'Excellent . . . an in-depth excavation of the murky and mysterious world of football business. Smith's candid and often shocking book reveals the true workings of football business that take into account things few of us even could even imagine . . . The Deal answers some of those questions and leaves you wanting more. It is an educational tool that most fans could do with researching' Joe Short, Express Football analysis has grown at the same exponential rate as the sport's popularity and yet one of its most intrinsic elements remains tantalisingly opaque: the role of 'agent'. The Deal is a unique and fascinating perspective into the business of sports management through the eyes of 'Mr Football', 'super-agent', Jon Smith. 800,000 watch their professional football team play each week and TV pulls in audiences of around 600 million. Despite these phenomenal figures, the complex money-making scene behind sport is one of its biggest mysteries. The Deal will be an unprecedented insight into this world, showing what goes on as players and big money change hands. The Deal is also the story of one of the shrewdest and most successful businessmen of our time. Documented through Jon's personal rollercoaster of high-flying success to near bankruptcy, the book's over-arching narrative will offer an inspiring personal journey as well as insider knowledge of brokering deals at a high level and under extreme pressure. The Deal will appeal strongly to buyers of business books as well as a significant number of sports fans interested to know what goes on in the back room of their favourite sport.

Although there is significant research on large events that take place within athletics, small-scale events are largely ignored, in part due to the lack of press that they generate. However, these events require planning and preparation in the same way that larger sporting events do. This disparity between the effort that goes into the event and the attention the event draws allows for a gap in strategy or information available to those planning smaller scale athletic events. Principles and Practices of Small-Scale Sport Event Management is a cutting-edge reference publication that examines the successful organization and planning of small-scale sporting events. Featuring a wide range of topics such as community engagement, event planning, and sports management, this book is ideal for event planners, sports managers, marketers, academicians, practitioners, industry professionals, researchers, event organizers/coordinators, and students.

In an effort to understand how the absences of the colonial subject in sport were engineered and how colonial narratives became fixed in the literature and minds of South Africans, Exploring Decolonising Themes in SA Sport History: Issues and Challenges attempts a full-scale restructuring and rewriting of the history of sport in South Africa to include black South Africans, and thereby places them on the forefront of a colonial history. The book includes the articulations of academic researchers, professionals and retired sportspeople who were requested to explore their unique areas of interest in sport from the perspective of themes in South African sport history. They place themselves at the centre of discourses that dispel myths that blacks had no sport significance prior to 1994. The book ultimately challenges this spirit of the past where there was only one narrative – a white male sport tradition. Rather than adapting past colonial and apartheid narratives, this work seeks to fundamentally replace and supersede them.

Golf is a major global industry. The sport is played by more than 60 million people worldwide and there are more than 32,000 courses in 140 countries across the globe. This book looks at the power relationships in and around golf, examining whether the industry has demonstrated sufficient leadership on environmental matters to be trusted to make weighty decisions with implications for public and environmental health. The first comprehensive study of the varying responses to golf-related environmental issues, it is based on extensive empirical work, including research into historical materials and interviews with stakeholders in golf such as course superintendents, protesters and health professionals. The authors examine golf as a sport and as a global industry, drawing on and contributing to literatures pertaining to environmental sociology, global social movements, institutional change, corporate environmentalism and the sociology of sport. -- .

The United States men’s national soccer team has a rich history dating back to the early twentieth century. The team, along with the sport, toiled in obscurity for decades but found its breakthrough moment in 1989 when the United States qualified for its first World Cup in 40 years. In A History of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team, Clemente A. Lisi recounts the team’s significant achievements and history-making moments, including its decisive 1991 Gold Cup victory, quarterfinal appearance at the 2002 World Cup, and memorable performance at the 2009 Confederations Cup. Beginning with the formation of the national team and continuing through the 2016 Copa America Centenario, each chapter includes game descriptions, fascinating background stories, and profiles of notable players from the era. A History of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team features vintage photographs and exclusive player interviews that bring the struggles and triumphs of the national team to life. Including little-known stories from the team’s early years and details from its recent past, this book will entertain and inform soccer fans of all generations.

Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer, once pleaded for `a pretty move for the love of God' when watching his beloved soccer. This book is likewise interested in `beautiful moves', but turns instead to the architecture of the stadium as an architectural type as captivating as the play occurring on the pitch. In the past 30 years a number of stadium projects have been completed that highlight how this building type has become a site for architectural innovation and complexity. Clients that once would once have turned to large firms specializing in stadia instead began to hire A-list and Pritzker-Prize-winning architects to design new stadia. As a result, in cities around the world stadia are often the most expensive and monumental of projects, and may be icons of identity and defining presences in the built landscape. By examining a range of exemplary stadia from around the world (built, unbuilt and demolished projects), this book presents for the first time a canon for this building type. Organized chronologically, it includes famous examples from the likes of Lina Bo Bardi, Frei Otto, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Herzog & de Meuron, Foster + Partners and Studio Gang.

