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A foundational component of sport management education is to prepare students for future employment. Research surveying employers indicated that they seek graduates with three broad types of skills: applied knowledge skills, effective relationship abilities, and workplace. Unfortunately, research also indicates that current employers are finding recent college graduates lacking in communication, interpersonal, and thinking skills. To better serve sport management students, faculty need to design opportunities to help students develop these desired skills. Using the pedagogical structure of team-based learning is one way that classrooms can be designed to assist students in the development of many of these skills while also learning how to work as part of a team.

This study examined how college students’ gender and prior participation in esports affect their perceptions of esports and esports academic programs. After collecting data from college students (N = 162), data were analyzed using 2 × 2 factorial analysis of variance to compare the influence of esports participation, gender, and the interaction effect on perception. Both esports participation, F(1, 150) = 13.78, p < .001, and gender, F(1, 150) = 4.82, p < .05, were significantly associated with esports perception. For the perception of esports academic programs, only esports participation was significant, F(1, 150) = 5.85, p < .05. Men reported positive perceptions, and this phenomenon was amplified in groups with prior esports experience. The authors suggest avenues to embrace esports in higher education, reflecting the findings of this research.

The novelty effect has a long history in sport facility research with most research examining new facility construction. The present study explores the impact of renovated facilities, specifically the novelty effect, as it pertains to revenue and secondarily attendance. Within, we also explore four different renovation types as classified by the U.S. National Registry of Historic Places to look at any individual impact or revelation using institutions participating in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. Results from ordinary least squares and Tobit estimations from a sample period covering 1993 through 2017 conclude a novelty effect associated with renovations does exist for attendance. However, the effect is shorter in duration and delayed by a few seasons based upon the type of renovation. As for revenues, we find some positive impact on revenues. Those impacts are delayed are on based on certain types of renovation.

To meet the growing and innovative career opportunities in technology and sport, particularly in electronic sports, both practitioners and scholars must engage in an iterative process to analyze, design, and evaluate educational interventions and innovations with design-based research. Being in a young academic discipline, sport management faculty shape the next generation of practitioners, so the purpose of this research was to examine faculty’s openness to innovation through an andragogical teaching approach and the incorporation of the business of electronic sports within the curriculum. Through a two-part study, results revealed that faculty had a balanced teacher- and learner-focused approach, which demonstrated that advancement of electronic sports can transcend all types of faculty in a young field. Implications from this novel, yet extremely relevant, research will help both practitioners and scholars innovatively and collaboratively navigate institutional complexities.

Sport team licensed merchandise plays an important role in sport fan experiences. Existing work has explored how consumers perceive these items, motivation and consumption habits, and intent to purchase. Extending upon the performative sport fandom framework, this study explores the marketing messages of sport fan merchandise, and the resulting implied gendered and fan performances. Employing a multimodal critical discourse analysis, we analyzed the top 20 T-shirts for men and women for five National College Athletic Association institutions on their official ecommerce sites. By examining the text descriptions, visual images, and messages perceived when combining text and visuals, we found that the marketing messages of clothing items rely heavily on traditional discourses of femininity and masculinity, placing gender performances as more relevant to fan performances for women. Atypical designs suggest alternative gender and fan performances but continue to indicate that gender identity is central to clothing appearance and messaging to consumers.