized forms of capital in the field, and changes in regulatory structures, this paper explores the nature of this transformation in English rugby union. Data from 43 interviews with key individuals in the English game form the main data source for the study. The results show that changes in the communities of actors composing the field hastened change in other areas. Powerful new actors with strong ties to business environments brought with them professionally oriented values and a new institutional logic. Having made significant financial investments in the field, these actors collectively took measures to protect their economic interests. These measures took the form of political activity and coalition building, which, ultimately, reconfigured the field's regulatory structure. The new emphasis on economic capital prompted significant shifts in key actors' exchange relationships, in that clubs' strategies and structures were reoriented in order to gain access to this important network resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper employs data for the 1993-94 season to estimate a hedonic equation representing the determination of the price structure in the transfer market for professional players in the English football leagues. Player transfer proneness is modelled, and the Heckman two-step procedure is employed to take account of selection bias. The paper identifies those player attributes which affect either the probability of transfer or the transfer fee and evaluates the relative influence of such variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional sports clubs (PSCs) are potentially effective settings for health promotion; however, their role within policy is unclear. Potential reasons include lack of awareness about existing provision of health and wellbeing (H&W) programmes and adequacy of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practices. This review aimed to: (i) map the provision of H&W programmes delivered by PSCs in the United Kingdom (UK), and (ii) explore current M&E practices of PSCs and consider the policy implications of this. Websites from eight professional sport leagues were hand-searched for programmes and impact reports. Suitable programmes were quantified, whilst impact reports were analysed via inductive documentary content analysis. Results identified 176 H&W programmes and 36 impact reports, as well as 43 H&W impact statements, but only 14 of these were aligned to specific H&W outcomes. The H&W aims of programmes were typically vague, measurement tools were rarely used, and evaluations were usually anecdotal case studies and based on engagement figures, which may not only limit the potential uptake of these programmes but also the relevance of PSCs to public policy. Further research is thus needed to build a stronger evidence base for the use of PSCs as vehicles of public health promotion and policy, and to better address the challenges faced when seeking to monitor and evaluate PSC programmes effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive balance (CB) is a key consideration for those who administer professional sports leagues. This paper examines CB in elite rugby union in England since leagues were formed in 1987. Using a range of established and sport-specific metrics, results indicate that levels of CB have been broadly responsive to a combination of externally imposed and internally generated developments in rugby's competitive environment. The implications for policy-makers suggest that, while rugby union compares well, competitively, with other English professional team sports, reconciling the need to manage for a viable domestic league, while accommodating the aspirations of its strongest clubs, is likely to be problematic in the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how by 1900 cricket had come to be seen as an important representation of Yorkshire identity. It places the start of this process in the game's popular pre-modern context, as professional-centred, competitive, commercial cricket dominated its formative development across the region. The way these values led to local rivalries which became focused on the concept of a representative team building Yorkshire's status within the national context of cricket is then explored. Finally these events are set against the formation of the 'Gentleman Amateur' controlled county club in 1863, to show how a distinctive concept of county cricket developed in Yorkshire which offers a different perspective on the English county game during its formative decade and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explain why organisations remain vulnerable to financial failure despite increasing financial regulation to improve governance. Using a case study of gambling and regulation in professional football in England, it introduces the concept of "regulatory legitimacy" to show how this enables football clubs to gamble. Design/methodology/approach: The study quantifies the extent to which football clubs in the Championship of the English Football League (EFL) adopt a conventionally economically irrational decision to run a loss-making budget in the hope of achieving sporting success. The study postulates criteria for evidence of this form of gambling by overspending on playing talent with data from the clubs' published financial statements. A pay-off matrix is developed to compare the intended and actual outcomes. Findings: The research finds that this strategy was both prevalent and the most successful to achieve promotion. Originality/value: This study makes three contributions. The first is the quantification of the prevalence of this form of gambling. The second is the finding that, despite regulations to limit spending on wages, gambling is rational in the non-economic sense because it is almost a necessary strategy to achieve promotion if the club had not been relegated from the Premier League in the previous season. The third contribution is the development of the concept of "regulatory legitimacy" as a way to understand the process through which regulations are implemented yet are ineffective at curbing financial gambling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a market test for racial discrimination in salary setting in English league soccer over the period 1978-93 using a balanced panel of 39 clubs. If there is a competitive market for the services