Management Matters (Asynchronous Session)
Should Student-athletes Be Compensated?: Examining Former Student-athletes’ Perception of Pay for Play View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jazmine Highsmith
In collegiate athletics the most debated topic is whether or not student-athletes should be compensated for their participation in college sports. Student-athletes sacrifice a lot to be a part of collegiate sports teams; including time and money. Those individuals given the opportunity to participate in college sports miss out on the opportunities that traditional students get the opportunity to take advantage of. The goal of this qualitative study is to explore the opinions of former Division I student-athletes and the highly debated topic in collegiate athletics; pay for play. We review the large amounts of revenue the NCAA has generated throughout the years and increasing number of NCAA amateurism violations. This research established the phenomena behind student-athletes and the need for compensation for their participation in collegiate sports. How might the implementation of pay for play have impacted the success of student-athletes in the classroom? This is considered using in-depth interviews. The participants were male and female all former Division I student-athletes both who were on athletic scholarships for more than two years. Key findings from the research suggest that pay for play would change the course of collegiate athletics as we know it and create dialogue about the dynamics that enable student-athletes to violate the NCAA amateurism policy. The findings of this study will add to the knowledge of student-athlete development.
Institutional Change in Management of Football Clubs: A Brazilian Case View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session João Felippe Cury Marinho Mathias
The article aims to scrutiny the institutional change in terms of management of the most popular football team in Brazil, Flamengo (Clube de Regatas do Flamengo). It investigates the influence of club management radical change (2013-2015) on its sportive performance (2016-2019). It includes a special spotlight to the approval of a Responsibility Fiscal Law in the statute of the Club. The theoretical and analytical “Institutionalist” approach will be used as a guide of study. The first part of the article, focused on the management change, is based on the Club budgets data, including debt payments, including debt services, and the revenues, particularly member fans programs and marketing and television contracts. The second part, after equating debts and expanding revenues, shows that Flamengo was ready to a technical jump, increasing the expenditures on valuable football players, coaches and other technical committee members. Finally, the results can be seen in the final classification in seasons 2016 to 2019 of the first division of the Brazilian Football League, and also other cups – national or international (continental cups). Preliminary results points out that Flamengo became a benchmark in terms of a social football club management in Brazil, even considering its major capacity of raise revenues because of its giant football crowd (more than 40 million fans).
Reaching the Apex: An Analysis of College Athletics Spending Prior to COVID-19 View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christopher Atwater
This study focuses on athletics expenses at United States NCAA Division-I member institutions during the four years leading up to the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, the years of 2016-2020 may be considered the most ambitious and the most lavish of college athletics history. In this four-year period, budgets rose incredibly, including those of two schools who eclipsed the $200M barrier for a single academic year of competition. For the academic year of 2019-2020 alone, the 353 schools who comprise Division-I of the NCAA combined to spend a self-reported figure of over $14B on athletics-related expenses, demonstrating spending decisions that may never return to college athletics. Using R and RStudio to analyze and visualize these figures creates a thought-provoking examination of the extensive commercialization of amateur athletics competition at the collegiate level in America leading up to the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a direct result of the pandemic, these four years may represent historical expense figures as schools have moved swiftly to cut programs, coaches, and support staff in an attempt to limit expenses and shortfalls associated with college athletics departments. The data from 2016-2020 is an intriguing look at how college athletics reached the apex of collegiate sport spending during a prosperous time prior to the crippling of the economic structures supporting them.
US Wrestling System : Examining Macro-level Practices Against a Global Model for Integrated Development of Mass and Elite Sport View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Peter Smolianov, Chris Boucher, Tamara Dolmatova, Bradley David Ridpath, Christopher Schoen, Steven Dion, Jaclyn Norberg Morrissette
This study assessed the macro-level elements of wrestling development in the US against a model for developing high-performance sports integrated with mass participation. Survey questions based on more than 200 published sources were validated by six experts including academicians, executives from sport governing bodies, coaches, and administrators. To determine the areas for improvement, the questionnaires were completed by 104 coaches. Possible advancements were further identified through semi-structured discussions with 10 wrestling administrators and experts. Results suggest possible enhancements at macro-level, particularly in developing stronger and longer partnerships with supporting agencies, as well as balancing and integrating funding and structures of mass and elite sport.
Crime, Deviance, and Corruption in Esports View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Curtis Fogel, Cullum Brownbridge
As the esport industry rises in North America and around the world, so too does the prevalence of crime, deviance, and corruption in and around esports. Through the examination of media files and legal documents, we identify and describe six different types of crime, deviance, and corruption in esports including: i) human rights violations including hate crimes, sexual harassment, discrimination, and virtual violence, ii) recreational and performance-enhancing drug use, iii) intellectual property theft, iv) labour exploitation and workplace health and safety violations, v) illegal betting and vi) match-fixing. We examine the challenges of policing and regulating esports in an online and international context. In doing so, this study explores the relations between law, governance, technology, and sport. We conclude with recommendations for strategically reducing crime, deviance, and corruption in esports.
Impact Evaluation of a Sport for Development Program in Montreal, Canada: The Case of the Pour 3 Points Organization View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session William Falcao
Sport is widely recognized as a tool for promoting personal and social development. As a result, Sport for Development programs have grown substantially in numbers and size over the past decade. One example is the Pour 3 Points organization in Montreal, which offers training for coaches to foster developmental outcomes among youth student-athletes from high school in underserved communities. Although a series of studies have examined the development of their training program and the experiences of coaches and youth in the organization (Falcão et al., 2017, 2019, 2020), no empirical assessment has been conducted on the impact of their program on the participants and their context. Thus, the aim of this research project was to assess the impact of the Pour 3 Points organization on trainee coaches, youth student-athletes, and school stakeholders. An evaluation program was built in a collaborative effort between the organization and our research group that used qualitative and quantitative measures to assess impact. Surveys and observation tools were used to assess coaches' attitudes and behaviours, questionnaires were used to assess the development of youth student-athletes, and semi-structured interviews were used to examine the perceptions of school stakeholders. Findings suggest the organization positively impacted coaches’ attitudes and behaviours with positive implications for youth development; however, with a limited impact on the school context beyond their teams. This paper considers key aspects of program evaluation, determinants of the organization's positive impact, and presents suggestions to overcome barriers in the broad context of Sport for Development programming.
Responsibility and Progress : The English Football Association's Professionalization of Women's Soccer View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Donna L Woodhouse
in 2011, a 'professional' league for women's football in England was launched by the English Football Association (FA). The FA Women's Super League (WSL) has raised the media profile of women's football, attracted greater sponsorship and signalled, for the first time, a more co-ordinated effort by the FA to develop the game from grassroots to international level. However, whilst the FA's insistence that WSL's future is best secured by clubs aligning with male 'parent' clubs has led to more buy in from English Premier League (EPL) clubs, some historically established women's clubs have been excluded from the highest echelons of the sport or even folded. Few clubs are truly professional, with a heavy reliance of volunteerism, and salaries modest. Attendances have dwindled and there have been criticisms of player welfare, inadequate support for players facing racist and sexist abuse, poor competition structuring and marketing centred on heteronormative notions of family. Popular discourses heralded professionalization as evidence of significant progress in gender equality and as signposting an unequivocally positive future for the game. We assess the FA's conceptualisations of WSL as a neo-liberal project that has not consistently worked in the best interests of all players, clubs, and fans. With the announcement of a feasibility study exploring an EPL takeover of WSL, we examine why the FA may, once again, abdicate responsibility for the development of the female game, at elite club level, whilst retaining control of the grassroots and international aspects of the sport.
