When the general public follow the Olympic Games on television, on the internet, even in the newspapers, they feel like they have themselves experienced the performances of the athletes. This book explores whether it is ever possible to experience the Olympic Games as an athletic event without considering the effect of the media. It addresses a multitude of ways in which the intermediary of media production alters the experience of the Olympics. Spectators watching Olympic events from the stands are less subjected to the language of the commentators, journalists, and even the athlete interviews as they form impressions and understandings of the games. However, even those who sit in the stands for the opening ceremonies or walk down the streets of the Olympic Village and the host city are treated to media spectacles that are intentionally produced to display the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the host country and its Olympic Committee. This book performs the important task of analysing ways in which the media serves as both an integral component and an arbiter of the Games for society. This book was originally published as a special issue of Mass Communication and Society.

This is the story of Widnes RLFC one of rugby's most famous clubs and how it survived administration and returned to Super League. Backed by the club and written by the official club statistician this will appeal to fans of the club and the wider rugby world. The club will use their website and other social media to generate interest in the book. The author contributes to the match day programme and is a committee member of the supporters club. He also has contacts at the local media - both print and radio. Having sunk into Administration in 2007 former World Club Champions Widnes Vikings, under the stewardship of new owner Steve O'Connor, rose phoenix-like to eventually re-gain their place in the top tier of the sport in 2012. Along the way they suffered rejection by the Rugby Football League in the sport's inaugural Licensing process in 2008, only to be successful three years later. Mike Healing's informative account of how the club turned that failure into success takes an in-depth look at the many changes taking place within the club as it was re-structured for success in addition to the new Licensing process. While the main focus is on the behind-the-scenes developments, the highs and lows of the on-field action, including the return to Super League in 2012, also receive detailed attention.

The first book to fully chronicle the struggles and triumphs of African American athletes in the Modern Olympic summer games. In the modern Olympic Games, from 1896 through the present, African American athletes have sought to honor themselves, their race, and their nation on the global stage. But even as these incredible athletes have served to promote visions of racial harmony in the supposedly-apolitical Olympic setting, many have also bravely used the games as a means to bring attention to racial disparities in their country and around the world. In Black Mercuries: African American Athletes, Race, and the Modern Olympic Games, David K. Wiggins, Kevin B. Witherspoon, and Mark Dyreson explore in detail the varied experiences of African American athletes, specifically in the summer games. They examine the lives and careers of such luminaries as Jesse Owens, Rafer Johnson, Wilma Rudolph, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Michael Johnson, and Simone Biles, but also many African American Olympians who have garnered relatively little attention and whose names have largely been lost from historical memory. In recounting the stories of these Black Olympians, Black Mercuries makes clear that their superior athletic skills did not always shield them from the racial tropes and insensitivity spewed by fellow athletes, the media, spectators, and many others. Yet, in part because of the struggles they faced, African American Olympians have been extraordinarily important symbolically throughout Olympic history, serving as role models to future Black athletes and often putting their careers on the line to speak out against enduring racial inequality and discriminatory practices in all walks of life.

Glory, Glory Lane is the life-affirming history - including a momentous last season - of a world-famous football stadium, home to Tottenham Hotspur for 118 years. A Victorian structure turned wraparound 21st-century all-seater, it became a theatre of dreams for supporters all attracted by teams which played the 'Spurs way' to achieve glory. The Lane gave a stage to a conveyor belt of legends from Cameron to Alli via Nicholson, Blanchflower, Greaves, Hoddle and Klinsmann. It provided unforgettable memories in unforgettable atmospheres - heart-lifting, heart-breaking, nerve-racking. Its story veers from founders obsessed by Harry Hotspur to Harry Kane via Harry Redknapp; through matches, personalities, ground developments and threatened closure, all with first-hand accounts. It's hard to imagine how a new GBP750m stadium can ever replace the edifice which shut its gates for the last time after Spurs played Manchester United in May 2017, having created a daunting legacy.

