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A survey of the philosophy of sport literature reveals that arguments regarding the issue of sex segregation in athletics have been advanced from time to time, but there has been little sustained discussion, no consensus, and no change in existing practice. In this paper, an effort to advance the conversation, I begin with Jane English’s seminal 1978 article as a springboard and employ existing literature on the question of sex segregation in order to raise difficulties with English’s analysis and outline the basic alternative positions that have been taken on the issue. My own contribution to the conversation is in the introduction of four distinctions – between individual and team sports, direct and indirect competition, contact and non-contact sports, and amateur and professional sports – that have not been part of the discussion about the conditions under which men and women might compete against one another. These distinctions resolve several difficulties noted by others and suggest a more nuanced conclusion about desirable changes to the structure of sporting competition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Orienteering has gradually changed from a professional sport to a civilian sport. Especially in recent years, orienteering has been widely popularized. Many colleges and universities in China have also set up this course. With the improvement of people's living conditions, orienteering has really become a leisure sport in modern people's life. The reduced difficulty of sports enables more people to participate, but it also exposes a series of problems. As the existing positioning technology is relatively backward, the progress in personnel tracking, emergency services, and other aspects is slow. To solve these problems, a new intelligent orienteering application system is developed based on the Internet of things. ZigBee network architecture is adopted in the system. ZigBee is the mainstream scheme in the current wireless sensor network technology, which has many advantages such as convenient carrying, low power consumption, and signal stability. Due to the complex communication environment in mobile signal, the collected information is processed by signal amplification and signal anti-interference technology. By adding anti-interference devices, video isolators and other devices, the signal is guaranteed to the maximum extent. In order to verify the actual effect of this system, through a number of experimental studies including the relationship between error and traffic radius and the relationship between coverage and the number of anchor nodes, the data shows that the scheme studied in this paper has a greater improvement in comprehensive performance than the traditional scheme, significantly improving the accuracy and coverage. Especially the coverage is close to 100% in the simulation experiment. This research has achieved good results and can be widely used in orienteering training and competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytics and professional sports have become linked over the past several years, but little attention has been paid to the growing field of esports within the sports analytics community. We seek to apply an Adjusted Plus Minus (APM) model, an accepted analytic approach used in traditional sports like hockey and basketball, to one particular esports game: Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2). As with traditional sports, we show how APM metrics developed with Bayesian hierarchical regression can be used to quantify individual player contributions to their teams and, ultimately, use this player-level information to predict game outcomes. In particular, we first provide evidence that gold can be used as a continuous proxy for wins to evaluate a team's performance, and then use a Bayesian APM model to estimate how players contribute to their team's gold differential. We demonstrate that this APM model outperforms models based on common team-level statistics (often referred to as "box score statistics"). Beyond the specifics of our modeling approach, this paper serves as an example of the potential utility of applying analytical methodologies from traditional sports analytics to esports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Fatigue detection. Practical determination of physical recovery after intense exercise is a challenging topic that must include mechanical aspects as well as cognitive ones because most of physical sport activities, as well as professional activities (including brain–computer interface-operated systems), require good shape in both of them. This paper presents a new online handwritten database of 20 healthy subjects. The main goal was to study the influence of several physical exercise stimuli in different handwritten tasks and to evaluate the recovery after strenuous exercise. To this aim, they performed different handwritten tasks before and after physical exercise as well as other measurements such as metabolic and mechanical fatigue assessment. Experimental results showed that although a fast mechanical recovery happens and can be measured by lactate concentrations and mechanical fatigue, this is not the case when cognitive effort is required. Handwriting analysis revealed that statistical differences exist on handwriting performance even after lactate concentration and mechanical assessment recovery. This points out a necessity of more recovering time in sport and professional activities than those measured in classic ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contract cheating – outsourcing student assignments for a fee – presents a growing threat to the integrity of higher education. As contract cheating is based on students purchasing assignments that are original (albeit not created by the student), traditional plagiarism detection tools remain insufficient to detect contract cheating. Part of the problem is that proving contract cheating is difficult. As a result, instructors may find it hard to prosecute students (i.e. put them through university academic dishonesty proceedings). To help address the problem, this conceptual paper builds upon extant scholarship on contract cheating and argues that a novel evidence-based approach is needed. Such an approach should allow instructors to detect and prosecute cases of contract cheating effectively and efficiently. The paper then presents an outline of such an approach and calls it the "Doping Test" approach as it mimics some aspects of doping testing in professional sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rating systems play an important part in professional sports, for example, as a source of entertainment for fans, by influencing decisions regarding tournament seedings, by acting as qualification