Using self-categorization theory to uncover the framing of the 2015 Rugby World Cup: a cross-cultural comparison of three nations’ newspapers

Research into the framing of sporting events has been extensively studied to uncover newspaper bias in the coverage of global sporting events. Through discourse, the media attempt to capture, build, and maintain audiences for the duration of sporting events through the use of multiple narratives and/or storylines. Little research has looked at the ways in which the same event is reported across different nations, and media representations of the Rugby World Cup have rarely featured in discussions of the framing of sport events. The present study highlights the different ways in which rugby union is portrayed across the three leading Southern Hemisphere nations in the sport. It also shows the prominence of nationalistic discourse across those nations and importance of self-categorizations in newspaper narratives.</jats:p

Volunteers and mega sporting events : developing a research framework

Interest in all aspects of the politics, financing, planning, management and operation of mega sporting events has been highlighted both by success stories and ongoing problems associated with Olympic Games, Football World Cups and other similar events. There is a growing literature that addresses these and related matters through both case history and comparative analyses. Within the context of mega sporting events, the issue of employment creation is an important motivator for host cities and features high on the political justification agenda for bids to host events. At the same time, the most significant working contribution to major mega events in sports, as in other areas, is provided by the very large numbers of volunteers who undertake tasks across the range of opportunities afforded by such events. Numbers of volunteers between 40,000 and 60,000 have been noted for some recent major events. Relatively little is known about these volunteers at mega sporting events and yet their contribution and wider impact is very significant, both to the events themselves and within the host community. This paper seeks to identify the evident gaps that exist in understanding areas such as what volunteers do at mega sporting events; who they are; what motivates them; how volunteering impacts upon their lives; what associated activities they do surrounding the event in the host city; and the extent to which volunteering is recidivistic. The paper concludes with the presentation of a tentative research framework agenda in order to guide future study of this important area

Mega-Sporting Events in Developing Nations: Playing the Way to Prosperity?

Supporters of mega-sporting events such as the World Cup and Olympics claim that these events attract hoards of wealthy visitors and lead to lasting economic benefits for the host regions. Developing countries have become increasingly vocal in demanding a share of the economic benefits of these international games. The specialized infrastructure and operating expenses required to host these events, however, can be substantial. Independent researchers have found that boosters’ projections of the economic impact of sporting events exaggerate the true economic impact of these competitions, and these events are an even worse investment for developing countries than for industrialized nations.development, football, impact analysis, World Cup, sports, mega-event

The protection of sports events in the EU: Property, intellectual property, unfair competition and special forms of protection

This article analyses some of the legal tools available to organisers of sporting events under EU law and the law of EU Member States. The focus is on remedies based on property rights and contracts, as well as on intellectual property, unfair competition rules and so called “special” forms of protection. As it is well known, in fact, following the ECJ ruling in Premier League v. QC Leisure, sporting events as such do not qualify as works under EU copyright law. Nevertheless, the article shows that remedies based on both traditional and new forms of property, IP and cognate rights can still offer adequate protection to sports organisers. First, many sports events take place in dedicated venues on which sports organisers can claim exclusive use rights and thereupon develop conditional access agreements (i.e. “house right”). Second, the recording and broadcast of sporting events may give rise to a variety of intellectual property rights, especially in the field of copyright and related rights. Third, unfair competition rules, and in particular misappropriation doctrines, have been invoked to protect sporting activities from unauthorised copying. Fourth, special forms of protection have recently been devised at the national level in order to offer an additional layer of rights protecting sports organisers. The article argues that even in the absence of a dedicated EU harmonised right tailored to sports events, the current legal framework is well equipped to offer protection to the investments that the sport industry is making in this sector. The article also argues that national initiatives in the field have so far proven of little practical relevance and, as a matter of fact, have the potential to clash with the general EU legal framework. There is only one area that escapes this rule: a right to use sporting events data to organise betting activities, or in other words, a right to consent to bets. The article concludes that if such a right is to be recognised, it is not the field of intellectual property, nor even property in general, the most appropriate area of law at which to look

