Strategic Sport Management: Sustainability of Sports Clubs

By Michal Varmus, Milan Kubina and Roman Adámik

Sport, and in particular the sporting environment, has undergone significant changes in recent decades. The social significance and commercialization of sport; the use of new technologies and organizational structures; and the involvement of various stakeholders matter more today than ever before. This book addresses the key influence of stakeholders in particular on the activities of sports organizations, taking into account certain territorial differences around the world, but also within Europe. The authors explain the key characteristics of the management of sports organizations as opposed to other organizations. These include the strategic management and setting of long-term goals such as sporting success, sustainable funding, youth training, and community building. The authors present a strategic model for these goals and stakeholders in the context of sport, together with research-based case studies in which the critical factors in the strategic management of successfuland unsuccessful sports organizations are identified.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: Feb 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9783030667337

Book preview

Contributions to Management Science

The series The series Contributions to Management Science contains research publications in all fields of business and management science. These publications are primarily monographs and multiple author works containing new research results, and also feature selected conference-based publications are also considered. The focus of the series lies in presenting the development of latest theoretical and empirical research across different viewpoints. contains research publications in all fields of business and management science. These publications are primarily monographs and multiple author works containing new research results, and also feature selected conference-based publications are also considered. The focus of the series lies in presenting the development of latest theoretical and empirical research across different viewpoints.

This book series is indexed in Scopus.

More information about this series at http://​www.​springer.​com/​series/​1505

Michal Varmus, Milan Kubina and Roman Adámik

Strategic Sport Management

Sustainability of Sports Clubs

1st ed. 2021

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Logo of the publisher

Michal Varmus

Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia

Milan Kubina

Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia

Roman Adámik

Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia

ISSN 1431-1941e-ISSN 2197-716X

Contributions to Management Science

ISBN 978-3-030-66732-0e-ISBN 978-3-030-66733-7

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66733-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

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Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 From Management to Sport Management 3

2.​1 Management Development and Interpretation 4

2.​2 Sports Management and Specifics 9

2.​3 Manager as a Key Person in a Sports Club 16

2.​4 Strategic Management Process and Application to Sports Environment 22

2.​4.​1 Setting a Vision 27

2.​4.​2 Current State Analysis 27

2.​4.​3 Strategy Creation 29

2.​4.​4 Strategy Implementation 30

2.​4.​5 Strategy Assessment 31

References 31

3 Sport and Sport Environment 35

3.​1 Definition of Sport and Sports Industry 35

3.​2 Individual and Team Sport 39

3.​3 Three Sports Sectors 40

3.​3.​1 Public Sector 40

3.​3.​2 Non-profit/​Voluntary Sector 43

3.​3.​3 Professional/​Commercial Sector 45

3.​3.​4 Case Study:​ Public Sector—Small Country Sports Policy 47

3.​3.​5 Case Study:​ Non-profit Sector—Soccer and Politics 51

3.​3.​6 Case Study:​ Commercial Sector—NHL Expansion 53

3.​4 Sport Culture Role and Development 54

3.​4.​1 Case Study:​ Foreign Players Impact on Success in Soccer 62

3.​5 Sports Organizations Funding 68

3.​5.​1 Broadcasting Rights and TV Contracts 72

3.​6 Sport Cooperation and Management 77

References 81

4 Sustainable Management of Sports Organizations 87

4.​1 Key Stakeholders 87

4.​1.​1 Stakeholder Involvement Model Recommendations 91

4.​1.​2 Case Study:​ Sports Clubs–Stakeholder Relations in the USA 92

4.​2 Setting Objectives for Sustainability 105

4.​3 Strategic Management Process and Bottlenecks 106

4.​3.​1 Vision 108

4.​3.​2 Analysis 110

4.​3.​3 Goal 113

4.​3.​4 Implementation 115

4.​3.​5 Assessment and Control 118

4.​3.​6 Case Study:​ Sports Clubs Demise Causes 119

4.​3.​7 Case Study:​ Startup Club Strategic Management 129

4.​4 Strategic Management Process Principles 135

References 137

5 Conclusion 143

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

M. Varmus et al.Strategic Sport ManagementContributions to Management Sciencehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66733-7_1

1. Introduction

Michal Varmus¹  , Milan Kubina¹ and Roman Adámik¹

(1)

Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia

Exercise culture and a healthy lifestyle are the current leading trends that are becoming part of the daily lives of an increasing number of people. These trends can also be observed from the enormous growth of the number of personal trainers, nutrition counselors, and mental coaches, as well as health and exercise mobile applications. The official sports policy of almost all governments is aimed at promoting mass sports and exercise in general. Opposite to the exercise culture associated with a healthy lifestyle stands professional sport. It contains a relatively small group of professional athletes who get support from teams of specialists in various fields and whose performances and results generate billions in revenue, transforming the sport into a regular business.