criteria, or as decision support for bookmakers and gamblers. Creating good ratings at a team level is challenging, but even more so is the task of creating ratings for individual players of a team. This paper considers a plus–minus rating for individual players in soccer, where a mathematical model is used to distribute credit for the performance of a team as a whole onto the individual players appearing for the team. The main aim of the work is to examine whether the individual ratings obtained can be split into offensive and defensive contributions, thereby addressing the lack of defensive metrics for soccer players. As a result, insights are gained into how elements such as the effect of player age, the effect of player dismissals, and the home field advantage can be broken down into offensive and defensive consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an application and a further development of Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning's (2008) Quest for Excitement thesis through the analysis of the recent phenomenon of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) in USA. The research method is based on qualitative data analysis of different digital sources concerning bare-knuckle fighting, ranging from newspaper reports, interviews with promoters and fighters, social network posts, videos, etc. The main finding is that BKFC portrays certain features (e.g. no gloves, blood) that constitute a 'spectacularization of violence'; it apparently increases the perceived danger of the practice even though it does not increase real harm (e.g. concussions, deaths). BKFC employs other strategies emphasizing control, safety and respectability as a counterweight to obtain an adequate tension balance within the US threshold of sensitivity to violence concerning professional combat sports. [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]

The purpose of this paper is to explore how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is implemented in professional sport, specifically to compare and contrast different organisational structures used in the implementation of CSR. A qualitative case study methodology was adopted, drawing on interviews with key stakeholders of 12 professional sporting organisations and their relevant CSR departments. Secondary sources such as annual reports, newsletters, websites and other organisational documents were also collected and analysed. This research found a variety of challenges and opportunities for employing CSR, including alignment of strategies, conflict of power and access to resources. Discussions explore how communication, collaboration and different governance models can improve the inter-relationship of these entities. This paper offers an empirical identification of critical opportunities and challenges within professional sporting organisations. This paper extends the current research by looking at CSR management and governance, specifically exploring the inter-relationship between professional sporting organisations and their associated foundations. [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]

The persistence of doping in professional sports—either by individuals on an isolated basis and by whole teams as part of a systematic doping programme—means that professional sport today is rarely if ever untainted. There are financial incentives in place that incentivise doping and there are data that show that doping is often a systematic, organised enterprise (either at team-level, or at state-level). The main question to be answered today in professional sports is whether doping’s repressive anti-doping policies do not have greater negative consequences for society. Whilst some have suggested legitimising safe doping under medical control, in this paper, I argue that doing so will do little to prevent clandestine use of dangerous performance-enhancing substances, and suggest an alternative solution to lifting the ban on doping, i.e. starting from extending liability for doping in sport beyond athletes to those holding power and authority over athletes, to changing winning incentives for doping, to making sport sustainable in the longer time by devising ways of providing athletes with a steady income which is not linked to record breaking or sponsorships. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Because social media encourage two-way communication and interaction, they are valuable relationship-building tools for the marketer who chooses to use them to build dialogue and engage customers. In sport, these tools are ideal ways to improve customer relationships because consumers already have a desire to connect with products. However, measurement of the effectiveness of social media as marketing tools remains limited. From a relationship-marketing standpoint, social media should be evaluated based on their ability to improve relationship quality, which leads to a host of positive business outcomes. To do this, sport marketers must measure the impacts of social media engagement on customer relationships. The purpose of this conceptual paper was to explicitly connect social media marketing to relationship marketing and use relationship marketing as a framework for understanding measurement of marketing on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An apparent escalation in on-field corruption (doping and match-fixing) in professional sports has led to increasing numbers of athletes facing bans and a loss of livelihood as a consequence of decisions taken by sporting tribunals, as part of a regulatory system referred to as lex sportiva. This has led to challenges in domestic courts from athletes over the lawfulness and fairness of these proceedings (for example Pechstein and Kaneria). These challenges to the legitimacy of lex sportiva (and to the principle of the autonomy of sport) echo Foster's (2003) critique of lex sportiva/global sports law as: a cloak for continued self-regulation by international sports federations...a claim for non-intervention by both national legal systems and by international sports law... [which] opposes a rule of law in regulating international sport. The paper considers what is the 'rule of law' that regulates on-field corruption, and concludes that it is a complex web of law, since sports governing bodies now share with the state many aspects of the sanctioning of on-field corruption. The paper considers how the doctrine of 'the autonomy of sport' has informed the development of lex sportiva in regard to athlete corruption, and the competing claims of private sports law and national legal systems over the regulation of athlete corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Medicina do Esporte is the property of Redprint Editora Ltda. 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.)