As with any business, economic, financial, and marketing management for sports organizations is critical for attracting, retaining, and engaging fans. Unlike typical businesses, the sports industry is inconsistent, highly emotional with a strong personal nature, and operates in various markets where organizations compete and cooperate at the same time. Thus, traditional management techniques are not always appropriate for these organizations. Integrated Marketing Communications, Strategies, and Tactical Operations in Sports Organizations provides expert insight into the latest trends, strategies, and tactics that can be used in the sports industry to build foundations for successful commercialization. The content within this publication covers city marketing, social media interactions, and atmospheric influence and is designed for managers, marketers, business and industry professionals, stakeholders, academicians, researchers, and students.

In this illustrated view of the history of Raith Rovers the author builds up the story of the club by recounting events that happened on every day of the year, even during the summer months. Triumphs, disasters, shipwrecks, crazy Board Room decisions, managers (good and bad), players (brilliant and mediocre) all feature. As do Davie Morris, who captained Scotland when they beat all three Home Nations in 1925; the wizardry of Alec James; the command of the famous half back line of Young, McNaught and Leigh; and the dash and enthusiasm of the team which won the Scottish League Cup. But it is not just about the good days. There are bad days, and loads of mediocre and mundane times too, as well as some accounts of Raith Rovers in war time. The year as a whole reveals the undeniable charm of the institution which means so much to so many - Raith Rovers Football Club - or, as they are referred to in Kirkcaldy, “the� Rovers.

Did you know that a former Ayr United great was the first Briton to be a football manager in Argentina? Did you know that he wasn't the only Ayr United manager to have been contracted to a South American club? Did you know that a former Ayr United manager gave first team debuts to such luminaries as Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott? There are facts aplenty but the overall purpose of this compilation is the study of the managerial evolution at Somerset Park. It seems inconceivable that Ayr United managers used to have no input in team selection, or that a modern day incumbent would have clerical work almost at the top of the list of their priorities. These practices were down to nothing more than it being consistent with the protocol of the time. Nowadays, the manager is either revered or vilified according to whether it is a halcyon period or a time of struggle. It was not always so. From the viewpoint of the present day, the reader gets chance to chart the changes. Sometimes the efforts of past managers were in vain. Sometimes it came to glorious fruition. Either way it is all documented within these pages.

As with any business, economic, financial, and marketing management for sports organizations is critical for attracting, retaining, and engaging fans. Unlike typical businesses, the sports industry is inconsistent, highly emotional with a strong personal nature, and operates in various markets where organizations compete and cooperate at the same time. Thus, traditional management techniques are not always appropriate for these organizations. Integrated Marketing Communications, Strategies, and Tactical Operations in Sports Organizations provides expert insight into the latest trends, strategies, and tactics that can be used in the sports industry to build foundations for successful commercialization. The content within this publication covers city marketing, social media interactions, and atmospheric influence and is designed for managers, marketers, business and industry professionals, stakeholders, academicians, researchers, and students.

Introduction to Sport Marketing is an accessible and engaging introduction to key concepts and best practice in sport marketing. Aimed at students with little or no prior knowledge of marketing, the book outlines a step-by-step framework for effective sport marketing, from conducting market analysis and developing a strategy, through to detailed planning and implementation. The book has a wider scope than other sport marketing textbooks, recognising that students are just as likely to have to employ their marketing skills in community sport or the not-for-profit sector as in professional sport, and therefore represents the most realistic and useful sport marketing text currently available. Now in a fully revised and updated second edition, the book has expanded coverage of digital and social media, product innovation, services and relationship marketing, and key contemporary issues such as social responsibility and sustainability. It features a much wider range of international cases and examples, covering North America, Europe, and the vibrant and rapidly developing sport markets in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. Every chapter includes a range of useful features to help the reader to engage with fundamental principles and applied practice, such as problem-solving exercises and review questions. Introduction to Sport Marketing is an essential textbook for any degree-level sport marketing course.

As the 1919 World Series scandal simmered throughout the 1920 season, tight pennant races drove attendance to new peaks and presaged a decade of general prosperity for baseball. Babe Ruth shattered his own home-run record and, buoyed by a booming economy, professional sports enjoyed what sportswriters termed a “Golden Age of Sports.� Throughout the tumultuous 1920s, Major League Baseball remained a mixture of competition and cooperation. Teams could improve by player trades, buying Minor League stars, or signing untried youths. Players and owners had their usual contentious relationship, with owners maintaining considerable control over their players. Owners adjusted the game so that the 1920s witnessed a surge in slugging and a diminution in base stealing, and they provided a better ballpark experience by both improving their stadiums and minimizing disruptions by rowdy fans. However, they hesitated to adapt to new technologies such as radio, electrical lighting, and air travel. The Major Leagues remained an enclave for white people, while African Americans toiled in the newly established Negro Leagues, where salaries and profits were skimpy. By analyzing the economic and financial aspects of Major League Baseball, The Age of Ruth and Landis shows how baseball during the 1920s experienced both strife and prosperity, innovation and conservatism. With figures such as the incomparable Babe Ruth, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, and Eddie Collins, the decade featured an exciting brand of livelier baseball, new stadiums, and overall stability.  

