Sport organizations across North America promote and claim deep commitments to environmental issues through sustainability performance signaling. These signals are conveyed through external associations or memberships (e.g., Green Sports Alliance) or internally (e.g., environmental reports and communications). However, researchers have not explored this communication strategy as it relates to environmental initiatives in sport nor compared environmental communications of sport organizations from the major professional sport leagues in North America. We analyzed the websites of 147 North American sport organizations and their associated venue websites for environmental performance signaling communications. We found that only one sport organization featured an environmental report on its website, and 42 sport organizations highlighted environmental initiatives through dedicated webpages on the respective team or venue’s website. Predominately, these communications focused on fan engagement initiatives (i.e., awareness, participation) but lacked goal setting, measurement metrics, or performance summaries. We discuss these themes, the implications, and recommendations for how sustainability performance signaling can be better leveraged in the North American sport sector.

For decades, academic freedom and shared governance have stood as cornerstones of higher education in the United States, but these principles face unprecedented challenges. Recent developments point to a disturbing decline in these critical values, stirring debates on the future viability of the higher education system. This study delves into the problematic trajectory of modern higher education, spotlighting the rise of corporate practices within academic institutions, the swelling ranks of university administration, and the disproportionate weight given to student evaluations in assessing faculty. These factors have converged to push academia into an unstable transition, a liminal phase fueled by external and internal forces. This study examines the evolving landscape of academic freedom within the corporatized university model. Utilizing the concept of liminality, it explores the transitional challenges faced by academia in balancing traditional scholarly values with emerging market-driven paradigms, arguing that the corporatization of universities represents a liminal phase, wherein the identity and purpose of academic institutions are in flux, significantly impacting the notion of academic freedom. The shift toward a consumer-oriented ethos endangers the foundational principles of higher education, risking substituting educational substance with the mere transaction of educational services. The study concludes by issuing a call to action for all stakeholders in higher education to acknowledge and confront these detrimental trends, thereby safeguarding the principles of academic freedom, shared governance, and the educational system's overall integrity and dynamism.

There is a growing need to educate students about the applications of environmental sustainability to current and future jobs. One method that has emerged to teach this application is transformative sustainable learning (TSL). Instructors can use TSL to understand better how to integrate sustainability topics into seemingly unrelated course topics. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a series of TSL courses in a graduate sport management program. To this end, a collaborative reflection guided the data collection from weekly one-on-one conversations between the researchers (i.e., instructor, student). Results aligned with TSL themes (i.e., head, heart, hands) and suggested that the intentional TSL course design and scheduled conversations benefited both the instructor and student. The student experienced an in-depth experience to understand and apply course concepts. The instructor was able to gain better insights to structure the class and create assignments adapted to meet student needs through collaborative reflection during mentoring sessions.

Purpose: Sport has emerged as a powerful platform for promoting environmental awareness and action. Major collegiate and professional teams have implemented sustainability strategies, although some have hesitated to promote them out of concern for political polarization and fan alienation. This study aimed to examine differences in environmental attitudes among fans of two professional sport organizations competing in the same venue but in different sports. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected from 2,652 season ticket holders of the two organizations. The survey included measures of environmental awareness, perceived behavioral control, ascriptions of responsibility, awareness of team initiatives and green team fandom. Participants’ environmentalist status (active, passive or non-environmentalist) was also assessed. Analysis of variance was used to examine differences in environmental attitudes based on sport affiliation and environmentalist status. Findings: Significant but small differences in environmental awareness and awareness of team initiatives based on sport affiliation were found. However, environmentalist status had a significant effect on environmental awareness, perceived behavioral control, ascriptions of responsibility and green team fandom, with active environmentalists scoring highest, followed by passive environmentalists and non-environmentalists. Surprisingly, fans’ environmentalist status did not significantly impact their awareness of team sustainability initiatives. Non-environmentalists, a substantial portion of the sample, did not express particularly negative attitudes toward sustainability. Originality/value: This study extends previous research by examining fan attitudes toward environmental sustainability. It challenges the assumption that promoting sustainability initiatives may alienate fans, particularly non-environmentalists, and highlights the potential for sport organizations to leverage their unifying power to promote environmental action among diverse fanbases.

Increasing environmental challenges are prompting sport managers to act to minimize negative ecological impacts. Educational opportunities for sport management students are critical for developing awareness and understanding of environmental sustainability across the sport industry. In 2012, Casper and Pfahl examined the personal environmental actions of sport administration and recreation students. The purpose of our current research is to expand on Casper and Pfahl’s work by assessing the predictive relationships of values, beliefs, and norms on behaviors related to environmental sustainability using the Value–Belief–Norm (VBN) framework. Sport management students (N = 510) representing 23 higher education institutions completed the online survey. Structural equation modeling showed minimal changes over ten years. Norms were the strongest predictors of pro-environmental behaviors, and results indicated that students hold sport management organizations to a higher environmental standard than traditional businesses. The authors provide discussion and recommendations on bridging the gap between academia and industry to better prepare students for their professional futures in the sport industry.