Guided by a dynamic capabilities framework, this research explores the National Basketball Association's (NBA) expansion into esports. Based on the input of thirteen sport industry experts, the paper presents research on simulated professional sports (SPS) with a deep investigation of the NBA 2K League (2KL). NBA 2KL is the first esports league in North America that is owned and operated by a traditional professional sports league. Results identify both league and club level outcomes for: 1) learning dynamic capabilities; 2) integrating/coordinating dynamic capabilities; 3) reconfiguring dynamic capabilities. Practical recommendations to the NBA, extended to other professional leagues, are provided. A framework for future research, including questions to be addressed, is outlined based on the findings. [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.)

This paper proposes that the National Basketball Association (NBA) adopt a salary arbitration system in specifically defined circumstances-for restricted free agents who either last played under a four-year rookie salary scale contract, or last played under a two-year or three-year contract as a second-round draft pick or undrafted free agent. Part I of this paper summarizes the use of salary arbitration in professional sport leagues. Part II of this paper provides an overview of the current arbitration procedures in the NBA. Part III of the paper outlines a proposed new NBA salary arbitration model. Part IV discusses some of the problems associated with the NBA's current restricted free agency and qualifying offer rules and explains how the proposed salary arbitration system would alleviate these problems. Part V provides a case study illustrating a potential trend in the NBA that supports the overall goals of the salary arbitration framework proposed in this paper. Part VI analyzes Major League Baseball's (MLB) salary arbitration process and how the proposed salary arbitration model for the NBA incorporates best practices from MLB. Part VII analyzes the National Hockey League's (NHL) salary arbitration process and how the proposed salary arbitration model for the NBA incorporates best practices from the National Hockey League. Part VIII details some of the potential practical drawbacks and limitations associated with the proposed NBA salary arbitration model. The paper concludes with a recap of the potential positive impact of implementing the proposed NBA salary arbitration framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain how managers can build a football team brand at different levels of competition, reaching from the minor leagues to the Champions League level. Therefore, the authors analyse which catalyst factors have an impact on building a football team brand. The study uses a case analysis method, for which seven football teams were selected (three in Germany, three in France and one in Spain). The paper contributes to the existing sports marketing knowledge by presenting and discussing, first, the relative importance of the internal and external catalyst factors in developing a sports team brand identity, according to the calibre of the team, its ambition and means; and secondly, the strategies that would be the most appropriate for a sports team in order to build and manage its brand identity, depending on its calibre, ambition and means. [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]

The purpose of the present review serves to provide information about the viability and utility of research centers for sport management faculty. To achieve this objective, the present paper begins with a discussion on the evolution of research centers in the United States. Second, the need for research centers in the contemporary university setting is established and the benefits of research centers to both society and science (i.e. sport management) are identified, along with existing challenges and barriers. Third, the present examination explains specific heuristic categories of research centers developed by Ikenberry and Friedman (1972) through the frame of leadership, resources (e.g. standard, adaptive, shadow), and relationships (e.g. university-industry, programmed/corporate alliance, for-profit spin-offs, technology transfer, etc.) that sport management faculty should understand before creating their own center. Fourth, we describe research center evaluation methods and identify general but necessary points of emphasis to develop a proposal for universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Injury rates in runners are as high as 80%. here, we focus on the concept of foundational health including sleep, recovery, nutrition, stress and physical health and how it can reduce injuries. METHODS: The literature was reviewed to find papers linking running injuries and athletic performance to the foundational health topics discussed. RESULTS: There are many factors that can improve athletic performance and reduce injuries in runners other than the often-discussed topics: training philosophies, footwear, and running form. This paper shows how a multidisciplinary approach including education on sleep, rest, stress, nutrition, strength, and mobility all can improve performance and reduce injuries. CONCLUSIONS: The care and management of an injured runner is multifactorial and the treatment should be as well. By optimizing foundational health, the sports medicine professional will not only reduce injury risk, but also improve performance and overall health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurs are touted as catalysts for both economic stabilization and growth within various industries. In the case of men's professional hockey in North America, one such entrepreneur was Conn Smythe, owner of the Toronto Maple Leaf franchise and Maple Leaf Gardens. This paper summarizes Smythe's success in relation to internal characteristics, such as personal attitude, skills and expertise, and external characteristics such as cultural, political and economic change. His influence upon the professional sport industry is also discussed in both positive and negative terms. In conclusion, the complexity and contradiction of Con Smythe as a hockey entrepreneur are examined. [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]

Sports video captioning refers to the task of automatically generating a textual description for sports events (football, basketball, or volleyball games). Although a great deal of previous work has shown promising performance in producing a coarse and a general description of a video but lack of professional sports knowledge, it is still quite challenging to caption a sports video with multiple fine-grained player’s actions and complex group relationship between players. In this paper, we present a novel hierarchical recurrent neural network-based framework with an attention mechanism for sports video captioning, in which a motion representation module is proposed to capture individual pose attribute and dynamical trajectory cluster information with extra professional sports knowledge, and a group relationship module is employed to design a scene graph for modeling players’ interaction by a gated graph convolutional network. Moreover, we introduce a new dataset called sports video captioning dataset-volleyball for evaluation. The proposed model is evaluated on three widely adopted public datasets and our collected new dataset, on which the effectiveness of our method is well demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Retos: Nuevas Perspectivas de Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación is the property of Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educacion Fisica 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 aims to explore emerging trends in Esport sponsorship from the perspective of the industry's practitioners. A series of expert interviews were conducted with two expert groups in the Simulated Professional Sports (SPS) genre of the Esport industry: property executive and sponsorship executives. Findings outline six emerging trends in Esport sponsorship: the generational challenge, the SPS community's bond, converging SPS digital assets and sponsorship, authenticity and SPS sponsorship, endemic and non-endemic sponsorship, and the potential of Esport athletes. Theoretical and practical implications as well as suggestions for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a statistical analysis of the violence and incivility of professional football players on and around the field and how the disciplinary bodies manage these phenomena. The sanctions issued by the disciplinary committees were examined with the objectives of (i) empirically determining the distribution of sanctioned behaviours and their evolution, and (ii) evaluating how these infringements on sporting ethics were handled. The 6027 observations collected from professional football competitions in France over ten seasons (2007–2008 to 2016–2017) highlight contrasting changes in sanctioned violence and incivilities and show that the disciplinary code was not fully applied in certain subcategories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally policymakers have paid little attention to the consumption of steroids and other performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs) in Australia. Yet, in recent times PIEDs have come to occupy an increasing amount of discursive space and, indeed, regulatory action. This newfound interest may be attributed to several broader developments, not least the perception of the involvement of organized crime in distributing PIEDs to the professional sports world and other sectors of this illicit market. This paper seeks to explore the empirical reality of the claim that the production and supply of PIEDs in Australia is the prerogative of organized crime groups. A retrospective content analysis of Australian PIED provider cases was conducted between 2010 and 2016. To widen our search, both media articles describing court cases, obtained from the Factiva database, and public online court records, using the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) database, were searched. Search terms included "steroid*", "doping" and "testosterone" in combination with the terms "traffic*", "production", "supply*" and "import*". In total, 477 PIED provider cases were identified yet most cases were duplicates, irrelevant or lacked sufficient detail, resulting in a final dataset of 144 cases. A coding schedule was