Sports Management in an Uncertain Environment

COVID-19-induced pandemic has created havoc in all walks of life and has affected the entire length and breadth of mother earth. Sports have been affected too barring possibly a few theory-heavy sports like chess. However, what we see and read in print and digital media is only the tip of the iceberg. For example, each sport at the elite level is coming back in an extremely controlled environment, but it is the supply line right from the grass-roots level that is suffering the most. While the dearth in the supply line will be felt any time between the next five and ten years, it is surprising that there is not much focus from the academic realm to mitigate the risk. This work first investigates the present hierarchy of the supply line generically and then identifies high-impact areas in the hierarchy. The rest of the work revolves around strategy, finance, operations and technology aspects of sports management to find out a solution. The study suggests that the top layer has to ingest cash down the line to create safe environments at lower levels rather than waiting for government aid. To avoid scaling issues, each country should select strategically some sports, adopt a selective hierarchy by tailoring the supply line for those disciplines and take all the help technology can offer for theoretical preaching, for example, virtual and augmented reality technology.

Hosting sports mega-events (SMEs) today is connected with plenty of risks and challenges. Numerous studies prove that hosting became extremely expensive, and countries do not want to host SMEs at any costs any longer because of the possibility of financial crisis, abandoned sports infrastructure and public opposition. Some experts argue that there is a risk for international sports organisations to end up with no countries willing to host SMEs at some point in the future. From this perspective, co-hosting can potentially become a solution to this problem. Co-hosting is a situation when several countries host sports event together sharing related risks and benefits. It is also known as polycentric approach to hosting SMEs. It is a relatively new concept, and it has not been widely researched yet. This chapter analyses the phenomenon of co-hosting and defines and scrutinises advantages and challenges related to co-hosting from the perspectives of various stakeholders (hosting countries, sponsors, media, athletes). The chapter also proposes conditions under which co-hosting can be a good alternative to a traditional approach of hosting SMEs by one single country.

The presence and popularity of sports can be witnessed at every level, from local, and regional to global. What often gets overlooked is the processes followed in terms of logistics and operations’ management to successfully conduct a sports event. In this chapter, a framework is presented to understand the central aspects of sports logistics management evaluating its characteristics, scope, and functions. Disruptions such as natural calamities, World Wars, riots, economic crisis, and disease outbreaks have shattered the entire sports community time and again and made the sports organizations rethink the future blueprint of sports logistics and operations. Breakthroughs in science and technology also posed challenges to sports logistics eventually leading to the growth of the global sports market. The logistics challenges’ post-disruptions at some of the popular sports events are contextualized, illustrated, and assessed using the proposed framework, thereby setting a template for further refinement and contemplation.

In recent years, sustainability has sharply emerged as a new concept of social responsibility in the world of sport. There has been considerable research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) within professional sports leagues or local sports clubs, but little is known about sustainability implementation of international sports federations who have become more business-oriented today. The purpose of this chapter, thus, is to examine the ways in which CSR and sustainability practices are implemented by the world governing bodies of sports. Another intention of this study is to identify difficulties of integrating sustainability principles into their core activity of organising international sporting events. To do so, in-depth interviews were conducted with managers of eight international federations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as a UN agency (ILO: International Labour Organisation). Multiple case studies were carried out with selected international federations from the document analysis. For this qualitative study, we use an analytical framework which comprises eight dimensions: (a) determinants, (b) goals, (c) resources, (d) stakeholders, (e) management tools, (f) actions, (g) evaluation, and (h) effects. Our chapter sheds light on how the international sports governing bodies have embedded sustainability into their main sports events, and it proposes possible solutions to the challenges that they have faced. This chapter also provides insight into an ongoing discussion about how to define CSR and sustainability in the sport management literature.

