The thesis consists of three separate chapters all of which investigate Theoretical Models of Sports Leagues and Other Contests. Chapter One outlines a new approach for modelling sports leagues, which complements traditional analyses of clubs' off-field talent recruitments with a subsequent analysis of players' on-field efforts. Most notably, the approach reveals a new theoretical basis for the hypothesis that sports fans prefer outcome uncertainty. Chapter Two provides a new theoretical model of the soft budget constraint phenomenon, in which governments provide bailouts for loss-making clubs in European soccer leagues. Most notably, the model indicates that governments provide an inefficiently high level of bailout funding to clubs. However, the model reveals that some positive level of bailout funding may be optimal. Chapter Three analyses a generic contest model with the possibility of a draw; an outcome in which no contestant is the winner. Most notably, our analysis reveals that introducing the possibility of a draw reduces homogeneous contestants' efforts. However, with heterogeneous contestants, introducing the possibility of a draw may induce greater effort from the strongest contestant.

The experiences of some children participating in the demanding and intensive world of elite sport appear to compromise one of the primary aims of both childhood and parenthood, which should be for children to arrive on the threshold of adulthood with their futures open and unlimited. A body of evidence in the medical and socio-psychologicalliterature contends that child athletes participating in elite sport are being harmed physically, psychologically, and socially by the intensive training and competition practices required of athletes in sports such as women's gymnastics, figure skating, and others. Participation by children in the highest levels of sport change attitudes and impels behaviours in ways that are unique in their extent and devastating in their consequences. As the varying and often conflicting agendas of athletes, parents, coaches, agents, and sporting bureaucracies come into conflict, considerations of care and regard for the athletes become down played or even ignored, resulting in these young athletes being harmed, and their futures compromised. Children are characterised by their vulnerability, naivety, and inability to formulate their own life-plans, necessitating a degree of parental paternalism in their relationships with adults. This paternalism is justified by the child's dependency on others for protection, and for developing the necessary skills for self-sufficiency and self-determination secured through their burgeoning autonomy as they advance towards adulthood. Under law, parents are given primary responsibility for the health and welfare of their children, because they are ideally situated to determine their child's best interests. In sport, this responsibility is regularly transferred from the parents to the coach and other involved adults. Unfortunately, however, children may be exploited by the very individuals who are entrusted with their care and nurturance. A further body of evidence claims the inescapability of paternalism in relationships between adults and children in elite sport has been exploited: it is disrespectful of the child's burgeoning autonomy, and jeopardises his or her right to an open future. The child's right to an open future is an autonomy right-in-trust saved until he or she is more fully formed and capable of exercising self-determination. This right may be violated in advance of adulthood by foreclosure of options. In this thesis, I argue that elite sport children require a form of paternalism that protects their interests while at the same time is autonomy-respectful. This is actualised by a bifurcated rights system, which works towards securing non-harmful sports practices and preventing the premature foreclosure of life opportunities for elite child athletes post-sport.

This thesis examines Britain’s relationship with the Olympic Games between 1908 and 1920, a period which witnesses Britain’s first serious entrance into the Olympics and the development of the Olympic Games into the movement which it is today. This thesis uses the British media as the primary source to analyse and examine the development of the nation’s attitudes and identities towards the Olympics. The Games of this period, from London (1908), Stockholm (1912), Antwerp (1920), along with the preparations for the aborted 1916 Berlin Olympics are considered. The reaction to the British performance at each of the Olympics is the main focus of the research. There is also extensive examination into the periods in between the Games, as at this time the most plentiful discussion regarding the British approach appears, particularly that after the Stockholm Olympics. In an attempt to create a well rounded picture of how the Olympics are perceived across Britain, sections of the press in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been examined. Throughout the thesis there are reoccurring themes that appear. British perspectives towards the Olympics and their own identity are considered, and throughout there is analysis regarding this. Athletics is at the centre of British Olympic involvement, but field events are viewed as a poorer cousin to track events by those in England in particular, this thesis examines this identity. The period of this thesis is prominently remembered for the First World War, and consequently the relationship between Britain and Germany from an Olympic perspective is examined.