Michael P. Sam

Sport Policy Development in New Zealand Paradoxes of an Integrative Paradigm

Sport policies are underpinned by particular interpretive frameworks or paradigms . These paradigms shape: a) the construction of policy problems, b) the alternative approaches to resolving these problems and c) what is considered to be an acceptable government intervention. This article investigates how a policy paradigm shaped the findings and recommendations of New Zealand’s Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness and Leisure. Using empirical data gathered from observations of the Taskforce’s consultations, interviews with Taskforce members and a review of public submissions, it is argued that a paradigm (stressing rationalization and integration) served as the basis for recommendations to reduce the number of regional sports trusts, to centralize control over the sector and to coordinate the administration of sport. Two fundamental contradictions and paradoxes arising from this paradigm shift are discussed. The first notes the historical contingencies that gave rise to the problem of fragmented sport delivery structures, including government’s preference for contractual agreements and decentralized control. The second examines the appropriateness of centralizing powers given the inherent need for specialized (and autonomous) delivery mechanisms. This study’s focus on paradigms helps to explain how policies can alter institutional relations and the lived world of actors with respect to their identities, opportunities and capacities to act.

The Public Management of Sport

Abstract This article proposes that sport policy problems exhibit the characteristics of ‘wicked problems’, in that they are difficult to define/interpret, are based in competing/uncertain causes, and generate further issues when solutions are applied. Drawing from the existing body of empirical work in Australia, Canada, the UK and New Zealand, it is further suggested that the modernization of governments partner national sport organizations (NSOs) is effectively wicked because it results in their commercialization and introduces challenges, dilemmas and tradeoffs. Possible consequences for central government agencies include a further emphasis towards elite sport, and a challenge of ensuring the responsiveness of NSOs in relation to diversity issues and their traditional representative functions. The author speculates on the paradox in the government expectation that commercialized NSOs can be repositories of ‘social capital’.

Targeted investments in elite sport funding: wiser, more innovative and strategic?

Targeting funds to a select ‘few’ organisations is an increasingly recognised principle of government funding distributions for elite sport. This paper explores the principles of performance-based targeting in sport and traces its historical development alongside New Public Management reforms. Drawing from data in New Zealand, it is suggested that targeting schemes generate unintended consequences including: (a) the paradoxical tendency for the central agency to be blamed for having too much control over sport and for not being sufficiently accountable for results and (b) the propensity for National Sport Organisations (NSOs) to become less innovative over time due to increased accountability requirements and tighter monitoring. Each carries implications. The former reminds us that broader political risks cannot be ruled out, and may effectively negate targetings promise of allocative efficiency and responsiveness. The latter warns that such regimes may hinder organisational learning and induce NSOs to follow ‘best practice’ at the expense of developing new best practice.

Building legitimacy at Sport Canada: pitfalls of public value creation?:

Legitimacy building is an increasingly recognized feature of bureaucratic practice under networked governance. Mark Moores (1995) model of ‘public value creation’ captures the strategic imperative to build credibility, legitimacy and support for policies and programmes in this context. As an emerging ‘narrative’ in public organizations, it combines perspectives on managerial and political leadership and is therefore useful to explain bureaucratic experiences with legitimacy building and their implications for policy. This article investigates the efforts of Canadas federal sport agency to secure legitimacy and explores the implications of public value creation on future policy-making. Drawing from interview data as well as public and internal documents, the study outlines Sport Canadas initiatives to establish sports ‘benefits’, collaborate widely and add value in terms of equity and ethics. Two related implications (or storylines) are considered and discussed: (a) the tendency for public value creation to reduce the policy sector to anecdotal understandings in the eyes of political authorizers, and (b) the propensity for building public value to result in over-commitment due to the accumulation and embedding of new collaborations, mandates and target populations. Points for practitioners Mark Moores ‘public value’ approach resonates with practitioners because of its realist portrayal of politics in public administration. Generating support and legitimacy for existing or proposed policies and programmes is acknowledged to be particularly important in contexts where networks are prevalent. This article investigates legitimacy building within federal sport, a sector which has been reliant on networked governance since its inception and where substantive efforts have been aimed at raising its profile. The case cautions against persistent case-building and public value creation because continuous justifications may ultimately raise questions regarding the credibility of bureaucratic advice and of the likely success of programme commitments.

Regional implementation of New Zealand sport policy: new instrument, new challenges

Policies aiming to enhance sport participation and physical activity are prone to change and highly influenced by shifting government priorities and instruments. In 2009, the New Zealand Government and its agency Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) abolished programmes aimed at inducing general physical activity and in their place established Kiwisport, an initiative to get more school-age children involved in organized sport. This study analyses the impact of these changes on regional sports trusts (RSTs), as regional implementers of national sport policy and the Kiwisport initiative. Based on a process of induction from available texts (interviews with chief executives of RSTs and both public/nonpublic documents), three emerging challenges are presented and discussed. The first concerns how RSTs can fulfil Kiwisports promises of minimal bureaucracy in the light of the limited capacities of community organizations and increasing demands from SPARC for evaluation. The second surrounds the difficulty in reconciling Kiwisports allowance for greater RST discretion/autonomy with the demands for integrated national–regional delivery. The third challenge is with regard to creating sustainable community initiatives under conditions of depleting resources and shifting policy priorities. Findings raise fundamental questions as to how and to what extent RSTs should realign their organizations to meet central government objectives.