1968 was a year of protest in civil society (Prague, Paris, Chicago) and a year of protest in sport. After a world-wide campaign, the anti-apartheid movement succeeded in barring South Africa from the Olympic Games, while US athletes from the Olympic Project for Human Rights used the medals podium to decry the racism of North America. Meanwhile, students in Mexico demonstrated against social priorities in Mexico, the host of the 1968 Games. These events contributed significantly to the rejection of the idea that sports are apolitical, and stimulated the scholarly study of sport across the social sciences. Leading up to the Beijing Olympic Games, similar dynamics were played out across the globe, while a campaign was underway to boycott the 'Genocide Olympics'. The volume, To Remember is to Resist, came out of a three-day conference on sports, human rights and social change hosted by the University of Toronto forty years after Mexico and eighty days before the Beijing Opening Ceremony. The contributions to this volume capture the memories of activists who were "on the ground" using sport as a site for the struggle for human rights and provide scholarly examinations of past and current human rights movements in sport. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Acknowledging China's established status as a global sporting superpower, this is the first book to systematically investigate sport policy in that country. With a focus on sport development in the most recent three decades, Sport Policy in China explores a wide range of topics in Chinese sport, including elite sport development, professional sports, major sports events, sport for all, the political context within which sport is interiorised and the distinctive sporting status of Hong Kong. It examines the debates around policy, globalisation, diplomacy and soft power, as well as the significance of the principle of 'one country, two systems'. With international appeal, this book is a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of sport policy, sport management, sport development and sport sociology.

This title presents gripping story chronicling the history of the Wenlock Olympian Games, the pre-cursor to the modern Olympics. It includes a detailed Athletes Biographies section, listing every competitor that took part between 1850-95. It also includes a fascinating captioned picture section of vintage photographs. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, London Mayor Boris Johnson memorably said of London 2012 that 'Ping-Pong is coming home'. In fact, he might justifiably have said that 'the modern Olympic movement is coming home'. In 1850, Shropshire doctor William Penny Brookes began Olympian Games for the 'moral, physical and intellectual improvement' of the local population of Wenlock Borough. Within a decade he had donated a prize for athletics in Athens and was urging the Greeks to revive their ancient Games. He had also begun agitating for physical education to be compulsory at primary schools in England, an effort he sustained until the measure was finally passed in 1894. Brookes, with help from John Hulley of Liverpool and Ernst Ravenstein of London, staged Britain's first National Olympian Games at the Crystal Palace in 1866. W.G. Grace won the 440yd hurdles while simultaneously playing cricket for England at the Oval. Wenlock's annual games became an important focus for the growing band of men developing sport in Britain, but Brookes's egalitarian views on sport - that it should embrace all classes - temporarily fell foul of amateur exclusivity. In 1890, Baron Pierre de Coubertin travelled to Much Wenlock, met Brookes and watched the Wenlock Olympian Games. Within two years, Coubertin had decided to revive Olympic Games as an international sporting championship, and in 1896, the first of the IOC's Olympic Games were held in Athens. Brookes died just 17 weeks short of seeing international Olympic Games become a reality. In this engaging and lively account, Catherine Beale tells the story of the Wenlock Olympian Games, considers their influence on the modern Olympics, and shows why Coubertin, though he failed fully to credit Brookes's contribution to the movement, concluded that 'The Wenlock people alone have preserved and followed the true Olympian traditions'.

Here, for the first time, the Oval Test match of 1882 - every bit as dramatic as anything in the 2005 season - is recreated ball by ball all the way to the agonising climax when Australia won by 7 runs. Here, too, is the social context of that match, from the founding of Australia, spiced with a host of insights into how cricket was born and how it grew in a vast, rugged land. The story of The Ashes is more, much more. When the Hon. Ivo Bligh took an England team to Australia in 1882 - 83 he said he was going to reclaim the Ashes of English cricket, lost at the Oval. That led to a meeting with a property baron near Melbourne, an invitation for the team to stay at his mansion for Christmas - a knock-about match against the staff - and the baron's wife, who had a little urn on her mantelpiece. We know what went in it!

The stories are completely varied and range from comical, unusual, interesting, scary and fascinating. All the supporters feature in the book speak with equal passion about the club they all clearly adore. It starts with supporters' tales in Leeds itself and then goes around the west side of England, into Wales, across to Southern and Northern Ireland, over to America and Canada, down to the Caribbean. Further south to Brazil and Argentina, it then continues around the globe to places such as South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, Russia, Norway, Iceland and many more. Throughout the book there are tales of the author's experiences following the club and there are three chapters from 'super-fan' Gary Edwards, who has only missed one Leeds match including all pre-season friendlies anywhere in the world since 1968.