This chapter proposes to study the financing of professional sport and its recent evolution. Historically, sport was financed by the ticket office (the spectators). Then, the media and sponsorship gradually replaced this initial income, when the importance of sport became more and more considerable. Finally, the 2000s saw the emergence of a new income, called merchandising (jersey sales, in particular). As sport has become an object of global interest, the role of social networks is increasingly important in the dissemination of information, leading to the opening of new markets where fans will always be far away from the stadium and only consume the competitions via their smartphone, tablet or computer.

All this globalization of sports has contributed to the complexity of the notion of value chain over the last twenty years. This complexification has been further accentuated by several exogenous events: political instability, health crises, the ecological dimension, risks of terrorism, geopolitical stakes and even situations of war.

The sports industry is witnessing impressive growth due to opportunities presented through innovative technologies and big data (Michelman in ‘Why sports is a great proving ground for management ideas’, 2019; Ratten in ‘Sports technology and innovation assessing cultural and social factor’, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Technology affects nearly all aspects of sports today, like athlete training, fan engagement, and sports governance. Factors like increased spending on emerging technologies, changing customer expectations, and proliferation of digital channels are expected to drive the adoption of sports analytics, technologies, and management. Moreover, not all technologies have been accepted undeniably on the sports field by the players, officials, broadcasters, media, or fans. Some sports organizations are reluctant to adopt technology because of a wish to maintain the status quo (Mallen in ‘Emerging technologies in sport: implications for sport management’, Routledge, 2019). Also, environmental uncertainty, often caused by crises such as a global pandemic, natural disasters, geopolitical events, and financial turmoil, hurts sports entrepreneurship (Ratten in ‘Introduction: innovation and entrepreneurship in sport management’, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021). Lately, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have created global uncertainty, and consequently, the sports ecosystem has also been affected. However, these uncertainties create opportunities for new sports products or technologies to emerge catering to specific needs. Hence, there is a need to apply new or emerging technologies in sports management to reduce uncertainties where it exists: be it in the sports arena or outside it. The author provides perspectives on the intersection between sports and technology through a secondary study by reviewing contemporary sports literature and published secondary data, with a particular focus on sports management. The objective is to leverage emerging technologies to create value for stakeholders in the sports ecosystem. The chapter attempts to explore areas where the technology may play a vital role in the future, like the enhancement of player or team performance, fan engagement, and alternative sports consumption. The chapter also offers a glimpse into a futuristic sports metaverse where fan experience and athlete training are taken to a completely different level, albeit with certain limitations.

The rapid uptake of various technological products and services transforms many fields of human life, including the sports industry. In the current chapter, we discuss the process of technological transformation in sports for different stakeholders, and the role of particular innovations in this ongoing phenomenon. It extends the literature on the intersection of sport management and technology, followed by vivid cutting-edge examples from the field. In greater detail, we explain how and why new technology innovations are disseminated and used, affecting sports training, performance, judging, and spectating. Consequently, it reshapes tools, and strategies for event and sport management, bringing, on the one hand, uncertainty and ambiguity, but, on the other hand, new marketing and management opportunities for all stakeholders. However, to use these opportunities and to turn them into an advantage, sport management professionals have to profoundly understand the nature, trajectory, and impact of the current technology-centered transformation in the industry. In this chapter, we provide a deep explanation of the transformational role of technology in sports events and the sports ecosystem in general. It is addressed to a wide range of readers: students, scholars, sports, and technology professionals. Complementary, we define the perspective directions and agenda for future research.