developed based on existing PIED supply literature. Our data shows that most PIED provider cases took place in Queensland (41.7%), followed by New South Wales (25%) and Victoria (13.2%). Regarding the type of providers, the largest group consisted of people active in the gym industry (22%), followed by the healthcare sector (17%), the 'other' category (12%) and the security sphere (8%). Of the 144 steroid-provider cases, only 12% of the cases indicated the potential involvement of organized crime groups, with half of those being linked to outlaw motorcycle gangs. In contrast to the claims of authorities, our data suggests that organized crime groups currently play a proportionally small role in the illicit production and supply of steroids and other performance and image enhancing drugs in Australia. Indeed, various actors are involved of which only a small fraction are part of or involved with organized crime groups. Many suppliers are particularly active in the gym industry and healthcare sector. The relative presence of such suppliers has important policy implications, not least with regard to the role of criminal law in addressing the provision of PIEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Global Sport Management is the property of the Global Alliance of Marketing & Management Association 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. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper proposes that the governance of the Chinese football industry since 1994 can be best described as having undergone three stages of development: a primary stage (1994–2003) in which the early form of a Chinese football industry was established; a stage of development challenges (2004–2012) in which the Chinese football industry faced a slowdown of growth and challenges of governance failure and a decline in market appeal; and a revitalized development stage (from 2013 to 2019) in which the Chinese football industry gave signs of strong recovery. After more than two decades of development, China's football industry has become more economically independent of government, though the industry still faces a series of problems and dilemmas. These problems include a poor management system; the on-going financial deficits of its football clubs; inadequate market expansion; the football bubble economy phenomenon; and the absence of a brand culture for the football clubs. All of these factors continue to restrict the healthy development of the governance of China's football industry. However, escalating reform in the industry and the increasing importance attached to it by the Chinese Central Government suggests improved prospects for the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Switzerland's National League is the world's third most high-paying ice hockey championship after the NHL and the KHL, even though Switzerland is a small country with a population of 8.5 million and the league's professional clubs are based in areas that vary enormously in terms of their local potential (demographic and economic). How do these clubs exploit such different local potentials? In this paper, we examine the relationship between a club's local potential and its commercial, financial and sporting results. Based on our data, we outline the specific characteristics of the different models adopted by Switzerland's first division ice hockey clubs and draw up an empirical typology of four types of club. Our study's contribution is both methodological and empirical. We describe an operational model that can be used to characterize local potential and three types of club expertise: marketing, managerial and sporting expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored how the organizational cultural experiences of elite youth footballers shaped their identity development and behavior. The first author occupied the position of sport psychology practitioner-researcher within 1 professional football club over 3 years. Traditional ethnographic research methods were employed, including observations, field notes, reflections, and informal interviews. A cultural sport psychology perspective on identity as a social construction and research on the cultural characteristics of professional football were used as frameworks to make sense of the data. Despite the introduction of the Elite Player Performance Plan in 2012, the traditional masculine culture of professional football dominated the studied club. Creative nonfiction vignettes revealed that youth players were encouraged to develop their self-stories focused on a single-minded dedication to professional football. The limited identity-related resources offered at both club and cultural level are detrimental for players in terms of their well-being and long-term psychological development. From the results of this study, we suggest that future sports psychology practice within professional football may best be delivered at an organizational level. However, for sport psychologists to be effective in this role, they must develop an understanding of the subcultural features and characteristics of the organization. In line with this, there would be great value in introducing a focus on organizational culture within sport psychology professional training