Bringing public relations and communication studies to sport

There is no doubt that sport has transformed over the last 30 years. At the elite end of the sport continuum it has become a complex commercial enterprise, while at the ‘participation’ end it has become quite sophisticated in marketing its activities to local communities. As a consequence, sports marketing is now a recognised and rapidly developing sector with universities offering sports marketing degrees. However, the one area where sport marketing is underdeveloped is in public relations and communication strategies. For the most part, sport management students have been forced to go to the generic management literature to further their understanding. In many respects this has not been a bad thing, but it often means that some of the ‘nuances’ and special features of sport are not given sufficient focus. This book customises its discussion of public relations and communications so that it is directly relevant to the sport management student. It provides a concise guide as to how public relations and communication strategies and principles can be applied to sport management and marketing issues and problems. In short, it demonstrates how the principles of public relations and communications can be successfully applied in practice within a sports context.