Search results

The purpose of this paper is to reframe analyses of stadium and arena subsidization policies from perspectives centered upon economic and financial issues toward a perspective focused on broader issues of urban governance and the public purposes of sports facilities. Such assessments would provide a better understanding of whether such use of public resources represents good public policy.

To demonstrate this, the paper uses an integrated literature review to offer a historical analysis of sport facility development within the context of the broader assumptions that shape public policy and how sports have been used toward achieving particular public goals. This history provides a foundation for an analysis of sports facility development within the current moment as cities require team owners to invest in redevelopment activities in the neighborhoods surrounding sports facilities.

This paper asserts that focusing on the economic and financial aspects of sports facility development is a perspective that is too narrow. Instead, this paper shows that a more holistic approach, beginning with the dominant mode of urban governance and how its assumptions underlie the public purposes for which stadiums and arenas are used, provides a better explanatory framework and a deeper understanding of the issue in the contemporary moment.

Moving beyond the question of economic efficacy, the public purpose-centered approach of this paper seeks to place subsidization policies into a broader dialog with other priorities toward maximizing the public good among the broadest population.

This paper expands upon existing sports sponsorship 'match-up' research by offering an interview-driven, empirically-grounded, 'thick' description of the decision-making processes of sports organisations in developing athlete-sponsor-team relationships. By focusing on a particular NASCAR (The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) organisation (BAM Racing), the study offers an in-depth interpretation of the sometimes 'messy' methods employed by executives in grafting an effective, synergistic match-up. The paper concludes with a discussion on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

This paper aims to investigate the application of adaptive integration in element-free Galerkin methods for solving problems in structural and solid mechanics to obtain accurate reference solutions.

An adaptive quadrature algorithm which allows user control over integration accuracy, previously developed for integrating boundary value problems, is adapted to elasticity problems. The algorithm allows the development of a convergence study procedure that takes into account both integration and discretisation errors. The convergence procedure is demonstrated using an elasticity problem which has an analytical solution and is then applied to accurately solve a soft-tissue extension problem involving large deformations.

The developed convergence procedure, based on the presented adaptive integration scheme, allows the computation of accurate reference solutions for challenging problems which do not have an analytical or finite element solution.

This paper investigates the application of adaptive quadrature to solid mechanics problems in engineering analysis using the element-free Galerkin method to obtain accurate reference solutions. The proposed convergence procedure allows the user to independently examine and control the contribution of integration and discretisation errors to the overall solution error. This allows the computation of reference solutions for very challenging problems which do not have an analytical or even a finite element solution (such as very large deformation problems).

Employability skills have transformed from the acquisition of university degrees to possessions of cognate skills other than only degrees that can help employees secure employment in contemporary work environments. This study evaluates essential skills that will prepare millennia of youths and graduates for employment in the present job market. The study investigated four major hypotheses to underscore the employability opportunities of graduates in challenging 21st-century work environments.

To clearly gain an understanding of women’s disparity in society, the study employed a qualitative approach to evaluate the incidence of gender prejudice in a men’s dominant world. The study utilised two distinguished sampling strategies, purposive and snowballing sampling techniques, which were deemed suitable and useful due to the nature of the study. The study recruited 42 participants by conducting semi-structured interview sessions for the study. The study employed a deductive approach to analyse the data obtained from participants. A thematic content analysis was used to take away prejudice and establish an overarching impression of the interviewed data. Atlas.ti was used to analyse the transcribed interview data from the participants to establish common themes from the surveyed informants.

The results of this investigation indicated that there is a deep-rooted trend of institutionalised men’s dominance in politics and religious leadership. Women perceived less representation and men dominated the two domains of existence in their local environment. The study established that women are optimistic about a turnaround narrative on gender equality in politics and religious leadership. They expressed their concern about strengthened public debate and campaigns on women’s representation, and against gender discrimination. The study further shows that women are influencing the ethical and moral sense for change against women’s neglect in society. They expressed their concerns against the selection of people into political offices for elected political posts and observed the peculiarity of political godfathers fixing their favourite men into those offices.

The study discovered that women are leading campaigns for their representation in politics as well as church leadership today. The novelty of this study bothering around two domains of women’s lives – politics and religion, in particular, church leadership. These have not been evidence before in a study.

Although both sports and cities have transformed over the last century, research on the intersection of sports and urban development remains scarce. This special issue was designed to advance a research agenda in relation to sports and urban development. The sports and urban development special issue of International Journal of Sport Marketing and Sponsorship brings together a collection of conceptual, empirical and commentary papers from four continents. Themes explored in this special issue include legacy, governance, image, climate change and sustainability. We encourage collaborative approaches between sport researchers and those with a focus on urban development, urban design and urban governance. Understanding the role of sports in the development of smart cities is an excellent opportunity for these collaborations to occur.

A comprehensive review of literature was undertaken to assess the literature related to sports and urban development.

In addition to this introductory article, there are ten manuscripts selected for this special issue investigating sports and urban development.

This special issue seeks to promote more research on sports and urban development, ultimately ultimately advancing theories and providing solutions.