Professional Sports Teams' Community Engagement during an Environmental Jolt: Shifting Activities and State Differences amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Professional sport organizations have increasingly engaged with and contributed to their local communities through philanthropy, programs, and partnerships. While existing literature has revealed types and forms of community engagement in sport, we know less about professional sport organizations’ local activities during unsettled times, as in the case of an environmental jolt. This dissertation aims to extend understanding of the relationship between sport organizations and their surrounding environments by investigating 1) the potential shift in professional sport teams’ community engagement approach due to an environmental jolt, and 2) whether teams’ community engagement approach in response to an environmental jolt varies by their local geographic embeddedness. I employed a qualitative approach to examine these questions in the context of professional sport teams in the U.S. and their community engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Chapter 2, I review academic works around community engagement in sport to provide the background that motivates and contextualizes Study 1 and Study 2 in this dissertation. In Study 1 (Chapter 3), I examine the shift in professional sport teams’ community engagement approach in response to an environmental jolt by comparing pre- and peri-pandemic periods. My qualitative analysis suggests that there are notable shifts in teams’ community engagement approach, particularly around focus-area priorities, acknowledgment of community members, modes of interaction, affiliated athletes’ involvement, and partnerships. The findings represent the broader trends in the way professional sport teams engage in local communities, and isomorphic behavior among teams across leagues. Building on Study 1, Study 2 (Chapter 4) looks beneath broader trends to explore differences in professional sport teams’ community engagement by geographic locations, or the more local institutional environment, during an environmental jolt. For geographic comparison, I grouped teams located in metropolitan areas by red and blue states, corresponding to differences in norms and policies. My findings suggest that the way teams engage in local communities varied by red and blue states, showing different forms of engagement within certain focus areas. Collectively, Study 1 and Study 2 expand the understanding of the relationship between professional sport organizations and their environments by revealing approaches to community engagement amid the environmental jolt.