Introduces all the key functional areas of the sport management curriculum, from human resources to marketing. Explains the practical realities of sport management. Covers both professional and non-profit sport. More international cases, examples and data than any other sport management textbook. New edition includes expanded coverage of key contemporary issues, including integrity and corruption, digital business and technology, and legal issues and risk management. Useful features in every chapter, including 'in practice' guides and extended case-studies with on-line notes for lecturers.

Magnificent, maddening, thrilling, heartbreaking -- over the years, LSU football has been called many things; boring is not among them. But no period in the team's history exemplifies the extreme highs and lows of sport better than the past fifteen years. In 1993, the Tigers were in the midst of a record six-season losing streak and the program was struggling to dig its way out of its darkest days. By 2008, LSU had emerged as one of the premier college football powers in the nation and the unprecedented two-time winner of the BCS national championship. In The Fighting Tigers, 1993--2008, award-winning sportswriter Scott Rabalais chronicles the Tigers' fantastic rise to the top of the college football universe, vividly detailing the victories and defeats, the coaches and the players, the tears and the titles of this sometimes frustrating, always fascinating period of LSU football.

Game by game, Rabalais recounts the tenures of the four head coaches who led the Tigers during these years -- "Curley" Hallman, the strict taskmaster whose mounting losses created dissension and apathy among the Tiger faithful; Gerry DiNardo, the charismatic salesman whose efforts to "Bring Back the Magic" temporarily vaulted the Tigers again into the national polls; Nick Saban, the intense workhorse who steadily rebuilt the program and led the team to its first national championship in almost fifty years; and Les Miles, the engaging wildcard who finally emerged from Saban's shadow with a championship of his own. Rabalais provides expert analysis of the 2004 and 2008 BCS national championship games and other postseason bowl games as well as the "ordinary" games that have crossed over into legendary status -- 1993's "Pigs Will Fly" victory against Alabama, "The Night the Barn Burned" at Auburn in 1996, and 2002's "Bluegrass Miracle." Along the way, Rabalais recounts the incredible athletic feats of numerous standout players, including Eddie Kennison, Kevin Faulk, Josh Reed, Michael Clayton, Marcus Spears, Chad Lavalais, and Glenn Dorsey.

Throughout, Rabalais interweaves off-the-field events that have affected or enhanced the LSU football legacy: the return of the traditional home white jerseys; the creation of the Bengal Belles; two expansions of Tiger Stadium; the death of Mike V and the introduction of Mike VI; and perhaps most poignant, the Tigers' volunteer efforts and emotional responses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

An appendix contains the vital statistics of LSU's entire football history. Individual and team records in every area, coaching records, All-Americans and Academic All-Americans, year-by-year results, top ten Tiger Stadium crowds, Tigers in pro football -- all of this and more will satisfy even the most hardcore LSU sports statistician. Peter Finney, venerable author of the three previous volumes of The Fighting Tigers, passes the official historian's torch to Rabalais in a compelling foreword that emphasizes the significance of the Tigers' recent run of success.

To many die-hard Tiger fans, LSU football is a religion all its own. With The Fighting Tigers, 1993--2008, Rabalais has written the next book of its bible.

The complete ball by ball reference guide to the world's biggest Twenty20 cricket league. On May 24, 2015, Eden Gardens in Kolkata hosted the final of the 8th IPL tournament. Mumbai Indians took on Chennai Super Kings for the third time in an IPL final and after posting a target of over 200, saw off their opponents to win their second title. This is a complete record of the 8th Indian Premier League and includes full scorecards, details of every ball bowled in all 60 matches, with over summaries, dot ball analysis and graphical comparisons of run rates as the matches progressed. The book is also packed with batting, bowling, fielding and extras statistics and profiles of each team.

The team at www.historyofwrestling.co.uk are back with the eighth in their series documenting every episode of WWF Monday Night Raw, year by year. We cover every angle, segment and match in detail, and offer plenty of thoughts and facts along the way. The book is written and presented in the usual HOW style, with various awards, match lists and a host of star ratings for fans to debate at will. FEATURING: The debut of The Radicalz The return of The Undertaker Commissioner Foley "Who ran over Steve Austin?" The Stephanie-Angle-Triple H love triangle Chris Jericho's "stricken" title win And much more! As usual, every single segment is covered in detail, with witty comment and analysis throughout. Fans of the series won't be disappointed, and once again the tome clocks in at a monster 160,000 words! It is our biggest Raw book ever! A must have have all wrestling fans.

In this riveting account of the 1975 Masters Tournament, acclaimed golf television veteran Gil Capps of NBC Sports and Golf Channel recaptures the thrilling excitement when three iconic heavyweights,Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, and Tom Weiskopf,battled back and forth, riveting the sports world and dramatically culminating in one of the greatest finishes in golf history.