Sports Leagues Research Articles

Competitive intensity in differently regulated men's football leagues: evidence from English premier league and German Bundesliga

PurposeThe Premier League (PL) and the Bundesliga (BL) were chosen for this study due to their fundamentally different approaches to ownership regulation and the distribution of media revenues. Regulation in the PL is very liberal if compared to the BL's 50+1-rule. In the BL, the distribution of media revenues is mainly based on past performance, whereas equal distribution is dominant in the PL. The specific aim of this paper was a longitudinal analysis with a focus on the final outcome of the seasons.Design/methodology/approachThis study looks at competitive intensity (CI) in the men's BL and the English PL because it is a crucial indicator for the long-term success of a sports league and the participants. To calculate the CI of both leagues and of all relevant sub-competitions (championship, Champions League (CL), Europa League (EL), Conference League (CoL) and fight against relegation), a CI index (CII) model was generalised and applied for an examination period spanning from 1998/99 to 2020/21.FindingsUntil 2008/09, seasonal CI in the BL was somewhat higher than in the PL. But afterwards, the BL's championship race's CI dropped considerably, while the PL's CI for qualification for the CL rose profoundly. Results also showed that the introduction of the CoL raised the leagues' CI indices.Originality/valueBesides a methodological contribution with the generalisation of the applied CI index model, the findings are discussed in the context of the above-mentioned regulatory and distribution mechanisms also taking into account the very current discussion regarding general regulatory changes within European football.

Bouncing between screens: social TV and Brazilian NBA audience

PurposeSports leagues have stood out in the entertainment industry due to their great economic value and cultural impact. This is the case of the American sports leagues, with emphasis on the National Basketball Association (NBA), whose largest Latin American market lies on Brazil. The aforementioned league’s audience is constantly growing, a fact that can be partially explained by the encouragement provided for its viewers to interact through social media, in a phenomenon called social TV. Accordingly, the aim of the present study is to investigate how social TV works as a means for Brazilian fans to coproduce their NBA broadcasting enjoyment through social media interactions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a netnography on the community of fans engaged in Twitter hashtag #NBAnaESPN, which was released by ESPN to promote audience integration during NBA games' broadcasting.FindingsA theorization about the role played by social TV in the way fan culture articulates through social media to enjoy broadcasting media products was herein presented. The findings of this study have evidenced three categories concerning the role played by television broadcasting, social media and the fandom in NBA consumption by Brazilian fans. Based on these findings, the authors got to the conclusion that social TV establishes a mediatized environment where fan culture can be articulated through social media to enable interactions about television broadcasting.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited to members of the Brazilian NBA audience who engage in the official social media of the league’s broadcasting.Originality/valueThe study heads toward a theoretical generalization based on the research results.

Improved League Championship Algorithm (ILCA) for Load Balancing in Cloud Computing

You can’t obtain the outcomes you need without planning, thus it’s at the heart of cloud computing. This article’s major goal is to decrease value-added time, increase resource utilisation, and make cloud services viable for a single activity. In recent years, metaheuristic algorithms have drew attention to the correct functioning of work scheduling algorithms among the many job scheduling techniques. With sports leagues, the algorithm based on the League Championship (LCA) is fascinating because it can be used to identify the best team/task for programming.This article uses the Improved League Championship Algorithm (ILCA) to schedule tasks, reducing deployment time, cloud usage, and cost. The ILCA is implemented through the Cloudsim simulator and the Java programming language with a nonpreventive planning strategy. ILCA also enhances economies of scale and minimises the value of using the cloud. As it has proven to be versatile in terms of time to manufacture, resource usage and economics, ILCA could be a good candidate for a cloud broker as it has proven to be versatile in termsof time to manufacture, resource usage and economics usage.

A national survey of clubs medical provision and facilities in BUCS American Football 2019-2020.

