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

Mega-sporting Events as Experience Goods

This paper tests the hypothesis that a nation’s hosting of a mega-sporting event is an experience good for its residents. Applying data from an ex-ante and ex-post query based on contingent valuation methods, we use the Soccer World Cup 2006 as a natural experiment. The significant ex-post increase in valuation is shown to be due to adventitious citizens requiring an involving experience, rather than to an updating of a-prior assessment.Experience goods, contingent valuation method, World Cup

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

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

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

Sports Franchises, Stadiums, and City Livability: An Examination of Professional Sports and Crime Rates

We estimate the impact sporting events have on local crime rates using the technique developed in Arellano and Bond (2001). For events, we consider the presence of MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL franchises as well as whether a city held one of the respective championships, the Olympics, or World Cup matches. We find little to no evidence that sporting events are correlated with either property or violent crime.Crime, Sports Economics, Economic Impact

Is Smaller Better? A Comment on "Comparative Economic Impact Analyses" by Michael Mondello and Patrick Rishe

In a recent article in Economic Development Quarterly, "Comparative Economic Impact Analyses: Differences Across Cities, Events, and Demographics" (November 2004), Michael Mondello and Patrick Rishe examined the economic impact of small, amateur sporting events on host economies. This response to their work suggests four reasons why ex ante economic impact estimates for smaller sporting events may come closer to matching ex post reality than those for "mega-events" including less crowding out, lower hosting costs, higher multipliers, and less incentive for boosters to published inflated figures.economic impact, sports, sport economics, mega-events

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. For this reason, cities and countries compete vigorously for the right to stage these spectacles. Recently, developing countries have become increasingly vocal in demanding that they get the right to share in the economic benefits of these international games. China, for example, has been awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics, and an African nation seems destined to host the 2010 World Cup. The specialized infrastructure and operating expenses required to host these events, however, can be extremely costly, and it is not at all clear that either the long or short-term benefits of the games are anywhere nearly large enough to cover these costs. This paper reviews other researchersÂ’ as well as our own previous work on mega-sporting events such as the Super Bowl and World Series as well as international events like the World Cup and Olympics. Independent researchers nearly unanimously find that boostersÂ’ projections of the economic impact of sporting events exaggerate the true economic impact of these competitions by a wide margin. In particular, in this paper we focus on the particular circumstances that face developing countries hosting these games. Our research suggests that in most cases mega-sporting events are an even worse investment for developing countries than for industrialized countries.Development Planning and Policy; Sports, Gambling, Recreation, Tourism

Mega Sporting Events – ‘A double edged sword’

Mega sporting events are beginning to be hosted more frequently in ‘developing’ countries. They are often portrayed by leading politicians from these countries to be a major turning point in development. However, they can negatively impact some vulnerable members of society. This thesis analyses how mega sporting events impact the development of vulnerable communities in host cities and evaluates whether they foster a sustainable path to development.There are three main stages to the thesis. Firstly, an assessment of a less economically developed host city – Rio de Janeiro is conducted. Then examples of more economically developed host cities – Cardiff and London are assessed. Finally, a comparison is then made of the impact of mega sporting events on the case studies showing similarities and differences. The thesis adopts the approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis. It analyses the phenomena of mega sporting events and how vulnerable communities experience the processes of pacification, exclusion and gentrification that were used by local authorities in cities when mega sporting events were hosted.The thesis argues that although mega sporting events are often believed to provide some positive economic boost, the economic impacts of the mega sporting events particularly in developing countries are often damaging. The social impact on development by mega sporting events is also felt far worse by vulnerable communities who are often excluded totally by the events and see their rights and capabilities impacted. The thesis concludes that mega sporting events at present do not foster sustainable paths to development for developing countries. In order for them to be less damaging to vulnerable communities in host cities, principles from the capabilities and rights based approach need to be respected by local authorities, whilst organisations such as FIFA and the IOC should be required to stop prioritising their own financial gain at the expense of these communities

Crowd satisfaction at sporting events

This paper presents findings from in depth semi-structured interviews with event organisers and deliverers, investigating the organisation, coordination, and security of a variety of spectator sporting events. Safety was identified by those responsible for organising and delivering events as a key priority, with less attention given to user experience, crowd comfort and satisfaction. An evidence based description was developed to embody findings of the current study, illustrating the central issues that influence crowd satisfaction within spectator sporting events: anticipation, facilities, and planning (prior to the event); influences and monitoring (carried out during the event); and reflection (engaged in after the event)