Journal of New Studies in Sport Management (JNSSM)

This study investigates what effect stadium elevation has on the win-loss performance of home teams in major college football. Despite extensive research on factors that influence home-field advantage in sports, the potential impact of altitude on the performance of college football teams has not been thoroughly explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare the records of institutions playing home games at the highest elevation stadiums with national averages. In contrast to its effect on sports like international soccer or running, results indicate that teams playing in stadiums at higher elevations have no significant difference in win-loss percentage than the national average as findings suggest that altitude does not play a significant role in the performance of FBS teams. Unlike soccer teams playing in high-altitude cities or runners training in the mountains prior to racing at lower levels, this study concludes that playing in stadiums located at higher elevations does not significantly impact win-loss percentage of college football teams. This study contributes to the understanding of the factors that influence home-field advantage in college football and the limited impact of altitude on college football.

This study explores the role of sports agents in men’s basketball on the small European island of Malta. The limited literature on sports agents considers them as athletes’ key advisors throughout their careers. The impact sports agents have had and continue to have on player careers and the basketball industry is investigated in this qualitative study. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in the Malta basketball scene including professional male basketball players that have played on the island, sports agents who have represented players in Malta, league representatives such as club presidents, and coaches with experience in coaching men’s basketball in Malta. Results indicate the role of sports agents as being influential in facilitating contract signings of professional players. Sports agents are seen as beneficial in a professional basketball player’s career, but they may also be difficult to deal with, especially for clubs. In addition, the interviewees spoke about how sports agents have influenced the overall average skill level of the Maltese men’s 1st Division league, providing modes of improvement for Maltese basketball in general.

In the contemporary global landscape, nations strive to portray themselves as modern and open societies, employing various tools, such as art diplomacy, scientific diplomacy, and sports diplomacy, as a compelling facet of public engagement, especially over the past two decades. This study aims to scrutinize the role of sports in interactions of Iran and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The research was descriptive based on qualitative technic that was done by two round Delphi interviews. The participants consisted of 14 experts of sport policy and international relations and the data collection involved an examination of diverse sources, including articles, books, and websites of Google Scholar, Taylor Francis, and Sciences Direct. The qualitative section indicated three concepts of sport diplomatic interactions of Iran and SCO countries included: Economic, Political and Cultural factors. The findings also highlight Russia and China as promising prospects for fostering sports diplomatic interactions with Iran. Sports events that secure medals, notably gymnastics and swimming, benefit significantly from enhanced bilateral and multilateral exchanges within the sports competitions framework among Shanghai Cooperation Agreement nations.

Today, sports diplomacy with different countries is one way to develop the sport at an international level. The current paper was conducted with the approach of improving the diplomacy of sports federations of Iran and Arab states of the Persian Gulf. The paper is qualitative, applied, and was carried out using Colaizzi's phenomenological methodology in 2022. Moreover, Participants in the research included individuals related to the subject. Furthermore, the sampling method was purposeful, and until the extraction of completely non-repeated strategies from the interviews; 21 interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner. Factors affecting the improvement of the diplomacy of the sports federations of Iran and Arab states of the Persian Gulf consist of 75 primary strategies in the form of 11 main categories including: media content, behavioral norms, infrastructure development, management strategy, political dimensions, security dimensions, sports interactions, international solidarity, sports communication, national prestige, and educational experiences. Some of the solutions identified include benefitting from popular social networks such as Instagram to share common content with Arabic language sports pages, no provocative interviews by athletes and coaches, preventing spectators from chanting racist slogans, facilitating the entry conditions of Arab spectators in international sports competitions in Iran and mutual support of the sports federations in Iran and Arab states of the Persian Gulf to the sports representatives of the Middle East region in sports events at the world level.

This study aimed to investigate the resilience of sports clubs as business enterprises in the crisis caused by the Coronavirus epidemic. Thirty-five experts in the field of sports club management were interviewed in three rounds of interviewing. In the first round, the main questions for the interview was determined, and then two series of interviews were carried out with experts. Basis of the analysis in the second one was content analysis approache. A summary of the answers given to the sample and interviewing were conducted again. Kolmogorov-Smirnov and one-sample t-tests were used to measure the resilience. In the next study section, the propulsive forces identified with the Delphi technique and prioritized based on the degree of importance and uncertainty, and Micmac was used to write possible scenarios. Results indicated that resilience of sports clubs was not in a good condition in the presence of crises and challenges. The findings showed that poor management of sports clubs and low income were the most influential critical factors in resilience. A low partnership index with a total of 201619 had the highest impact. Organizations that responded quickly and actively and were user-friendly under adverse economic conditions were more likely to succeed.

This study deals with the effect of structural empowerment on professional commitment of male referees with the mediating role of job characteristics in Iranian football premier League. Datacollected using a self-report survey. In addition to demographic items, the survey comprised 46 items measuring structural empowerment, professional commitment and, job characteristics. Experts in sports management and football refereeing confirmed the face and content validity of the questionnaire. 130 valid questionnaires completed by referees in the Persian Gulf Pro League in Iran. Structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis and, path analysis were conducted for data analysis by using PLS Smart software. The effects of structural empowerment on professional commitment (T-Value= 2.27 and ß= -0. 18) and job characteristics on professional commitment (T-Value = 8.93 and ß = 0.63) were both positive and significant. The effect of structural empowerment on job characteristics (T-Value = 4.94 and ß = 0.43) was positive and significant. Referee’s Job characteristics had a significant mediating role in the relationship between structural empowerment and their professional commitment (T-Value= 4.15, ß= 0.27). The findings can provide critical insights for sport managers be more efficient in the field of football refereeing.