Sports figures, events, and organizations affect our society in vast, varied, and sometimes unexpected ways. To gain a broad-based understanding of how sport interfaces with public policy issues, a variety of viewpoints must be considered. Sport and Public Policy: Social, Political, and Economic Perspectives is the only text that tackles some of the most compelling connections between the sports world and public policy decisions from a broad interdisciplinary perspective—including economics, history, urban planning, not-for-profit administration, public health, communications, political science, and philosophy. With contributions from a wide range of scholarly disciplines, this contemporary resource enhances traditional conversation and gives readers a fresh outlook on economic and political issues in sport.

Sport and Public Policy presents a contemporary view of how to understand and analyze complex and controversial topics. It begins by examining issues related to professional sports—including the unique nature of American sports leagues, the decisions and conflicts involved in the organization of sports leagues and events, and labor strikes and conflicts. It then examines professional sports, cities, and public finance. Readers are drawn into thought-provoking discussion of issues such as public investment in sports facilities, the cartel power of American sports leagues, and the contrasting structures that govern international sports like soccer. The book also presents an example of a unique model of not-for-profit community ownership in action, which readers can consider for their own cities.

Sport and Public Policy explores amateur sports and public health by presenting a fresh perspective on the link between sports and society, the dwindling levels of African-American participation in baseball, and whether or not the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s actions align with its stated principles and values. It also challenges the reader to think globally through a discussion of how sports affect and are affected by international relations, how a changing world economy is affecting the Olympic games, Major League Baseball’s efforts at global expansion, and the effects of global consumer marketing efforts.

The chapters encourage readers to consider their role, both as participants in sports and as actors who can influence markets and policy decisions through individual choices that affect their communities. To enhance the learning experience, Sport and Public Policy offers the following:

• An application and implementation section in select chapters helps readers understand how to apply the content in their own roles in the sport industry or society.
  
• The case studies added to most chapters illustrate how the information and research are being applied in the real world.
  
• Future Trends sections in most chapters describe how sport and policy connections are likely to change over time, and consider changes that can shift the status quo.
  
• Some of the hottest topics in the sports world are covered from a public policy perspective, giving readers a new angle from which to analyze issues now and in the future.

Sport and Public Policy is a timely resource that will be valued by many. Researchers will use it as a springboard for further study of how sport affects our society economically, socially, and politically. Practitioners and anyone else interested in the role of sport in America will find the book creates a critical new awareness of sport’s interface with public policy and the potentially far-reaching implications of their decisions.

Part I. The Structure of Professional Sports

Chapter 1. Cooperation Amidst Competition: The Nature of Sport Leagues
Nathaniel Sampson and Gerard C.S. Mildner
Why League Cooperation Is Necessary
Downside of Cooperation
Organized Baseball: Evolution of a Cartel
Antitrust Law Interpretations and Baseball
Antitrust and Other Leagues: Are All Sports Equal?
Effect of Public Policy on the Balance of Power
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 2. Beyond the Major Leagues: Lessons from the Organization of International Sports
Gerard C.S. Mildner
Organization of Soccer, the World Sport
Women’s Soccer: The Trial of a Single-Entity League
Rugby: The Contest over Professionalism, Nations, and Clubs
Cricket: The Broadcaster’s Leagues
Lessons for American Sports
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 3. Why Professional Athletes Make So Much Money
Zenon X. Zygmont
The NHL’s Missing Season
Wage Determination in Professional Sports
Free Agency
Evaluating Player Productivity
Is it Possible to Pay too Much?
Future Trends
Conclusion

Part II. Professional Sports, Cities, and Public Finance

Chapter 4. The Economic Impact of Sport Stadiums, Teams and Events
Charles A. Santo
Public Cost of Big-Time Sports
Economic Magnitude of Sports in Perspective
Promoting Sport Investment Through Economic Impact Analysis
Sources of Exaggeration in Economic Impact Analysis
Ex Post Facto Empirical Evaluations
Policy Implications on Predicted Economic Impacts
Conclusion

Chapter 5. Cities, Stadiums, and Subsidies: Why Cities Spend So Much on Sports
Charles A. Santo
Evolution of Major League Sport Facility Development
Political Economy of Sport Facility Development
Importance of Consumption Benefits
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 6. Community Ownership of Professional Sport Teams and the Role of Social Entrepreneurship
Dorothy Norris-Tirrell and Susan Tomlinson Schmidt
Identifying Community Ownership Alternatives
Using the Nonprofit-Charitable Purpose Structure: The Memphis Redbirds Baseball
Foundation
Future Trends
Conclusion

Part III. Amateur Athletics, Participation, and Public Health

Chapter 7. Influences of Urban Form on Physical Activity
Jennifer Dill and Lynn Weigand
Importance and Decline of Physical Activity in the United States
How Urban Growth Has Made Us Less Active
Public Policies to Increase Physical Activity
Do These Strategies Work?
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 8. MLB’s Mixed Messages: African American Participation in Baseball
David C. Ogden
Myth and Semiotics
Analyzing MLB’s Messages
Moving from Political Speech to Myth
Challenging Myth
Policy Implications for Myth Making
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 9. Contradictions and Conflicts: Ethical Dilemmas Inherent in Big-Time College Sports
Richard Southall, Mark S. Nagel, John Amis, and Crystal Southall
College Sports Today
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
Corporatization in College Sports
Institutional Logics
Case Study: 2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Broadcasts
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 10. Sport, Doping, and Public Policy
Bryan E. Denham
Mediated Doping Representations and the Formation of Public Policy
Sporting Competition and the Formation of Regulatory Bodies
Media Representations, Government Hearings, and Public Policy in the 21st Century
Future Trends
Conclusion

Part IV. Sports and Globalization

Chapter 11. Political Economy of the Olympic Games
Gregory Andranovich, Matthew Burbank, and Charles Heying
Globalization, the New Economy, and Political Economy
Political Economy and the Olympic Games
Los Angeles: The Market Matters Most
Atlanta: The State Matters Most
Mexico City: Civil Society Matters Most
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 12. American Baseball and the Global Labor Market: Resistance and Hegemony in the Caribbean
Charles A. Santo
Globalization of American Professional Baseball
Shared History and Parallel Development of Caribbean Baseball
Dominican Dependency, Underdevelopment, and Exploitation
Cuban Nationalism and Resistance
Movement Along the Spectrum
Future Trends
Conclusion

Chapter 13. Expanding Global Consumer Market for American Sports: The World Baseball Classic
Mark S. Nagel, Matt T. Brown, Dan A. Rascher, and Chad D. McEvoy
Baseball’s Worldwide Development
The Consumption of MLB in the United States
The Creation of the World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic Revenue Sources
Future Trends
Conclusion

A professional reference for researchers in a variety of sport and non-sport science disciplines including sport management, public policy, sport economics, sport law, sport communications, sport sociology, urban planning, history, and philosophy. A supplemental text for courses in sport and public policy.