Since 2021, student-athletes competing on the intercollegiate level are able to use their name, image, and likeness (NIL) for commercial purposes. This new marketing opportunity is described as NIL. This case study gives a specific NIL sponsorship example while focusing mainly on the sponsorship’s perspective. National Gas Corporation has to decide if this new sponsorship opportunity could be a realistic and good fit for the corporation. Therefore, National Gas Corporation asks other nonsponsors for input via a survey and also tries to get an understanding of how to choose the right student-athlete for their company. At the end, students are asked to provide their thoughts about the next steps by answering the discussion questions.
This case study examines how the Canadian Hockey League’s entry-level draft and Standard Player Agreement affect the interests of players and families, team owners, and league officials. Through the perspective of consultant Jamie Richardson, who advises families on navigating hockey career pathways, the narrative illustrates that before signing, players have meaningful choices, but afterward they face strict league restrictions. Drawing on the invariance principle from sports economics, the case explores whether allocating talent through a reverse order draft fundamentally alters league parity or primarily serves to restrict player autonomy. Teaching notes and discussion questions guide learners through theoretical and practical analyses, encouraging them to think critically about policies and their impacts on stakeholders.
Trip Durham, the new executive director of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, desires to make “the Hall” a true treasure for the “Old North State.” His main challenges include a lack of engagement programs and commercial opportunities combined with budgetary and staffing constraints. Durham believes that the Hall should transform itself into a start-up, creating new engagement programs, and pushing the boundaries of revenue generation through innovative marketing and engagement strategies. To achieve this, the Hall must introduce more engagement programs that attract and retain audiences while diversifying revenue streams to invest in new competitive advantages in support of its mission and long-term financial stability. This case study allows students to explore the business of sports halls of fame and museums in North America, and to develop marketing solutions that drive innovation and enhance a return on investment.
National Hockey League fans in the United States are aging, presenting a challenge for the League’s future growth. The Toronto Maple Leafs (the Leafs), the National Hockey League’s most valuable franchise, recognize that younger generations engage with sports differently than traditional fans and often perceive hockey as less appealing compared to other major sports. Despite their loyal and historic fan base, the Leafs understand that sustaining long-term growth and cultural relevance requires attracting and engaging younger audiences. To address this, the Leafs launched the Next Gen initiative, transforming select home games into youth-focused experiences and leveraging digital strategies tailored to Gen Z. This case presents a critical question: How can National Hockey League teams—and other sports leagues and teams more broadly—build sustainable, younger fan bases essential for their future? Through this case study, students will analyze demographic trends in sports fandom, identify the challenges teams face in expanding their fan base, evaluate targeted marketing strategies, and propose innovative solutions to help marketing managers effectively engage and retain younger audiences.
This case study examines the rhetorical strategy of paralipsis—the act of drawing attention to a subject by explicitly stating it will not be discussed—as employed by coaches in postgame press conferences. Common in political and sports discourse, paralipsis allows speakers to raise concerns or criticisms while maintaining an appearance of restraint and professionalism. Through analysis of postgame comments from Matt Rhule, Steve Kerr, and José Mourinho, this study highlights how coaches use paralipsis to critique officiating, shift blame, redirect narratives, and preserve their public image without incurring disciplinary consequences. Each coach exemplifies specific paraliptic strategies, such as implying without responsibility, drawing attention while feigning dismissal, and maintaining a persona of fairness. The findings illustrate how paralipsis functions as both a rhetorical attack and defense, enabling coaches to navigate high-pressure media interactions while shaping public perception. By analyzing these communicative choices, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of strategic ambiguity in sports communication and the subtle ways leaders in athletics manage accountability and authority through language.