The "Burnley FC Miscellany" offers a detailed history of Burnley FC, where you can read some of the odd, quaint and quirky things that have been part of the past 125 years of Clarets history. 'Read all about it!' in "The Burnley FC Miscellany". Burnley Football Club come from the smallest town ever to win League Division One and the FA Cup. Some big city clubs currently in the Premier League have won neither! Burnley FC's history sparkles with international players, 'football firsts' and record-breaking achievements. Among their players have been a Footballer of the Year, one who played for Great Britain, several who played in World Cups and at least one who captained his country. But this book is mainly about Burnley 'off the record'. Here you can read some of the odd, quaint and quirky things that have been part of the past 125 years of Clarets history. Who scored three goals for England and was never picked again? When did Burnley play 10 Scots in the first team, making the only Englishman feel 'lonely'? And what has golf in a hotel bedroom got to do with anything? When Burnley were in Division Four, how was it that they attracted over 80,000 to watch them in one game? When did 10 Blackburn Rovers players walk off the pitch? Which position did Blackadder play in the Burnley team? And which bricklayer became the club's greatest ever player?

This is a book guaranteed to provide hours of fun for Leyton Orient's loyal fans. Containing over 1,300 challenging questions, "Leyton Orient The Official Quiz Book" will test the memory of all O's fans with sections covering every aspect of the club's history. Some of the questions being fairly easy, and some a little more difficult, but all done with the purpose of enlightening all O's and footballing fans around the world about our grand history and important events. It also covers many of the players and officials over the years right down to today when we all look to the Gaffer, Russell Slade and his boys taking O's up the League. As informative as it is entertaining, this book is guaranteed to provide hours of fun for Leyton Orient's loyal fans.

Containing 1,000 challenging questions, "The Blue Army Quiz Book" will test the memory of all Leicester City fans with sections covering every aspect of the club's history. It is all here, from the club's humble beginning at Fosse Road through to the magnificent King Power Stadium, from fixtures with Harborough Town through to Real Madrid, from Arthur Chandler to Gary Lineker, Johnny Duncan to Sven Goran Erikson, from a 6-6 draw with Arsenal to Wembley wins, and from relegation battles to promotion play-offs. Informative as it is entertaining, this book is guaranteed to provide hours of fun for Leicester's Blue Army of fans.

This is a complete history of Norwich City, including facts, figures, highs and lows and a short biography on each personality. It is a must read for all Norwich supporters that appreciate those whose time at Norwich have done so much to shape a brilliant club. "Hall of Fame - Norwich's All Time Greats" looks at some fascinating facts and figures about the Hall of Fame in general before examining each personality in more detail though a short biography. The biographies look at each characters career, focusing specifically on their achievements, their records and their memorable moments with Norwich City illustrating just why Canary supporters hold them in such great esteem. Written in chronological order it takes you on a journey through the complete history of Norwich City, reliving the many successes and also the lows, through the 'Famers' involved in that era.

This book is the definitive guide to Sheffield Wednesday and will be on the wish list of every Owl fan. The story of Wednesday, from its beginnings in the 19th century to the present day, is covered in fascinating detail. It is followed by profiles of the club's great players, the managers, matches to remember and a history of the grounds. In addition, the full season-by-season record of every first-team League and Cup game they have contested is documented. Summaries, records and statistics complete the picture. The result is a volume that is an essential addition to the bookshelves of any Owls fan. Put simply, this is a book that provides everything any Sheffield Wednesday fan, and indeed any football fan, would want to know about Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.

• How can managers design and implement effective high performance programmes in sport?
• What are the key challenges in managing elite athletes, sports people and teams?

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive introduction to management practice, process and policy in elite and high performance sport (HPS). Drawing on real-world case-studies of elite sport around the world, the book shows a conceptual framework for studying and analysing high performance sport and introduces the skills and techniques that managers and administrators will need to develop effective HPS programmes.

The book examines the macro level factors that determine a nation s sporting success, including political, social and cultural elements, and then moves on to unpack the specifics of elite athlete and team management at a micro level. Adopting an integrated, holistic approach throughout, the book highlights best practice in every key area of an HPS programme, including:

• defining performance and success
• organizational structure and leadership
• finance, funding and marketing
• coaching and coach development
• talent identification and development
• competition and events
• training and facilities
• scientific research and sport science support.

The book features contributions from world-leading sport management academics as well as practitioners with experience of managing HPS programmes at world and Olympic level. Each chapter includes a full range of useful features, such as summaries, case-studies, review questions and guides to further reading. This is essential reading for all serious students and professionals working in sport management or high performance sport.