British American Football (BAF) is a developing sport in the UK, with keen growth in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) league. Participation in BAF carries risks and so to facilitate safe participation medical care services must be evaluated. To evaluate medical provision in BUCS American Football in the 2019-2020 season. An online survey tool was used to collect data from BUCS BAF teams in the 2019-2020 season. Thirty-one teams (from across England, Wales and Scotland) responded to questions on facilities, provision and procedures. Almost 42% of teams had a regular team first aider who attended home games each week. Only 61.5% attended away games and 7.7% attended team training. Access to a first aider was not dependent upon division. Home games were more likely to be risk assessed and have an emergency action plan compared to away games. The majority of teams had access to automated external defibrillator (AED) within 100m of the pitch, yet only 29% of staff were trained to use them. Almost 84% of teams reported carrying a designated fully charged phone (with signal). Prominent qualitative themes indicated were cost/funding as barriers to hiring qualified medical staff, lack of institutional support, unreliability of medical provision and inadequate facilities/preparation for games. These findings provide key information on the status of medical provision, facilities and protocols in BUCS BAF. Data reveals a lack of consistent medical personnel, particularly at training and away games, and training in emergency care.

Changes in sports gambling behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.

Sports betting is one of the most popular forms of gambling in Canada; recent prevalence estimates indicate that 7.9% of Canadian adults endorsed gambling on sports in the past year. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic led to the temporary closure of most major sports leagues worldwide beginning in March of 2020. These sudden closures created a dramatic decrease in the availability of sports betting opportunities in the early stages of the pandemic, followed by a subsequent increase in availability as most sport leagues returned during the summer of 2020. Using a retrospective self-report measure of gambling participation, the present study investigated how the gambling behaviors of N = 85 past-year sports gamblers changed over the course of the pandemic. It was hypothesized that sports gamblers would report an initial decrease in gambling behaviors from pre-pandemic baseline levels to the early stages of the pandemic in May of 2020 when the availability of sports gambling was heavily restricted, followed by an increase in gambling behaviors from May to August, in accordance with the re-emergence of live sporting events. The general pattern of results supported the hypotheses, though gambling behaviors did not completely return to baseline levels. Beyond quantifying the changes in gambling behaviors over the early stages of the pandemic in Canada, results may have implications regarding the utility of voluntary gambling exclusion programs as well as legislation concerning gambling access.

Do local businesses benefit from sports facilities? The case of major league sports stadiums and arenas

We use daily mobile foot traffic data covering major league sports facilities and the surrounding commercial establishments in the US to pin down the size and the spatial distribution of foot traffic spillovers from sports facilities to local businesses. By employing the fixed effects and the IV estimation strategies, we show that the spillover benefits are heterogeneous across sports and business sectors. We find that 100 baseball stadium visits generate roughly 29 visits to nearby food & accommodation businesses and about 6 visits to local retail establishments. While the estimates for football stadiums are comparable, basketball & hockey arenas do not appear to generate significant spillovers for the surrounding businesses.

Comparative Study on the Status Quo of Emergency Response Strategies of NBA and CBA During the Covid-19

The rapid development of sports has been affected to a certain extent by emergencies. Especially since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2019, global sports events have been suspended one after another, and large-scale sports events were facing the economic threat brought by the epidemic. Based on this, both NBA and CBA leagues formulated a targeted development policy. This article will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the emergency strategies formulated by the two major alliances to deal with emergencies, and then deeply dissect the solutions adopted by the senior management of the alliance to deal with emergencies, analyze their strategies, and give corresponding suggestions, to provide reference and thinking for the development of CBA league and other sports leagues. This paper draws conclusions through literature review, mathematical statistics, and logical analysis. (1) When emergencies occur, decisions made by large sports leagues are largely affected by external factors, such as social factors, and new media (2) The decision made by China's CBA League in response to the turning point of the epidemic crisis has far-reaching strategic significance, and the maturity of the NBA League's emergency public relations team can be used as the object of CBA high-level research and reference.