of players, the wage bill of the club will reflect their productivity and hence the performance of the club in the league. Discrimination can be said to exist if clubs fielding an above-average proportion of black players systematically outperform clubs with a below-average proportion of black players, after one controls for the wage bill. Statistically significant evidence of discrimination in this sense is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the efficacy of educational partnerships by sport management and business programs with professional sports clubs. We utilize a case study of the Lock Haven University partnership with Wolverhampton Wanderers of the Premier League in England which was formed in 2019. Both organizations are seeking to expand their footprint, particularly in the North American marketplace. We view the partnership from the lens of value adding for students and for professional sports organizations. Further discussions of leveraging other relationships for student project work, study abroad and internships are also made in our presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Professional Sport Organizations (PSO) faces the unique challenge of balancing the commercial interests of a business operation with the expressive identification by its fans and stakeholders. As these organisations move onto the global stage, the internet constitutes a powerful medium for managing this challenge because it allows for the simultaneous projection of different organisational images to different audiences. In this paper, we develop a theory of image communication by PSOs using neo-institutional theory and show that inter-organisational homogeneity dominates the way in which English soccer clubs use their websites to communicate about their images to industry, fans, and community stakeholders. Our results suggest that PSOs underutilise the potential for image differentiation offered by the internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a response to the revisionist view of the history of the professionalization of association football in Lancashire as proposed by Peter Swain in a recent article in Sport in History. It expands on some of the arguments first proposed in my PhD thesis and subsequent articles during the 1990s, and suggests that Swain based his arguments on a number of misconceptions and misinterpretations of my original work. Apart from the flaws in Swain's reasoning and analysis, this article also criticizes his use of evidence in his attempted proof of this reinterpretation. It focuses particularly on his confusion of the concepts of 'invention' and 'innovation', and the idea of business innovation and its diffusion according to Rogers's classic theory. It also attempts to show the errors in Swain's 'continuity' concept as a theoretical structure. In conclusion, it is argued that Swain's 'new direction' is in fact a dead end, and that subsequent research should avoid these misinterpretations and misdirections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A n ye! test for racial discrimination in English professional football is presented, based on an assessment of the effect of race on footballers' labour market transition probabilities. Career progression is observed over five-year intervals within the period 1986-2001. Transition probabilities are estimated using a three-equation model with initial divisional status, retention and divisional transition as dependent variables. Retention depends on age, divisional status, first-team appearances, playing position and birthplace. Divisional transition depends on age, first-team appearances and playing position. Black players tend to be employed by teams of higher divisional status and have higher retention probabilities, suggesting a form of hiring discrimination affecting the process of becoming a professional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home advantage is quantitatively defined and calculated for each season since the start of the main professional sports in North America and England. Over 400,000 games are analysed. The leagues represented are the National League (1876?–?2002) and American League (1901?–?2002) for baseball, the National Hockey League (1917?–?2003) for ice hockey, the National Football League (1933?–?2002) for American football, the National Basketball Association (1946?–?2003) for basketball, and the four levels of professional football, formerly called the Football League, in England (1888?–?2003). Problems caused by unbalanced playing schedules are considered. The results are presented graphically to show long-term trends and sudden changes. The highest levels of home advantage for all sports were in their early years of existence. Home advantage in ice hockey, basketball and football in England has declined over the last two decades. In baseball there has been very little change over the last 100 years, with home advantage consistently lower than in other sports. There was a large drop in home advantage in football in England following the 7-year suspension of the league during the Second World War. The trends and changes provide some evidence that travel and familiarity contribute to home advantage, but little in support of crowd effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of the financial status of professional sports leagues in North America is provided. It reveals that they face similar challenges to those confronting professional soccer teams in England: most teams report annual operating losses; costs, primarily attributed to players' salaries, are accelerating at a level which outstrips the large growth in revenues that is also occurring; and the wealthiest teams tend to dominate competitions on the playing field. The North American leagues' problems of falling attendance, declining ratings, and an economic disconnect with their fan base all contribute to the leagues' declining financial health. Strategies used by leagues to control player costs are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Review for the Sociology of Sport is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Examines English League football to discover inefficient patterns of cross- subsidization, restrictive practices, a producer cartel, and the exploitation of smaller clubs by larger ones. Football Association's distrust of professionalism; Dangers of monopoly.