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A goal of most professional sport organizations is to minimize factors that contribute to negative psychological and emotional outcomes and maximize factors that support more positive outcomes. In order to address these concerns in professional sport, a mental wellness initiative was created for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball club. This paper provides an overview of the initiative. The model includes the following dimensions: mental health education, skill building, identification of at-risk athletes, access to clinical professionals, crisis management procedures, and reducing stigma. Suggestions are provided for other organizations to consider and adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports have been deemed beneficial for the better functioning of a person. Indulgence in sporting activities is a rich and rewarding experience. However, the amount of mental stress increases for athletes who compete in professional sports and academic students. The challenging characteristics in the mental state of sports students include: Lack of Proper fitness, Poor skill development, and Overtraining enrollment are considered essential factors. Hence, in this paper, a human–computer interaction-based Augmented intercommunication framework (AICF) has been proposed to enhance the sports student's current competitiveness, performance experience, and mental state analysis. The location-based strategy is introduced to improve mental strength and training in preparation for the sports student. The behaviour recognition algorithm is integrated with AICF to boost sports students' skill production, both physically and mentally. The simulation results show that an augmented intercommunications system achieves 97% accuracy, a performance of 98%, feasibility of 95%, resilience of 16%, and an efficiency of 99%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate assessment of physical fatigue is crucial to preventing physical injury caused by excessive exercise, overtraining during daily exercise and professional sports training. However, as a subjective feeling of an individual, physical fatigue is difficult for others to objectively evaluate. Heart rate variability (HRV), which is derived from electrocardiograms (ECG) and controlled by the autonomic nervous system, has been demonstrated to be a promising indicator for physical fatigue estimation. In this paper, we propose a novel method for the automatic and objective classification of physical fatigue based on HRV. First, a total of 24 HRV features were calculated. Then, a feature selection method was proposed to remove useless features that have a low correlation with physical fatigue and redundant features that have a high correlation with the selected features. After feature selection, the best 11 features were selected and were finally used for physical fatigue classifying. Four machine learning algorithms were trained to classify fatigue using the selected features. The experimental results indicate that the model trained using the selected 11 features could classify physical fatigue with high accuracy. More importantly, these selected features could provide important information regarding the identification of physical fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theoretical paper discusses philosophical and methodological approaches underlying the study of fatigue and the existing models and hypotheses of fatigue. In our view, the most suitable framework for analyzing the phenomena of nature and physiological states of the human organism is that of dialectical materialism, contrary to the commonly held reductionist and idealist approaches. As such, we show that psychophysiological, environmental, and temporal factors interact simultaneously during physical activities, with quantitative changes in their constituent elements. If, or when, these quantitative changes reach a certain magnitude, there is a qualitative change in desired performance, in other words, fatigue. We also show how the relations between different factors that contribute to fatigue influence such quantitative and qualitative changes. Our proposed model is useful for scientists and sports professionals with a contextual understanding of the factors that contribute to fatigue, and consequently can provide insights into the development of interventions to improve physical-technical-tactical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociology of Sport Journal is the property of Human Kinetics Publishers, 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.)

The Czechoslovak national team finished as the runners-up of the 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy but it was welcomed as moral winners by hundreds of thousands in their home country. Never before had a sporting event been followed so keenly by the largest social strata, thanks to the live radio broadcast of the final match. The tournament left a deep imprint not only in the collective memory but also in popular culture. This paper traces the reception of the event, showing how its image was used as the showcase of the First Czechoslovak Republic, how it was transformed and misused gradually by the communist regime that presented it as a deterrent example of elitism and prima donna behaviour in professional sport, and finally reinvented at the beginning of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient recruitment to Australia's most popular professional sporting competition, the Australian Football League (AFL), requires evaluators to assess athlete performances in many lower tier leagues that serve as pathways. These competitions and their games are frequent, widespread, and challenging to track. Therefore, independent, and reliable player performance statistics from these leagues are paramount. This data, however, is only meaningful to recruiters from AFL teams if accurate player positions are known, which was not the case for the competitions from which most players were recruited. This paper explains how this problem was recently solved, demonstrating a process of knowledge translation from academia to industry, that bridged an important gap between sports science, coaching and recruiting. Positional information which is only available from the AFL competition was used to benchmark and develop scientific classification