Matching Items (12)
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- All Subjects: sports
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
The ability to draft and develop productive Major League players is vital to the success of any MLB organization. A core of cost-controlled, productive players is as important as ever with free agent salaries continuing to rise dramatically. In a sport where mere percentage points separate winners from losers at the end of a long season, any slight advantage in identifying talent is valuable. This study examines the 2004-2008 MLB Amateur Drafts in order to analyze whether certain types of prospects are more valuable selections than others. If organizations can better identify which draft prospects will more likely contribute at the Major League level in the future, they can more optimally spend their allotted signing bonus pool in order to acquire as much potential production as possible through the draft. Based on the data examined, during these five drafts high school prospects provided higher value than college prospects. While college players reached the Majors at a higher rate, high school players produced greater value in their first six seasons of service time. In the all-important first round of the draft, where signing bonuses are at their largest, college players proved the more valuable selection. When players were separated by position, position players held greater expected value than pitchers, with corner infielders leading the way as the position group with the highest expected value. College players were found to provide better value than high school players at defensively demanding positions such as catcher and middle infield, while high school players were more valuable among outfielders and pitchers.
ContributorsGildea, Adam Joseph (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / McIntosh, Daniel (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The Roller Derby Club at Arizona State University became a student organization in the fall of 2013. They became a practicing team known as the Derby Devils in the spring of 2014. This project documents the creation and development a collegiate roller derby team as they go from a student organization to an athletic team. Collegiate roller derby is still in its infant stages and therefore the purpose of this project is to provide a guide for future collegiate roller derby teams as well as other athletic teams.
ContributorsLee, Alisa Yulim (Author) / Looser, Devoney (Thesis director) / Hultsman, Wendy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
The U.S. sports market is and has been dominated by professional football, basketball, and baseball leagues. U.S. interest in soccer has exploded as the sport looks to establish its position in this saturated sports market. As a general consensus, Major League Soccer (MLS), the recognized professional soccer league in both the U.S. and Canada, is expecting increased growth following the 2014 FIFA World Cup. My goal is to track that growth from June 2014 and to monitor the league's responses to that growth. How do league executives manage growth? I am curious about the background finances- especially when heated negotiations are expected heading into a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The compelling question I am looking to answer is: How will the MLS market respond to growth in a highly saturated U.S. sports market, particularly after the 2014 FIFA World Cup?
ContributorsKagen, Samuel Aaron (Author) / Drake, Philip (Thesis director) / Cassidy, Nancy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Sports teams are an integral part of a city. They attract revenue to the area around the stadium and they also give a city a sense of pride. The aim of this study was to determine what makes a team successful in the area of attendance using four factors (Bernthal & Graham; Jensen; Kim, Trail & Magnusen; Edensor & Millington; Clowes & Tapp; Greenhalgh & Greenwell; Denaux & Yalcin; Paul & Weinbach & Robbins; Levin & McDonald; Lee & Kang; Drayer; L'Etang; McDonald & Rascher; Armstrong; Ross): the history of the team, the location and population of the city where the team plays, the social media following of the team and the promotional giveaways the team uses to attract fans. Using these four factors, a comparison was made among the Arizona teams and the top performing team in attendance in the respective leagues during the 2013 season. The Arizona Diamondbacks are compared with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Diamondbacks were not as equipped as the Dodgers in any of the categories. There is a more storied history for the Dodgers, the Dodgers play in Los Angeles - a significantly larger city that Phoenix, where the Arizona Diamondbacks play, they use social media more frequently and more effectively, and they offer more promotional giveaways than the Diamondbacks. The Phoenix Suns are compared to the Chicago Bulls. The Suns history competes with the Bulls, but they lack in the other three categories. The Bulls have a better location in Chicago, their stadium is located in the downtown area; they have a massive social media following and their promotional giveaways are more substantial. The Phoenix Coyotes are compared to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks exceeded in all of the categories, while the Coyotes were poor performers in each of the four factors. The Blackhawks have a storied history, they share a stadium with the Bulls, they have a great social media following and they give promotional items away 30 of the 41 home games. The overall recommendations for the teams are to win, in order to help build their locations and make it fun to be near the downtown area, to use social media effectively and engage with their audience, and finally to provide more promotional giveaways to attract people to the games.
ContributorsDugan, Abby Leigh (Author) / Wu, Xu (Thesis director) / Matera, Fran (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Abstract I sought out a project that would be able to intertwine the topics of business law and the business of sports. After reading and researching a few different options, one combination of law and sports that stood out to me was the frequent labor disputes between NHL owners and the players' union. The main goal of this project was to examine whether or not the lockouts that were instituted by National Hockey League owners during the labor disputes that occurred in 2004 and 2012 actually left the league with a better long term financial and social landscape. Through the examination of the stakeholders that were involved in each dispute and their resulting situations, I presented my answer to the above question. In order to properly study the overall situation, I also discussed the history of sports business, the history of the National Hockey League's business landscape, and collective bargaining in sports amongst other topics.
