Sports Management Commons^™

Organizational Governance Of Event Impacts, Kylie Wasser

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explored the governance of event legacy and/or leveraging. More broadly, this project examined the specific organizational forms that are responsible for delivering event legacy and/or leveraging strategies. This was done using a combination of organizational theories and theories of public policy to understand the unique environment surrounding event legacies. Three distinct phases were utilized in this study. I used a research synthesis to investigate what previous scholars have found regarding event legacy delivery. Next, comparative cases from the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games and the 2015 Toronto Pan Am/Parapan American Games were used to examine what mechanisms previous …

Medical Specialty Camps: A Holistic Approach To Assist In The Management Of Diabetes, Takeyra Monique Collins

Human Movement Sciences & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

From toddlers to adolescents, poor medical regimen and adherence occurs as youth face adversities caused by type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). This inquiry-based research sought to explore the process of promoting resilience to attain personal diabetes management through outcome-focused programming. This dissertation was structured in a three-paper format to highlight three sectors of a medical specialty camp to identify the significance of building resilience among youth with T1DM, incorporating family support, and providing service-learning opportunities for students. The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts associated with campers’ resilience from pre- to post-camp based on their participation in …

“We Need Dawgs!”: Narrative Construction Of Athletic Identity Among Black High School Football Players, Victor Dion Kidd

Theses and Dissertations

Previous empirical inquiry of athletic identity (Brewer, Van Raalte, Linder, 1993) and participation has failed to examine how such identities and roles are developed at the high school level of competition. While focusing on salient athletic identities or role sets are important, research literature should target how devotion to athletic identities, roles, and responsibilities are developed and communicated to adolescent athletes by social interactions. Therefore, while adopting Narrative Identity Theory (Loseke, 2007; McAdams & McLean, 2013; Polkinghorne, 1991; Smith 2010) as an appropriate lens, the current study investigated how athletic identity, roles, and responsibilities are developed through complex interaction and …

Barriers Of African American Football Student-Athletes In Seeking Mental Health Services, Todd Andrew Wilkerson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nearly half (48%) of collegiate football student-athletes are African American (NCAA, 2018). African American student-athletes face adversity at their respective institutions in the forms of racism and unfair treatment (Hill, Hall & Appleton, 2010). African American male student-athletes face educational stressors, campus stressors and athletic stressors. These stressors consist of academics, family, athletics and social relationships (Miller & Hoffman, 2009). Many African American student-athletes do not seek mental health treatment due to their status on campus (Watson, 2006). However, few studies have examined mental health and barriers for African American male student-athletes when seeking mental health services. As such, the …

Investigating Managerial Priority Of Environmental Inputs And Outputs In Public Assembly Venues, Walker Ross

Theses and Dissertations

This study was focused on understanding how managers of public assembly venues prioritize the various manager-perceived environmental inputs and outputs of the operation of their building when making decisions on environmental sustainability. Such research is necessary as there was little to no understanding of the operational impacts of sport on the natural environment. A survey of managers of public assembly venues that utilized the best-worst scaling method of experimental design and analysis was utilized to gather data that appropriately addressed the research question posed by this study. Findings suggest that managers prioritize the environmental inputs and outputs of their buildings …

Finding The Perfect Match: Dimension Analysis And Development Of The External Sponsorship Congruence Scale, Kelly Evans

Theses and Dissertations

The biggest problem interfering with effective sport sponsorships is marketing clutter and the negative impact it has on sponsorship recall accuracy (Cornwell & Relyea, 2000; Rumpf, 2012; Seguin & O’Reilly, 2008). Previous research shows that external sponsorship congruence plays an important role in how consumers remember and recall sport sponsors (Cornwell et al., 2005; Fleck et al., 2012; Jagre et al., 2001; Olson & Thjømøe, 2011; Solomon, 1996; Stangor & McMillan, 1992), ultimately influencing consumer attitudes and behavior (Close & Lacey, 2013; Gwinner & Bennett, 2008; Lee & Thorson, 2008; Simmons & Becker-Olson, 2006). Great strides have been made in …

An Exploration Of The Relationships Between Sense Of Community, Park Benefits, And Neighborhood Park Use, Kimberly Tilford Centers

