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Sports marketing is a dynamic subject area linking academic research, marketing practitioners and public policy planners. This special issue of Marketing Intelligence and Planning focusses on “The Dynamics of Sports Marketing” by including a number of articles on this topic. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these issues by highlighting the growing area of sports marketing, sport entrepreneurship and sport management.

Sports marketing contributes to the future of the global economy because of its linkage to other industries including manufacturing, tourism, education and technology. The role of marketing intelligence and planning for the sport sector is crucial for sport and related organizations as a way to drive the global economy and spur growth. In sport organizations, marketing consists of planning and forecasting for future demand.

The findings of this introduction paper to the special journal issue highlight how it is interesting to see how sports marketing will continue to be dynamic due to its importance in building marketing practice with theory.

This paper discusses the main sports marketing issues raised by the articles in this special issue and suggest directions for future research.

Preparing and presenting proper marketing programs are of paramount importance in establishing and developing sport activities in any country. The reasons behind the apparent lack of such programs in Iran are not the result of unwillingness of sport institutions to adopt these programs but are mainly because of numerous barriers and problems facing these organizations. This paper aims to clarify and examine these barriers.

By extensively studying electronic databases of Iran and some other countries, we recognized that there were two kinds of problems: internal problems and external ones. The internal problems were deemed more important and were further categorized into problems and barriers involving: management (five factors), goals and strategies (three factors), marketing policy (six factors), culture structure (three factors), employees (three factors) and finally organizational structure (three factors). After all the 23 obstructive factors were determined, sport and marketing experts were asked for their inputs in order to determine the validity, importance and ranking of these factors. For analyzing the data t‐test was utilized and determination of priorities was done by Freidman test.

The findings from this study reveal that, 23 internal factors that can act as barriers to hinder the progress of sport marketing were almost unanimously confirmed by the experts. The experts also agreed that removing these barriers will significantly improve both general and championship sport activities in Iran.

The approach and results have significant implications for sport institution managers in Iran.

Looks at the sports industry and addresses the current situation for authors seeking to publish in the area of sports marketing. Sports currently represents the eleventh largest industry in the USA. Despite this, there are few mainstream marketing journals willing to publish manuscripts on sports marketing. In an effort to circumvent this problem, some sports marketing authors have “disguised” their research under the guise of “servicescapes” or leisure services. Looks at the topical content of the leading outlet for sports marketing manuscripts, Sport Marketing Quarterly. The author classifies the articles into 18 categories. Sponsorship is the most frequent topic for sport marketing papers, followed by general research and research on fans, spectators, and participants. Provides an extensive bibliography of sport‐marketing articles published in academic journals. While a few of these are in marketing journals, the vast majority are published “out of field”.

The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively characterise the interdisciplinary phenomenon of ambush marketing in sports, structure its manifestations, illustrate the consequences associated with ambush marketing and provide a critical evaluation from an objective perspective.

Various approaches to the definition of ambush marketing are presented and the objectives pursued with ambush marketing are identified. In this paper a new approach has been developed to structure the strategies and manifestations of ambush marketing.

It is a fine line between creative marketing and infringing on sponsorship rights. So the interdisciplinary phenomenon ambush marketing is discussed controversially. Ambush marketing is situated at the intersection of two opposing spheres of interest conducting a battle for shares of the marketing potential of a sports event. On one side there is the disparaging view of ambush marketing founded on legal and/or ethical considerations. On the other, the author has the respectful assessment of ambushers characterised by their innovative, creative marketing.

The analysis conducted in this paper leads to the conclusion that a general evaluation or condemnation of ambush marketing is not feasible. A four-field matrix emerges from the combination of a legal-statutory consideration on one hand and an ethical-moral assessment on the other.

The paper describes and structures ambush marketing in a novel form and discusses illustrating examples from major sporting events. Ambush marketing is evaluated from a neutral perspective by summarising the opportunities and threats of ambush marketing which leads to a nuanced contemplation of ambush marketing.

This study seeks to examine how a sport league, a unique feature of professional sport, influences the business‐to‐business marketing of teams participating in the sport league.

This study uses a qualitative research design based on a single case study, the UCI ProTour in professional road cycling. The primary sources consist of 27 semi‐structured interviews complemented by written sources and controlled for construct validity, external validity and reliability.

From a theoretical point of view, a sport league is a marketing channel network (a specific type of an intentionally developed business network or IDBN). Theoretical analysis also reveals that the teams' business‐to‐business marketing is positively related to the network's value‐creating system. Empirically, it is argued that the introduction of a marketing channel network has a positive influence on the financial value of the teams' business‐to‐business market but does not result in a change in the business demographics of corporate sponsors.

The study has possible sport‐specific limitations.

Business‐to‐business marketers and sport league managers should pay attention to the characteristics of the sport league as these influence the teams' business‐to‐business market. This is especially valid for sports in which teams rely strongly on sport sponsoring and, to a lesser extend, on gate revenues, television rights and prize money.

For the first time, this study examines and provides data on the business‐to‐business environment of teams in professional road cycling. It contributes to the literature of international sport marketing and professional road cycling, a sport gaining momentum in various countries and which is understudied in comparison to other sports.

The purpose of this research was to develop the Sports Consumer-Team Relationship Quality Scale (SCTRQS). In Study I, content validity was established through a comprehensive review of literature and tests of content validity, including expert review. Based on the assessment of psychometric properties, theoretical relevance of the items and parsimoniousness of the scale, items were refined for two following studies. Results indicated that the SCTRQS would be a valid tool for marketers and managers to assess relationship quality with their consumers for marketing strategies, effectiveness of advertising campaigns, sponsorship value and value for stakeholders.

This paper explains how the location of motorsports events is an integral part of the marketing of the sport of motor racing and of all its attendant commercial interests. Case studies of the major motorsports events staged in public street circuits in Australia are used to illustrate how the locations have particular symbolic significance that adds legitimacy to the sport of motor racing, and the messages and impacts associated with these events. The paper examines the wider significance of allowing special public spaces in cities to be used for motorsports events, and contends that the marketing of sporting events should not be considered independently of the major challenges facing the world.

Based on the work of Parent (2008) on mega sports events, this paper explores the relationships among events stakeholders in Olympic Games host/bid city marketing. It outlines research questions, identifies a theoretical framework to better understand Olympic city marketing, presents four essays related to issues within this framework, and provides conclusions and suggestions for future research.

Few would question that one of the most significant determinants of growth in the sport industry — from a sport management, marketing, and sponsorship perspective — has been the inf luence of globalization. Product expansion and communication messages have targeted the 'global consumer,' and the recognition of a 'global brand' has come to epitomize successful sport marketing. Or, has it? Although global management practices present the possibility of expanded consumer markets, a number of marketing strategists have recently begun to question the use of standardized global marketing campaigns that lack national or regional distinctiveness. At issue, is the positioning of 'regionalism' within global sport marketing strategies. This paper will investigate the role of 'regionalism' in sport marketing through; a) an examination of the regional sport marketing strategy of a leading Canadian all-sports television cable network (Rogers Sportsnet) that targets four distinct regions across Canada, and b) a survey of Canadian Generation Y youth sport participation and spectatorship trends across four regions. Implications for regional positioning within sport marketing strategies will also be discussed.