Selected Issues of (Good) Governance in North American Professional Sports Leagues

In recent years, sport governing bodies (SGB) have been the subject of serious questions regarding their governance structures and decision-making processes. SGB that fail to implement regulatory mechanisms and to improve their governance structures and processes risk being confronted with severe ethically sensitive issues outside and inside the fields, which may eventually result in negative publicity and reduced demand (e.g., fans, sponsors) or financial support (e.g., from governments). This study examines selected regulations and practices of North American professional sports leagues in light of good governance principles. By adopting a qualitative research design, we investigate if there is a need for reforms to be employed by the leagues to comply with core dimensions of governance and thus reduce the risk of not being prepared to deal with ethically sensitive issues that may come up. Our critical analysis suggests that essential reforms need to be employed by the leagues to comply with core principles of good governance. In terms of democracy, professional leagues need to recognise stakeholder interests, implement innovative participation mechanisms, and apply diversity and inclusion policies for board composition. On transparency, it is required to publish internal regulations and financial information despite lax regulations on disclosure policies in the United States. Concerning accountability, professional leagues should separate their disciplinary and executive branches to avoid the concentration of power and potential conflict of interest in the relationship between the commissioner and team owners.

A comparative analysis of sport and economic success through the example of top- and mid-ranking Hungarian water polo clubs

Abstract The biggest question of professional sports is how to compete successfully in the global economic framework, simultaneously in terms of the sport and in economic terms. As a result, in addition to indicators measuring sports-related effectiveness, the need for an economic analysis of sport has also emerged. Most academic research into the economic aspects of sports are related to the analysis of North American major league sports, as well as to European football. Water polo is also a spectator team sport, yet its economic analysis is almost entirely missing. In this article, we present an economic analysis of the operation of five men’s water polo teams – the top four teams in terms of the sports results and one from the mid-range – competing in the highest-level national championship in Hungary. Our aim is to determine, on the basis of the analysis of the data, the relationship between effectiveness in sports and the economic background of the teams. It can undoubtedly be concluded that, in addition to appropriate professional decisions, it is the economic situation of a club that has a clear impact on their effectiveness; in other words, up to a certain point, the more disposable funds and wider range of assets a sports company has, the more effectively it can prepare and the better results it will have in the various domestic and international championships and tournaments. CIT (corporate income tax benefits, “TAO” in Hungarian) support is fundamentally important in the field of youth sports development. While professional sports in Hungary are built on the development of junior players, there is still no clear link between the successfulness of the adult and the junior teams. The first-division teams of the clubs providing the best junior players are frequently in the mid-range or occasionally among the weakest teams in the national championship. Our research has shown that apart from the fact that some teams are extremely successful in the water polo championship, the outcome of many matches becomes quite predictable. Based on these, the uncertainty of the outcome is compromised, and the championship becomes less exciting and also loses some of its audience.

Teaching Experiential Data Analytics Using an Election Simulation

Data Analytics has grown dramatically in importance and in the level of business deployments in recent years. It is used across most functional areas and applications, some of the latter including market campaigns, detecting fraud, determining credit, identifying assembly line defects, health services and many others. Indeed, the realm of analytics has famously grown to include major league sports and even U.S. election campaigns. Universities have raced to include data analytics in their curricula as the need for data scientists has become more acute. Unfortunately, many data science courses in college curricula suffer from various deficiencies: some lack a hands-on component, others are insufficiently experiential, and yet others leave students with too few transferable skills. This article describes an experiential approach to teaching data analytics at the college level that uses an election simulation, MISSimulation.com—to communicate key data science concepts in a competitive setting. Many universities actively use the simulation, combined with analytic tools such as Tableau and Excel, to implement team competition. We explore key techniques used and knowledge learned during the typical teaching of a data analytics course using the simulation. We end with pedagogical review of data analytics skills transferred during the course and student feedback.

Making soufflé with metal: Effects of the coronavirus pandemic on sports journalism practices.

The coronavirus pandemic significantly – and perhaps permanently – altered the ways by which we lead our personal and professional lives. Sports journalism is no exception – with the seasons of all kinds of sports modified, reduced or cancelled entirely in 2020, reporters on the sports beat had to quickly adapt to ever-changing circumstances. This exploratory study investigates the impact of the pandemic on the practices of sports beat writers during the 2020 season. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 beat writers covering teams in all four major North American sports leagues, this study reveals that the journalists’ experiences with the pandemic-imposed conditions underscored already-present trends within sports journalism: namely, a reduction of access to players and coaching due, in part, to increased team control through robust media relations divisions; journalists’ overreliance on official team sources; and a move towards feature and data- and analytics-driven stories. This study contributes to literature on sports journalism beat reporting and offers an early insight into how the pandemic conditions might help shape the future of the industry.