Human Movement Sciences & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between park use by residents that live within a ¼ to ½ mile radius of their neighborhood park, perceived benefits from neighborhood parks, and neighborhood sense of community (SOC) in three Norfolk, Virginia neighborhoods. The neighborhoods included Titustown, Colonial Place, and Edgewater. There is a lack of research regarding the relationship between neighborhood parks, perceived recreation benefits from neighborhood parks, and their relationship to neighborhood SOC (Gómez, Baur, Hill, & Georgiev, 2015). Participants completed a questionnaire that included the Sense of Community Index-2 (SCI-2), demographic questions, park usage questions, and …

The Lone Coyote Of The National Basketball Association: A Case Study On The Organization Culture Of The San Antonio Spurs, Dylan O. Staub

Experience Industry Management

Organizational culture exists within every professional sports team’s organization and makes up the organization’s DNA. The San Antonio Spurs are one such Professional Sports organization that innovates new global team building strategies that values the group as a whole over the individual. The purpose of this study was to examine the organizational culture of the San Antonio Spurs franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The researcher used a best-practices guide to evaluate the San Antonio Spurs’ corporate culture. This study found that the San Antonio Spurs are effective in their organizational culture practices, however, could focus their efforts more …

Investing In Faculty To Improve Attendance At Collegiate Athletic Events, Nicholas Ocampo

Honors Projects

NCAA Division I institutions across the nation have consistently experienced declining attendance numbers at home athletic events over the past few years. Acknowledging this downward trend, this study explores how making an investment in faculty can positively influence attendance numbers and faculty involvement in athletics. In addition, studies have supported the notion that a high level of fan support and attendance at athletic events can be correlated to team success. Accordingly, Bowling Green State University (BGSU), a mid-major school that sponsors 18 NCAA Division I varsity athletic programs, has implemented a faculty, staff and retiree ticketing program in order to …

What Implications Can Be Made From The Interactions Between Finances And Violations For Division 1 Men's Basketball Schools?, Michael Burton

Sport Management Undergraduate

The purpose of this study was to find out what types of schools violated as well as the implications these violations had on internal finances. This research was practical and important because of it suggested possible motive for schools that want to increase revenue or win percentage. The NCAA could use this information to narrow their efforts on possible violators through the use of trends. Athletic departments could use this information to anticipate future violations and stop them before they occur.

What was already known was that schools that win, generate a larger profit than those who don’t. The method …

Fan Identification In Professional Sport, James Murray

Sport Management Undergraduate

The purpose of this research was to find out the relationship between professional sport fans and either the team or player they most support. The goal of the research was to find out whether fans of professional sport go out to games or watch games at their house because of their support for their favorite organization or their idol player. The reason behind the research was because out of all the psychology and sociology studies surrounding professional sport, 95% of all those studies included an athlete, team, or coach. Only 5% of all those mentioned studies were involved with the …

Why Intercollegiate Athletic Departments Should Embrace Alcohol Sales, Garrett J. Clark

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is guided by the theory of marketing myopia, the idea that an organizations should focus on single aspects like consumer needs and experiences in order to be successful. The sale of alcohol is becoming more and more common throughout collegiate athletics yet many schools are still missing out on the benefits that can come from embracing the tailgating culture of sports. This will examine the current literature surrounding the sale of alcohol at collegiate events, tailgating culture and what this all looks like in the real world. By examining schools and programs who currently offer the sale of …

Involvement Of College Football Fans At The University Of Southern Mississippi, Cameron S. Kenney

Honors Theses

The modern college football market faces several challenges including the fact that game day attendance numbers have continued to drop for the past few years and show no signs of slowing down. Understanding the psychological involvement of sports fans could play a major role in improving attendance numbers and providing consumers with a greater experience during football games. The primary goal of this research was to determine predictors of sports involvement among Southern Miss football fans. Another goal was to determine which facets of involvement predicted return intentions. With those who had attended a home Southern Miss football game in …

Female Perspectives On Mountain Biking, Rebecca Irvin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study strived to inquire about females’ perspectives of learning to mountain biking. Through an online survey, the present study explored the constraints (White, 2008) that keep women from trying the sport. Respondents (N=150) answered an online survey. Results of this study will be useful for outdoor education professionals, parks and recreation programming, cycling advocacy organizations, and any who make marketing materials for the outdoor industry. The study is designed to provide a description of the female perspectives regarding constraints and motivation towards learning to mountain bike.

A Better Predictor Of Nfl Success: Collegiate Performance Or The Nfl Draft Combine?, Michael Gallagher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

NFL teams spend massive sums to ensure they are prepared for the future, but how should they determine whom that future includes? This study set out to find what predicts NFL success more accurately – collegiate in-game performance or the NFL Draft Combine. In the sample of 2007-2012 first-round picks, 191 athletes were measured in three NFL Draft Combine drills, two physical components, and a varying amount of ingame collegiate and NFL performance statistical categories, dependent on position. Secondarily, this work examined Power 5 and non-Power 5 players to determine if attending a more prolific program was predictive of NFL …

How Do Bills Fan Motivations To Attend Home Games Relate To Their Feelings About The Fan Experience?, Mackenzie Stewart

Sport Management Undergraduate

The purpose of the research was to examine why Buffalo Bills fans come out to games, and how that further affected their individual experience. The importance of the research was critical because the results of the surveys were sent to the Buffalo Bills, to potentially use to help guide decisions which have impacted the Guest Experience positively at New Era Field. With a continued push for enhancing the guest experience positively, the importance of the research was critical due to the potential use of the data being collected to make executive decisions for the organization as a whole. It’s been …

Parental Influence In Youth Sport, Justine Tam

Sport Management Undergraduate

Youth sport has become one of the most popular outlets for children in today’s society. Youth sport programs and organizations play an important role in the lives of the children that are participating. Many aspects go into, what would be considered, a successful delivery of sports (Barcelona & Young, 2010). Moreover, this includes coaches and parent’s influences and when it contributes to a positive experience (Barcelona & Young, 2010). However, one of the biggest contributions to a positive or negative sport experience, is the role of parental influence.

The culture around youth sports has changed in multiple ways throughout the …

Evaluation Of Aau Experiences, Erika Wittmeyer

Sport Management Undergraduate

The purpose of this research was to gain a deeper understanding about what former Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball players took away from their experience during participation. The reason this study was conducted was because AAU often requires a large time and financial commitment. There is a lot that goes into AAU between practices, tournaments, traveling, plus other expenses that show up throughout AAU. This research study is important to people who are thinking about joining the organization but also those who are interested in exploring if it is still beneficial to participate. It is known that a lot of …

An Examination Of How Much Product Extensions Play A Role In Fandom, Skylar Swatt

Sport Management Undergraduate

Executive Summary

The purpose of this study was to determine if product extensions played a role in fandom so sport organizations could see what extensions they could use to gain more fans, generate revenue, and enhance their relationships with their fans. This research was important because sport organizations could use the product extensions that play a role in fandom to enhance their relationships with their fans. It was known that the development of fandom, product extensions, and the growth of sport programing along with the plethora of options for fans to use have been examined and researched individually. The method …

Player Safety In The National Football League, Cody Dubiel

Sport Management Undergraduate

This research was conducted to determine to what extent National Football League fans want player safety rules in the game of football. The NFL received backlash from not only a tremendous amount of fans but players as well. It was essential for the NFL to determine what a happy medium was in order to keep the players safe while they played the game of football, but also the physicality was a large part of the game that the fans loved. The NFL player safety rules reduced the amount of injuries that occurred, but fans and players believed that the rules …

Unifying Power Of Sport Fandom, Anna Faso Miranda

Sport Management Undergraduate

Through previous research, it was known that sport has many physical and non-physical benefits to participants and is a powerful tool used to bring people together in light of social and political differences. However, little was known about the impact of sport fandom on feelings of social connectedness. The purpose of this study was to further the understanding of feelings of social connectedness in sport fandom within the context of the current polarized political environment in the United States. Survey methodology was used to capture demographics and other variables including political identity and behaviors, sport fandom identity and behaviors, and …

Premium Seating In College Athletics: Trends Of Today And The Future, Kendra Holaday

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assist college athletic departments in attracting more fans to premium seating areas within their football stadiums. Existing research covers professional sporting venues in depth, but lacks volume regarding collegiate athletics. Due to the minimal knowledge and research recorded on premium seating in college football venues, there is a crucial need for the gap in research to be filled. The interviewing method and qualitative research was used to gain information on premium seating within college football venues. During the interview process existing premium seating, renovations in progress, and future addition plans were all explored. …

Child Sport Fan Behavior: An Examination Of The Effects Of Socialization, Branding, And Alternatives On Children’S Psychological Connections To Sports Teams, Katherine Rose Nakamoto Reifurth

Theses and Dissertations

This three-study dissertation focuses on child fans of professional sport teams and the ways in which they become fans and attach themselves and connect to these sport brands. In Study 1, the researchers focused on the socialization into fandom of young children and the effects of communities and the game-day environment on this socialization utilizing qualitative observations and interviews with children ages 6 to 14 and resulted in an expanded understanding of the dame-day aspects that attract and excite children most. In Study 2, the researchers focused on the aspects of a new team’s brand that children ages 5 to …

The Economic Impact Of Mega Sport Event, William Baker

Senior Theses and Projects

Hallmark sporting events have evolved from a competitive opportunity of showing national pride to commercially driven entertainment entities which seem to prosper from the economic stimulation of the event. Due to the growing popularity of these mega-sport events, cities and countries around the world are continually evaluating the potential of using these events to draw attention to the host. This thesis seeks to contribute to the controversial discussion of whether or not to invest in hosting a mega-sport event. Every stage of sporting events can reveal positive or negative influences, starting from a competitive bidding process, to the construction of …

The Impact Of Alcohol Consumption On Academic Success And Athletic Identity In Collegiate Student-Athletes, Zoe E. Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Upon entering college in the United States, students are exposed to alcohol and, relatedly, the potentially dangerous experiences and effects that come with consuming alcohol. This is especially true for collegiate student-athletes, who have been found to have the highest consumption rate among student groups on campus. The purpose of the study was to understand the relationship between how student-athletes at a focus university, a Division I member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, experience alcohol consumption, how their consumption affects their academic grade point average (GPA), and how athletic identity plays a role in their experiences. While the research …

Psychological Distress Among High-Risk Youths First-Year In Collegiate Sport, Cassidy Janay Jenkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

It is well documented that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds face a significant degree of deficiencies in college opportunity. Previous researchers have shown an estimated 1 in 5 student athletes given the opportunity to compete at the college level come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and encounter more adjustment issues than other students because of the psychological barriers they face. Using Pearlin's theory of psychological distress and Selye's GAS as the foundation, this study explored the extent to which the difference between the perceived time needed and actual time spent in both sports and academic commitment predict psychological distress in first-year …

Stakeholders' Explanations Of The State Of Cricket In Barbados, Derek Mcdonald Alleyne

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Policy processes influence decision-making and when processes are influenced by multiple stakeholders, individual interests can go against the general good of the organization or community. The multiple stakeholders of cricket in Barbados have governed the development of cricket. Over the last 30 years the sport has been on a steady decline evidenced by the low attendance at games and the number of teams and individuals playing the sport. At a time when the sport has been growing at the international level, the decline in the fortunes of the sport in Barbados had led to a climate of mistrust and blame …

The 2011 Nfl Collective Bargaining Agreement: Intentions Vs. Incentives, Andrew Friedlander

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impacts of four major negotiating elements in the 2011 NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement. This first entails considering the financial impacts of the Collective Bargaining Agreement through adjustments to the salary cap and changes in the rookie pay scale in conjunction with the increase of the veteran minimum salary. Veteran players sought to improve their earnings potential through the creation of the rookie pay scale and increases in the veteran minimum salary, but research has shown that these policies may not have actually accomplished the goal. Next, I inspect the changes in preseason training rules, which were …

Are The Public Subsidies Of Professional Sports Stadiums Worth The Cost Of Building Them?, Spencer Abraham

CMC Senior Theses

The results generated by this research argue that, in the future, communities should take into account crime and other social costs as they analyze the merits of investing in new sports complexes and that a failure to consider these factors could constitute a serious dereliction on the parts of the public officials who are ultimately responsible for new facility investment decision making. Moreover, both this research and previous studies of the economic effects of new sports facilities, strongly indicate that public entities considering funding new facilities do a more in depth independent study of the likely economic consequences of their …

African American Student-Athletes: Factors Influencing Choice Of Graduate School, Tanner Feterl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although support systems are in place for student-athletes, African Americans remain underrepresented in careers requiring a graduate education, including intercollegiate athletic departments (Okahana, Feaster, & Allum, 2016). The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the factors influencing an NCAA Mid-major, Division I African American student-athletes’ choice of pursuing graduate school. Researchers identified themes utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Student Involvement Theory frameworks to explain the influencing factors. The participants consisted of nine African American sophomore, junior, and senior student-athletes who participated in different sports and were chosen using purpose sampling. Each participant took part in an …