In most accounts of Olympic history across the world, India's Olympic journey is a mere footnote. This book is a corrective. Drawing on newly available and hitherto unused archival sources, it demonstrates that India was an important strategic outpost in the Olympic movement that started as a global phenomenon at the turn of the twentieth century. Among the questions the authors answer are: When and how did the Olympic ideology take root in India? Who were the early players and why did they appropriate Olympic sport to further their political ambitions? What explains India's eight consecutive gold medals in Olympic men's hockey between 1928 and 1956 and what altered the situation drastically, so much so that the team failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games? India and the Olympics also explores why the Indian elite became obsessed with the Olympic ideal at the turn of the twentieth century and how this obsession relates to India's quest for a national and international identity. It conclusively validates the contention that the essence of Olympism does not reside in medals won, records broken or television rights sold as ends in themselves. Particularly for India, the Olympic movement, including the relevant records and statistics, is important because it provides a unique prism to understand the complex evolution of modern Indian society.

Good qualitative research can help sport management researchers and industry professionals solve difficult problems and better understand their organisations, stakeholders and performance. Now in a fully revised and extended new edition, this book is a user-friendly introduction to qualitative methods in sport management. Covering the full research process from research planning to reporting results, this edition includes expanded coverage of cutting-edge areas including digital and social media research, critical realism, and social network analysis. The book examines the reflective and interrogative processes required for developing effective qualitative research questions and includes a deeper discussion of ontology and epistemology in the light of today's rapidly changing society. It takes the reader step-by-step through essential and emerging qualitative methods, from actor network theory and ethnography to computer-assisted data analysis and sampling typologies. Every chapter includes examples of real qualitative research, including shorter "research briefs" and extended case studies, reflecting the exciting qualitative research that is currently occurring in sport business and management, and highlighting the links between research and sport management practice. This is essential reading for courses in sport management, sport business, sport policy, sport marketing, sport media, and communications. It provides students, researchers, and practitioners with the knowledge and skills to undertake qualitative research while deepening their understanding of how the social world can be perceived and interpreted through a particular theoretical lens. Useful online materials include recommended readings and PowerPoint slides.

This volume takes readers inside the high-stakes game of public-private partnerships for major league sports facilities, explaining why some cities made better deals than others, assessing the best practices and common pitfalls in deal structuring and facility leases, as well as highlighting important differences across markets, leagues, facility types, public actors, subsidy delivery mechanisms, and urban development aspirations. It concludes with speculations about the next round of facility replacement amidst rapid changes in broadcast technology, shrinking domestic audiences, and the globalization of sport.

Cross-cultural management is an important facet of the globalized sport industry. Sport managers must be skilled at working with individuals from diverse cultures and aware of the key issues affecting sport on a global level. This book brings together cutting-edge research from leading sport scholars from around the world, to illuminate some of those important issues and to demonstrate what cross-cultural management looks like in a sporting context. Presenting case studies from countries as diverse as the US, Brazil, Poland and Venezuela, and across a range of sports from football to basketball, the book presents new empirical material derived from a range of inquiry protocols, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. It offers critical analyses of cross-cultural and managerial issues in key areas such as group cohesiveness, group communications, and misperception and misinterpretation. Making an important contribution to our understanding of both theory and practice in sport management, this book is fascinating reading for any student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in global and international sport.

Sport is both a global business and a vehicle for social inclusion and community development. This book examines key performance areas in sport management that cut across cultural, economic and geographical borders, from both commercial and social justice perspectives. Written by leading sport management and sport development scholars from around the world, the book highlights international management challenges, suggests appropriate management practices, and raises questions to stimulate further debate. From a commercial sport management perspective it explores key topics including the management of sport communication in an age of digital media, crowd funding in sport, managing government and commercial alliances, and managing power and politics in sport. From a social justice perspective, it examines issues including sport volunteer management, the management of sport for inclusion, and academic partnerships in international sport management. Offering an authoritative survey of contemporary international sport management, as well as signposts for future research and practice, this is fascinating reading for all students, researchers and practitioners working in sport management or sport development.

Across six of the seven continents on which cricket is played, there are some remarkable cricket grounds. From a tidal strip of sand outside the Ship Inn at Elie, in Fife, to the monumental Melbourne Cricket Ground with its 100,000 capacity, this book features the extraordinary places and venues in which cricket is played. Many grounds have remarkably beautiful settings. There is the rugged Devonian charm of Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club set in the Valley of the Rocks, not far from the North Devon coast. Then there is the vividly-coloured, almost Lego-like structure of Dharamshala pavilion in Northern India where local resident the Dalai Lama has watched a match. Many of England's greatest players have come from public schools, and there are some wonderful examples of their cricket grounds such as Sedbergh and Milton Abbey. Country houses such as Audley End and Blenheim Palace form the backdrop to many cricket pitches, or castles, such as Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, or even Portchester Castle, where there is a cricket ground inside the castle walls. Sri Lanka's test ground, Galle, has a fort looming above it, while Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, has the unmistakeable Table Mountain as the backdrop. Some of the stunning imagery has a modern feel. Queenstown cricket ground has international jets taking off just yards from the playing action, while Singapore Cricket Club is an oasis of lush green set against a 21st century array of high-rise towers. Then there are cricket grounds in unusual places; Hawaii, Corfu, Berlin, Slovenia and St Moritz to name but a few.