This case follows the leadership transformation of Mark Smith, a former adult basketball coach who transitions into the role of varsity basketball coach at Westfield High School, where he must adjust to the distinct characteristics and expectations of Generation Z athletes. The case highlights how leadership, when thoughtfully adapted, can foster meaningful development for both coaches and athletes on and off the court. Initially relying on traditional authoritarian methods to address the team’s recurring issues with communication, short attention spans, and high dependence on technology, Coach Smith quickly realizes that his approach is both ineffective and counterproductive. Confronted with this generational disconnect, he chooses to adopt a solution-oriented mindset, gradually shifting toward a more empathetic leadership style. As he begins to focus on relationship-building, positive reinforcement, and understanding the personal motivations of his athletes, Coach Smith sees a noticeable transformation in himself and in his athletes, who become more engaged, focused, and connected as a team. From a combination of both experience and published literature, this case outlines essential practices, such as real-time feedback, purpose alignment, and technology integration which can assist those who work with Generation Z athletes and employees.
VictoryWager, a well-established online sports betting platform, is undergoing a strategic shift to align its marketing practices with the American Gaming Association’s Responsible Marketing Code for Sports Wagering. This case study explores the challenges and opportunities that VictoryWager faces as it transitions from aggressive marketing tactics to a more ethical and responsible approach. Under the guidance of Jamie Reynolds, a senior consultant from BetSmart, VictoryWager seeks to develop and implement a comprehensive responsible marketing strategy that promotes responsible gambling, ensures compliance with regulatory standards, and maintains competitive advantage. The case provides a detailed analysis of the key principles of responsible marketing, the ethical considerations involved, and the long-term benefits of adhering to industry guidelines. Through this case, students will engage in critical thinking and strategic decision making, exploring how companies in the sports betting industry can balance effective marketing with ethical obligations to create sustainable business practices.
Harmony Soccer Club, a nonprofit youth soccer club in Summit Ridge, Ontario, has faced declining membership and organizational challenges since 2016, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sofia Kim, the Executive Director, had only joined the club 2 months prior and was just beginning to get comfortable in her new role. Now, Sofia must make critical recommendations after the club’s recent Annual General Meeting revealed significant discontent with a newly approved strategic plan. Members felt that the strategic plan did not adequately reflect their needs or involve sufficient stakeholder engagement. This discontent resulted in the ousting of the Board of Directors (board) and the election of a new president and directors at the Annual General Meeting. Sofia is asked to lead a comprehensive review of the strategic planning process. Imagining themselves in the role of Sofia, students will examine the implications of the board’s turnover, the failures in the strategic planning process, and the importance of incorporating member feedback. The case underscores the need for a strategic plan that resonates with diverse member perspectives to ensure the club’s future stability and success. This case study is appropriate for both upper level undergraduate and graduate sport management courses, where topics discussed include strategic management, organizational theory, and/or governance.
Alberta Futbol Club’s general manger, Henry Thenard, and head coach, Luc Bolton, had a decision to make: keep or trade the recently acquired Loris Guerrero, a goal scorer who was seen as a rising young talent. His previous coaches had described him as immature, so Thenard and Bolton knew this player would require development. However, they were not prepared for a player who appeared apathetic, disregarded team rules, arrived late for team practices and meetings, and performed below his ability. Guerrero also failed to gel with teammates and created tension over team rules and norms. Thenard and Bolton wanted respect and results and were willing to work with Guerrero to get that. However, every attempt to connect with him or to hold him to account fell flat. Finally, when Guerrero failed, once again, to return on time from national team duty, without notifying the team, a decision needed to be made regarding his future at Alberta Futbol Club. Finding another forward as talented as him would be daunting, so letting him go could result in a gaping hole in the roster. However, his negative impact on team morale might be too great to continue fostering him.
The manager of fundraising events at the Canadian Cancer Society, Hali Burton, is considering the addition of a new fundraising event for the charitable organization. Prior to making a decision, Hali evaluates the organization’s existing event portfolio, the charity fundraising landscape, and the met, and unmet motivations of event stakeholders. The case also draws attention to important factors such as organizational capacity and control over events. In developing a new event, Hali and her team need to consider the organization’s overall goals, position the event relative to its existing event portfolio and other charitable events, identify potential sponsors and host communities, and set event goals for all stakeholders, including Canadian Cancer Society. In making a recommendation for a new event, Hali and her team are tasked with following a Balanced Scorecard approach to setting event goals, including long-, medium-, and short-term goals.
American football is experiencing a boom across Europe. Not only has the National Football League increased its international footprint, but also local leagues are vying for fans. This case study follows the Munich Ravens, a successful expansion franchise in the recently established European League of Football, and highlights the tactics employed by their General Manager to build their brand early on. More specifically, to survive in a competitive market, the Ravens fostered several distinct brand associations to create a vivid community. Readers will be asked to draw insights from the Ravens’ inaugural season and create a brand for an expansion franchise of their own.
Lesley Johnson is the athletic director at Provincial University where a generous donation has recently been made to the Athletic Department to create an endowment to fund scholarships—called Athletic Financial Awards—at Provincial University. Lesley is tasked with devising the best plan to utilize these funds within the risk parameters established by Provincial University’s Board of Governors. Here, different investments are contemplated; however, with the guidance of Kelly Simpson, from Capital and Revenue Consultants, financial analyses to estimate returns, pricing, and risk factors for various fixed income options are completed.
Tamara Bradley directs the Big City Roadrunners (BCR), a sport-based youth development organization that provides track and field, cross-country, and road race programming at no cost to youth. Recently, alumni of BCR have shared their perspectives with Ms. Bradley. The alumni have expressed their concern with the inconsistent level of engagement of college student volunteers from BCR’s partner, Atlantic University. Ms. Bradley reaches out to the new university partnership contact, Dr. Emily Taylor, to discuss volunteer training and management. Utilizing an organizational capacity framework, the case focuses on human resource capacity while also providing an opportunity to examine financial, relationships and networks, infrastructure and process, and planning and development capacity. The case also provides the opportunity to analyze the role that implicit bias plays in the partnership between BCR and Atlantic University.
The Barefoot Ski Ranch Surf Resort case study offers a valuable lesson in brand management during a crisis situation within the inland surf industry. Aimed at undergraduate or graduate students in sports management, sports law, or sports business programs, this case combines a hypothetical depiction of an authentic situation that underscores the repercussions following the tragic death of surfer Fabrizio Stabile from an amoeba infection acquired at the resort. It delves into the subsequent lawsuit by the Stabile family, which accused the resort of inadequate filtration systems, evidence cover-up, and obstructing the discovery process. These allegations compounded the resort’s existing challenges, including damage to its brand reputation and the looming threat of heightened industry regulation. This case underscores the critical need for effective brand management during a crisis, and the imperative for surf facilities to prioritize public safety, and uphold high care standards in water facility operations. It also emphasizes the far-reaching impact of crises on the industry and the necessity for facilities to be prepared to address unforeseen challenges in a responsible and transparent manner. Ultimately, it raises important questions about the responsibility of such parks to ensure guest safety and the potential consequences for those that fail to do so.
Launched in 1986, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Rookie Transition Program (RTP) is the longest running program of its kind in U.S. professional sports. Jointly administered by the NBA and National Basketball Players Association, the RTP is designed to ease the transition of first-year players to the league. Over the course of 4 days, RTP participants engage with current and former NBA players, coaches, administrators, and other league stakeholders on topics that range from personal finance, to mental health, to social justice advocacy. Organizational scholars might describe the NBA RTP as an element of the league’s onboarding, or organizational socialization, strategy. In this case, students will reflect on their own socialization experiences as organizational newcomers before analyzing the components of the NBA RTP. Finally, students will apply what they learn through this case to design the agenda of a future NBA RTP.
