Climate Vulnerability as a Catalyst for Early Stadium Replacement

Purpose: Severe hazards associated with climate change are threatening human settlements, thereby requiring global cities to implement comprehensive climate adaptation strategies. For sports organizations, adaptive measures may include designing and constructing new stadiums. In this study, we explore climate change as a vehicle for urban transformation, particularly as it relates to the replacement of existing stadiums with new, more sustainable and resilient venues. Design/methodology/approach: We employed a collective case study approach focusing on three recent cases of stadium replacement: Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas; Oakland Ballpark in Oakland, California; and Marlins Park in Miami, Florida. These cases were selected because an official representative of each team made explicit references to some form of climate adaptation, though each ballpark faces a distinctive climate-related threat. Findings: Each of the cases illustrates the various ways in which climate vulnerability may be deployed by teams and policymakers to replace professional sports stadiums. Although all three examples involved the replacement of an existing ballpark, only in the Texas case was climate adaptation cited explicitly as the primary reason for stadium replacement. Still, ballpark-replacement plans in Oakland and Miami included significant and costly design features to protect the stadiums from extreme weather events. Originality: This study applies the concept of climate vulnerability to illustrate a potential strategy to justify stadium replacement. As cities and metropolitan regions continue to grapple with the grand 3 challenge of climate change, the associated vulnerability of large public assembly facilities like major sports stadiums—particularly those prominently situated in urban centers—can no longer be ignored

Sport Ecology: Conceptualizing an Emerging Subdiscipline Within Sport Management

The relationship between sport and the natural environment is bidirectional and critical to the production of sport products, events, and experiences. Researchers have studied sport and the natural environment within the various subdisciplines of sport management. However, given the changing climate and mounting public concern for the environment, there is pressure to reconsider the relevance and significance of the natural environment, which is taken for granted in managerial contexts. Reflecting the importance of the natural environment, the robustness of the current literature, and the potential for the future, we propose a new subdiscipline of sport management called sport ecology. Thus, we proposed, in this paper, a definition for sport ecology, (re)introduced key concepts related to this subdiscipline (e.g., sustainability, green), and highlighted the leading research that serves as the foundation for sport ecology.We concluded with a discussion on the ways sport ecology can inform— and be informed by—other subdisciplines of sport management

Substitution interests among active-sport tourists: The case of a cross-country ski event

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. May 2018. Major: Natural Resources Science and Management. Advisor: Ingrid Schneider. 1 computer file (PDF); ii, 38 pages.As of 2018, winter active tourism events are being canceled and delayed at increasing rates in the United States due to poor snow conditions, unsafe ice, and warm temperatures. This study explored substitution interests of winter active tourists in the case of a canceled cross-country ski event, with specialization and distance traveled as independent variables. Regardless of specialization and distance travelled, sport tourists are more interested in substituting spatially than substituting activities. This study extends the active tourism literature to include substitution interests in the context of a winter event. Recommendations for activity-consistent adaptation solutions are advanced to match the interests of skiers. This research highlights the considerable agency of tourists and managers to adapt to the changing climate through substitution.Orr, Madeleine. (2018). Substitution interests among active-sport tourists: The case of a cross-country ski event. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/220576

Blinded by gold:Toronto sports community ignores negative legacies of 2015 Pan Am Games

Event organizers and city officials often justify the high costs of hosting an event by highlighting its legacies. Legacies are a topic of contentious discourse among event researchers, over definition, measurement, and significance. The bid for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games highlighted sport legacies as a priority. Thirteen semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with organizers, city officials, and members of the Toronto sports community. These interviews were analyzed using a thematic coding method. The degree of familiarity with "event legacies" among respondents varied, as did the definitions they offered. Multiple positive legacies were highlighted, most frequently: new or improved sports facilities and equipment (11/13 respondents), increased awareness of sport and sport opportunities (9/13), and inspiration factor (7/13). No respondent named negative legacies. Two major themes emerged: 1) there is no universal understanding of legacies as a term or concept; and 2) organizers are biased when asked about legacies, favoring the positive, and ignoring the negative.</jats:p

