Sport has become increasingly commercialised and there are many examples of close links that have developed between sport and business. This collection examines five of them in a global context.

Sport has become increasingly commercialised and there are many examples of close links that have developed between sport and business. This collection examines five of them in a global context.

Sport has become big business. This book takes a global look at the business of sport focusing upon the structure of the sport industry, commercialisation of sport, sport marketing, franchising, television and other rights and the rise of the global super athletes and teams. This is positioned in a global political and economic context and in the framework of global uncertainties and scenarios.

As football clubs have become luxury investments, their decisions increasingly mirror those of any other business organisation. Football supporters have been encouraged to express their club loyalty by �thinking business� - acting as consumers and generating money deemed necessary for their clubs to compete at the highest levels. In critical studies, supporters have been portrayed as passive or reluctant consumers who, imprisoned by enduring club loyalties, embody a fatalistic attitude to their own exploitation. As this book aims to show, however, such expressions of loyalty are far from hegemonic and often interface haphazardly with traditional ideas about what constitutes the �loyal fan�. While there is little doubt that professional football is experiencing commodification, the reality is that football clubs are not simply businesses, nor can they ever aspire to be organisations driven solely by expanding or protecting economic value. Rather, clubs hover uncertainly between being businesses and community assets. Football Supporters and the Commercialisation of Football explores the implications of this uncertainty for understanding supporter resistance to, and compromise with, commodification. Every club and its supporters exist in their own unique national and local contexts. In this respect, this book offers a Euro-wide comparison of supporter reactions to commercialisation and provides unique insight into how football supporters actively mediate regional, local and national contexts, as they intersect with the universalistic presumptions of commerce. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

Sports marketing is not only a global phenomenon, but also a major industry in its own right. This book breaks new ground in that it combines the theory and the practice of sports marketing agreements, which are at the heart of the commercialisation and marketing of sport. A particular feature of this book is the wide-ranging collection of precedents of sports marketing agreements, including, inter alia, sponsorship, merchandising, TV rights and new media, sports image rights and endorsements, event management and corporate hospitality, that are included and are explained and commented on in the text of the book. The book also covers the EU aspects, which are particularly important in this context, especially collective selling, of Sports TV rights and the drafting of the corresponding agreements; as well as the fiscal aspects of sports marketing agreements in general and sports image rights agreements in particular, which need to be taken into account in order to reduce the tax burden on the resulting revenues. With so much money at stake in sports marketing, the book also deals with the important topic of dispute resolution and, again, provides the reader with some useful corresponding clauses for settling disputes by ADR, particularly through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). As the author remarks in his Preface, the aim of the book is to provide a leading resource for all those engaged in any way in the money-spinning field of sports marketing, combining - as this book uniquely does - both the theory and the practice of drafting, interpreting and enforcing a variety of sports marketing agreements, especially those with an international dimension.

'. . . this is a fascinating and informative volume and the bulk of it is accessible to readers without an economics background. It will be of interest to students of sport and the media and those interested in the commercialisation of leisure in general.' - A.J. Veal, Leisure Studies

Contemporary sport is both a sophisticated and complex international business and a mass participatory practice run largely by volunteers and community organisations. Now in a fully revised and expanded second edition, this authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of sports management helps to explain the modern commercial environment that shapes sport at all levels and gives clear and sensible guidance on best practice in sports management, from elite sport to the local level. The first section examines the global context for contemporary sports management. The second explores the key functional areas of management, from organisation and strategy to finance and marketing, and explains how successful managerial techniques can be applied in a sporting context. The final section surveys a wide range of important issues in contemporary sports management, from corporate social responsibility to the use of information and communication technologies. Together, these sections provide a complete package of theory, applied practical skills and a state-of-the-art review of modern sport business. Complemented by a companion website full of additional resources, this book is essential reading for all students of sport management and sport business.

Sport on television is big business, but it is about more than just commerce. Using a range of national case studies from Europe and beyond, this book analyses the political, economic, social and regulatory issues raised in relation to the buying and selling of television sports rights.

Since their emergence in the 1960s, lifestyle sports (also referred to as action sport, extreme sports, adventure sports) have experienced unprecedented growth both in terms of participation and in their increased visibility across public and private space. book seeks to explore the changing representation and consumption of lifestyle sport in the twenty-first century. The essays, which cover a range of sports, and geographical contexts (including Brazil, Europe, North America and Australasia) focus on three themes. First, essays scrutinise aspects of the commercialisation process and impact of the media, reviewing and reconsidering theoretical frameworks to understand these processes. The scholars here emphasise the need to move beyond simplistic understandings of commercialisation as co-option and resistance, to capture the complexity and messiness of the process, and of the relationships between the cultural industries, participants and consumers. The second theme examines gender identity and representations, exploring the potential of lifestyle sport to be a politically transformative space in relation to gender, sexuality and ‘race’. The last theme explores new theoretical directions in research on lifestyle sport, including insights from philosophy, sociology and cultural geography. The themes the monograph addresses are wide reaching, and centrally concerned with the changing meaning of sport and sporting identity in the twenty-first century. This book was previously published as a Special Issue of Sport in Society.

Contemporary sport is big business. Major teams, leagues, franchises, merchandisers and retailers are in fierce competition in a dynamic global marketplace. Now in a fully revised and updated second edition, International Cases in the Business of Sport presents an unparalleled range of cutting-edge case studies that show how contemporary sport business is done and provides insight into commercial management practice. Written by a team of international experts, these case studies cover organisations and events as diverse as the NBA, the Americas Cup, the Tour de France, the PGA tour, FC Barcelona and the Australian Open tennis. They explore key contemporary themes in sport business and management, such as broadcast rights, social media, strategic development, ownership models, mega-events, sports retailing, globalisation, corruption and financial problems. Each case study also includes discussion questions, recommended reading and links to useful web resources. International Cases in the Business of Sport is an essential companion to any sport business or sport management course, and fascinating reading for any sport business professional looking to deepen their understanding of contemporary management.