Contents for SER Issue 3:2
| SER 3.2 Authors: Thomas A. Baker III, Jules Woolf, William A. “Bill” Sutton |
| Abstract: Sport & Entertainment Review, Volume 3, No. 2, June 2017. |
| Preservation of Amateurism and the Commercial Regulation of NCAA Sports Authors: Thomas A. Baker III |
| Abstract: No issue is more important to the multi-billion dollar industry of college athletics than the legal preservation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) unique form of amateurism. The NCAA’s version of amateurism refers to regulations that restrict student-athlete compensation to the full cost-of-attendance, an amount set by each school that covers tuition, books, room and board, fees, and some miscellaneous cost-of-living expenses. The NCAA and its media partners push the position that amateurism is vital to the continued commercial success of college football and college basketball because consumers would lose interest in those products if athletes were to be compensated with amounts higher than what they are compensated with currently. |
| Drugs in the Sport and Entertainment Industry: Beyond Hyperbole and the Need for a Humanistic Approach for Drug Management Authors: Jules Woolf |
| Abstract: In December 2014, the German broadcast station ARD aired a documentary that alleged doping among Russian athletes was widespread and systematically organized. This subsequently led to an investigation and condemnation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the decision by the International Association of Athletics Federations to ban all Russian track and field athletes from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The International Paralympic Committee went further and banned all Russian athletes from the Rio Paralympics Games. This was undoubtedly one of the big-gest drug-related sport scandals ever witnessed, the fallout to which has yet to be entirely resolved. However, smaller stories also routinely emerge that remind us of the use and abuse of drugs in sport. For example, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter and current World Wresting Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Brock Lesner tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene at the beginning of the year. In the National Basketball Association (NBA), Joakim Noah of the New York Knicks tested positive in March 2017 for a banned substance contained in an over-the-counter supplement—a scenario of apparent unintentional use. Moreover, in Major League Baseball (MLB), a handful of drug-related suspensions occur each year, some of which involve high-profile athletes (e.g., Alex Rodriguez). |
| The Magical Mystery Tour of a Pracademic Authors: William A. “Bill” Sutton |
| Abstract: Since receiving my doctorate 35 years ago, I have consistently straddled the line between academic and practitioner—in fact, I coined the term pracademic to describe myself. As a pracademic, my research, publishing, and experiential learning activities in the classroom were always focused on the sport industry—and primarily the pro sports segment. I left academia twice to work full time as a practitioner—first as an executive in a sport marketing agency and later with the National Basketball Association (NBA). I have also maintained a consulting practice for the past 12 years working with a variety of professional sport organizations and specializing in revenue enhancement and organizational chemistry. |