and education routes. Lay Summary: This paper explores the impact of the professional football culture on the psychological development of elite youth footballers. From the findings we suggest that sport psychology should be delivered at an organisational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the sport coaching profession continues to grow, there is a need to reflect upon and revise the knowledge and competencies coaches should possess to support quality sport experiences. The purpose of this paper is to document the revision process of the National Standards for Sport Coaches (NSSC) which were established to outline professional sport coaching standards in the United States of America (USA). The 3-year revision process involved two separate task forces organized by SHAPE America and several public reviews. The final revision aligns the NSSC with quality coaching frameworks and documents seven core responsibilities of sport coaches. Additionally, the NSSC includes standards meant to provide guidance on what a coach should know (e.g., professional knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, and intrapersonal knowledge), what a coach should be able to do (e.g., expectations of performance and developed competencies), and what common practices occur among coaches (e.g., shared values) to meet each core responsibility. It is hoped that the revised version of the NSSC continues to provide direction for all stakeholders to improve coaching practices within the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision in 2005 of the world governing body of cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), to introduce a new competition, the UCI Pro Tour, was a highly significant development in professional road cycling. Using this development as the case study setting, this paper draws on stakeholder theory and network theory to examine this changing environment. Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, complemented by analysis of publicly available information, this study explores how this process of change has affected the professional road cycling network, the interaction between its stakeholders and the balance of power among those stakeholders. While commercialism has a long history in professional road cycling, the paper concludes that the change process has been driven by a wish for commercial deepening within the network and by a desire to challenge some of the well-established relationships and dependencies that have existed therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether coaching and general manager (GM) changes among three professional sports leagues—the National Football League (NFL), the Major League Baseball (MLB), and the National Basketball Association (NBA)—effect on‐field performance. Our empirical methodology uses team‐level data by season and adapts a lag adjustment econometric approach designed to resolve several statistical challenges that arise both in general managerial settings and in sports settings. Our main finding is that coaching changes in the NFL boost the number of wins per season by between 0.5 and 1.2 in each of the first five seasons. Coaching changes have smaller, but still positive, impacts in the MLB and NBA. For all the three leagues, we find that GM changes have no discernable impact on performance. A separate cross‐sectional analysis suggests that those small impacts stem from coaches and GMs having extremely compressed talent distributions. The data indicate that coaches and GMs, en masse, are important, but changing the people who occupy those positions rarely seems to move teams to different locations on the performance distribution. [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]

Over the past 15 years, new stadiums in the National Football League have been built at an unprecedented rate, and most new facilities have utilized significant public funds. This paper looks at whether the methods used to finance these new facilities honored public finance principles regarding equity and efficiency. While some common sources of public funds for sports infrastructure such as ticket taxes and personal seat licenses are both equitable and efficient, an examination of the 20 NFL stadiums constructed or refurbished since 1992 reveals a trend towards an increased reliance on taxation of visitors through hotel and rental car taxes. Although taxation of persons living outside one's own metropolitan area is appealing, this paper suggests that these sources of funding are neither equitable nor efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inelastic ticket pricing for team sports has been a recurrent empirical finding for nearly thirty years. Explanations based on profit maximization range from statistical reasonableness given zero marginal costs to weak data. Still others argue that these results cast doubts on profit maximization as a useful analytical device. In this paper, theoretical conditions are derived where inelastic pricing can happen as a result of profit maximization. There is a particular relationship between individual team local TV revenues, the marginal cost of talent and the average of the rest of the teams' local TV revenues that can lead to inelastic pricing at the gate.

