Professional sports leagues in North America have seen scandals, controversies, and tragedies. There is, however, a forgotten scandal that happened in the 1990s: the Russian Mafia came dangerously close to the National Hockey League. This thesis explores the alleged Mafia connections by examining newspaper and magazine articles and documentaries focused on the issue. The limited public response to allegations of Russian Mafia involvement is contrasted with other professional sports controversies that were met with an immediate response by the leagues and fans. How North Americans viewed Russians during the post-Soviet era is also explored in this paper. This thesis examines why evident Mafia involvement with National Hockey League players did not provoke attention and sanctions by the league nor an outcry from the fans. This study will conclude the League did not react to the allegations because it felt as if the games were not harmed directly. Also, hockey fans did not find the allegations surprising because of the media's constant reports of corruption within Russia's borders, especially involving organized crime. Perhaps the lack of reaction by the National Hockey League and its fans suggests why this particular scandal is forgotten a mere 20 years later.

Local governments have spent an estimated $15 to 18 billion in public subsidies to professional sport teams over the last two decades. Once a team has selected its home and a financing package is approved, cities rarely implement tactics necessary to realize these benefits, and teams aren’t made to deliver on their promises. At the same time, other benefits may be ignored by city leaders and residents. This research project is comprised of two related studies that address the following issues related to the public subsidization of professional sport teams: (1) how do a community’s expectations about hosting a team compare with the actual outcomes it experiences; and (2) what factors enable and inhibit the use of a professional sport team to accomplish community development goals. The first study is a qualitative examination of community expectations related to hosting the Corpus Christi Hooks, the double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. Using media and public document analysis, participant observation, and stakeholder interviews, the following categories of benefits were identified: economic development, community self-esteem/image, entertainment/leisure, and social welfare. The community successfully leveraged the baseball referendum to pass broader economic development and affordable housing measures. The city also has developed a successful event attraction strategy around its professional sport facilities and has experienced improved community self-esteem. However, the city has done little to leverage the team, and expected benefits have failed to materialize. The second study explores the process of sport team leverage. Using an action research approach, the efforts of a community health coalition to partner with the Hooks to address obesity prevention through a cause-marketing program was examined. Professional teams have a range of unique assets to contribute to a cause-marketing program. In this case, the team was reluctant to contribute its assets to the program. Consequently, the partnership resulted in a limited community relations program that failed to fully deliver benefits to the health coalition and the team. The following factors were identified as affecting the team’s involvement: the issue’s importance and salience, competition among local nonprofit organizations, the coalition’s leadership and brand equity, and the team’s stability and resources. / text

Univ., Diss.--Kiel, 2002.

Professional sporting events draw staggering crowds to stadia on a yearly basis. This combined, with the prosocial psychological effects of attending professional games and the cultural meaning of stadia to a community, provide excellent opportunities for municipalities to use their stadia in a movement towards global socio-ecological sustainability. While these opportunities are available, the industry is not well established to realize their potential. Our research, through application of the framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD), offers measures to facilitate such a move. In application of the framework, however, a key threat of professional team monopoly power was identified, putting into question the perpetuation of public ownership over facilities with professional teams as tenants. If a solution is to be reached within this model, a multi-stakeholder approach is endorsed, where reduction of team monopoly power is conceded for the long-term benefits to municipalities. / <p>Cristhian G. +46 733 -572918</p>

This study compares the U.S. National Football league (NFL) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The goal of the study is to develop recommendations for the rebuilding of NPB's popularity in terms of marketing policy practices after the efficiency of both leagues is analyzed.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of the current research was to determine whether goal-setting as motivational work theory influences productivity and the productivity measurement and enhancement system (ProMES) as a human resource intervention that provides feedback improves productivity in an Angolan female handball team after the implementation. Motivation and productivity are important to the success of a sports organisation. Goal-setting theory was formulated on the premise that conscious goals affect action. The ProMES approach offers a method for measuring action results, in other words team productivity, which takes this feature of typical team settings into account. Each participant completed a questionnaire toolkit and the results showed that when athletes are task oriented and collectivist they believe in goal-setting and productivity improves. The ProMES process itself, with its participative aspects and process of role clarifying and expectations can successfully be used within the sports industry. This research also reaffirms the relationship between motivation and productivity. / Business Management / M. Admin. (Business Management)

