Membership in Nonprofit Sport Clubs

Abstract

Investments in elite sport and sport events are often justified by governments with the trickle-down effect. Theoretically, this effect implies that people are inspired by sporting success, the personality of athletes, and hosting elite sport events to practice sport. However, previous research had difficulties in measuring, modeling, and providing evidence of this effect. The purpose of this study is to examine such external drivers of membership numbers in German sport clubs. This study uses unique data on male memberships from 1970 to 2011 in 12 Olympic sports. Under the control of economic variables (income, work time, gross domestic product [GDP]), the results of dynamic panel regression models show a significant positive effect of hosting a major sport event on the growth rate in memberships in the same year and several lagged effects for stars and sporting success. The results have implications for policy makers and the capacity management of nonprofit sport clubs.

Examining the Grassroots Participant Legacy of Major Sporting "Supplemental" Events

“…Crucially, these "early stage" pathways are not typically measured at present and without attention may never flourish into the typically measured more formal, or club membership. in place to market the sport effectively to potential newcomers and have the capacity to accept new members (Weimar et al, 2015).…”

“…A "trickle-down" effect is said to have occurred where the general population are inspired to participate in sport by elite sporting success, the elite athletes themselves, and/or hosting elite sporting events (Weed et al, 2015;Weimar, Wicker, & Prinz, 2015). The hosting of elite sporting events is the focus of this article with regards to how supplemental events can influence grassroots participation.…”

“…BURGESS, BINGLEY, AND URWIN not only hold events, but also provide participants with the knowledge and means to engage with the sport afterwards. This finding highlights the importance of ensuring that adequate information is in place for newcomers to participate in a sport and that the capacity and willingness to accept new participants is available (Ramchandani et al, 2015;Weimar et al, 2015).…”

“…Thus, grassroots participation legacy requires both the willingness and the means to play to be evident. Strategies need to be in place to deal with potential trickle-down effects (Weimar et al, 2015) to ensure that opportunities to participate are advertised and available.…”

La Metáfora De La Pirámide Deportiva: El Efecto Trickle Down Y Up en España

“…Así, se recomienda que futuras investigaciones utilicen métodos estadísticos más avanzados, como los análisis con datos de panel (e.g. ; Weimar, Wicker, y Prinz, 2015) o la regresión lineal (e.g. ; Frick y Wicker, 2016), que permitan la inclusión de estas covariables en los análisis estadísticos.…”