Gaining competitive advantage through proper management of operations function is a common practice in many organizations and businesses including the ones involved in sports. A major challenge most companies confront is how to deliver high-quality products/services to meet ever-changing customer demands in a timely and cost-effective manner. It has also been realized that the operations function must integrate into the overall corporate planning and strategy to achieve such an advantage. Sports facility creation, utilization, and maintenance require application of knowledge on various aspects of operations discipline such as project management, maintenance scheduling, supply network management, to name a few. Sports facility management is an all-encompassing term referring to the maintenance and care of commercial and non-profit buildings, including but not limited to sport facilities, including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); electrical; plumbing; sound and lighting systems; cleaning, groundskeeping, and housekeeping; security; and general operations. While facility management focuses on the overall maintenance and care of a building, operations management focuses on administrating the processes to produce and distribute the products and services offered through a facility. This would include the processes of production (tangible and intangible), inventory control, supply chain management, purchasing and sourcing, logistics and distribution, scheduling, staffing, and general services—with the goal of maintaining, controlling, and improving organizational activities. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdowns associated with attempting to arrest its spread and the calamity in terms of health and medical issues caused by the pandemic have impacted greatly both elite and grassroots sport, and related businesses. Professional sport teams and organizations have suffered an immediate financial impact with loses due to a lack of live spectators and associated revenue streams. The physical and psychological trauma on sports persons and others engaged in sports has also impacted them negatively. This paper, as descriptive research, looks into the existing body of knowledge to assess the challenges faced by and the impact of pandemic on sports operation and sports event management and attempts to develop a risk management framework to deal with uncertainties. The paper also outlines the potential future directions that the sports industry might take to manage the pandemic-related risks better.

This chapter proposes to study the phenomenon of the increased popularity of online chess during the coronavirus-induced pandemic and the consequent global lockdowns and the implications for the sport of chess. While being centuries old, chess is a sport that has not enjoyed a massive fan following due to its nature. However, the disruptions caused by the pandemic started a series of events that propelled the online avatar of chess to a new sphere of popularity. In this chapter, I explore this phenomenon by first discussing some of the key contributing factors to online chess’s rapid rise in popularity. I then discuss some of the issues that accompanied this rise in popularity. Then, I analyze the implications of these positive and negative aspects for the sport of chess as a whole, post the pandemic. Finally, I incorporate the theoretical perspective of brand extension to view the role of some critical stakeholders in facilitating this phenomenon. This chapter has important implications for sports management, related to the challenges due to the influx of a vast novel audience, the need to balance entertainment and tradition in the pursuit of popularity, and the approaches that can help market a traditionally difficult-to-market sport.

The lockdowns forced by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic made socializing in-person difficult. This difficulty affected the lives of the sports fans adversely as they could not go to the stadium to watch a live game, nor to anywhere else to join others in enjoying the game’s broadcast. They were missing the games and also the social interactions. As they tried to connect and watch live sports simultaneously, various platforms provided with the opportunities. Consumers used OTT platforms with their co-viewing features, third-party video-sharing platforms like Twitch, or video calling applications like Zoom to watch live games and also socialize in parallel. This chapter looks into the underlying needs the consumers feel for opting for these online co-viewing spaces and the benefits they seek from it. It takes an empirical route by getting sports fans to respond to an online questionnaire and takes the uses and gratifications lens to understand the phenomenon. Those who opted for co-viewing had higher needs for entertainment and cognition than those who did not. These two needs and age (in a reverse direction) are predictors for using co-viewing. As far as benefits are concerned, fans earn hedonic and social integrative benefits from co-viewing.

This paper will study the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the English Premier League (EPL) and analyse the different strategies clubs use to recover from the economic costs of the pandemic. This paper will argue that the COVID-19 lockdown crisis heightened the contradictions within traditional media broadcast and new digital media producers culminating in changing strategies by EPL clubs. The first section provides a conceptual framework to make sense of the growth of the EPL through the lens of political economy. It provides a novel conceptual grammar such as commodification, contradictions, and crisis to understand economic and institutional changes in the EPL. The second section of this paper will study the structure of the football club's business and analyse empirical trends in the EPL from 2013 to 2020. The last section of the paper analyses the different strategies used by EPL clubs to cope with the COVID-19 lockdown crisis. This includes using digital and social media technologies to access new fans such as satellite fans, using branding to compete with other sports brands, and proposing institutional changes such as ‘Project Big Picture’ and the ‘European Super League’ to change the power hierarchy in the EPL.