Sporting sign wars: advertising and the contested terrain of sporting events and venues

Local sporting stadia exist as sought-after promotional platforms for multinational corporations to associate their brands with major international mega-sporting events. However, in conjunction with a global climate of corporate sign wars (Goldman and Papson, 1996) and the continued threat of ambush marketing, these sporting spaces exist as contested terrains where a range of power relations are effectively played out at the global-local nexus. In this paper, we examine issues pertaining to ambush marketing and the brand protection/clean venue policies employed by local organising committees in two case studies: the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 1999 FIFA Under-17 World Soccer Championships in New Zealand. We identify similar strategies utilised at both sporting events to protect official sponsors while discussing some of the implications of these issues on the lived experiences of spectators and citizens who are inevitably connected to the wider structures of power operating within and through these local sporting spaces.

Performance regimes in sport policy: exploring consequences, vulnerabilities and politics.

The performance measurement regimes instituted by central government sport agencies have both intended and unintended effects in relation to their network partners. The purpose of this article is to investigate the actions and interpretations of national sport organizations (NSOs) in relation to a performance regime. Drawing from data in New Zealand, two broad categories of institutional effects are identified and discussed. The first category of effects relates to the tendency for performance measurement and monitoring to reinforce the delineation/demarcation between elite and community sport due to the relative clarity of the former’s measures, and the institutionalization of ‘cream-skimming’ at national and sub-national levels. The second category of effects surrounds the apparent paradoxes and vulnerabilities of performance measurement that include the demand for indicators to ‘mushroom’ and the development of ‘gaming’ behaviours. This study highlights the tenuousness of performance measurement schemes as a feature of ‘good management’ as well as their ultimate contribution towards (or disruption of) ‘good policy’.

Public broadcasting, sport and cultural citizenship: Sky’s the limit in New Zealand?:

Access to live telecasts of sport – as a matter of cultural citizenship – is an increasingly complex and contentious political issue in the new digital broadcasting landscape. Debates over the ‘viewing rights’ of citizens are further heightened within nations where public broadcasters once played pioneering roles in providing live, free-to-air telecasts of sporting events of national significance (Rowe, 2004a, 2004b; Scherer and Whitson, 2009). The technological developments associated with digitization – coupled with the ongoing convergence of broadcasting, telecommunications and the internet – has, on the one hand, produced unprecedented opportunities for audiences to watch sport on a host of platforms. These now include specialty subscription sport channels – channels that were simply unthinkable in an earlier era of analogue broadcasting – along with mobile phones and other new media devices. Within this context, pay-TV networks are investing enormous resources to purchase the exclusive rights to various sporting properties that are now frequently bundled by sports organizations into multi-platform packages (e.g. pay-TV, free-to-air and digital/online rights). These developments have, in turn, injected vast sums of money into the coffers of various governing bodies, teams and leagues around the world: revenue that has fuelled the explosive growth of the salaries of professional athletes in recent years. On the other hand, access to live broadcasts of the most popular and desirable sports – now regarded by distributors as ‘premium content’ – is often restricted to audiences who can afford subscription fees to digital specialty channels and the requisite technologies. All of these developments – including the ability of deep-pocketed, vertically integrated

Carnivalesque culture and alcohol promotion and consumption at an annual international sports event in New Zealand

This study investigated the promotion and consumption of alcohol at the 2012 New Zealand Rugby Sevens Tournament. The paper uses a quantitative survey to gain insight into how attendees experienced the event in relation to alcohol promotions and alcohol consumption. One hundred and six participants completed the survey, the results of which highlight respondents’ opinions of: (a) the appearance and role of alcohol promotions at the event; (b) the link between event atmosphere and alcohol consumption; and, (c) messages about moderating alcohol consumption during the event. The discussion draws attention to how live spectators of one particular alcohol-sponsored sports event perceived the role of alcohol as part of the entertainment package and the atmosphere of the event.

Fitting a square stadium into a round hole: a case of deliberation and procrastination politics

From the perspective of city officials, proposals to build new stadiums are tenuous because of the dual local government imperatives of having to be both visionary (i.e., entrepreneurial) and conservative (i.e., fiscally responsible and publicly accountable). Based on case data in Dunedin, New Zealand, we investigate two related dilemmas that emanate from that citys stadium deliberation process. The first is with regards to the dichotomy between politicians and bureaucrats, and the degree to which deliberations on a new stadium should be politically or technocratically driven. The second concerns the extent to which local authorities favour independence or accountability in gathering information. Here we suggest that deference and delegation to an ‘independent’ body became tantamount to procrastinating – that is a case of holding the process up in order to progress it. Our analysis demonstrates that such dilemmas demand immediate responses that, while seemingly benign in the short term, alter the balance between a citys entrepreneurial outlook and its view towards citizen responsiveness.