Emotion and memory in nostalgia sport tourism: Examining the attraction to postmodern ballparks through an interdisciplinary lens

Nostalgia sport tourism, one of Gibson’s (1998) three forms of sport tourism, appears to have received little scholarly attention in contrast to active sport tourism and event sport tourism (Fairley, 2003; Gibson, 2002, 2003; Ritchie & Adair, 2004). Despite this apparent lack of research relative to the other two domains, insightful and thought-provoking scholarship has emerged within nostalgia sport tourism. Sociology, which is one of sport tourism’s parent disciplines, has influenced much of this scholarship (Gibson, 2004; Harris, 2006). Among other things, this epistemological orientation has yielded the importance of emotion and memory to nostalgically oriented experiences. This paper considers the emergence of emotion and memory within nostalgia sport tourism and, in so doing, continues this sociological emphasis. In particular, it argues that interaction ritual (IR) theory (Collins, 2004), a micro-sociological perspective, can be used to provide scholars with a deep understanding of tourists’ and excursionists’ motivations for engaging in nostalgically oriented experiences. Three additional constructs from the field of sport geography – place, placelessness (Relph, 1976), and topophilia (Tuan, 1974) – are posited as useful supplements to IR theory that can enable sport tourism scholars to develop a more nuanced conceptualization of those elements inherent within nostalgically oriented sport sites. These theoretical positions are synthesized and used as a framework to examine sport tourists’ and excursionists’ attraction to the recent ‘throwback’ aesthetic of contemporary Major League Baseball park design

Escape From ‘Owlcatraz’: An Interaction Ritual Case Study Of The Stadium Naming Rights Agreement Between Florida Atlantic University And The GEO Group, Inc.

In 2013, Florida Atlantic University and The GEO Group, Inc. entered into a naming rights agreement for the university’s football facility, which the latter rescinded 42 days later. This agreement is unique relative to similar agreements within intercollegiate athletics in the United States for two reasons: the sponsoring entity’s business model and the fact that the agreement failed. The online media coverage of the naming rights agreement was gathered and used to reconstruct key events through qualitative content analysis (Berg, 2007). Interaction ritual theory (Collins, 2004) was employed to examine these events and provide an explanation for the agreement’s outcome. Findings advance theory regarding the power of definitive stakeholders (Mitchell, Agle, & Wood, 1997) to influence the outcome of a unique corporate partnership within intercollegiate athletics. Specifically, findings demonstrate that current university students acquired and expressed more power than any other affected stakeholder group, primarily through their ability to effectively mobilize and frame the issue within public discourse. This case study’s findings may expand the ways in which the behavior of sport stakeholders may be analyzed in future scholarship, as well as inform practitioners who are engaged in the execution or examination of future naming rights agreements within intercollegiate athletics

Retinal Axonal Loss Begins Early in the Course of Multiple Sclerosis and Is Similar between Progressive Phenotypes

To determine whether retinal axonal loss is detectable in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), a first clinical demyelinating attack suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS), and examine patterns of retinal axonal loss across MS disease subtypes.Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography was performed in 541 patients with MS, including 45 with high-risk CIS, 403 with relapsing-remitting (RR)MS, 60 with secondary-progressive (SP)MS and 33 with primary-progressive (PP)MS, and 53 unaffected controls. Differences in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and macular volume were analyzed using multiple linear regression and associations with age and disease duration were examined in a cross-sectional analysis. In eyes without a clinical history of optic neuritis (designated as "eyes without optic neuritis"), the total and temporal peripapillary RNFL was thinner in CIS patients compared to controls (temporal RNFL by -5.4 µm [95% CI -0.9 to--9.9 µm, p = 0.02] adjusting for age and sex). The total (p = 0.01) and temporal (p = 0.03) RNFL was also thinner in CIS patients with clinical disease for less than 1 year compared to controls. In eyes without optic neuritis, total and temporal RNFL thickness was nearly identical between primary and secondary progressive MS, but total macular volume was slightly lower in the primary progressive group (p<0.05).Retinal axonal loss is increasingly prominent in more advanced stages of disease--progressive MS>RRMS>CIS--with proportionally greater thinning in eyes previously affected by clinically evident optic neuritis. Retinal axonal loss begins early in the course of MS. In the absence of clinically evident optic neuritis, RNFL thinning is nearly identical between progressive MS subtypes

Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park as an Emergent Sacred Symbol: An Interaction Ritual Analysis of a Camping Trip

We argue that interaction ritual (IR) theory provides a temporal and interactional point of origin from which to trace an influential IR chain that became a deciding factor in the unification of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove under federal control within present-day Yosemite National Park. The emotions generated by the rituals of Roosevelt’s and Muir’s camping trip in May, 1903 in the short term, however, failed to result in a lasting consensus on ideology. This is a point that Roosevelt’s lack of support for Muir in the subsequent controversy over the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley clearly documents

Assessing The Influence Of Sport Security Operations On The Guest Experience: Using The Delphi Method To Understand Practitioner Perspectives

Increases in sport security measures may have an influence on guests’ decisions to attend sporting events or stay longer at them if they are already present. There is currently a dearth of literature on the consequences of security measures and related technologies on the guest experience and its resultant impact on revenue generation. This project, however, aims to be an important, initial attempt to fill this gap. This project involved a panel of subject matter experts currently working for a sport venue whose anchor tenant is in one of the United States’ four, major, professional sport leagues to determine how they perceive security issues and the potential effects of such issues on the guest experience through the use of the Delphi method (Dalkey & Helmer, 1963). The data yielded from this study emphasized both the importance of minimally impacting guests’ time while also requiring personnel to serve guests with skills across a wide range of customer service matters to engage them effectively

Practices Associated with Weight Loss Versus Weight-Loss Maintenance Results of a National Survey

Background: Few studies have examined the weight-control practices that promote weight loss and weight-loss maintenance in the same sample. Purpose: To examine whether the weight control practices associated with weight loss differ from those associated with weight-loss maintenance. Methods: Cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 1165 U.S. adults. The adjusted associations of the use of 36 weight-control practices in the past week with success in weight loss (Ն10% lost in the past year) and success in weight-loss maintenance (Ն10% lost and maintained for Ն1 year) were examined. Results: Of the 36 practices, only 8 (22%) were associated with both weight loss and weight-loss maintenance. Overall, there was poor agreement (kappaϭ0.22) between the practices associated with weight loss and/or weight-loss maintenance. For example, those who reported more often following a consistent exercise routine or eating plenty of low-fat sources of protein were 1.97 (95% CIϭ1.33, 2.94) and 1.76 (95% CIϭ1.25, 2.50) times more likely, respectively, to report weight-loss maintenance but not weight loss. Alternatively, those who reported more often doing different kinds of exercises or planning meals ahead of time were 2.56 (95% CIϭ1.44, 4.55) and 1.68 (95% CIϭ1.03, 2.74) times more likely, respectively, to report weight loss but not weight-loss maintenance. Conclusions: Successful weight loss and weight-loss maintenance may require two different sets of practices. Designing interventions with this premise may inform the design of more effective weight-loss maintenance interventions. (Am J Prev Med 2011;41(2):159 -166