Previous research estimating demand for sporting events has focused largely on professional baseball and European football (soccer), using attendance as a proxy of demand. This article estimates demand for National Football League games using television broadcast ratings, permitting the additional novelty of generating estimations in both the home and visiting clubs’ markets. The study uses a linear mixed model to demonstrate that many of the factors influencing attendance hold true with respect to television demand. Furthermore, many of the factors influencing demand for the aforementioned leagues hold true for the National Football League. Team quality, tenure in the market, and games contested in primetime all increased ratings, while income and sharing a market were negatively associated with ratings. Intradivisional games showed no statistically significant effect. The findings further suggest that the factors influencing ratings in home and road markets are essentially similar.

This article uses television ratings from the 2006 and 2007 National Football League (NFL) seasons to estimate viewer demand in large markets without local teams. The factors that are found to be statistically significant and positively related determinants of television ratings are: team quality and age; the closest team in proximity to the market; late-season contests; and having teams such as the Cowboys and Patriots as participants. Concurrent game telecasts and contests involving unevenly matched teams are negatively related to viewership.

This study explored the philanthropic landscape of professional athletes and their charitable foundations. This research also investigated factors influencing the formation of philanthropic foundations among this group of individuals. First, data were collected to identify athletes in four professional North American sport leagues who had formed charitable foundations. Then, 36 interviews were conducted with athletes, foundation directors, league and team executives and a sport agent to explore the motives and beliefs about philanthropy in professional sport. Using the theory of planned behavior, this paper identified the factors considered in the formation of charitable foundations in this unique group, primarily focusing on attitudes (altruistic and self-interested), perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, self-identity and moral obligation as antecedents to athlete philanthropic activity. The paper also discusses the unique context in which these individuals operate, some of the particular constraints they face, and identifies opportunities for athlete foundations and their partners.

As corporate community initiatives (CCI) in sport are becoming an important dimension of corporate social responsibility, a key issue is evaluating the quality of the processes by which they are delivered and how they are managed. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation process of a professional sport team's CCI using program evaluation theory (Chen, 2005). Interviews were conducted with 42 key stakeholders (team executives, partnership implementers, participants, parents, coaches) from one Major League Baseball team's CCI to understand critical processes involved in CCI implementation and execution. The findings showed concerns in the quality of program implementation with the: 1) the partnership agreement, 2) the ecological context, 3) protocol and implementation, and 4) target population. We propose an iterative model of program evaluation for use in the sport context. We conclude the paper with recommendations for further research in this area and implications for practitioners.

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