ABSTRACT
Sport as business has seen major changes in the last few decades. In a generic model, each sport has seen a progression from the early phases of foundation, codification and stratification, through a revolutionary phase of professionalization followed by an evolutionary phase of post-professionalization, to a more recent revolutionary phase of commercialization – the emergence of stakeholders external to the sport, such as sponsors and broadcasters – and, in some cases, on to a post-commercialized phase. By “revolutionary”, we can characterize the relevant phase as having high rates of change in a variety of dimensions, and operating with high levels of uncertainty for the owners of the sports clubs involved. Some sports have managed to reach a post-commercialized phase which is characterized by reasonable levels of manageable change in a climate of reasonable certainty – examples are cycling, golf, snooker and tennis. Others, however, have struggled to cope adequately with commercialization, retaining high levels of change rate and uncertainty, a classic example being football (Beech, 2013).
