The purpose of this thesis is to determine the significance of sport in society and its influence on the urban fabric and architecture. The project investigates the relationship between the built form and sport in the design of an urban framework and High Performance Centre for Kings Park, Durban. More specifically, the investigation has three primary objectives, ranging from the macro to the micro context or from the broad to the more specific, (Social, Urban and Architectural). The first aim will explore the social aspects of sport and its influence on culture, specifically with regard to nation building in South Africa. Secondly the focus narrows to the use of the sports event as a means of generating an urban intervention which uplifts an area of ‘lost space’ within the Kings Park Precinct. The final point focuses on creating a relevant and meaningful architectural response, which is responsive to both its users and the surrounding context. The design of the proposed urban and architectural intervention will be facilitated through the investigation of recent literature, theories, precedent and case studies, and personally conducted interviews with informed professionals. This research will determine a relevant architectural typology which is responsible and appropriate to its context. The design process becomes a reaction to defined internal and external stimuli with inherent restraints and opportunities, in which the end result becomes a synthesis of multiple inputs, generating a unique hybrid architecture. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Kein anderer als Schiller bringt mit seinen Worten das tiefe Empfinden fur das Spiel so vernehmlich zum Ausdruck und die unternommene Studie der Sport- Soziologie so greifbar nahe. Den der Mensch im Spiel und in seinem menschlichen Verhalten durch das Spiel fugt die beabsichtigte Studie zum neuen Konzept des modernen Sportes zussammen und begründet das fundamentale Suchen menschlicher Bedürfnisse des Erlebens durch den Sport - manifestiert weiterhin durch die Worte von Caillois: "Sage mir, was Du spielst - und ich will Dir sagen, wer Du bist" Intro., p. 1.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Events Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011. / In recent years, events have shown rapid growth as types of attraction within destinations, with such events creating a favourable image of a host destination, expanding the traditional tourist season, spreading tourist demand more evenly through an area and attracting foreign and domestic visitors (Keyser, 2002:18). As such, events are starting to become an established element and major part of tourism growth and marketing strategies. East London (in the Eastern Cape, South Africa) has hosted a number of successful events (Buffalo City Tourism, 2010) however no known social impact studies related to the community of East London are known to have been conducted. The purpose of this study was to address this gap and to evaluate the social impacts of events tourism on the East London community. The overall research question in this study was, What are the socio-cultural impacts of events tourism on East London? This was a quantitative study that utilised a survey to collect the data. The sampling frame was the community at the Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa Triathlon 2010 held in East London. Potential participants were included in the sample through utilising a random sampling method. The research instrument consisted of four sections, namely demographic profiling (age, gender, race, marital status, education and income), overall event impact perceptions, reasons for spectator participation, and the social impact perceptions of the respondents. The event attendees were interviewed. No incentive was offered for participation, and participants were assured of the confidentiality of their responses.

M. Tech. (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Volunteering is a core component of sport service delivery and remains essential to the viability of the sport system in many sport organisations and communities. To this end, it has become incumbent for them to ensure that a sufficient pool of volunteers exists. Despite this assertion that volunteers in sport organisations are considered such a valuable resource, they are increasingly scarce and there is a considerable debate about the underlying structure or dimensionality of volunteer motives. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to examine motives for volunteering in sport organisations within Gauteng province and its relationships with volunteer commitment and volunteer satisfaction. This research drew from the convergence of the social exchange and self-determination theories that were used in this study to provide a theoretical understanding as to why people engage in volunteer work and the outcomes thereof. In order to achieve the primary objective of the study, a quantitative research approach was adopted and a cross-sectional descriptive survey was utilised. A non-probability convenience sampling procedure was also adopted. Prior to the main survey data collection, a pilot study was undertaken by administering a questionnaire to 40 participants who did not form part of the main survey. The main survey data was thereafter acquired from 270 volunteers from conveniently selected sport organisations within Gauteng province through a structured self-administered questionnaire. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS version 26.0) and the reliability and validity analysis yielded satisfactory results in terms of the measuring instrument. Descriptive statistics were also computed to summarise the data into usable information by making use of frequencies, means and standard deviations. Exploratory factor analysis was used to statistically aggregate the large number of observed measures (28 items) relating to independent variable (volunteer motives) into a smaller set of three unobserved (latent) variables called factors while regression and correlation analysis were undertaken to establish the relationships among the study constructs in line with the objectives of the study. Results fromcorrelation and regression analysis respectively (r = 0.440; β= .410) revealed that volunteer motives significantly contribute towards enhancing volunteer commitment among volunteers in sport organisations. Furthermore, the study’s results indicated that volunteer commitment, in turn, contributes towards volunteer satisfaction of volunteers in sport organisations (r = 0.561; β= .561). Based on these results, this study recommends, among others, that management of sport organisations should explore the effectiveness of implementing an internal system of self-evaluation as a starting point to examine motives for volunteering. Furthermore, it is recommended that sport organisation management should develop an organisational culture which assigns authority and responsibility to sport volunteers. The study concludes by affirming the achievement of the study’s objectives, highlighting its limitations as well as identifying future research opportunities.