methods using only predictor variables that are also measured in lower tier competitions. Specifically, a Multinomial Logistic model was constructed to allocate players into four primary positions, followed by a Binary Logit model for further refinement. This novel technique of using more complete data from top tier competitions to help fill informational deficiencies in lower leagues could be extended to other sports that face similar issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement of the degree of competitive balance, how evenly teams are matched, is central to the analysis of professional sports leagues. A common problem with within-season competitive balance measures, however, is their sensitivity to the number of teams and the number of matches played by each team, i.e. season length. This paper uses simulation methods to examine the effects of changes in season length on the distributions of several widely used variants of the Herfindahl-Hirschman index applied to wins in a season. Accounting for both the lower and upper bounds of the index improves its robustness to variation in the numbers of teams or games played per season, but does not completely remove overestimation of imbalance associated with shorter season lengths. Overall, McGee's balance measure significantly mitigates the dependence on the number of matches and, of the measures considered, is recommended as the most robust to variation in season length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a total lockdown of the major football leagues, aiming to prevent the threat of an uncontrolled spread of infections, and forcing the players and match officials to home-based physical training. Differently from players, no health and physical fitness maintenance guidelines were published for match officials. Before the return to structured conditioning and officiating, match officials must perform a medical assessment, as well as systematic COVID-19 testing and detailed pulmonary function evaluation. The hygienic-sanitary prevention strategies for virus transmission must be strictly followed. In the remaining part of the present season, alterations of the game rules, namely halves of 30-40 min and no allowance for lost time, aiming to reduce the match officials physiological load may result as a safer option. Nonetheless, match officials' cognitive and physical demands, will probably be exacerbated by the increased number of substitutions per game, proposed to reduce players' match load. The proposed match scenario further stresses the importance of well-developed aerobic and anaerobic fitness in elite level match officials. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to guide a safe and successful return to play for match officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays sports took a very important part in our life. Every day we are confront of sports and sport is more and more mediatized. During the 20th century ADR was brought into sports field, but it is still not known by all the actors of this world. It gave us more choice to resolve disputes in sports area. But, with the lack of understanding it can be difficult to choose the best one. I will use the method of Multi-attribute Decision Making (MADA), to found out that prevention is the more suitable resolution to sports disputes. [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]

Using a combined Huizingian-Bourdieu framework, this paper analyses the significance of sport's transformation into a business and how the prevailing business structure that defines professional sport has influenced the 'lived experience' of those playing at sport's elite level. Furthermore, this paper highlights how the actions of players, coaches and other participants serve to reinforce, legitimise and normalise the business characteristics of sport's dominant business structure. Importantly, this paper illuminates how the professionalization of sport corrupts the act of playing and indeed gives rise to play tactics, such as 'sledging', which both reflects the increased seriousness of sport and, in its very execution, further reinforces the dominant business structures of professional sport, all the while corrupting the essence of sport – play. In doing so we are challenged to consider how society's fields could be different in structure, and in the 'lived experience' within the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The article analyses different sponsorship strategies of professional sports teams and sponsors from Germany and Spain. Since sport is still a young industry, companies are increasingly interested in it, especially since it is growing rapidly, both at the professional and spectator levels. Because very little research has been done so far, the article is based on interviews with experts from the professional sports industry. These people are the most knowledgeable about the industry and place a high value on the interviews conducted. The authors attempt to better understand the current situation of sponsorship within the industry. Design - This research follows the interpretivism approach with a qualitative method of collecting primary data. On this basis, an inductive approach was used, to investigate the interpretations of the people with whom the interview was conducted. The chosen research strategy consequently was based on expert interviews. Findings - The interviews it became clear that there is one main problem that all teams have to face and that still discourages companies to join the industry, a lack of trust and knowledge. A governing body or federation could possibly solve that problem. Nevertheless, there are other important results stated in this paper that could also lead to a better understanding of the industry and situation at hand. Value - The provision of theoretical evidence on possible new sponsorship strategies for electronic sports teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Professional sports teams and leagues operate in a crowded market, thus, occasionally change league structures to remain competitive in the marketplace. However, the implications of such changes on strategic marketing planning is seldom explored. Design: Semi-structured interviews with 11 second-tier Rugby Football League (RFL) club executives and 1 national governing body executive. Findings: Very few clubs had a marketing strategy, therefore, engaged