Olympic Aspirations: Realised and Unrealised surveys more than a century of the Olympic Movement's promotion of Olympic ideals internationally. The idea for Olympic Aspirations emerged at the world-renowned annual Beijing Academic Forum just months after the city hosted the impressive 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. One section of the Forum was devoted to the impact of the Olympic Movement on China and on China's image in the world. The tone at times was too self-congratulatory for some present. The critical discussion that continued into late 2010 inspired this book. Olympic Aspirations is a companion volume to the well-received Olympic Legacies: Intended and Unintended and draws on expertise from academics in all parts of the world. Both volumes have a similar purpose: to record Olympic ideals achieved but more importantly, to stimulate reflection on those as yet unachieved. Both are constructive in approach, positive in tone and optimistic in attitude. Olympic Aspirations offers original and insightful arguments that address the actions the Olympic Movement has taken to improve the Games. It argues that these actions are as yet incomplete. In concert with Olympic Legacies, it presents two sides of the same coin minted to advance the purity of the Olympic 'coinage'. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

The Olympic Games have become the definitive sports event, with an unparalleled global reach and a remarkably diverse constituency of stakeholders, from the IOC and International Federations to athletes, sponsors and fans. It has been estimated, for example, that 3.6 billion people (about half of the world population) watched at least one minute of the Beijing Games in 2008 on television. The driving force behind the rise of the modern Olympics has been the Olympic marketing programme, which has acted as a catalyst for cooperation between stakeholders and driven the promotion, financial security and stability of the Olympic movement. This book is the first to explain the principles of Olympic marketing and to demonstrate how they can be applied successfully in all other areas of sports marketing and management. The book outlines a strategic and operational framework based on three types of co-productive relationships (market, network and informal) and explains how this framework can guide professional marketing practice. Containing case studies, summaries, insight boxes and examples of best practice in every chapter, this book is important reading for all students and practitioners working in sports marketing, sports management or Olympic studies.

The Olympic Games have become the definitive sports event, with an unparalleled global reach and a remarkably diverse constituency of stakeholders, from the IOC and International Federations to athletes, sponsors and fans. It has been estimated, for example, that 3.6 billion people (about half of the world population) watched at least one minute of the Beijing Games in 2008 on television. The driving force behind the rise of the modern Olympics has been the Olympic marketing programme, which has acted as a catalyst for cooperation between stakeholders and driven the promotion, financial security and stability of the Olympic movement. This book is the first to explain the principles of Olympic marketing and to demonstrate how they can be applied successfully in all other areas of sports marketing and management. The book outlines a strategic and operational framework based on three types of co-productive relationships (market, network and informal) and explains how this framework can guide professional marketing practice. Containing case studies, summaries, insight boxes and examples of best practice in every chapter, this book is important reading for all students and practitioners working in sports marketing, sports management or Olympic studies.

This collection of essays, written by a number of respected sport management scholars, addresses many of the challenges and issues facing today's sport management academic programs. It is intended to begin a professional and scholarly discussion to identify the best, or at least the most logical, paths to follow for sport management programs and the industry with which they are so closely aligned. Contributors, invited to participate based on their recognized areas of expertise, address specific topics using their own unique voices and writing styles. In the ebook version, essays link to video introductions by the authors and to online discussion forums where readers can respond to the issues presented in the essays. From the Preface: The field of sport management stands at an academic crossroads; the essays in this book address the following and other emerging questions: Should our successful field of study continue to model other disciplines and perpetuate their successes, as well as their shortcomings, or should we determine our own specific model for academic success? How are we doing in preparing future sport managers to perform in the industry and on the global stage? Where do we belong in the scheme of academe? The book's goal is to generate discussion among sport management professors, industry professionals who serve as adjunct faculty and participate on sport management program advisory boards, doctoral students who intend to teach in sport management programs, and others who explore and critique higher education in general.