Attrition in entry-level ticket sales positions: a survival analysis

PurposeSport ticket sales is often positioned as a “foot in the door” to the sport industry due to ample job opportunities, but anecdotal reports of high turnover raise questions of the efficacy of recruitment, training and retention efforts in sport sales. The purpose of this study was to determine attrition levels among entry-level ticket sales personnel, observe whether entry-level sales positions lead to other non-selling positions within sport organizations and determine if education and market related variables are related to job tenure.Design/methodology/approachLinkedIn profiles were analyzed for 1,122 entry-level ticket salespeople listed in media guides between 2015 and 2019 in the “Big Four” North American professional sports leagues. Names were obtained from 26 NBA, 21 MLB, 20 NHL and 12 NFL teams. Survival analysis provided defection rates and demonstrated the relationship between those rates and key variables.FindingsOne in every four entry-level ticket salespeople defected within the first year and one in every two defected within 26 months. Only 8% moved on from ticket sales to a non-sales role within the sport industry. Increases in cost of living, working for an NFL team and having sport industry experience prior to taking a sales position decreased the likelihood of defecting, while increased distance between the salesperson's university and the team's location increased the likelihood of defecting.Originality/valueThis study applies survival analysis to a sport human relations context to understand turnover in a specific occupational discipline and establishes the turnover rate for sport sales positions.

“My definition of community is community, and their definition is more around fan engagement”: balancing business and social logics of professional sport teams’ community activities

ABSTRACT Professional sport teams operate within an increasingly complex institutional environment and are required to often confront incompatible prescriptions from multiple institutional logics, such as performance and commercial goals (i.e., business logics) relative to community development and altruistic goals (i.e., social logics). The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of institutional complexity on managers perceptions of community-oriented practices across 12 professional teams within a single Australian sport league. Using Raynard’s (2016) configurations of institutional complexity, we identify two types of hybrid responses that professional teams utilise to address multiple logics: aligned and segregated. When community managers perceived social logics to be aligned with business logics, community activities were more aligned with commercial organisational outcomes such as brand, fan and sponsorship benefits. Alternatively, when managers perceived social logics to be segregated from business logics, community activities were more autonomous from commercial drivers, allowing a greater focus on community development outcomes including education, health and increased trust. Theoretically, our research adds to institutional logic scholarship by showing that multiple logics can be compatible with each other, central logics influence peripheral logics and organisational responses to institutional complexity can vary within a professional sport league.

Season Ticketing as a Risk Management Tool in Professional Team Sports: A Pricing Analysis of German Soccer and Basketball

Ticket sales remain a significant source of revenue in professional team sports. However, season ticket revenue, as an effective risk-reducing instrument, is rarely analyzed in the literature. This study aims to determine, from a price and product perspective, the extent to which different factors affect season ticket prices. Using three different professional German sports leagues, a ticket-pricing model was developed as the empirical model. Consistent with other pricing studies, an ordinary least-squares (OLS) model and a Tobit model were fit. The results indicate that different season ticket rights, type of season ticket, club league membership, fan club membership, club stadium utilization rate, club sporting performance, and club market size have significant negative or positive impacts on season ticket price. Whereas, for example, a reserved seat in the stadium has a positive impact, the population of the club’s city has a negative impact. Based on the results, club managers should consider all traditional season ticket rights and season ticket discounts when calculating season ticket pricing. These and further implications are discussed with respect to the risk management issues of season ticket pricing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and differences in local market constellations of professional team sports clubs.

Влияние инноваций на конкурентный баланс в Континентальной хоккейной лиге

The problem of competitive balance in the sports economy remains relevant and widely discussed both in the scientific community and among representatives of the sports services market around the world. This issue is widely considered in the world scientific literature. At the same time, there are practically no studies devoted to assessing the competitive balance in the leading sports leagues in Russia. The tasks required to achieve this goal are as follows, based on methods for assessing the competitive balance, characterize the innovations made by the top – KHL management and identify new factors that affect the level of competitive balance in the KHL. The study relies on previous works that examine the presence of a competitive balance in leading sports leagues. Including in the NHL, the model of which was used to create the Kontinental Hockey League and is very similar in many respects. This work makes it possible not only to evaluate the effectiveness of decisions made by the league, but also to study the impact innovations KHL policies on organizational results over time. In this article, for the first time, issues of the impact of innovations on competitive balance in hockey leagues until changes and after. Authors conclude that after making major changes to the KHL regulation, in all respects, the level of competitive balance has not changed than before. It means that the well-known and widely used tools for regulating the competitive balance in the sports leagues did not give the expected result in one of the leading sports leagues in Russia.

What Enables Human Capital Investment Sharing in Elite Sport?

Sport organizations increasingly cooperate to invest in elite athlete development, sometimes even across national boundaries and industry sectors. This study attempts to explain why organizations decide to cooperatively invest by extending human capital theory. A multiple case study of National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) and Kunlun Red Star Hockey Club (KRS) was conducted, including an analysis of 43 interviews and 305 documents. Organizations decided to invest cooperatively because they believed human capital sharing would allow for levels of investment that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for individual organizations. Four enabling conditions explain when organizations perceive sharing as more effective than human capital “buying” or “making.” The findings extend human capital theory to explain sharing decisions. The cases and theory provide practical insights for managers investing in athlete development and expanding sports leagues.

The Silence of the Fans: The Impact of Restricted Crowds on the Margin of Victory in the NBA

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of restricted crowds caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the margin of victory of games in the NBA. Using 12,500 game-level observations from 11 NBA seasons from 2010/11 to 2020/21, the study first shows that during the COVID-19 season of 2020/21, games had a greater average margin of victory than any of the prior seasons. Regression results reveal that games played in front of restricted crowds were more likely to be won by a margin of 15, 20, or 25 points than games played in front of non-restricted crowds. The results indicate similar effects for games played in an empty arena or in front of a small crowd. Implications for the NBA and other major team sports leagues are discussed.

Shadow Stadia and the Circular Economy

Most attention on stadium or arena-anchored development projects is placed on the scope and construction of the new sports facility, while less emphasis is on the facility left behind, which we describe as shadow stadia. Some shadow stadia are repurposed for mixed use development, others are demolished but have delayed redevelopment plans, while some remain abandoned and empty for years after the professional sports team or event is no longer present in the facility. The environmental impacts of shadow stadia are not fully understood, as limited research exists on how the immediate neighborhood anchored by pre-existing venues cope in the shadows of these new development plans and the loss of a sport venue and its events. Green strategies such as the circular economy may extend the lifecycle of existing sport faciltiies. To contribute to this discussion further, this perspective article will first discuss current advances in the academic literature on the circular economy. Second, it will present a comprehensive categorization of shadow stadia globally and future opportunities on integrating circularity into best practices. By doing so, this perspective article highlights several areas of future investigation that should be considered and planned for when major league sports teams and city leaders move their team and build new facilities.

Стратегическое управление развитием видов спорта в студенческой среде

At the moment, the importance of strategic management issues in sports federations and student sports leagues is increasing for they contribute to the development of sports among students and participate in the implementation of the Intersectoral Student Sports Development Programme up to 2024. The current practice of creating programmes of various sports development should be improved in terms of student sports. Moreover, student sports leagues are required to develop strategic planning documents. The article represents the study of various sports development programmes. The author analysed availability of regulations on the student sports. The results of the study show a low level of interest of sports federations in student sports development, and reveal some problems with programme development. It is concluded that the documents developed by student sports leagues may determine the key priorities for promoting sports among students, and content of such documents may form a basis for including the regulations on student sports in various sports development programmes. Recommendations are given on the development of strategies and programmes of student sports leagues based on the principle of a balanced strategic planning system

Exploring the Internationalization Potential of the Persian Gulf Pro League

Professional sports leagues, like so many other organizations, seek to access international markets. The purpose of this research was to explore stakeholder perceptions of the internationalization potential of the Persian Gulf Pro League (PGPL). Data were collected via 20 in-depth interviews with football federation marketing executives, club marketing executives, and experts in internationalization and sports marketing. The data analysis was guided by the principles of grounded theory with the aid of open and axial coding. The analysis produced 39 issues affecting the internationalization of the PGPL. These were classified into five main dimensions—political, economic, managerial, legal, technical-marketing, and socio-cultural factors.