in very little strategic marketing planning. Furthermore, the main barriers were resource and skills, and, organisation and leadership. Practical Implications: The RFL need to concentrate on making sustainable shared resources which develop capabilities. For example, developing a standardised yet mouldable strategic marketing package would reduce the financial and knowledge resource barriers. Research Contribution: d This paper makes theoretical contribution to sport management, specifically barriers to strategic marketing practices within professional sports organisations. It also brings lower-tier professional sport clubs into focus, which are often overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily affected a wide range of stakeholders in the sport sector. Yet, some professional sports managed to gain exceptions from the restrictive anti-COVID-19 policies. The current paper assumes that the effects could have been ambiguous. On the one hand, professional sports could have benefitted from its position as provider of live TV events. On the other hand, the exceptions for professional sports could have stirred the anger of a frustrated public. We explore these questions by examining two unique dataset on TV ratings for and identification with the German men's national team during the EURO 2020. We find that the national football team, which has been depicted as last national 'campfire', has been a relative loser in terms of viewership, which might, however, also reflect the team's long-term decline. We find also that approval of a special treatment for professional football has been linked to higher team identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify and describe changes in football fans' lives brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meeting at the intersection of football fandom and COVID-19, the objective of this study was to understand and describe how and why football fans experienced the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their sports' spectating habits. The findings are structured around seven overlapping areas at the intersection of football fandom and COVID-19: 1) emotions; 2) socialising; 3) demand for technologies; 4) temporality; 5) stadium attendance; 6) benefits; 7) stability and changeability. Findings indicated that the pandemic has negatively affected fans' social and emotional responses, which increase the demand for technologies such as: immersive technologies, performance advanced analytics with user friendly interfaces, and e-sports. The findings could be useful to sports management professionals and allow them to build strategies to deliver better fan experiences in extraordinary circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationships and forces impacting on and resulting from the prevalence of internships in the sport industry. Many sport management degree programs require internships as key facilitators of experiential learning. Similarly, internships are both valuable resume-builders for students and a source of crucial seasonal labor for sport industry employers. While the outcomes of internship experiences on both employability and student learning are comparatively well-explored, outcomes for employers and the sport labor market represent a gap in the existing sport management literature. This paper presents a conceptual framework of these three relationship actors placed uniquely into the context of the commercialized sport industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research inspecting the demand for tickets for professional sports has mostly used aggregate data in their estimations. In a nutshell, it implies that all fans would be driven by the same determinants. In this research, we test whether this hypothesis holds. We analyse all first-tier Brazilian League home matches of both Flamengo and Fluminense at the iconic stadium Maracanã (Brazil) from 2014 to 2019. Ordinary Least Square regressions model individual equations for each sector for comparing their determinants. Our empirical results offer evidence that ticket price and Uncertainty of Outcome have different impact on demand for tickets according to the sector. Further research is encouraged to inspect whether similar behavior is detected in other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As major sport events have been cancelled and postponed in response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the necessity to protect and provide a holistic approach to the professional athlete has never been greater. To do so one must understand the negative consequences for athletes in relation to the cancellation and postponement of such events caused by a communicable pandemic. The aim of this paper is to give a brief overview of how athletes were affected during the current COVID-19 pandemic. It will also discuss the role of athletes during a pandemic. Athletes like other celebrities can be role models. They can encourage appropriate behaviours including social distancing to help stall the spread of the virus through social media. The article ends with a short discussion on the resumption of sports after lockdown. In such a context of uncertainty, maximum caution is needed for resumption of sports to ensure a smooth return to previous high levels of training and fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on customer discrimination in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Using the 2005–2017 annual spectator attendance data, we first show that inverse customer discrimination exists for international players. We next explore the roots of customer discrimination from the perspective of economics alongside social psychology. We find customer discrimination in the CPBL a combined outcome of taste-based and statistical discrimination, and can be explained by reference group theory. This study thus aims to develop a sports fans' customer discrimination scale, which is demonstrated to consist of three major elements: players' characteristics, prestige and experience, and spectators' confidence. [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]

Copyright of Information Society / Információs Társadalom (InfTars) is the property of Infonia 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 Sport, Ethics & Philosophy is the property of Routledge 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.)

