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This article examines the influence of sports club membership on ethnic distance from majority to minority members. Cross-sectional survey data on individuals, aged 18-70 years are used (N = 2.063). Sports club membership careers are retrospectively measured. First, logistic regression analyses show membership effects. Ever-members appear more likely than never-members to have an ethnic minority acquaintance and to trust ethnic minority members. Controlled for, amongst others, education and contact with ethnic minorities as colleagues, classmates and co-residents, results remain significant. Second, effects are considered of membership career circumstances, after taking into account the effects of confounding variables. A key finding is that involvement in multi-ethnic sports groups increases trust, while socializing and volunteering appear to respectively reduce the likelihood of acquaintanceship and trust. Interestingly, no differences are found between team sports and solo sports involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article tests Bourdieu's and Putnam's competing views on sports clubs as class mixers, using crosssectional Dutch survey data for the early 1980s and late 1990s. We calculate popularity and representativity indices. Next, we develop a connectivity index, combining both measures to a frequency count variable for the number of contacts between the quartiles most distant on the income ladder. As far as prevalence of cross-class contact is concerned, our findings are most supportive of Putnam. In spite of over representation of the rich, cross-class contact is common. General involvement in organized sports is widespread, while in the typical sports club the poor are far from absent, despite the fact that in some club sports they are strongly underrepresented. However, we also find that over time cross-class contact via sports clubs became less common and is about equally likely to occur via cultural clubs and cultural peformances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]