For many years, the sport has evolved from recreational activities connected with a healthy lifestyle or entertainment to a full-fledged global industry with billions in revenue under the control of professional managers. The most significant changes associated with globalization and technological progress have affected sport since the transition to the new millennium. Even in the age of modernization, automation, and a single large global market, the sport continues to maintain its specifics forcing managers to deploy management techniques outside the usual scope of management theories.

Sports organizations are essential for the sports sector creating value for stakeholders. When it comes to sports organizations, most of the general public, who do not watch sports regularly, understand by that term the world’s most famous soccer clubs Real Madrid or Manchester United or hockey club New York Rangers or basketball club Los Angeles Lakers. You can already see their strength and position in the global market, reaching beyond the ranks of sports fans. Unlike people without a relationship to sports, a sports fan often favors their favorite club, regardless of the type of the sport itself. However, it also includes various sports associations, leagues, manufacturers of sportswear and accessories, media companies, operators of sports arenas and facilities, betting offices, and many other sports-related organizations.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

M. Varmus et al.Strategic Sport ManagementContributions to Management Sciencehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66733-7_2

2. From Management to Sport Management

Michal Varmus¹  , Milan Kubina¹ and Roman Adámik¹

(1)

Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia

According to the English etymological dictionary, the term sport originated around the thirteenth century by the abbreviated words disport (old English) or desport (old French) standing for fun, joy, pleasure, play, or flirting. Certain elements of sports management were already used during the first ancient Olympic Games in 776 BC. One can say, in an exaggerated sense, that sports management was coined even before the word sport (Masteralexis et al. 2008). Currently, sport is defined in the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries as an activity involving physical exertion, where individuals or squads compete against each other for entertainment, health, and/or money according to fixed rules. Although Klein (2016) agrees with the general definitions, they focus on the use of the term physical activity. Games and activities exist that do have a physical component, such as chess. The author also mentions the boundaries of what sport is and what sport is not. People could think that they knew exactly what sport is until eating and running down the hill competitions appeared.

Although the beginnings of management as a science date back to the fifteenth century, sports and sports management as a science began to be a widespread phenomenon only at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was mainly created by educational institutions (universities) that decided to train people managing their sports organizations. The University of Wisconsin–Madison has held the first course to improve the organization of athletic events. Research in sport has gradually diversified, expanding both amateur and professional sports. The boom in the sports industry has also ignited the development of sports management. The commercialization of the sports environment has increased the need for better managers in sports organizations, which has resulted in subsequent developments in the field of sports management research (History of Sports Management 2018).

2.1 Management Development and Interpretation

The evolution of management theory in the last century is essentially a history of the constant shifting of leaders’ roles within organizations (Bosman 2009). Although the development of the ability to manage organizations and people can be sought in very ancient history, the theory itself began to develop at the turn of the twentieth century. The gradual development of management is shown in Fig. 2.1.

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Fig. 2.1

Development of the main theories of management. Source: modified according to Robbins and Coulter (2004), DuBrin (2010), Lugtu (2016)

The development of management theory went through different thoughts and phases. Among the two earliest major phases were scientific management and human relationship management (behavior approach), also understood as classical theories of management. It is also important to mention the stages of development of an administrative and quantitative approach, systems theory, and contingent management approach. It should be emphasized, however, that although each theory or approach prioritized other limited aspects of its view on the issue, all approaches pursued the same goal—to improve the efficiency of an organization.

Frederick Taylor is considered one of the first founders of management theory. Their publication The Principles of Scientific Management laid down the foundations for the scientific management of Taylorism in the early twentieth century (Wood and Wood 2002). Taylor believed that workers could not do the same thing differently, but that there must be one best way to do the job effectively.

Another important stage in the development of management was the management of human relations, which happened between 1927 and 1932 when Elton Mayo examined the effect of motivation on employees. Mayo concluded that workplace social factors are very important, and job satisfaction and outcome depend on cooperation and perception of value rather than on material working conditions (Mahoney and Baker 2002). An important proponent of this idea was Mary Parke Follet, who worked as a consultant in the 1920s and believed that effective motivational management is an integral part of cooperation and partnership. They believed that convincing people was better than hierarchical control or competition (Mousli 2002).

Among the main advocates and theorists of the administrative approach was Henri Fayol, who in the early twentieth century described management as a universally effective set of functions—planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. This approach was later reduced to four basic functions that are still used in scientific literature today (Fig. 2.2). Proponents of the administrative approach looked at the organizations as a whole and searched for ways to make it more efficient.

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Fig. 2.2

Management functions. Source: Robbins and Coulter (2004)

Advocates of the quantitative approach also called operational research or management science favored the use of quantitative procedures to improve decision-making processes (Robbins and Coulter 2004). This approach was developed amid the Second World War, and the managerial activities focused on the use of statistics, optimization models, and computer simulations.

Systems theory views the organization as an interconnected system. If one part of the system changes, the other parts will be adjusted automatically. The theory also assumes that the organization’s environment has a significant impact on its efficiency. Two other influential concepts in terms of systems are entropy and synergy. Entropy is a tendency of a system to slow down or to cease entirely without new inputs from its surroundings. Synergy means that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It is believed that when different parts of an organization come and work together, they can produce much more than if they worked independently of each other (DuBrin 2010).

The contingency approach is based on the principle that no best-unified approach to managing people or work exists in any situation. According to DuBrin (2010), this idea forces managers to study individual and situational differences before deciding on the next step.

Subsequently, other approaches appeared that reflected their time often based on previous theories and approaches, such as the empirical approach. The era of informatization and information technologies has been key in the development of management theory when the preferred form of communication and the use of information had changed.

As follows from the above, management can be defined in different tables (Table 2.1), but the most common elements of these definitions are (a) goals to be achieved with limited (b) resources and with and through (c) people (Chelladurai 1999). The goal of managerial work and the role of managers is to organize employees to do what managers request in an efficient manner (Masteralexis et al. 2008).

Table 2.1

Definitions of management

As mentioned above, as time and technology evolved, not only the understanding of management theory but also the role of managers changed. Due to the gradual development of the environment, society, and market, it was found that general management theories are no longer sufficient. Organizations operating in various sectors (e.g., manufacturing, healthcare, public administration, transport, and sports) to provide for their competitiveness have started to address different management approaches (strategic, innovative, cooperative, etc.) throughout the organization, but also individual departments (marketing, planning, finance, etc.).

It follows that it was necessary to specify the theoretical meaning of management in different areas, categories, or specializations. Figure 2.3 shows a possible meaning of individual management application areas. Although these areas are interconnected and complementary, they need to be addressed separately in terms of theoretical background.

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Fig. 2.3

Areas of management application

Focus-based management and management approaches have evolved in line with the current needs of an organization and a competitive environment. The focus itself is constantly being researched and updated with the latest knowledge. These can include, inter alia, effective and efficient management of relations in terms of cooperation between independent organizations or individuals and their competitiveness—cooperative management (Soviar et al. 2014), or dedicated specialized analytical and management activities necessary for setting and achieving the goals of different organizational units in the long run and creating the necessary conditions thereof—strategic management (Hittmár and Jankal 2013). It is also necessary to draw attention to the use of innovative approaches in management. Innovation management, management of innovative processes, or the issue of creating and implementing innovation strategies is gaining importance not only in a wide range of businesses but also in academic fields.

Category-based management means the division of a company by its departments based on their main function, such as production, human resources, or product portfolio management. This division has also brought considerable importance in the transfer of competencies to managers for specific results in the field. Tomáš Baťa was also a well-known pioneer in the issue of competencies and responsibilities.

Management specialization areas are characterized mainly by different relationships or environments. As the real application has shown us, together with the management development theories above (especially systems theory), knowledge of an organization, its environment, and external and internal relationships can be key to success.

If it is assumed that no living entity can exist in isolation regardless of the environment, a business entity—notwithstanding whether it is of a business, industrial, logistics, consulting, or marketing nature—is surrounded by an environment that in a way (positive or negative) affects this entity and influences its behavior (Vodák et al. 2016).

Two theoretical schools have come up with a diametrically