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AbstractArenas, ballparks, and stadiums built for professional sports teams or mega-events all around the world often come with large public costs. In democratic states, citizens are assumed to have a role in public policymaking, but previous research suggests the strength of this role can vary case-to-case. To examine the incidence of public stadium finance and public participation across the geopolitical landscape, a collective case study was employed and organized into regime type (i.e., full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, authoritarian regimes). The results of the study show clear contrasts in the financing mechanisms within and between regime types. Additionally, each case-study grouping contained examples of citizen-led public participation, though the efficacy of these democratic actions is questionable. This review complements the growing literature on public policy and stadium finance by assessing public engagement in current stadium-subsidy debates around the world.

Purpose: Sport match-fixing has emerged as a complex global problem. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it critically reviews how match-fixing is typified as a policy problem. Second, it advances an analysis of the legal framework and regulatory system for sports betting as a causal source for “routinized” match-fixing. Design/methodology/approach: This study extracts and synthesises (cross-national) materials from policies, media releases and scholarly works on the subject of match-fixing and sports betting. The analysis is framed by the contrasts between rational choice and sociological institutionalist approaches. Findings: Match-fixing is typically attributed to: criminal organisations and illegal sports betting; vulnerable individuals; and failure of governance on the part of sports organisations. Each cause holds assumptions of utility-maximising actors and it is argued that due consideration be given to the fundamental risks inherent in legal sports betting regimes. Research limitations/implications: Match-fixing in sport is a recurrent social problem, transcending national boundaries and involving a wide range of actors and, sporting disciplines and levels of competition. Within such an environment, it may matter little how strong the incentive structures and education programmes are, when betting on human beings is both normatively and cognitively advanced as a value and institutionally permitted as a practice. Originality/value: This paper argues that legal betting regimes paradoxically contribute to routinised match-fixing because: for betting customers there is no qualitative, ethical difference between legal and illegal operators; and legalisation serves to normalise and legitimate the view of athletes as objects for betting (like cards or dice).

To date there has been little explicit theorization concerning the role of risk in global migration studies. Drawing upon Beck’s concept of the ‘risk society,’ this paper presents an investigation of the interplay between societal risk and micro-level migration decision-making. Thick historical contextualization and interview data are used to examine the process of decision-making of South Koreans’ migration to New Zealand. Four risk factors were found to contribute to their ‘exit’ decisions: South Korea’s highly competitive, work-oriented society brought about by compressed modernity; North Korea’s threat of war and the South’s consequent political and military culture; the home nation’s obsession with education and academic performance; and the difficulties of reconciling traditional collectivist values with upward mobility. It is argued that while elements of risk may be universal, they need to be understood within specific cultural contexts and in relation to how they influence peoples’ lived experiences.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature, frequency, and duration of alcohol-related promotions and crowd alcohol consumption during major sports events broadcasted on the SKY Sport network between September 2011 and February 2012. Design/methodology/approach: Content analyses for various categories of alcohol-related images were conducted, including a novel inclusion of analysing crowd alcohol consumption. Findings: The results provide empirical evidence that sponsorship and activation-related activities of alcohol brands subvert national regulations that ban alcohol advertising during daytime television programming. Originality/value: The results serve to sensitise researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and regulators to the prevalence of incidental alcohol promotional material within the overall televised alcohol advertising mix and the broader societal exposure to such images. This research also informs readers that alcohol companies and media outlets produce alcohol-related marketing that may not be in-line with the meaning and/or intent of laws.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between psychological ownership and fandom, through a case study of a Japanese football team and its fans. Extending McCracken's model, we set research five questions. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 16 fans categorized into two groups, fans (n = 9) and super fans, members of organized groups (n = 7). The interview protocol was semi-structured. Thematic coding was employed, which is designed to enhance comparability between plural groups. The findings indicated that cultural and individual meanings were transferred to the team brand and fans linked the meanings through their own rituals, which shaped psychological ownership and fan identity. Moreover, this paper contributes to sport management scholarship by indicating that psychological ownership is conceptually different to team identification.

Local sporting stadia exist as sought-after promotional platforms for multinational corporations to associate their brands with major international mega-sporting events. However, in conjunction with a global climate of corporate sign wars (Goldman and Papson, 1996) and the continued threat of ambush marketing, these sporting spaces exist as contested terrains where a range of power relations are effectively played out at the global-local nexus. In this paper, we examine issues pertaining to ambush marketing and the brand protection/clean venue policies employed by local organising committees in two case studies: the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 1999 FIFA Under-17 World Soccer Championships in New Zealand. We identify similar strategies utilised at both sporting events to protect official sponsors while discussing some of the implications of these issues on the lived experiences of spectators and citizens who are inevitably connected to the wider structures of power operating within and through these local sporting spaces.

Abstract: Long-term follow-up (>l0 years) after vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) is almost nonexistent. The aim of this study was to determine long-term outcome after VBG in a group of 71 patients studied prospectively. Seventy-one consecutive patients with morbid obesity (54 women and 17 men; mean age 40 years [range 22 to 71 years]) underwent VBG from 1985 to 1989 and were followed prospectively. Follow-up was obtained in 70 (99%) of the 71 patients. Weight (mean ± standard error of the mean) preoperatively was 138 ±3 kg and decreased to 108 ±2 kg 10 or more years postoperatively. Body mass index decreased from 49 ±1 to 39 ±1. Only 14 (20%) of 70 patients lost and maintained the loss of at least half of their excess body weight with the VBG anatomy. Vomiting one or more times per week continues to occur in 21% and heartburn in 16%. Fourteen patients have undergone conversion from VBG to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (11 patients) or other procedures (3 patients) because of a combination of inadequate weight loss in 13 patients, gastroesophageal reflux in five, and frequent vomiting in four. Only 26% of patients after VBG have maintained a weight loss of at least 50% of their excess body weight; 17% underwent bariatric reoperation with good results. Thus VBG is not an effective, durable bariatric operation.