Die intensive Auswertung unterschiedlicher schriftlicher und mündlicher Quellen sowie die Erschließung von damals "geheimer" Literatur für die Forschung heute ermöglicht eine differenzierte Rekonstruktion historischer Abläufe. Die vorliegende Arbeit nutzt diesen Zugang zur Darstellung von kleineren und größeren DDR-internen sportpolitischen Strukturwandlungen der 1960er und 1970er Jahre, die ihren Höhepunkt in einer dramatischen Umsteuerung des DDR-Hochleistungssports fanden.<br /> Es wird gezeigt, wie die Akteure unter Führung von Manfred EWALD, gewähltem Mitglied des SED-Zentralkomitees, einer Zentralfigur des DDR-Sports (vergleichbar mit der Bedeutung eines Willi DAUME im Westen) zwischen Systemzwängen und individueller Handlungsfreiheit innerhalb des Rahmens einer Diktatur in der Phase des Wechsels von Walter ULBRICHT zu Erich HONECKER eine Effektivierung des zentralistischen Modells durchsetzten (eine Parallele zum Ansatz von Monika KAISER).<br /> Im Gegensatz zu vielen kontroversen Erklärungsmodellen belegt der Verf., dass die Medaillenerfolge durch die zentrale Steuerung aller Abläufe gewährleistet wurden. Ohne SED-Auftrag wurde 1967 die "Leistungssportkommission der DDR" (LSK der DDR) gebildet. <br /> Im Unterschied zu den zahlreichen vom Verf. erstmals dargestellten Vorgängermodellen war diese SED-LSK "oberhalb des DTSB" angesiedelt und erteilte ihm Parteiaufträge - die Unterordnung des organisierten Sports unter die Autorität des Zentralkomitee machte angesichts der "Nationalen Fronten" von Armeesportvereinigung "Vorwärts" und Sportvereinigung "Dynamo" (SPITZER) jegliche zentrale Sportpolitik erst durchsetzbar.<br /> Zur "LSK der DDR" waren SED-Mitglieder abgeordnet, welche ihr Sachgebiet vertraten und nach gemeinsamer Beschlussfassung die Ergebnisse der LSK-Arbeit wiederum in ihrem jeweiligen Tätigkeitsfeld durchzusetzen hatten, was in der Diss. ausgeführt wird. Sportvertreter ebenso wie hochrangige Abgesandte der Ministerien, die mit der Produktion von Gütern für den Hochleistungssport befasst waren, gehörten den LSK-Gremien an, die auch die DDR-Sportwissenschaft steuerten; es lässt sich sogar nachweisen, dass die Herrschaft über diesen wichtigen Apparat sowie die Dopingforschung ein Hauptmotiv der LSK-Bildung gewesen ist.<br /> <br /> Durch seine Quellenorientierung und die Fülle an Belegen gibt die vorliegende Arbeit neue Anreize zur Auseinandersetzung mit dem Phänomen der Steuerung des Hochleistungssports in der DDR - auch über den Untersuchungszeitraum hinaus. <br /> Die Untersuchung wurde von der Humanwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam als Dissertation angenommen. Sie geht auf ein Stipendium dieser Universität zurück; das Verfahren konnte mit einem Prädikat abgeschlossen werden. Gutachter waren Prof. Dr. Dr. Gertrud PFISTER, Kopenhagen, Prof. Dr. Christoph KLEßMANN, Potsdam, und der Betreuer, Steady Visiting Prof. Univ. Odense, Priv.-Doz. Dr. habil. Giselher SPITZER, Berlin / Potsdam / Odense (Dänemark). / The guaranteed provision of material support for the athletes used to be a precondition for success in sports: 'Competitive sports under the conditions of the GDR' - thus the source material on this early model of professional sports. The author reveals both illegal (according to the IOC regulations) payments and a new drive towards success-oriented payments at least for the coaches. The latter trend was already the result of a dramatic change in competitive sports in the GDR. Today, a thorough analysis of contemporary documents, oral testimony, and formerly classified literature allows a more nuanced reconstruction of the historical events and processes. This work shows how the organisers of GDR sports, led by Manfred EWALD (EWALD was an elected member of the SED Central Committee and a central figure in the GDR sports scene. He might be characterised as the opposite number of Willi DAUME in the FRG.) succeeded with establishing a more efficient centralistic model (here, there is a parallel with Monika KAISER's approach). Despite the constraints of the system, they brought about his change at a time of political transition from Walter ULBRICHT to Erich HONECKER. <br /> In contrast to many other, controversial interpretations, the author argues that the athletic successes originated in the central organisation of GDR sports. In 1967, the 'Competitive Sports Commission of the GDR' (LSK) was established without explicit orders from the SED. In contrast to numerous older models, which the author has discovered, this new model was positioned 'above the DTSB' and gave party orders to the DTSB - the subordination of organised sports to the authority of the Central Committee allowed the implementation of a central sports policy. Given the 'National Fronts' of the Army Sports Club Vorwärts and the Sports Club Dynamo (SPITZER), this was an especially difficult task. The LSK was composed of members of the SED. After reaching an agreement on certain issues, every member had to implement the agreed policy in his or her specific field of activity, as this dissertation shows. The LSK subcommittees consisted of representatives of the sports as well as high-ranking representatives of those ministries which supervised the production of goods needed in competitive sports. It can be demonstrated, that control over this important body as well as the doping research was an important factor in the establishment of the LSK. <br /> <br /> The work on 'Changes in the control of competitive sports in the GDR in the 1960s and 1970s', brought the awarded degree of Doctor of Philosophy with distinction by the faculty of arts of the University of Potsdam to the author. The research was sponsored by the University of Potsdam. The degree committee consisted of Professor Gertrud PFISTER (Kopenhagen), Professor Christoph KLEßMANN (Potsdam), and the dissertation supervisor, Privatdozent Dr Giselher SPITZER (Berlin, Potsdam, Odense (Denmark)).

Thesis (MBus) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (x, 130 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 796.0440993 CLE)