“If You Don’t Know Me by Now”—The Importance of Sustainability Initiative Awareness for Stakeholders of Professional Sports Organizations

Abstract

This study explores the importance of sustainable initiatives (SI) in sport for the stakeholders of a professional sports organization (PSO) after three months of absence of the public at the stadiums due to the pandemic situation. Two topics—diversity and inclusion (DIVIN) and the attraction and retention of human capital (ARHC)—were considered and analyzed. A third factor—the distance of residence of the members and the PSO—was considered as an element of the possible relationship between the awareness of the SI and the assessment of the topics in question. A total of 5694 PSO members took an online survey. Through the description of the data, the results show that being aware of the SI performed is a crucial factor for the success of the SI. Distance positively influences SI awareness. The topics considered are rated most positively by members with awareness of the SI, with a higher rating for the topic with the highest external visibility.

Does pro-environmental attitude predicts pro-environmental behavior? Comparing sustainability connection in emotional and cognitive environments among football fans and university students

“…Future research should explore the role of brand love in encouraging pro-environmental behaviors, by testing its moderation, mediation and moderated mediation effects. Finally, this research demonstrates the value of the sport sector as a promoter of pro-environmental behaviors [ 14 , 105 ]. However, more research is needed to understand how pro-environmental behaviors can be promoted through sport and what makes sport unique compared to other contexts.…”

“…In sport, an increasingly relevant worldwide industry that even supports a global hierarchy of nations [ 9 ], the relationship between sport organizations and sustainability has seeing growing developments [ 10 , 11 ]. Sport is characterized as a high emotionally involved context between the organizations/teams (the brands) and the fans (the customers) [ 12 ], and past contributions have explored the relationship between sport and the environment in a variety of perspectives, including: the increasing efforts of professional sport teams (PSTs) in promoting pro-environmental sustainability [ [13] , [14] , [15] ]; the perception and participation of fans in pro-environmental initiatives carried out in sport events [ 11 , 16 ] and the influence of sport sustainability actions on fans' pro-environmental behaviors [ 10 , [16] , [17] , [18] ]. This line of inquiry outlines sustainable sport consumer research within the subdiscipline of sport ecology [ 19 ], in which emerging trends are primarily focused on examining the determinants of pro-environmental behaviors of sport consumers, as well as to examine the role of different personal and social elements that may help to explain fans’ engagement in pro-environmental actions [ [20] , [21] , [22] ].…”

Analysis of Travel Behaviour of Professional Sports Organisation Members to the Stadium: Future Implications for Sustainability

“…The basis for the design of the conceptual research model was based on the calculation of the distance between the place of residence and the stadium, considering three main zones (Figure 1), which served as a basis for previous studies [15]. Thus, the same criteria were followed to establish the different groups of analysis based on geographical distances relative to the districts of residence of PSO members.…”

“…The environmental dimension has been the most studied by researchers due to the greater complexity of assessing the social and economic dimensions [5]. Concerning sustainability, several studies refer to distance as a common element (for a review, see [15]). A game in a stadium is an event that, by its very nature, contributes undeniably to environmental degradation [16].…”

“…Given the lack of spectators in the stadiums as a result of the bans due to COVID-19, ref. [15] analysed the responses to a PSO sustainability initiatives questionnaire. The distance of members' residences from the stadium was a factor considered about a possible greater or lesser knowledge of the sustainability initiatives performed.…”