New book fills a large gap within Danish sports research and teaching
You can get this factual information in the book “Sports management – Management and commercialization in the sports industry” (Hans Reitzels Forlag, 2021), which has just been published. The book is the first basic book in Danish and it fills in a very competent way a large gap within Danish sports research and teaching. In my opinion, the book should in future be a compulsory textbook for all students in bachelor’s and master’s programs at business academies, university colleges and universities that deal with the sports industry. But the book can also provide board members, directors, executives, athletes, sponsors and journalists with useful and relevant insights and tools to (further) develop their clubs, federations, organizations, companies and media.
Excellent interplay between professional knowledge and concrete cases
The book is edited by Ph.D. and Associate Professor at University College Nordjylland Kenneth Cortsen, M.Sc. com. and communications officer in the Players’ Association Michael Hehr and Ph.D. and external associate professor at Aalborg University Renate Nielsen. In addition, Danish and international researchers, experts and practitioners have contributed with a number of exciting cases, which support, expand and put into perspective the book’s theories, models and facts about sports marketing, sports management and sports economics. The interplay between the book’s research-based knowledge, theoretical models and concrete cases, both from Denmark and abroad, is excellent. Likewise, the range, both in relation to sports, cultures and countries, is impressive.
A new media agenda with the “global consumer” at the center
The book contains three main parts after an introduction to the sports industry, where the authors emphasizes that “the role of sport in society has developed explosively in recent decades. Association has become a business, and the time when sport was exclusively about what happened on the court, is long gone “competition” takes place not only on the court, where clubs nationally and internationally compete on the sporting parameter, but also off the field, where disciplines within e.g. Sports marketing, sports management and the sports economy have a decisive effect on the competitiveness of federations, leagues, clubs or individual athletes – not to mention the surrounding industry, which includes everything from agent and betting companies to equipment manufacturers and sports tourism players. The industry’s focus remains on classic areas such as management and branding, but the market’s changing mechanisms also have the effect that new disciplines require the attention of sports organizations. Innovation management, crisis communication and social media are examples of this. The development of the market is not least due to the interaction between industry-oriented innovation and consumers’ new needs. The fragmented media agenda that offers more and more communication platforms leaves consumers in a privileged situation. In the new media landscape, it is possible to follow and get very close to practitioners all over the globe and from places where we have otherwise previously been denied access. And the whole thing even a few clicks with the index finger away ”.
The sports industry has many different dimensions and perspectives
The first main part of the book focuses on themes and cases within sports marketing such as branding, sports as a PR tool, sponsorships, CSR in sports marketing, crisis communication and exit strategies, data-driven marketing, game entertainment, events and social media. The second main part of the book deals with sports management, i.a. themes and cases on leadership and management, organizational culture and sports management, talent management, venue management, leading innovation and volunteer management. The third main part of the book contains themes and cases in relation to sports economics, including supply and demand in the sports market, valuations, economic framework conditions, media, television rights, strategic analyzes and economic contexts, as well as earning capacity and distribution of income streams.
Collision between the logic of free market forces and the “internal logic” of sport
The sports industry is extremely complex with many different players, both local, national and global. One of the most important messages of the book, in my view, is that the goal, direction, content and form of sport are framed globally based on the logic of free market forces: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In short, this means that economic inequality, both between and within the individual sports, is getting bigger and bigger. And the logic of free market forces also demands that development happen faster and faster. The logic of the free market forces thus also collides with the sport’s “internal logic” with a focus on “equal and fair competition”. A collision, which is described and discussed in the book, but without precise answers and attitudes on the part of the authors. One of the many consequences of the logic of free market forces is that football today accounts for more than 80% of the sports industry’s total economy in Europe, that more than half of Denmark’s best football clubs today are owned by foreign private equity funds and investors and that Danish super league clubs boys of 8-10 years to play for their particular club. The global, commercial development thus has a number of significant direct effects on the development, structure and content of children’s and youth football in Denmark. The commercialization and professionalisation of the sports industry pressures and challenges not only Danish Football Association (DBU), the Association of the Ligaclubs (Divisionsforeningen) and the Superliga clubs, but also the local football clubs in Bøvlingbjerg, Brobyværk and Bjæverskov. In the longer term, this development, which has really gained momentum in the last two decades, will, in my opinion, lead to a number of very negative consequences in relation to e.g. public economic support for sport clubs, volunteer coaches and leaders, committed communities and democracy, which are core values for Danish sports life and culture. However, the book’s authors are to be commended for articulating the sport’s – and not just football’s – current biggest challenge: The power of money.
A book with passion for sports
The authors should also be commended and recognized for the competent use of notes, an extremely comprehensive bibliography and a useful index. These three elements are far from always a matter of course, not even when publishing academic articles and textbooks. The book can be highly recommended to anyone who has a passion for sports – just like the book’s three editors and the many communicators of the book’s cases.