After a major-junior hockey team relocates to their city, the well-established Junior B Valley Brook Barons hockey team’s attendance dropped 30% to only 350 fans per game, leading to a financial loss for the season. For the team to break even again, their Business Manager believes they need to restore their per-game attendance back to 500 fans. Consequently, she wants to implement a new marketing plan before the next season begins. She recognizes the opportunity of targeting their current and potential new market segments. Despite the urgency, the team’s owner will only budget $5,000 to implement a new marketing plan. Students are required to conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis, segment the market, analyze the five Ps of the marketing mix, pick one or more target markets, and develop marketing tactics that can be implemented on a very tight budget.
This case explores the complex process of developing a national calendar of marquee events for the Olympic sport of fencing. USA Fencing, the national governing body, must meet diverse stakeholders’ needs while balancing competing priorities. Chief among the tensions is maximizing organizational revenues to fund operations versus minimizing costs and barriers to event access for participants. Suitable venues are scarce and clustered in major metropolitan areas with restrictive calendars. The limited number of potential locations impedes USA Fencing’s ability to extract concessions from host cities and negotiate hotel room rebates and venue rental fees. This also limits USA Fencing’s ability to accommodate other stakeholder preferences, such as attractive locations and adhering to a recently adopted policy to give preference to locations in states with inclusive laws regulating women’s reproductive health and LGBTQIA+ issues. With no perfect solutions, navigating these constraints requires judicious analysis of alternatives and artful negotiation between attendee demands and organizational imperatives to develop event schedules aligning with USA Fencing’s mission. By wrestling with this multidimensional resource allocation dilemma, students sharpen analytic skills and strategic decision-making competencies, grappling with the same complex questions event directors face in real-world scheduling environments marked by inadequacy and compromise.
The fans in Cincinnati are in an uproar. They have just witnessed another disappointing football season, the 23rd since Mike Brown became the owner of the team. Mike Brown’s tenure has been marked by historically poor performance with eight and nine straight game losing streaks to begin the season on multiple occasions. To make matters worse, this was the same number of seasons that his father and Hall of Famer, Paul Brown, owned the team. Where Paul Brown’s tenure had been marked by record ascendence to the playoffs and two Super Bowl trips, his son’s tenure was notable primarily for seasonal failure. In the minds of the fans and press, the two eras of ownership could not be more starkly different. Both are now calling for wholesale changes to the leadership or the sale of the team. Students should examine these claims and both eras of ownership using transformational and charismatic leadership theories, Collins’ Genius with a Thousand Helpers leadership model, and family-owned business succession perspectives. Do the fans and press have a right to be angry and demand a change in leadership?
This teaching-based case study tasks students with analyzing a strategic decision. This analysis is guided by a script describing a strategic decision undertaken in a fictional nonprofit sport organization (i.e., Canadian Ice Tennis Federation). Students’ analysis is achieved by applying strategic decision-making theory, including its five central constructs: centrality, duration, flow, interaction, and scrutiny. Knowledge is gained by analyzing a strategic decision according to its level of authorization, length, delays, negotiations, and information sources. This teaching-based case study is intended for undergraduate students in general sport management and/or strategy/strategic management courses. The benefit of this teaching-based case study resides in its ability to teach students how to make decisions, a central and ubiquitous task in organizational life, and their future endeavors in the sport industry.
The Athletic Department at Sizeable State University has struggled both on and off the field in recent years. With a majority of their teams finishing in the bottom half of the conference 3 years in a row, student attendance at home athletic events is at an all-time low. Despite these challenges, the women’s basketball team has found success in recent years even finishing first in the conference last season and making a trip to the NCAA tournament. With an incoming student class made up of majority females, and a growing mound of research on female sports fandom, the athletic director has challenged the marketing team to specifically target female college students with their marketing initiatives in the upcoming season. Driven by a largely female leadership team at Sizable State University, Grace Perkins, the associate athletic director for marketing, has been tasked with developing these new marketing strategies which will drive female student attendance at home athletic events, with particular focus on home women’s basketball games.
