This interesting book discusses the emergence and development of five extremely popular team sports OCo baseball, basketball, football-soccer, ice hockey and cricket OCo since the 1800s in 15 different countries. It addresses some of the most provocative, recent and unique economic and business issues associated with team sports in the various nations. For example, to what extent has each of these spectator sports prospered as industries, and will they expand into other regions of the world during the early to mid-2000s? This book answers these questions, and compares the performances of each country''s amateur, semiprofessional and/or professional sports leagues and their respective teams by providing detailed statistics and other relevant historical information."

Athletes are on the move. In some sports this involves labour, movement from one country to another within or between continents. In other sports, athletes assume an almost nomadic migratory lifestyle, constantly on the move from one sport festival to another. In addition, it appears that sport migration is gaining momentum and that it is closely interwoven with the broader process of global sport development taking place in the late twentieth century.

This book examines the formation of a globally oriented sports system in China, from the beginning of the reform process in 1978 to the present, focusing on the period after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. It analyses how this system has shaped domestic social class identities and its role in international Chinese state politics. Despite advances in the marketization of the sports industry through previous eras, the Chinese state expanded investment in a set of global sports following the heavily government-directed drive towards national success at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. This would be a time when the government focused on policies set to service a growing domestic middle-class and an increasingly wide-ranging set of international interests, with sporting investments being at the heart of their strategic plan. However, reform has proven difficult. The book presents a well-rounded account of this effort with tennis and soccer providing important case studies of the internal and external dynamics of this time. As such, the book will be of interest to researchers and students of globalization of sport, those studying East Asian sports development, and those who are interested in understanding China more broadly.

This book explores the transformation of cultural and national identity of global sports fans in South Korea, which has undergone extensive cultural and economic globalization since the 1990s. Through ethnographic research of Korean Major League Baseball fans and their online community, this book demonstrates how a postcolonial nation and its people are developing long-distance affiliation with American sports accompanied by nationalist sentiments and regional rivalry. Becoming an MLB fan in South Korea does not simply lead one to nurturing a cosmopolitan identity, but to reconstituting one’s national imaginations. Younghan Cho suggests individuated nationalism as the changing nature of the national among the Korean MLB fandom in which the national is articulated by personal choices, consumer rights and free market principles. The analysis of the Korean MLB fandom illuminates the complicated and even contradictory procedures of decentering and fragmenting nationalism in South Korea, which have been balanced by recalling nationalism in combination with neoliberal governmentality.

Explains why cities dig deep in their pockets to host the Olympics and countries breed teams for success on the world soccer stage.

At the global level, sport is ruled by a set of organizations including giants such as the IOC (Olympics), FIFA (soccer), and the IAAF (athletics) as well as sporting minnows such as the World Armsport Federation (armwrestling). Many of these bodies have been surrounded by controversy during their histories, after having to adjust to the reali

"Lifts the analysis out of the nuts and bolts of sports policy and into some really thought-provoking areas which will equip the policy maker for the challenges of the 21st century" - Dominic Malcolm, Loughborough University "This is an excellent analysis of the significance of globalisation for national sport policy and especially of the impact of global processes at the local socio-cultural level" - Barrie Houlihan, Loughborough University Drawing upon a range of empirical case studies, Catherine Palmer situates sports policy within a broader consideration of global processes, practices and consequences, exploring the relationship between: the local and the global globalization and governance new technologies human rights the environment corporate responsibility. In doing so she sets out the ground for an understanding of policy making in sport and how this affects society. Covering both theory and practice, it is a detailed and thought provoking resource for students of sports policy, sports development, sports management and sports studies.

Mega-events represent an important moment in the life of a city, providing a useful lens through which we may analyse their cultural, social, political and economic development. In the wake of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) concerns about ’gigantism’ and wider public concerns about rising costs, it was imperative in the C21st to demonstrate the long term benefits that arose for the city and nations from hosting premier sporting events. ’London 2012’ was the first to integrate the concept of legacy from the moment a bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games was being considered. London proposed an ambitious programme of urban renewal for East London. Subsequent host city bids have adopted the ’legacy narrative’ and, as this book demonstrates, aligned this to major schemes of urban development and renewal. Bringing together scholars, practitioners and policy makers, this book focuses upon the legacies sought by cities that host major sports events. It analyses how governments, the IOC and others define and measure ’legacy’. It also focuses upon the challenges and opportunities facing future host cities of mega-events, looking at their aspirations and the intended impact upon their domestic and international development. It questions what the global shift in geographical location of mega-events means for sports development and the business of sport, what the attractions are for cities seeking to harness the hosting of a mega-event, and whether there may be longer term consequences for the bidding and hosting major sporting events in the wake of the widespread social unrest that accompanied the preparations in Brazil for hosting the FIFA World Cup (2014) and the summer Olympics (2016) and in Turkey, where there was significant opposition to bid for the 2020 summer Olympiad.

Sport has changed. Traditions and territorial distinctions are dissolving as a result of new global, political, economic and cultural conditions. The team of authors examine these changes, investigating the power relations that govern the new global sport and assessing the consequences for the future of sport. The book is founded on a series of case studies, linked by a common process-sociological approach, and is divided into four sections - each dealing with an important aspect of sport and globalization: * the local-global nexus - how global sports processes are played out at the level of local communities * lived experiences - the reality of global sport for players and supporters * identity politics - the impact of global sport on national consciousness * sporting futures - the emergent political, economic and cultural forces that are shaping global sport, and their implications for its development. The text introduces new approaches to the study of sport and globalization, updating and extending Maguire's previous work, and is therefore an essential resource for all those working in this fast-changing area.

This book examines the global sports ecosystem through three of its central pillars: Sport marketing, sports equipment manufacture and sales, and sport governance and organization. By focusing on these three themes, the book presents a nuanced and multi-faceted view of how the global sports economy works and what its main strategic challenges and opportunities are. Offering a balance between theory and practice, and adopting an international perspective with case studies and examples from the Americas, Europe and Asia, the book addresses key issues such as corporate social responsibility, the impact of culture on international sport business, innovation and entrepreneurship, and consumer behaviour. The Global Sport Economy is fascinating reading for students, researchers and practitioners with an interest in sport business and management, sport marketing, the sporting goods industry and distribution and sport governance.