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Attendance at matches in the smaller European football leagues is challenged by the increased number of live broadcast matches, particularly covering the biggest leagues. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of live broadcasting, match scheduling and other factors on stadium attendance in the top division of Norwegian football.

The analysis is based on a fixed effects regression model on attendance at match levels covering the period 2005 to 2011.

The main results show two different effects. While live broadcast domestic matches on “free TV” is positively correlated to stadium attendance, the increased number of “imported” matches from the big-five leagues is a substitute. Moreover, matches played on weekdays have a lower level of attendance than weekend matches.

The increased number of imported live broadcast football matches from the biggest European leagues influences and widens the financial gap between the biggest and the smaller football leagues. One possible solution for reducing the substitution effect from these matches is a more efficient match schedule in the Norwegian top division in football.

Norway has a small population with a high interest for football. This paper measures effects on attendance in the Norwegian top division in football matches with regards to the increased number of live broadcast matches both from the domestic league and from the big five football leagues.

This paper sought to determine how a major sport event can become trapped in a winner's curse, in which the fierce competition to host the event forces organisers to spend more on acquiring and hosting it than what it is worth in economic terms.

This study used a combination of document analysis and 47 in-depth interviews with 51 individuals representing various private and public organisations involved in the implementation of the UCI 2017 Road Cycling World Championship. Snowball sampling and a semi-structured interview guide were used to ensure coverage of all relevant information.

The organiser and the host municipal lacked the necessary experience with events of this size and character. Information from previous championships events was not transferred, and the municipality administration did not utilise experiences from hosting previous events. Limited financial resources prevented the organiser from hiring enough employees with the necessary competence. Lack of communication between the stakeholders who contributed in hosting the event reduced the quality of planning and preparations. A dubious culture and lack of seriousness within the Norwegian Cycling Federation, which was the owner of organising company, seemed to have been transferred to organiser.

The research identifies some of the reasons why major sports events so often turns out to be more problematic than expected in economic terms, not only for the organiser but also for actors in the public sector in the host city. The novelty is that it goes into depth on the underlying reasons and the dynamic forces behind these problems.

This article analyses how different configurations of stakeholders create opportunities for the production of popular TV sports contests. Based on qualitative methodologies, biathlon and cross-country skiing are used as contrasting cases. The paper concludes that the relative success of the International Biathlon Union is due to a favourable network position in relation to stakeholders. By comparison, the International Ski Federation suffers from a weak position within a dense stakeholder network.

The international trade of players in European club football does not seem to have had any negative effects on the national teams in the major leagues. Data presented in this article indicate a potentially positive effect for England and no effect for Spain, Italy and Germany. Contrary to this, the national teams in Norway, Greece and France seem to have benefited from exporting players to leagues of better quality than their own domestic leagues.

There are indications that commercial stakeholders are reluctant to associate with sports involved in doping scandals. A survey of 925 Norwegian sports consumers supports this reluctance, showing no tolerance for pure doping substances. The majority were in favour of tough responses to athletes and sports involved in doping. Older respondents were more negative towards doping. Those who were strongly interested in sport were more willing than others to accept doping.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what degree football clubs recruit talents and give them playing time in matches. It also investigates if foreign players displace younger talents. Furthermore, it analyses to what degree the use of younger talents and foreign players influence the performances of clubs.

The empirical data are from Norwegian elite clubs, and come from two web sites: www.altomfotball and www.nettavisen.no. The analyses were done by means of OLS-regressions.

OLS-regressions showed that clubs that had many foreign players gave less playing time to U20 players than other clubs did. However, these clubs did not have fewer younger talents in the squad than other clubs did. This indicates that foreign players reduce the playing time being given to younger players, but not their ability to train with other teammates. The clubs that won the most points gave less playing time to U20 players (in terms of minutes). Surprisingly, the regression showed that the clubs that had most foreign players did not win more points than others.

Norwegian football clubs have significantly less financial resources than, for example, clubs in the big European football nations. Therefore, more research is necessary to find out whether the findings in this research corresponds with the pattern in other nations.

So far, the discussions about these issues have mainly been based on anecdotal evidence and very little on the findings in academic research. Therefore, this research give new insight to a field that needs more empirical-based analyses.