Researchers have positioned renewable energy as sustainable and able to mitigate environmental issues associated with fossil fuels. Further, sustainable initiatives have been offered as a point of differentiation for brands. In order to reap the benefits of such differentiation, managers must communicate the initiatives to relevant stakeholders. The research question guiding the current investigation thus was: What is the communication by Canadian sport stadium operators to calls for sustainable initiatives, specifically in the area of renewable energy? The examination included the 15 sport stadiums that hosted a professional team in Canada and their web-based stadium communications on renewable energy (SCORE). Understandings and competencies in renewable energy are proposed as a new function of sport stadium management; communication of these competencies is seen as a key point of differentiation and best practice.

Authoritative discourse within the literature indicates a realization that sport impacts the natural environment (Brooks, 2006; Cachay, 1993; Lenskyj, 1998) and that environmental sustainability (ES) in sport management is emerging as a topic of concern. The number of sport-related journal articles focusing on environmental sustainability (ES), however has been found to be insufficient (Mallen, Stevens and Adams, 2011). The purpose of this study, thus, was to complete a content analysis of management journals to reveal marketing-ES literature to underscore the development of a sport marketing-ES research agenda. The premise was that the understandings concerning the outlook, perceptions, opinions and viewpoints in the marketing-ES manuscripts will enhance the capacity of researchers in developing a research agenda in sport marketing-ES. The methods involved content analysis steps provided by Krippendorff (1980), Weber (1985), and Wolfe, Hoeber and Babiak (2002) including: establishing the sampling units, the unit of text, the coding themes and sub-themes, analytical factors and coding mode. The data analysis framework involved the use of key marketing concepts: the consumer perspective (Aaker, 1996) and the corporate perspective (Knapp, 2000), along with the concept of influencers (Davis & Dunn, 2002). In sum, the examination involved 49 journals published from 1999 to 2009. Key findings included 63 marketing-ES manuscripts and their concepts, themes and sub-themes, along with their perspectives and influencers that were applied to construct 30 questions to develop a sport marketing-ES research agenda. It is time for sport researchers to generate a robust research response to the marketing-ES questions.

Understanding salient factors influencing student-athletes’ decisions to attend particular university institutions is of crucial importance to scholars and athletic administrators. Consequently, our research was concerned with two separate but interrelated substantive and methodological objectives: i) to gain insights into the relative importance of 12 school choice decision-making factors influencing Canadian student-athletes; and ii) to explore the efficacy of a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) method for analyzing data in the context of the current investigation. Specifically, we employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to better understand the relative importance of school choice decision factors. The results of the AHP analysis on Canadian student-athletes’ school choice decisionmaking showed that having the desired academic program was the most important influence. This item was almost twice as important as the reputation of the school, and over twice as important as scholarship value, athl...

A brand's meaning is determined by consumers' conscious and semi- or subconscious perceptions associated with it. Building on Batey's [Brand Meaning. New York: Routledge, 2008] brand meaning model, the author develops a framework of brand meaning applied to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) hockey league. Qualitative data collection and analysis methods were used to consider the brand meaning of the CIS from the perspective of elite young hockey players in Ontario. The results of the data demonstrated that playing in the CIS is not a specific goal for elite young hockey players and, further, is perceived as more of an insurance policy if other options do not materialize.

Like many sports, ice hockey has become subject to year-round participation; here, many summer hockey camp operators compete against each other for consumers (players). Using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and Customer Equity (CE) theory, where customer acquisition and retention are the foundational concepts, the purpose of the research was twofold. First, the aim was to understand what Value Equity (VE) drivers are most important to parents when deciding to register their child for a summer hockey camp. A second goal was to ascertain if summer hockey camp operators are performing to the level of importance ascribed to those factors, as determined by parents of camp attendees. Surveys with 148 parents, who registered their child in a summer hockey camp in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada, were used in order to complete the IPA. The findings indicate that parents deem ‘quality’ factors, versus elements of convenience and/or price, as both ‘most important’ and ‘most in need of managerial attention’.

Participation in sport has been lauded for the myriad benefits provided to youth who engage. Similarly, attendance in school has been identified as a salient contributor to academic success. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to explore the extent to which participation in youth representative (“rep”) hockey in Ontario contributes to avoidable absences from traditional school contexts. Specifically, empirical data from 104 youth rep hockey tournaments, ranging from AE-AAA competitive levels, and the Tyke (7-year-olds) to Midget (17-year-olds) age ranks, were utilized to meet the study’s first purpose. The second purpose was to present an alternative and innovative way youth sport tournaments could be scheduled to minimize school absenteeism. The results of the current investigation show there is merit to the proposed shift in tournament scheduling. Specifically, more than 42,000 avoidable school absences, from the 104 tournaments sampled, could be mitigated with a simple adjustment to tournament schedules.