Guest Editorial: In the Name of the Game

This thesis is a study of the role and impact of commercialism on sport, taking AFL football as a case study. More specifically, it is concerned to assess the consequences of the transformation of sport from an item of folk culture into a multi-billion dollar business within the entertainment industry. This transformation is seen more broadly as the triumph of ‘economic rationalism’, the doctrine that to more rationally organize society all social forms and all social relations should be based on market principles and be subject to market imperatives.

Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2021

In July 1991, Sports Illustrated published a special issue featuring two articles that prognosticated about what sport would look like 10 years later. As the world entered the 21st century, Sports Illustrated writers, Oscar Johnson and Ron Fimrite, offered their visions of sport in the year 2001. Their analysis highlighted how a range of economic, social and technological changes in society would impact on how sport is structured, produced and consumed, but also offered insights into the future of the major professional sport leagues in North America. It has been 30 years since they publicised their views and, while technology continues to impact sport, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the world to pause and to consider a range of deep, soul-searching questions about the nature of society, including sport. Against this background, we consider the opportunities and challenges for sport in the 21st century. The paper is divided into three sections including: (1) a reflection on the me...

Corporate Governance, 2015

Corporate social responsibility and governance in sport: "Oh, the things you can find, if you don't stay behind!" Tim Breitbarth, Stefan Walzel, Christos Anagnostopoulos, Frank van Eekeren Introduction Sport is part of global culture, a worldwide phenomenon and a significant part many people's lives through regular active or passive engagement. Due to its popularity, it offers great potential for revenue (in the realms of US$ 145 billion; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2011), other value generation and socio-political force on a global scale for parties involved, like sports organizations, individual athletes, the sport service industry, corporate sponsors, governments, civil society and others. Some argue that sport is a distinctive social-economic area with the need for special treatment because of the way it touches people's everyday lives (Chadwick, 2009; European Commission, 2007). Others consider high-profile professional sports leagues and clubs as hardly different from medium-sized, multinational companies because they consist of tangible, financial and intangible assets that are professionally managed and marketed (e.g., Moore and Levermore, 2011; Yang and Somnez, 2005). Indeed, the international sport system in general and individual sports and sport organisations in particular have gone through various phases of professionalization and commercialization in recent decades (Chadwick and Beech, 2013). This has inherently challenge the 'traditional' nature of sport cultures and competitions by embracing business-oriented management concepts. Today, 'traditional' aspects of sport are mainly preserved in the amateur sphere and, arguably, in the rhetoric of commercialised sport organisations (Hofmann, 2015). In particular, traditional sport organisations have historically added to the public sphere by addressing social issues (Van Eekeren, 2013). Furthermore, policies and ethics have become key values under close scrutiny especially from commercial and media partners, political actors, and fans, because the sport has to preserve both the commercial and the symbolic qualities of its sporting products (Rouvrais-Charron and Durrand, 2009). Doping, match-fixing, corruption and other 'foul play' are serious threats for the integrity, values and even autonomy of sport (

2017

This book includes the abstracts of all the papers presented at the 17th Annual International Conference on Sports: Economic, Management, Marketing & Social Aspects, 8-11 May 2017, organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). In total 25 papers were submitted by 33 presenters, coming from 15 different countries (Albania, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Kenya, Latvia, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, UK, and USA). The conference was organized into nine sessions that included a variety of topic areas such as sports marketing, sport policy, digitization in sports, and more. A full conference program can be found beginning on the next page. In accordance with ATINER’s Publication Policy, the papers presented during this conference will be considered for inclusion in one of ATINER’s many publications.

The Australian Economic Review, 2006

Sport Management Review, 2010

In the world of contemporary sport it is commonly claimed that at its elite end at least, sport's management is complex because the product it delivers to participants and fans is so idiosyncratic. This claim is accompanied by the view that while professional sport is in large part just another form of business, it has a range of special features that demand a customised set of practices to ensure its effective operation. This article aims to reexamine this view in the light of sport's commercial and socio-cultural developments over the last decade. It initially proposes that while both business and sport are concerned with widening market share, building profits, and strengthening brands, the presumption that sport has a monopoly over the delivery of intense emotional experiences, tribal belonging, and strong interpersonal relationships, is difficult to defend. The article concludes that while sport's economic and social progress has created an industry that is built around complex bureaucracies that turn over many thousands of millions of dollars every year, it has also created a more diverse and heterogeneous system of structures and experiences that are difficult to conflate to a handful of neat special features.

Global Networks-a Journal of Transnational Affairs, 2007

Abstract The development of modern sport is bound up with processes of economic and cultural transformation associated with the global diffusion of capitalist forms of consumption. In this article I draw attention to aspects of the globalization of modern sport that were becoming apparent towards the close of the nineteenth century and then move on to consider the factors that contributed to sport becoming a truly global phenomenon in the course of the twentieth century. Consideration is given to the development of international sport and sports goods companies, the growth in media interest and the increasing significance of sponsorship, consumer culture and sporting celebrities. The global diffusion of modern sport that gathered momentum in the course of the twentieth century involved a number of networked elements, including transnational communications media and commercial corporations for which sport, especially through the iconic figure of the transnational celebrity sport star, constitutes a universally appealing globally networked cultural form. Association with sport events and sporting figures through global broadcasting, sponsorship and endorsement arrangements offers commercial corporations unique access to global consumer culture.

2013

This abstract book includes all the abstracts of the papers presented at the 13th Annual International Conference on Sports: Economic, Management, Marketing & Social Aspects, 8-11 July 2013, organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research. In total there were 17 papers and 22 presenters, coming from 11 different countries (AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM, CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, FRANCE, ITALY, PERU, POLAND, SWEDEN, UK, USA). The conference was organized into VII sessions that included areas such as Marketing and Management of Sports, Football, Social Aspects of Sports e.t.c. As it is the publication policy of the Institute, the papers presented in this conference will be considered for publication in one of the books of ATINER.

2020

2019

This book includes the abstracts of all the papers presented at the 19th Annual International Conference on Sports: Economic, Management, Marketing & Social Aspects (13-16 May 2019), organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER).