Championship Games Research Articles

Fännikultuuri loomine koroonakriisis Eesti ja Valgevene jalgpallijuhtumite näitel

The comparative study analyses the relationship between sports culture and the COVID-19 crisis based on the case studies of fan groups in Estonia and Belarus. Sports and the COVID-19 pandemic are closely interconnected. In the Estonian case, the official analysis results testify that during the first COVID-19 wave in spring 2020 the most affected region in the country was Saaremaa Island, where the virus was literally blown into the air by fan bugles at the international volleyball competition held on 4–5 March 2020. Belarusian sports events did not have such dramatic repercussions, but there were also coronavirus hotbeds in several popular football clubs. The two countries had different approaches to sports events. In Estonia, as in most European countries, all sports competitions and games were banned from 12 March to 17 May 2020, during the state of emergency, but in Belarus, normal sports life continued (except in the cases when there was a COVID-19 hotbed in a sports club). While Estonian football fans were forced to stay home and wait for the games to continue, Belarusian fans, unlike the rest of the world, enjoyed championship games and stadium life. The unique situation in Belarus drew the attention of world football fans to Belarusian football. During the pandemic, most fan activities took place online, making social media the most appropriate environment for this joint study. In this article, we compare the activities of Estonian and Belarusian football clubs during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and analyse how fan activities continued on Facebook. We also describe the general situation in the field of sports during the pandemic. Our analysis shows that the pandemic not only changed the communication pattern between clubs and fans (from real life to the virtual world), but also affected the ratio of parasocial and social interaction. Despite the different situations in the two countries, there was a tendency for football players and club representatives to interact with fans more actively than usual. New forms of fandom required new creative solutions and ways of communicating, which involved humour, (audio)visual media and an emphasis on positive agenda.

Player age and initial helmet contact among American football players.

Concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) related to professional football has received much attention within emergency care and sports medicine. Research suggests that some of this may be due to a greater likelihood of initial helmet contact (IHC), however this association has not been studied across all age groups. This study aims to investigate the association between player age and IHC in American football. Retrospective review of championship games between 2016 and 2018 at 6 levels of amateur tackle football as well as the National Football League (NFL). Trained raters classified plays as IHC using pre-specified criteria. A priori power analysis established the requisite impacts needed to establish non-inferiority of the incidence rate of IHC across the levels of play. Thirty-seven games representing 2912 hits were rated. The overall incidence of IHC was 16% across all groups, ranging from 12.6% to 18.9%. All but 2 of the non-NFL divisions had a statistically reduced risk of IHC when compared with the NFL, with relative risk ratios ranging from 0.55-0.92. IHC initiated by defensive participants were twice as high as offensive participants (RR 2.04, p < 0.01) while 6% [95% CI 5.4-7.2] of all hits were helmet-on-helmet contact. There is a high rate of IHC with a lower relative risk of IHC at most levels of play compared to the NFL. Further research is necessary to determine the impact of IHC; the high rates across all age groups suggests an important role for education and prevention.

Understanding sport event ticket-type preference in a forced e-ticket environment

PurposeMany sport venues utilize digital ticketing, in some instances exclusively. Forced technology adoption among ticket buyers in nonsport contexts, (i.e. airline passengers) has been shown to produce negative responses among consumers. The purpose of the current study is to examine sport consumer response to forced e-ticket adoption.Design/methodology/approachE-surveys were disseminated to attendees of a major NCAA Division I football conference championship game where digital tickets were required for entry for the first time in event history. Mixed methods were utilized to examine both quantitative and qualitative data from 1,821 respondents.FindingsAmong respondents, 29.6% indicated a preference for traditional paper tickets and 48.3% preferred e-tickets, with younger patrons more likely to prefer the digital option. No significant difference related to future consumption was found between those preferring hard tickets and those preferring e-tickets. An analysis of qualitative responses revealed five primary themes for hard ticket preference: (1) ease of use, (2) souvenir, (3) reliability, (4) lack of technology and (5) preference. Five primary themes supporting e-ticket preference were also uncovered: (1) convenience, (2) simplicity, (3) familiarity, (4) paperless and (5) security.Originality/valueThe current study is the first to examine actual sport event consumers in a forced self-service technology environment. Also, no previous studies have explored respondents' preference motivations. The current study is also the first to link both age and future consumption to ticket-type preference.

When Lions Were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties by Richard Bak

Reviewed by: When Lions Were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties by Richard Bak Randy Snow Richard Bak. When Lions Were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2020. Pp. 372. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Appendices. Hardcover: $39.99. In his latest book, author Richard Bak provides an in-depth look at the Detroit Lions teams of the 1950s. They played in four National Football League (NFL) championship games during the decade, winning three of them, all against the Cleveland Browns. For many of today's Lions fans, that may come as a bit of a surprise, seeing as the team has only won a single playoff game since 1957. The book begins with how the team was put together. The nucleus of the team was established in 1950 with the acquisition of three pivotal players that included back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners and a quarterback for the ages. End Leon Hart, the 1949 Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame, was selected by Detroit with the first overall pick in the 1950 NFL draft. Hart won three college football national championships with the Fighting Irish in 1946, 1947, and 1949. Halfback Doak Walker, the 1948 Heisman winner from Southern Methodist University (SMU), was also acquired in 1950. He had been selected in the first round of the NFL draft the year before by the NFL's Boston Bulldogs, so the Lions had to make a trade for him. The Lions also had to make a deal with the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), who held Walker's AAFC rights. Quarterback Bobby Layne of the University of Texas Longhorns was also acquired by Detroit via a trade in 1950 with the New York Bulldogs, where he played during the 1949 season. Walker and Layne grew up together and played high school football together at Highland Park High School in Texas. Lions Assistant Coach Buddy Parker was elevated to head coach in 1951 after Bo McMillan was forced to resign. Parker had played for the Lions during the 1935 season, when the team won its first NFL title over the New York Giants. Prior to coming to Detroit, he had been a player/coach with the Chicago Cardinals. In the 1951 draft, Parker [End Page 120] selected two future Hall of Famers—linebacker Jack Christianson and guard Dick Stanfel—as well as a pair of ends, Dorne Dibble and Jim Doran. Other future NFL superstars on the 1950s Lions teams included end Cloyce Box, guard/tackle Lou Creekmur, halfback Bob "Hunchy" Hoernschemeyer, linebacker Joe Schmidt, defensive back Yale Lary, halfback Terry Barr, defensive back Dick LeBeau, defensive end Darris McCord, linebacker Wayne Walker, and guard Les Bingaman. There was also running back Howard "Hopalong" Cassidy, the 1955 Heisman Trophy winner, and future hall-of-famer Alex Karras. The Detroit teams of the 1950s featured ten future hall of famers and three Heisman Trophy winners. The book is meticulously researched and even explores other aspects of life in Detroit during the 1950s. One chapter is devoted to the subject of racism. The Lions featured mainly white players during the decade. One of the exceptions was fullback John Henry Johnson, who was signed in 1957 from the 49ers. He had been a member of San Francisco's famed "Million Dollar Backfield." Another surprisingly interesting chapter is all about trading cards of the 1950s. There is a great collection of pictures featured in the book that includes many trading cards of Lions players during the decade. In fact, every chapter of the book is edged with parts of those trading cards, giving it a very unique look. Bak vividly captures the sights and sounds of Briggs Stadium on those cold December games. He also takes readers right inside the huddle, the locker room, and even the bars of Detroit with Bobby Layne. Whether you remember those Lions teams of the 1950s or not, this book is required reading for every fan of the Detroit Lions. It will remind you that there was a time when the Detroit Lions really were the kings of the NFL. Randy Snow www.theworldoffootball.comPro Football...

Airline Revenue Management around Sporting Mega-Events: An Application Using Data from the Super Bowl XLIX

Using air travel ticketing data for the travel dates around the 2015 Super Bowl in Phoenix, AZ, we exploit the exogenous shock created by the conference championship results and design a quasi-natural experiment to identify market-specific airfare and booking patterns. Our findings help quantify the impact on the resolution in uncertainty by measuring the changes in airfare and bookings, before and after the conference championship games, in the airline markets of finalist teams and teams that lost in the conference championship round. This empirical evidence provides important insights to airlines.

Comparison of electromyogram reaction time at the onset of motion in badminton players at different competitive levels

In this study, we evaluated the electromyogram reaction time of femoral muscles at the onset of motion in college badminton players at different competitive levels, with the aim of clarifying the characteristics of the motor reaction processing in response to stimulation. The participants were seven male players from the team that won second place in the All Japan College Badminton Championship (high-performance group) and college badminton players with no experience in participating in national championship games (low-performance group). In both the 1-direction and 2-direction tasks, the action time was shorter, and the pre-motor time of femoral muscle activity was significantly shorter in the high-performance than in the low-performance group. In both tasks, significant differences were observed in the rate of increase in absolute EMG amplitude of the swing-out and push-out legs, and the values were higher in the high-performance than in the low-performance group. Results indicate that high-performance badminton players are able to move quickly by synchronizing the motor units of the rectus femoris muscle at the onset of motion and perform actions by exerting large joint torques.

Differentiation of performance indicators of technical and tactical actions of qualified handball players in the competitive process

The purpose of the article is to determine and summarize the effectiveness of the competitive process of qualified handball players in the games of the Ukrainian championship with the differentiation of indicators on the factor of «own» or «foreign» field. Research methods: analysis of scientific and methodological literature and the Internet; pedagogical observations; analysis and interpretation of indicators of technical and tactical actions in the competitive process; ascertaining pedagogical experiment; methods of mathematical statistics. The analysis of the literature data showed that the issues of differentiation of indicators of technical and tactical actions in the competitive process of qualified handball players are insufficiently studied, further development and practical implementation require issues of correction of the training process by highly specialized means. It is established that higher indicators of technical and tactical actions in the competitive process of qualified handball players are recorded in terms of the number of points scored, goals scored and conceded and their difference in games on «their» and «foreign» field, respectively. It is shown that the differentiation of indicators of technical and tactical actions in the competitive process of qualified handball players on the factor of «own» or «foreign» field is the basis for the practical implementation of the existing technical and tactical potential of athletes in the competitive process. Conclusions: the effectiveness of the competitive process of qualified handball players in the games of the Ukrainian championship (Super League) with the differentiation of indicators on the factor of «own» or «foreign» field differs significantly – higher rates are recorded in games on «their» field.

High-intensity Activity in European vs. National Rugby Union Games in the best 2014–2015 Team

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of competition level on running patterns for five playing position in the most successful 2014-2015 European rugby union team. Seventeen French rugby union championship and seven European rugby Champions Cup games were analysed. Global positioning system (sampling: 10 Hz) were used to determine high-speed movements, high-intensity accelerations, repeated high-intensity efforts and high-intensity micro-movements characteristics for five positional groups. During European Champions Cup games, front row forwards performed a higher number of repeated high-intensity efforts compared to National championship games (5.8±1.6 vs. 3.6±2.3; +61.1%), and back row forwards travelled greater distance both at high-speed movements (3.4±1.8 vs. 2.4±0.9 m·min-1; +41.7%) and after high-intensity accelerations (78.2±14.0 vs. 68.1 ±13.4 m; +14.8%). In backs, scrum halves carried out more high-intensity accelerations (24.7±3.1 vs. 14.8±5.0; +66.3%) whereas outside backs completed a higher number of high-speed movements (62.7±25.4 vs. 48.3±17.0; +29.8%) and repeated high-intensity efforts (13.5±4.6 vs. 9.7±4.9; +39.2%). These results highlighted that the competition level affected the high-intensity activity differently among the five playing positions. Consequently, training programs in elite rugby should be tailored taking into account both the level of competition and the high-intensity running pattern of each playing position.

“National Responsibility”: A History of Willful Nostalgia in the Canadian Football League

Abstract The Canadian Football League (CFL) has long promoted itself and its championship game, the Grey Cup, as an integral part of Canadian identity and a force for national unity. Different periods of league history offer more or less support for this notion, as public interest in the league has fluctuated greatly over time. The 1970s were a period of relative prosperity for many teams, but by the late-1980s, declining attendance threatened its survival. During this period municipal, regional, and provincial governments rushed to support CFL teams through loans, tax breaks, and rent abatements. Pressed by frustrated taxpayers, politicians justified government support with little more than willful nostalgia for a formerly proud CFL. Three case studies are discussed detailing these events in different markets across the CFL. The nostalgic discourse of league officials, politicians, and journalists is examined.

Predictors of health behaviors during a college national championship sports event: A daily diary study

Objective: Few studies have examined relations between college sporting events and maladaptive health behaviors among non-athlete college students. Participants: 97 college students. Methods: Completed nightly surveys (alcohol, eating, physical activity, sexual risk taking, smoking) for 11 days around a National Championship game. Results: Baseline stress and rumination was related to worse health behavior; mindfulness was related to better health behavior. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that all maladaptive health behaviors significantly increased the day of the sporting event compared to individuals’ baseline levels. Rumination significantly predicted a spike in alcohol use and sexual risk taking behavior on the day of the Championship game. Conclusions: Risk factors for maladaptive health behaviors include stress and rumination, while mindfulness is protective. Interventions may work to make sports events on campus safer for students (e.g., condoms, reminder emails, mindfulness interventions for at risk groups); more research is needed.

SEATED VOLLEYBALL: THE INFLUENCE OF MOTOR DEFICIENCY TYPE ON PLAYERS’ TACTICAL ROLES

ABSTRACT Introduction Sitting volleyball is an adapted sport played by players in the seated position, due to impaired mobility or amputations. Court dimensions are adjusted to the players’ average height, and during the games, the actions performed are similar to those of traditional volleyball. Objective To analyze the tactical performance of lower limb amputees and physically disabled athletes during seated volleyball games. Methods Data were collected from video footage, by a single observer, of twelve games of the Brazilian north-northeast championship 2017. The analysis investigated: i) average length of rallies; ii) frequency of attack actions; iii) game actions by amputation type; iv) outcomes of the actions by amputation type; v) direction and frequency of movements by disability. Results The average duration was 70 rallies per game, with the minimum disabled athletes performing the highest number of attack actions (43). Transfemoral amputees performed the highest number of blocking actions per game (10.5, in average). Conclusion Sitting volleyball has characteristics that are determined mainly by the type of disability. Players with minimal disabilities perform more attack actions and have higher performance per action, while amputees perform actions closer to the net, such as blocking and blocking points. The results also suggest that the type of amputation influences the direction of movement. Level of evidence II; Study Prospective.

We Are the Champions, But How Do We Respond? Savoring and Dampening in Response to Championship Victories Among Passionate Sports Fans.

The aim of this research was to test if the ways passionate sport fans respond immediately after an important team victory depend on the extent to which passion is harmonious or obsessive. Fans of Liverpool F.C. (n = 299) and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (n = 334) completed online surveys shortly after their teams had won an important championship game. Fans answered questions assessing passion and the extent to which they engaged in savoring (i.e.,attempting to maintain, augment, or prolong positive emotions) and dampening (i.e.,attempting to stifle positive emotions) after the victory. In both samples, the authors found that both harmonious and obsessive passion predicted greater savoring, but only obsessive passion predicted greater dampening. These findings build on previous research and suggest an additional reason for which harmonious and obsessive passion among sport fans tend to predict more and less adaptive outcomes, respectively.

Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913–1974. by Stefan Huebner, Singapore: NUS Press, 2016. 397 pp.

<i>Pan-Asian Sports and the Emergence of Modern Asia, 1913–1974</i>. by Stefan Huebner, Singapore: NUS Press, 2016. 397 pp.

Bet You Didn’t Know She Could Get Paid For That: Using Sports Betting and the Right of Publicity To Address the Gender Wage Gap in Professional Sports

May 14, 2018 is among the most significant days in modern American sports history. No one earned a gold medal or played a championship game. There was no World Cup or National Series title on the line. Instead, with just a keystroke, the U.S. Supreme Court held the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) unconstitutional, thereby legalizing sports betting across the country. In the two years following the decision, dozens of states have established sports betting operations. For professional sports athletes and their agents, this new era brings with it questions of how state laws regarding the right of publicity will interact with laws governing sports betting operations. Complicating this question is well-established precedent governing fantasy sports and the online platforms that profit off of the name, image, and likeness of professional athletes. Against this backdrop, female professional athletes continue to earn significantly lower salaries than their male counterparts. This Article examines the gender wage gap in professional soccer and basketball, and explains the significance and history of PASPA. It then reviews the case law regarding professional athletes and their right of publicity claims. It concludes by suggesting that some female professional athletes may narrow the gender wage gap by asserting their right of publicity on sports-betting platforms.

Relationship between quantitative indicators of motor actions and technical and tactical indicators in young football players 13-14 years of different playing roles

Purpose. To determine the relationship between individual motor exercises and the quality of the technical and tactical actions of young football players of 13-14 years of different playing roles.&#x0D; Materials and methods: the study was conducted during a football competition. The study involved 11 football players 13-14 years old. Physical actions were analyzed during 10 games of the Kharkov football championship. The individual characteristics of young athletes in terms of diagnostics are analyzed, a statistical analysis of the degree of influence of various parameters of movements was carried out and relationship of indicators was carried out.&#x0D; Results. Our correlation analysis results allow us to take into account the influence of the use of individual exercises on the performance of technical and tactical actions of young football players of 13-14 years of different playing roles when building the training process.&#x0D; Conclusions. The conducted correlation analysis of the indicators of special motor actions and the technical and tactical indicators of young football players of 13-14 years of different playing roles determined that in the wing back defenders there is a more relationship between jerks at 15-20 m and dribbling; central defenders have established average correlation between the amount of jerking at 15-20m and the quality of performing short, medium and long ball passes; in wing back midfielders, the implementation of the number of jerks by 15-20 m affects all we study motor actions; in central midfielders the performance of the number of jerks affects the performance of short, medium and long passes; for forwards, a more correlation between technical and tactical actions is established between the number of types of running movements and tackles, including head games.&#x0D; Further research will be aimed at developing complexes of exercises of special physical preparation, taking into account the influence on the performance of technical and tactical actions of young players 13-14 years of different playing roles.

Debunking the Myth of ‘Super Bowl Sex Trafficking’: Media hype or evidenced-based coverage

A large body of scholarship has described the narrow set of media narratives used to report trafficking for sexual exploitation to the public. This article examines US media coverage of human trafficking in relation to the Super Bowl, American football’s championship game. Available empirical evidence does not suggest that major sporting events cause trafficking for sexual exploitation. Yet, we find that 76 per cent of US print media from 2010 to 2016 propagated the ‘Super Bowl sex trafficking’ narrative. Local coverage of the 2018 Super Bowl in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was different, presenting a sceptical stance toward this narrative. The article describes how this substantial shift resulted from our research group and anti-trafficking stakeholders employing an action research approach to craft a Super Bowl communication strategy that aligned with empirical evidence. Although sensationalist narratives are difficult to dislodge, the Minnesota case shows that evidence on trafficking can be effectively used to inform media and impact public perceptions, when researchers work with stakeholders on the ground. Lessons learnt are shared to enable others to replicate these results.

Team performance indicators which differentiate between winning and losing in elite Gaelic football

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to identify performance indicators which differentiated between winning and losing elite Gaelic football teams. Eighty three technical and tactical performance variables were measured in 13 teams during 26 league and championship games throughout 2014–2015. Univariate analysis of full-games revealed that winners achieved a significantly higher total score, number of scores, shots, points, points from play and goals, resulting in superior shot efficiency, average attack per score, and scores per 10 possessions. Winners gained significantly more turnovers and completed significantly less unsuccessful hand passes. Winners also performed significantly less kick outs, resulting in fewer successful kick outs and successful dead ball kick passes overall. A principal component analysis, conducted on 18 variables produced 4 components, which explained 81.9% of the variance. Both logistic regression (8.00, χ2(1) = 16.00, p < 0.001) and discriminant analysis (Ʌ = 0.53, χ2(1) = 13.77, p < 0.001) revealed that one component, defensive counterattacking, significantly contributed to outcome and differentiated winners from losers with a cross-validation accuracy of 87.5%. Coaches can use this information to organise their defensive system to generate opposition turnovers and also incorporate sufficient flexibility to facilitate effective transitions to exploit their own offensive counterattacking opportunities.

Sports Celebrities and the Spectacularization of Modernity at the Far Eastern Championship Games, 1913–1934

Based on archival documents covering the Far Eastern Championship Games (1913–1934), this paper traces the emergence of early Asian sports celebrities while contributing to the theoretical discussion on the origins of celebrity in sports. It argues that the emergence of sports celebrities in Asia during this period can be traced to the ‘spectacularization of modernity’. This concept refers to the production of mass and media spectacles during the series of competitions to promote the primacy of ‘modern institutions’ – whether as empires, nation-states, religious groups, or any of its multiple enactors.

Tempo despendido durante 12 semanas de treinamento e desempenho tático-técnico no voleibol escolar

O objetivo do estudo foi comparar o tempo de treinamento das habilidades motoras do voleibol despendido durante 12 semanas em equipes escolares, tendo como objetivo secundário comparar indicadores de performance durante uma competição. Trata-se de uma pesquisa com delineamento longitudinal. Foram acompanhados durante 12 semanas o treinamento de cinco equipes, sendo suas ações registradas em fichas, em seguida foram filmados 16 jogos do campeonato escolar da Paraíba das referidas equipes. A Anova one-way identificou diferenças entre as equipes no tempo despendido e nos indicadores de performance entre as equipes classificadas de acordo com a posição no ranking da competição. Concluiu-se que o tempo despendido no treinamento é fundamental par o desempenho durante a competição.

Comparative advantage as a success factor in football clubs: Evidence from the English Premier League (EPL)

As in international trade, football clubs can benefit more if they specialize in what they have or can create comparative advantage. In a world of scarce resources, clubs need to identify what makes them successful and invest accordingly. The main objective of this study is to understand what influences the success of football teams in the English Premier League (EPL) championship games. Based on Ricardo’s model of comparative advantage and applying Factor analysis as well as Panel data approach, this study investigates the need for specialization and tradeoffs between defensive and offensive patterns of the game in order for EPL clubs to be more successful. The data used in this study covers the period 2010-2017 of the EPL data. The results reveal that, in general, a better defense is slightly more important for success. The outcomes were different for the top- and bottom-ranking clubs. We found that it is more important for bottom-ranking teams to play better defensively than offensively, while for top-performing teams, the probability of success is more affected by offensive style. In addition, there is a tradeoff between these two styles of play; when bottom-ranking teams try to play better defensively, it often comes at the expense of a poor offensive pattern, but almost no one plays offense at the expense of a poor defense. Unlike the bottom-ranking teams, the top-ranking teams did not face tradeoffs, but they were able to improve both their defensive and offensive patterns. The recommendation put forward by this study argue that bottom-ranking clubs should specialize first in defense.