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]

This paper examines the professional hockey industry to explore the principles of agency theory. Using basic tenets derived from the agency literature and conditions specific to the hockey industry, a series of propositions are developed. These are investigated using data from industry documents, popular articles on hockey, and interviews with players, agents, team managers and other relevant industry stakeholders. The results suggested that concerns for agent reputation, agent competition, agent certification and salary disclosure have cumulatively reduced information asymmetry favoring the agent and have decreased the likelihood of agent opportunism. This has resulted in a decrease in the use of commissions by agents, but this form of performance contingent compensation remains the most widely used form of remuneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps the current ownership patterns of North American major professional sports franchises in order to assess the extent to which they are interconnected with media/entertainment conglomerates. First, the 120 franchises are classified according to owner's industrial sector. Second, five models of linkages between franchises and media/entertainment corporations are followed by case studies representative of each. The paper concludes that indeed empirical evidence supports the alleged increasing control of North American pro sport franchises by large media/entertainment conglomerates. However, the paper also demonstrates that the phenomenon involves much more diversity than the major conglomerates commonly identified in the current literature. Finally, the paper discusses the impacts of this trend on sport, as well as on fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to various research papers on sport management. The research paper entitled "Taking sports out of the courts: Alternative dispute resolution and the international court of arbitration for sport," by C.J. Burger focused on the reasons why the International Olympic Committee's Court of Arbitration for Sport can be utilized as a blueprint for the proper use of arbitration in sport. Research paper "A mass sports disaster-Hilisborough ten years on: An overview of the legal processes and outcomes," by H.J. Hartley provides an overview of the legal processes and outcomes, which followed the Hilisborough sporting disaster on April 15, 1989. Pertinent information throughout the article included the factors that contributed to the disaster, including a catalogue of failures in the previous 12 years which led up to the disaster; what crowd management procedures should have been taken,and the legal decisions made by the court. Another article entitled "Playing with family values: The attraction of minor league baseball," by M.H. Rodgers dealt with fan dissatisfaction with Major League Baseball and how there is an increasing infatuation for minor and independent leagues. The author discussed the appeal of minor league baseball along with the idea that minor and independent league baseball are a thriving and profitable new business.

The article presents information related to research papers sports, published in different journals. "Performance productivity and quality of frontline employees in service organizations," by J. Singh adds to the discussion on the importance of frontline employees to the success of service organizations. The significant findings in this paper suggest that there is a distinction between productivity and quality, and when burnout increases, frontline employees tend to maintain their current productivity levels while quality declines. This paper was published in the Sociology of Sport Journal. The purpose of the research paper, "Sports marketing. Going for gold," by R. Gardyn, is to investigate the state of Olympic fandom and the various issues surrounding marketers' ability to make an impact with consumers during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. This article is published in the journal, American Demographics. The research paper by D. James, "The tipoff: How NBA can regain its game," published in the journal Marketing News, investigates the status of the National Basketball Association among fans and marketers. A number of factors are examined to shed some light on the apparent decrease in fan interest.

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]

Professional sport is a central element of our daily entertainment that contributes to shaping us individually and bonding us collectively: it provides us with shared 'historic' moments. This article is interested in these moments, and how the field of sports generates them, by asking the following questions: (1) has the frequency of 'historic moments' changed over time, and (2) is the way we make sports history consistent throughout the years? We conducted a temporal analysis of newspaper and magazine articles (n = 1062) published in France (Le Monde, l'Équipe) and in the United States (USA Today, Sports Illustrated) during three time periods in the 21st century (2003, 2010, 2019). Our results show that: (1) as time passes, 'historic' moments occur more frequently; (2) sporting history is increasingly linked to social dimensions; and (3) statistical performances continue to mark history above all else. Although performance-based achievements are consistently celebrated, sporting history cannot be separated from our collective social existence, and the currents therein. We show that the act of making sports history is also bound to the normative, social, and cultural history of a society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Although substantial research indicates that challenge plays a big role in the development of talent, little is known of the experiences of young performers as they negotiate and learn from these challenges. Methods: As such, to better understand the nature and impact of challenge on the Talent Development (TD) pathway, we longitudinally tracked nine young footballers from progressive age-bands (five aged 11 years and four aged 14) as they experienced challenge over a 15-month period using a mixedmethods design. Five semi-structured interviews separated by three months were conducted, and data were analysed via thematic analysis. Results: Our findings suggested that participants encountered recurrent challenging events, categorised into common/uncommon, planned/unplanned, individual-focused/group-focused challenges. Support for the benefits of challenges was pervasive throughout the data with participants progressing through stages with each challenge (drop, rebound and growth). However, the magnitude and rate at which participants experienced these stages was highly idiosyncratic. Indeed, the perceived impact, scale, and, ultimately, consequential developmental impact of these challenges appeared to vary greatly with participants displaying different responses to similar events. Such differences were underpinned by several individual factors (such as prior experiences and perceived coping skills), contextual characteristics of the challenge (such as type and timing) and support around the challenge (such as priming and reflection opportunities). Conclusion: Implications include the need for coaches and psychologists to systematically assess and carefully monitor the individual circumstances, needs and skillset of young performers and use this information as a platform for deploying individualised, timely and developmentally appropriate challenges along with relative support to ensure optimal learning and growth from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This article examines athletes preparing for, transitioning into, or going through the developmental stages of a professional sports career, referred to as the emerging athlete career transition. This transition includes events such as selections, Junior-to-Senior promotions, contracting, migration, and early exits. The article presents the collective findings of a multi-case study in three professional sports: rugby league, basketball, and boxing. Method: Consistent with pragmatic qualitative research methodology, a stratified data set was collected and analysed, incorporating researcherpractitioner fieldwork, interviews, documents and artefacts for these cases. This article explores unique events and the demographic and cultural implications of navigating emergent transitions along professional sporting pathways in New Zealand. Findings: These findings highlight the importance of building self-efficacy as a pre-condition for coping through preparation and experience. Recommendations: Recommendations include fostering collaborative cultures and authentic support relationships to facilitate better coping alongside athletic and personal development in these high-pressured environments. Furthermore, understanding existential perspectives of meaning, choice, and responsibility provides insights for developing the resources that allow emerging athletes to thrive in life beyond sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The current study aims to explore the experiences of athletes transitioning from amateur to professional sports. Methods and Materials: A qualitative research design was employed, utilizing a grounded theory approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 22 athletes residing in Ontario, Canada, who had transitioned to professional sports within the past three years. Participants were selected using purposive sampling to ensure diverse representation across sports disciplines. Interviews were conducted in person or via video conferencing, lasting between 60 to 90 minutes, and were audio-recorded with consent. Data analysis involved open, axial, and selective coding to identify themes and develop a substantive theory. Findings: The study identified four main themes: transition challenges, support systems, personal growth, and external influences. Athletes reported significant psychological adjustments, including identity crises and performance anxiety. Financial struggles due to lack of sponsorship and high living costs were prevalent. Social life changes, such as isolation from family and friends, and increased physical demands were notable challenges. Effective support systems involving family, coaches, peers, and institutions were crucial for navigating these challenges. The transition also facilitated personal growth in skill development, mental toughness, and career management. External factors, including media scrutiny and cultural influences, significantly impacted athletes' experiences. Conclusion: The transition from amateur to professional sports involves multifaceted challenges that require comprehensive support systems. Psychological, financial, social, and physical adjustments are significant, and robust support from family, coaches, peers, and institutions is essential. Addressing these challenges through tailored interventions and support mechanisms can enhance athletes' well-being and success in professional sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the multifaceted field of injuries and their impacts on performance in the National Basketball Association (NBA), leveraging a blend of Data Science, Data Mining, and Sports Analytics. Our research is driven by three pivotal questions: Firstly, we explore how Association Rule Mining can elucidate the complex interplay between players' salaries, physical attributes, and health conditions and their influence on team performance, including team losses and recovery times. Secondly, we investigate the relationship between players' recovery times and their teams' financial performance, probing interdependencies with players' salaries and career trajectories. Lastly, we examine how insights gleaned from Data Mining and Sports Analytics on player recovery times and financial influence can inform strategic financial management and salary negotiations in basketball. Harnessing extensive datasets detailing player demographics, injuries, and contracts, we employ advanced analytic techniques to categorize injuries and transform contract data into a format conducive to deep analytical scrutiny. Our anomaly detection methodologies, an ensemble combination of DBSCAN, isolation forest, and Z-score algorithms, spotlight patterns and outliers in recovery times, unveiling the intricate dance between player health, performance, and financial outcomes. This nuanced understanding emphasizes the economic stakes of sports injuries. The findings of this study provide a rich, data-driven foundation for teams and stakeholders, advocating for more effective injury management and strategic planning. By addressing these research questions, our work not only contributes to the academic discourse in Sports Analytics but also offers practical frameworks for enhancing player welfare and team financial health, thereby shaping the future of strategic decisions in professional sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]