Concurrent Bursty Behavior of Social Sensors in Sporting Events

The advent of social media expands our ability to transmit information and connect with others instantly, which enables us to behave as "social sensors." Here, we studied concurrent bursty behavior of Twitter users during major sporting events to determine their function as social sensors. We show that the degree of concurrent bursts in tweets (posts) and retweets (re-posts) works as a strong indicator of winning or losing a game. More specifically, our simple tweet analysis of Japanese professional baseball games in 2013 revealed that social sensors can immediately react to positive and negative events through bursts of tweets, but that positive events are more likely to induce a subsequent burst of retweets. We also show that these findings hold true across cultures by analyzing tweets related to Major League Baseball games in 2015. Furthermore, we demonstrate active interactions among social sensors by constructing retweet networks during a baseball game. The resulting networks commonly exhibited user clusters depending on the baseball team, with a scale-free connectedness that is indicative of a substantial difference in user popularity as an information source. While previous studies have mainly focused on bursts of tweets as a simple indicator of a real-world event, the temporal correlation between tweets and retweets implies unique aspects of social sensors, offering new insights into human behavior in a highly connected world.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Assessing The Contribution Of Sport To The Economy

Sport has always been an important part of society but it is now becoming an increasingly important part of the economy. Consequently, the measurement of the economic impact of sporting events has become a focus of some interest to a number of groups including policy makers and sporting officials. In this paper the established procedures for measuring economic impacts are evaluated from the perspective of the nature of the information required by decision makers. It is found that the traditional approach to the measurement of the economic impacts of sporting events is conceptually flawed and potentially misleading. An alternative series of measures are suggested. These measures are more focused on information requirements and better grounded in the principles of welfare economics than those that are now widely used.sport, cost benefit analysis, economic impact

Market Impact of International Sporting and Cultural Events

This paper investigates the impact of international sporting and cultural events on national stock markets. We study market reaction to the announcements of the selected country hosting the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, the World Football Cup, the European Football Cup and World and Specialized Exhibitions. We also measure the market effects of the announcement of the nomination of the European Cultural City. First, we evaluate the abnormal returns of winning bidders at (and around) the announcement date using an event study methodology. We study the impact at market and industry-levels. Second, we analyze the determinants of the variation in abnormal returns across events and industries on the basis of a set of variables found important by previous studies and control for the prior probability of observing the event. Third, on the basis of a simple model of partial anticipation, we reexamine the abnormal returns observed for the winning and losing countries and perform a series of tests to disentangle the different theoretical arguments that could account for the observed stock market behavior. Our initial results suggest that the abnormal returns measured at the announcement date and around the event are not consistently different from zero. Further, when we look at particular industries, we find no evidence supporting that industries, that a priori were more likely to extract direct benefits from the event, observe positive significant effects. Yet when we control for the prior expectations, the announcement of these mega-events is associated with a positive market reaction in the nominated country and a negative reaction in the losing country. Overall we interpret our findings as supportive of rational asset pricing and partial anticipation.Market efficiency; Event studies; Mega-events

Market Impact of International Sporting and Cultural Events

This paper investigates the impact of international sporting and cultural events on national stock markets. We study market reaction to the announcements of the selected country hosting mega-events such as the Olympic Games, the World and the European Football Cups and World Exhibitions. First, we evaluate the abnormal returns of winning bidders at (and around) the announcement date at market and industry-levels. Second, we analyze the determinants of the variation in abnormal returns across events and industries and control for the prior probability of observing the event. Third, on the basis of a simple model of partial anticipation, we reexamine the abnormal returns observed for the winning and losing countries. Our initial results suggest that the abnormal returns are not consistently different from zero. Further, when we look at particular industries, we find no evidence supporting that industries, that a priori were more likely to extract direct benefits from the event, observe positive significant effects. Yet when we control for the prior expectations, the announcement of these megaevents is associated with a positive stock market reaction in the nominated country and a negative reaction in the losing country. Overall we interpret our findings as supportive of rational asset pricing and partial anticipation.Market efficiency; Event studies; Mega-events

BLS Spotlight on Statistics: Expenditures on Admissions to the Arts, Movies, Sporting Events, and other Entertainment

In 2015, American consumers spent an average of $652 on admissions to the arts, movies, sporting events, and other entertainment and recreational activities. In 2012, 70 percent of U.S. adults attended a live performing arts or sporting event or went to the movies. This Spotlight on Statistics uses data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts to profile consumer spending and attendance at arts, sports, and entertainment events.For additional context, the Spotlight also examines selected personal consumption expenditure estimates from the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account

Reporting Sick: Are Sporting Events Contagious?

Moral hazard is easy to justify theoretically but difficult to detect empirically. Individuals may report sick due to illness as well as for moral hazard reasons. Potential abuse of the sickness insurance system in Sweden is estimated by comparing the change between the number of men and women who report sick during a popular sporting event and a preceding time period. Difference-in- difference estimates provide clear evidence that the number of men who reported sick increased in order to watch the sporting event on television.Reporting sick; Moral hazard; Difference-in-difference