Sport Public Relations and Communication

This book provides a concise guide to how public relations and communications strategies and principles can be applied to sport management and marketing issues and problems. Sports marketing is a rapidly developing sector with universities offering sports marketing and increasing numbers of specialized sports public relations and sport communication degrees. Public relations and communication strategies is one area where sport marketing is underdeveloped; generic marketing literature misses the nuances and special features of sport because they are not given sufficient focus. This book fills a significant gap in the public relations and communications literature by customizing a discussion that is directly relevant to the sport management student. Case studies will be used throughout to provide practical applications of public relations and communications approaches within the sport management/marketing context, providing a link between theory and practice. They will present public relations and communications strategies and principles that have been used in many sport management/marketing settings. Moreover, each case study provides the reader with research probes at the end of each case study. The research probes for each case study allow the reader to reflect on the principles applied, strategies used and their applicability to the sport setting. Examples used will draw from North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Australian/NZ to give the text global appeal and applicability. Review and Research Questions provide the reader with focusing questions related to the principles and frameworks presented, as well as prompting the reader to formulate and articulate defensible arguments in relation to their own public relations and communications strategies. Making strong links between theory and practice is an overarching goal of the approach advocated in this book.