United States Sports Academy - "America's Sports University"

Introduction

This article will address the topic of information technology for sports management and will attempt to provide an overview of how information technology (called IT) is changing the nature of management practices in sport. The discussion of IT applications in the profession can be done in a few broad areas:

1st How the tools of today's "technological revolution" can be applied to the administration of sport.

2nd How developments such as the Internet and world wide web help in specific management functions such as training and marketing

3rd How e-commerce can make participation in sports more available through lower priced equipment and lastly,

4th The digital divide: and underlying condition that keeps some from participating fully in the benefits in the IT revolution.

Academic eligibility for student-athletes in public high schools athletic programs across America has many variations and has been changing over the past twenty years. But how far have we come in motivating athletes in the classroom? The term student-athlete implies that the person involved with education and athletics is both a good student in the classroom and an active and effective participant on an athletic team. In theory, academic competence is a criterion for athletic participation. It has been proven that high school athletes tend to have a higher grade point average (GPA) than nonathletes (Eitzen & Saga, 1993). As school districts and athletic directors work to show accountability to the parents and taxpayers in their respective communities through the revision of athletic codes, it is important to address the issue of student athlete academic performance.

Introduction

Economic impact in sport events can be defined as the net change in an economy resulting from a sport event. The change is caused by activity involving the acquisition, operation, development, and use of sport facilities and services (Lieber & Alton, 1983). These in turn generate visitors' spending, public spending, employment opportunities, and tax revenue. Specifically, the economic impacts of expenditure are composed of direct, indirect, and induced effects. Direct effects are the purchases needed to meet the increased demand of visitors for goods and services. Indirect effects are the ripple effect of additional rounds of re-circulating the initial spectators' dollars. Induced effects are the increase in employment and household income that result from the economic activity fueled by the direct and indirect effects (Dawson, Blahna, & Keith, 1993; Howard & Crompton, 1995).

With new state of the art sporting arenas costing anywhere between $30 million to $300 million to build, huge financial investments must be made. There are many options in financing sport and recreation facilities than involve both public and private arrangements and investments. This paper will address various financial ventures and the benefits and pitfalls of those options.

ABSTRACT

Transformational leadership and organizational culture have become increasingly popular topics over the past 10 years. Some researchers have suggested that these topics contain the key to understanding organizational effectiveness (Barney 1986; Bass & Avoilo, 1992). The purpose of this study was to review the related literature on the links between transformational leadership, organizational culture, and organizational effectiveness in sport organizations.

The theory that magnetic therapy could be used to enhance the lives of human beings was formulated in the early 16th century (Ramey, 1998). Since that time it has been suggested that magnetic therapy can be useful in treating many ailments, such as broken bones (Rogachefsky, 1998; Sharrard, 1990), wounds (Lee, Canady, & Doong, 1993; Man, Man, Plosker, Markov, 1997; Szor, 1998), chronic pain (Campbell, 1997; Valbona, Hazelwood & Gabor,1997), and even psychiatric disorders (Baker-Price & Persinger, 1996; George et al., 1997; Kirkcaldie, Pridmore, & Pascual-Leone, 1997). There is limited literature with regard to magnetic therapy and to athletic performance, and mostly in the form of testimonials.

This paper analyzes the public relations aspects of the case – The PGA Tour vs. Casey Martin. Casey Martin sued the PGA Tour over the right to use a riding cart during PGA events. The recent court rulings are discussed as well as the current appeal by the PGA Tour to the Supreme Court. Also examined are the reasons why Casey Martin took the PGA to court. Opinions of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem are presented. The positive and negative public relations issues of three famous Stanford golfers are discussed: Casey Martin, Tiger Woods, and Notah Begay III. Finally, the paper concludes by explaining how the PGA Tour and Casey Martin should resolve the case.

Swimmers found themselves in the spotlight at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and in the scrutiny of spectators and sport researchers alike. An attempt is often made to determine what the athlete is feeling behind the scenes and this article will focus on body weight concerns among swimmers. While sports such as gymnastics (Conviser, Fitzgibbon, & Kahn, 2000) and figure skating (Smith, 1997; Ryan, 1995) have been consistently labeled "leanness-demand" sports, the weight-related pressures for swimmers have been less clear. Benson and Taub (1993) reported that swimmers feel pressure to drop weight, "Swimmers may be especially vulnerable to disordered eating due to the display of their bodies in a tight and revealing team uniform" (p. 360).