The popularity and profitability of American gridiron football is beyond dispute. Recent polls put football as the overwhelming favorite of people who follow at least one sport and huge revenues are reported at both the professional and the university level. We know, however, that what is the case tells us little about what ought to be the case, and it is to the latter question that this paper is directed. I offer a three-pronged attack on the ethical acceptability of American football, both amateur and professional, based on (1) harm to the players, (2) objectification of the players, and (3) harm to others done by the players, leading to the conclusion that the sport, as currently constituted, is morally unacceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutritional supplements (NS) are denned as concentrated sources of nutrients and other substances that have a nutritional or physiological effect and that are used in high frequency among athletes. The study aimed to create a prediction profile for young elite athletes to identify those athletes who have a higher relative risk for using NS. The second objective was to examine the hypothesis that the consumption of NS paves a gateway for the use of illicit drugs and doping substances. A self-designed anonymous paper-and-pencil questionnaire was used to examine the prevalence of NS consumption, doping, and illicit drug use in elite athletes with a mean age of 17 years (SD = 4 years). Logistic regression analysis was employed to assess whether NS consumption can be predicted by independent variables (e.g., biographical data, training characteristics, drug consumption behavior) to create the prediction profile for NS use. 55% and 5% of the athletes (n = 536) responded positively to having used NS and illicit drugs, respectively. Nutritional supplement consumption was positively correlated with age (OR: 1.92; CI: 1.21 to 3.05), the desire to enhance performance to become an Olympic or World Champion (OR: 3.72; CI: 2.33 to 6.01), and being educated about NS (OR: 2.76; CI: 1.73 to 4.45). It was negatively correlated with training frequency (OR: 0.55; CI: 0.35 to 0.86) and the use of nicotine (OR: 0.29; CI: 0.1 to 0.74) but did not correlate with illicit drug use and alcohol consumption. The present results show that NS are used on a large scale in elite sports. The prediction profile presented in this article may help to identify those athletes who have a high risk for using NS to plan potential education and prevention models more individually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have long argued that institutions like religion or the economy can become relatively distinct spheres that facilitate and constrain action, goal setting, and decision-making. But few empirical studies have looked closely at how institutions become relatively distinct cultural and structural domains. This paper examines how institutional entrepreneurs—in this case, Major League Baseball (MLB) sportswriters—build and sustain institutional boundaries by considering how they create a distinct cultural discourse that infuses baseball places, times, and events with culturally distinct meanings. Drawing from sportswriters’ columns, documentaries, and monographs written on baseball I show that MLB entrepreneurs have developed and disseminated a discourse oriented around the generalized medium of sport exchange, interaction, and communication: competitiveness. Using these data, this article examines how baseball writing becomes quantified and embodied in tangible and intangible forms. Additionally, the paper draws on sport columns that illustrate how MLB entrepreneurs protect the autonomy of a sacred core (the Hall of Fame) from internal threats (gambling and performance-enhancing drugs) and external corruption (the influence of money). The paper ends with a discussion of implications for the applicability of the findings to other sports and institutional domains. [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]

Athletic performance, technique assessment, and injury prevention are all important aspects in sports for both professional and amateur athletes. Wearable technology is attracting the research community's interest because of its capability to provide real-time biofeedback to coaches and athletes when on the field and outside of more restrictive laboratory conditions. In this paper, a novel wearable motion sensor-based system has been designed and developed for athletic performance assessment during running and jumping tasks. The system consists of a number of components involving embedded systems (hardware and software), back-end analytics, information and communications technology (ICT) platforms, and a graphical user interface for data visualization by the coach. The system is able to provide automatic activity recognition, estimation of running and jumping metrics, as well as vertical ground reaction force (GRF) predictions, with sufficient accuracy to provide valuable information as regards training outcomes. The developed system is low-power, sufficiently small for real-world scenarios, easy to use, and achieves the specified communication range. The system's high sampling rate, levels of accuracy and performance enables it as a performance evaluation tool able to support coaches and athletes in their real-world practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses sports hero formation in relation to national identity, arguing that it can be a critical component of the development of a hero. A netnographic approach, that encompassed a number of virtual spaces and methods of analyses, was utilised to examine the formation of sports heroes within the setting of a new professional sports team. Drawing upon the work of Joseph Campbell and Orrin E. Klapp, it contextualises the sporting hero in the wider narratives of hero typologies. It argues that the formation of sports heroes is shaped by established notions of national identity and longstanding mythological archetypes rather than heroes' personal traits or deeds. Universal hero myths, furthermore, provide recognised narratives that frame the emergence of new heroes in otherwise very different societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The covid-19 virus struck the global society with full power in the first months of the year 2020 and the sports industry was not spared from its impacts. This paper looks at the consequences that the pandemic had for the stability of professional contracts, mainly in the field of football and ice hockey; nevertheless, these observations could be applicable to other professional sport disciplines as well. The situation often brought tensions between the well-respected principle of contractual stability in sport and the acute needs of the clubs and players. It could be considered that even if the pandemic fades away one day, it will leave its footprints on the shape of professional sport. Besides general discussion of the legal consequences of the covid-19 pandemic for professional contracts this article also