Sport management

Sport business contributes substantially to the Australian economy and produces billions in revenue globally. Within Australia, the sport and recreation industry employed over 75,000 people in 2006 and total income generated was $8.82 billion.

Sport provides a range of benefits both locally and internationally. Locally, sport provides the capacity for social cohesion through community and individual involvement as well as promoting healthy and active lifestyles. Internationally, sport is an important tool for tourism, aid and trade, to foster international engagement and assist developing countries.

The sport management research program utilises multidisciplinary approaches to provide industry and academia with knowledge to enhance the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the sport industry and related sectors.

Our research program specialises in:

• Sport event management and business leveraging
• Sport management strategy and change
• Sport community development, policy and governance
• Sport sociology and culture
• Sport marketing and consumer behaviour
• Sport tourism and recreation

We have been ranked internationally for the number of sports management journal publications produced, and second for sports marketing journal publications. The ranking was based on the GetCited database list of academic citations of 350 publications in the European Sport Management Quarterly, Journal of Sport Management, and Sport Management Review.

Program Director

• Professor Dan Funk

Projects and grants

Participation events and sustained, increased physical activity

2008-2009: Sport and Recreation Research Grant, New Zealand
Co Investigators: Dickson G., Funk, D.C., Phelps, S., and Schofield, G.

Research investigates the ability of mass-participation sport events to facilitate sustainable increases to both physical activity levels by adults who were previously insufficiently active or sedentary.    This research project is important because

1. event owners are increasingly positioning their events towards health-seeking adults; and
   
2. territorial local authorities are citing positive health outcomes as justification for their investment in these events. 
   

The key elements of the research will be the tracking of a group of previously insufficiently active and sedentary adults participating in a 'mass-participation sport event' as part of a deliberate undertaking to improve lifestyle behaviours.

The research utilises a mixed-methods approach to provide an increased understanding of the factors likely to result in sustained changes to physical activity levels following completion of mass-participation sport events.