Slow roll: A longitudinal analysis of sustainable energy implementation

The importance of adopting sustainable practices in the tourism industry is well established but widespread implementation is still wanting. Institutional theory framed an assessment of tourism professionals’ perceptions of constraints and benefits to sustainable practices, as well as actual implementation of energy practices between 2007 and 2016. Perceptions and practices were tracked through an Internet-based questionnaire among professionals in three-year intervals in a Midwestern U.S state. Professionals consistently agreed that attracting new clientele, improving consumer perceptions, and organizational image were benefits of sustainable practices, while initial financial costs constrained implementation. The most frequently implemented energy practices were using daylight and compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). Overall, adoption of sustainable practices was varied and implementation rates remained minimally changed. Reasons for the varied adoption and lack of change may be explained by perceived lack of resources, consistent with organizational capacity, or lack of pressure from socio-cultural environment, per institutional theor

Impacts of climate change on organized sport : a scoping review

The relationship between sport and the environment has been primarily examined to understand how sport impacts the natural environment. However, as the influence of climate change has become more apparent, there is a need to establish a systematic understanding of the impacts of climate change on the operations of sport. The aim of this review is to take stock of existing literature on climate change's impacts on organized competitive sport entities, with further attention paid to their adaptation efforts. A scoping review was conducted to identify relevant studies published between 1995 and 2021. After evaluating more than 2100 publications, we retained 57 articles and analyzed them to answer the research questions: (1) What evidence is available regarding the impacts of climate change on the operation of organized competitive sport entities? (2) What is known from the literature about the measures taken by organized competitive sport entities to adapt to the impacts of climate change? Our analysis yielded five major themes: (1) Heat impacts on athlete and spectator health; (2) heat impacts on athlete performance; (3) adaptive measures taken in sport; (4) suitability of various cities for event hosting; and (5) benchmarking and boundary conditions. This review reveals that there is evidence of some climate change impacts on sport, but the literature reflects only a small share of the global sport sector. Equally, much remains to be understood about the nature of adaptation

Language relativity in legacy literature : a systematic review in multiple languages

Since the Olympic Agenda 2020, legacy has been widely used as a justification for hosting the Olympic Games, through which sustainable development can be achieved for both events and host cities. To date, no universal definition of legacy has been established, which presents challenges for legacy-related international knowledge transfer among host cities. To address this gap, a multilingual systematic review of the literature regarding the concept of legacy was conducted in French, Japanese, Chinese, and English. Using English literature as a baseline, points of convergence and divergence among the languages were identified. While all four languages value the concept of legacy as an important facet of mega-events, significant differences were found within each language. This finding highlights the importance of strategies that align different cultures when promoting sustainable development of some global movements such as the Olympic legacy. Sport management is replete with international topics, such as international events and sport for development, and each topic is studied simultaneously in several languages and with potentially differing frameworks and perspectives. Thus, literature reviews that examine the English literature, exclusively, are innately limited in scope. The development of partnerships and resources that facilitate cross-lingual and cross-cultural consultation and collaboration is an important research agenda. More research is needed on knowledge translation across languages

Review: The Newsletter of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, volume 16, issue 2

Contents include: Driving, LMDA Conference 2006: Think Dramaturgically, Act Locally, Words of Welcome from the Conference Committee, Developing a Sense of Community: Reflections on the Balance of a Community Engagement and Artistic Integrity while Creating a Dramaturg-Driven Documentary Play, In Print: The Seattle Public Library Introduction, The Seattle Public Library: A Conversation, Dramaturgy as Catalyst: A Rockies Dramaturg Driven Project, and American Playwrights and Playwriting. Issue editors: D.J. Hopkins, Shelley Orr, Madeleine Oldhamhttps://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdareview/1033/thumbnail.jp

Sport versus climate: Introducing the climate vulnerability of sport organizations framework

© 2018 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Climate change presents a significant and growing challenge to the sport industry, especially outdoor and winter sports. The authors present a conceptual framework that elucidates the varying states of climate vulnerability a sport organization may face, so practitioners may better understand the risks of climate change. The authors developed the Climate Vulnerability of Sport Organizations (CVSO) framework by building on—and linking—concepts of climate vulnerability, exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity in the context of sport organizations. By placing potential impact on one axis and organizational climate capacity on the other, the authors present four quadrants representing four types of climate vulnerability: the Problem State, the Redundant State, the Responsive State, and the Fortified State. Positioning organizations within the CVSO framework facilitates a better understanding of the effort and resources needed to address climate-related risks. Though not all sport organizations will be equally impacted by climate change, all must be prepared to identify the risks to their organizations