seeks to provide practical input by drafting a model covid clause for future professional sport contracts and by considering other possibilities of reflecting unforeseen global instances of force majeure in athletes’ agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research has examined the composition of sport media and those charged with constructing it, namely sport journalists and editors, far less has explored an essential set of actors in the construction of news: sources. This study aimed to explore the construction of the sport media agenda from arguably the most important sport news sources: sport media relations managers. In particular, this paper asked: how do media staff in sports organisations influence the production of news? To answer this question, this paper is based on a qualitative, observational study of a professional Australian Rules football club in Australia, involving interviews, observations and document analysis. Research within a professional Australian Rules football club found that the club delivered high-quality information subsidies that met sports journalists’ newswork requirements. However, media access was almost solely limited to these information subsidies, which are highly subjective and negotiated, which in turn allowed the professional football club to significantly control the subsequent media agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In elite sports, training schedules are becoming increasingly complex, and a large number of parameters of such schedules need to be tuned to the specific physique of a given athlete. In this paper, we describe how extensive analysis of historical data can help optimise these parameters, and how possible pitfalls of under- and overtraining in the past can be avoided in future schedules. We treat the series of exercises an athlete undergoes as a discrete sequence of attributed events, that can be aggregated in various ways, to capture the many ways in which an athlete can prepare for an important test event. We report on a cooperation with the elite speed skating team LottoNL-Jumbo, who have recorded detailed training data over the last 15 years. The aim of the project was to analyse this potential source of knowledge, and extract actionable and interpretable patterns that can provide input to future improvements in training. We present two alternative techniques to aggregate sequences of exercises into a combined, long-term training effect, one of which based on a sliding window, and one based on a physiological model of how the body responds to exercise. Next, we use both linear modelling and Subgroup Discovery to extract meaningful models of the data. [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]

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Copyright of Journal of Shanghai Physical Education Institute / Shanghai Tiyu Xueyuan Xuebao is the property of Shanghai Physical Education Institute 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 presents qualitative research in sport management and suggests that case study is an appropriate qualitative methodology for research and practice in sport finance. The purpose of qualitative methodology is presented along with the process of a case study. The intention of this paper, for academicians working in sport management, is twofold. The first aspect is for researchers to consider using qualitative case study methodology in instances where such practice will progress the knowledge and understanding of specific situations while invoking a deeper response to research questions. The second facet of this paper focuses on the framework of case study methodology, as applied to a research project in the field of sport finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first systematic economic analysis of professional sports was undertaken nearly three decades ago. Since that time, the field of sports economics has expanded to such an extent that it supports a journal devoted to it, "Journal of Sports Economics." The author shares that when he was asked to edit a special issue of Managerial and Decision Economics on sports economics, he saw it as an opportunity to bring something a little different and with a little bit of controversy to the readers of this journal. In particular, he resolved not to solicit papers in subjects where the ground had been trodden. Rather, he wanted papers that were fresh, on sound theoretical ground, and, where empirical, were careful in the econometrics.

This paper details the political and legal contestations that shaped the status and development of professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Canada from the sport's high-profile and highly contested arrival in 1996, to its legalization across the country after 2013. The transformation of MMA from criminal activity to sporting spectacle in this short period of about 15 years was due, in part, to contextual and political factors centred on indigenous political contestation in themselves not related to the sport; and in part to political debates that focused on the activity's popular acceptability, augmented by a lobbying campaign devised by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) the sport's pre-eminent promotion company, in the province of Ontario. As a result of these contestations, legal constraints formulated at both the federal and provincial levels had been rescinded by 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has, among other things, a significant impact on the economic situation of sports in general and professional soccer in particular. Our paper points out the main effects of the crisis on professional soccer. To this end, the general effects of the pandemic on sports will be briefly outlined, followed by a discussion of matches played behind closed doors. Based on the general conditions and particularities of the team sports industry, possible solutions for dealing with any problems arising from the pandemic will be discussed from the perspective of economics. As a result, we prefer intra-industry market-based solutions such as a solidarity fund or measures of self-regulation to possible state subsidies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explores the use of social media, specifically Twitter, in two English football clubs during their first season under the professional structure of the WSL. The study uses data from the clubs' Twitter accounts and interviews with key employees. A total of 1088 tweets were analysed. Four themes emerged: player availability; status; cooperation and social media strategy. The findings showed that while women's football has made great strides, the increased use of social media by players has not been supported by proper media training. Furthermore, the increase in status has not been matched by better funding. It is important that the increased awareness surrounding women's football is matched by an increase in player well-being as this will impact the standing of women's football. [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]