ContributorsNix, Eric Anthony (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Kutz, Elana (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The gendered pay gap is a phenomenon experienced by many within the workplace. Title IX is presented because of its significance in aiding women to get fair and equal treatment, particularly in sports. Intersectionality is a research lens used to examine how the various aspects that make up an individual (e.g. race, class, sexuality, or gender) impact their life experiences, and is utilized to examine the experiences of athletes in the United States and overseas. The field of professional sports possess salary disparities and in order to analyze them between men and women in professional sports, case studies are presented. Case studies of basketball and soccer, along with interviews and secondary research, are utilized and analyzed to understand how the gendered pay gap continues to persist. In comparison to the United States, women are being paid significantly more in other nations. Women continue to go overseas because of money and the treatment athletes get from local fans. Fans in other nations love their athletes and view them as an expression of pride in their nation. Women in sports currently experience salary disparities and will continue to do so because of various factors.
ContributorsWeiler, Erika Morgan (Author) / Holman, Christine (Thesis director) / Koblitz, Ann (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The beautiful game is unpredictable. Arguably half of soccer is entirely out of our control, instead being determined by a simple concept: luck. But what of the other 50%? Ultimately, the goal of the rapidly-advancing technologies and analytics in on-field sports performance is to maximize the elements that we \u2014 the coaches, players, decision-makers, and analysts \u2014 truly control. Once perceived as too mathematical and systemized, contradicting coaches' intuitions, sports sciences are burgeoning in the sports arena both in applied and mainstream popularity. While the industry has its critics and is far shy of its pinnacle, its advancements and successes cannot be ignored. From the training ground to match day decision-making, analytics are embedded in soccer and sport. Technology and analytics are vastly utilized throughout sporting organizations across a myriad of sports and purposes: scouting and drafting, fan experience, ticketing, etc. However, while these areas must be addressed in discussing the success of analytics in assessing situations and reducing uncertainty, my central thesis relates to the technological capabilities and corresponding analytical tools utilized to identify, assess, and improve on-field soccer performance: match analysis. This paper's core focuses on optimizing performance in soccer players in three specific areas of performance: technical abilities and tactics, physiology, and neuroscience.
ContributorsHeckendorn, Jason Farrell (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Ostrom, Amy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The progression of men's basketball and football players' careers through the means of colleges and universities has become the beaten path as of late. The problem with this path is that it is full of corruption. Players on men's collegiate basketball and football teams suffer the consequences of the many issues surrounding the current collegiate systems including recruiting violations, financial injustices, disregard of proper educations, and much more. Rather than attempt to tackle the many problems within the NCAA and its schools head on, the solution may be to provide an alternative route for players coming out of high school, who wish to pursue a professional career in their respective sport. By analyzing the current structure of baseball's major league and minor league, some aspects may be taken and implemented into new leagues for basketball and football, or potentially the National Basketball Association's existing Developmental League. After analyzing the economical impacts these proposed leagues could have on communities throughout the United States, reasonable changes to the structures of basketball and football can be made. The results show that it would be most beneficial to pursue the implementation of certain aspects stemming from baseball's minor league into the NBA D-League, rather than attempt to formulate new leagues at this time. The results of these changes to the NBA D-League would then be further analyzed to determine the steps worth pursuing further in the sport of football.
ContributorsWhitmore, David Arthur (Author) / Mendez, Jose (Thesis director) / Jarvie, Brittney (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Phoenix, Arizona is the sixth largest city in the United States. However, the city has never had a MLS team. In 1996, Major League Soccer was founded with ten clubs. Now the league plans to expand from twenty-four to twenty-eight. With multiple teams joining the league, why shouldn't Phoenix be the next market to expand the MLS? This project will analyze if the Phoenix market could host a profitable team. There have been a handful of lower division professional soccer teams in Arizona, but none of them have been sustainable, let alone make it to the MLS. Why is that? What are the steps to create an MLS Franchise? Through researching the factors behind soccer's increased popularity in United States and the history of professional soccer in Arizona perform a market analysis of Arizona's soccer fan base, ownership group, and MLS stadium potential.
ContributorsGodbehere, Tyler Joseph (Author) / Goegan, Brian (Thesis director) / Leach, Travis (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The following study applies research on Implicit Person Theory (IPT) to the context of organizational communication. IPT scholars argue that most individuals ascribe to one of two groups regarding perceptions of ability: entity or incremental theorists. Entity theorists believe abilities are fixed, unchanging, and constant, whereas incremental theorists believe abilities are changeable, malleable, and subject to development. Incremental theories are a predictor of success, while entity theories can stifle development (e.g., Dweck, 2006). This study explores the relationship employees' mindsets have on the organization, including learner empowerment, impression management, organizational dissent, and guilt. The present study reasons that incremental (versus entity) theorists will exhibit higher perception of learner empowerment, lower expression of impression management behaviors, higher expression of organizational dissent, and a lower perception of organizational related guilt. No significant results were found on the directional relationships predicted; however, this study presents implications for future research in the area of IPT and organizational communication.
ContributorsWallace, Brittney Sierra (Author) / Adame, Elissa (Thesis director) / Martin, Judith (Committee member) / Saffer, Adam (Committee member) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05