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I think the hardest thing for leaders right now is the 24-hour news cycle. . . The line is blurred now between what's really journalism, what's opinion and what's the truth.

—Al Golden, former Head Football Coach, University of Miami (as cited in Mullane, 2015)

Many sport leaders would say that the most critical trend in sport (and other businesses) is the use of technology and social media, not only for athletes but also for the sport organizations themselves. The digital revolution will continue to change the face of sport and entertainment. The use of global teleconferencing, for example, permits organizations around the world to work together. This has implications for sport organizations and how they are run. Organizations in all types of business and industry are changing with flextime, remote management, more collaboration, and so forth.

As you examined in Week 6, another trend to follow is both diversity and globalization. The rapidly changing demographic or “demographic tsunami” (Snyder, 2014) will affect sport organizations financially, as the Baby Boom generation will have less to spend on attending live events and the Millenial generation spends more of their time viewing sports online.

In addition to new trends, some specific issues will continue to be of concern, including the following:

• Performance enhancers and cheating • Overemphasis on winning as the objective • Safety concerns, including concussions and long-term effects of playing “violent” sports • Domestic violence and off-the-field issues for professional athletes • Rise of the super-athlete and genetic enhancement • The debate about whether to pay college athletes

These are only a few of the issues that will be relevant to the future of sport administration. Although no one can see into the future, it is paramount that as a future sport administrator, you are not only aware of the trends and issues in the field but are also able to analyze the most critical issues and trends and address them accordingly.

Instructions

To prepare: Choose one of the five case studies in Scott (2014), Chapter 11:

• Case 1: Sport Business Context of the Future • Case 2: Is That Really Fair • Case 3: The Changing Environment for High School Sports • Case 4: eRecruiting Internationally • Case 5: FIFA and Qatar

After reading the case study you selected, answer Question 1 of the five questions following the case study.