2309HSL Sport Management Principles Sport organisation Environment Report Name: Seowoo Kim Student Number: S2933166 Tutor: Michelle Hayes Due Date: 07/04/2017 Words: 1,325 Executive Summary The report has focused on activities initiated by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF) for enhancing the popularity level among the population. The report states that the increasing popularity of many other sports in Australian has diverted the attention of the population. For that reason, not many children or adults have focused on the development of baseball in Australia. It has affected the game within the Australian market in a major way. The report also states the mission statement of the ABF which focuses primarily on increasing public interest towards baseball. For that reason, the ABF has initiated different strategies for penetrating the market in a major way. The report states that the ABF segregated entire Australian communities into seven sections in order to deliver different national programs in a major way. The report has focused on evaluating the type of program ABF has initiated for accomplishing all goals in an effective manner. It covers marketing as well as the operating program that the ABF conducted to create their desired impact in different parts of Australia. It also focuses on assessing the kind of services offered by the ABF, designed to encourage Australian people to take membership opportunities. The report focuses on identifying the success factors, which have largely contributed in fulfilling the ABF’s aims and objectives. The report also evaluates the political and social challenges ABF faces when conducting all the activities in a major way. The report outlines various key features related to the baseball sport environment which can influence the way operational activities have been conducted in Australia. Table of Contents Introduction: 3 Program and services offered by the Australian Baseball Federation: 3 Success factors: 4 Potential issues, challenges or concerns for Australian Baseball Federation: 4 Features of the sports environment and its influence on operating environment: 5 Conclusion: 6 References: 7 Appendices: ……………………………………………………………………………………….9 Introduction: The Australian Baseball Federation (ABF) is responsible for governing all national activities related to baseball in Australia. Baseball is popular in mainland territories and states but it lacks the passion of the people regarding other leading sports like cricket (Antolihao, 2012). For that reason, a large majority of school children are guided towards other sports rather than baseball. The ABF has focused on enhancing the acceptance and popularity of the baseball in all parts of Australia. The ABF has attempted to present baseball in a more glamorous way so that a higher percentage of children join the game. This report will analyse about the ABF ‘s environment, which are their success factors, programs and how they operate their organisation. Program and services offered by the Australian Baseball Federation The ABF played a crucial role in starting the Australian Baseball League in November, 2010. The ABF has made 7 territory and state member associations for covering all areas in the Australian market (Baseball Australia, 2017). ABF also has focused on enhancing the present infrastructure in a major way. According to Winand, Scheerder, Vos, and Zintz (2016), “the non-profit sport sector, such as sport clubs and sport federations, face challenges as they compete for membership and resources such as sponsorship, grants, facilities and volunteers” (p.289). The ABF seeks to leverage the sports image, brands and assets to maintain economic growth, volunteers and benefit in a major way for players and stakeholders. Moreover, they have taken initiatives for developing programs for little league, accredited coaches and non-accredited coaches and management staffs. Thus, ABF has attempted to focus on stakeholder engagement, financial management and governance for maximising the impact on the Australian sport industry. It has also focused on including top baseball players across the world, within the major league to gain the attention of the Australian people. Presently, the ABF has around 57,500 members, who wish to increase the present condition of baseball (Murray et al., 2016). Success factors From the beginning, the ABF has initiated innovative strategies to enhance the game’s popularity in Australia. The ABF has tried to initiate visionary leadership for empowering members to take progressive effort to the success of baseball (Burton, 2017). The ABF mission statement focuses on positioning baseball in the non-traditional market of Australia. According to Esteve, Di Lorenzo, Inglés and Puig (2011), “the impact of stakeholder relations on the resources that a non-profit sports organisation is able to attract their stakeholders” (p. 424). For the national level of sport federations need to stakeholder management skills, such as improving leadership, integrity, cooperation and partnership. The ABF has consciously tried to maintain transparency in all the initiated strategies for developing a cost effective operational process. Enhancing the facilities and infrastructure in Australia is another prime factor that contributed hugely to the success of baseball. The ABF has influenced political and commercial level (Federal, State and Local) to fulfil long-term facility needs in a major way (Dabscheck, 2012). It has allowed the ABF to increase the total number of players participating in the professional league. The ABF’s marketing strategies have also focused on developing long-term marketing strategies to position baseball uniquely in the Australian market. Furthermore, the ABF highly focuses on marketing and communication with stakeholders, through avenues such as their official website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, ABLTV and through other media coverage. According to the ABF’s 15-16 annual report, communication with stakeholders through their official social media rate has been constantly growing. For example, in 2012-2013 their Facebook audience rate was 3,670, but in 2015-2016 the rate is 17,036. Potential issues, challenges or concerns for Australian Baseball Federation It can be assessed that effective fulfilment of all the aims and objectives of the ABF require a huge amount of investment, which cannot be complete without the external government’s support. However, the Australian government has focused on providing necessary financial supports to the ABF for accomplishing all the goals in an effective manner. Still, increasing costs and requirements has created challenges for the ABF to gather required amount of funding for fulfilling business objectives (Nichol, 2016). For that reason, it has induced the ABF to focus more on increasing the participation rate in a major way. In addition, the baseball league of Australia also has faced ethical challenges regarding the misbehaviour of the athletes for fulfilling all the business responsibilities. As a result, the ABF has focused on developing effective coaching and training sessions to avoid such incidents in an effective manner. It has enhanced the required cost for fulfilling all the activities associated with the business process. In addition, the ABF is looking to increase the reach of marketing activities in the global platform for representing Australian baseball league as the prime sporting event (Stewart et al., 2012). As a result, it has also increased the cost associated with the marketing activities that the ABF needs to gather for fulfilling business activities. Features of the sports environment and its influence on operating environment As mentioned earlier, baseball is not as popular as other sports in Australia. For that reason, a majority of the children tend to focus on other sports such as cricket or football rather than baseball. It has influenced the ABF to face immense competition in enhancing the popularity level of baseball (Lathlean et al., 2017). As a result, the ABF should invest largely in marketing activities to grab the attention of global and domestic people in a major way. On the other hand, the ABF has also faced huge amount of challenges in influencing older people to become participate. Moreover, several other sports are also trying to increase their popularity in the Australian market, which has increased difficulties for the ABF in moving towards sustainable changes aspect (Stewart et al., 2012). It has influenced the ABF to develop commercial partnerships with various corporate franchises for gathering required funds (Enad, 2014). It has encouraged the ABF to develop strong media and PR relationships to fulfil all requirements of the operational process. Conclusion From this discussion, it can be assessed that ABF has to grab the attention of the people of Australia in a major way. It has targeted the fundamental level to enhance the overall condition of the baseball in Australia. The ABF has also played a critical role in performing different types of marketing activities for creating desired amount of impact on the market, such as how non-profit sport federation operate and manage their stakeholders. The territory wide segregation has also helped the ABF to cover each segment of Australian sport market, which has increased the membership participation rate in a major way. References Antolihao, L. (2012). From baseball colony to basketball republic: post-colonial transition and the making of a national sport in the Philippines. Sport in Society, 15(10), 1396-1412. Baseball Australia. (2017). Baseball.com.au. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from http://baseball.com.au Burton, R. (2017). Baseball’s Curious Journey. Baseball Beyond Our Borders: An International Pastime, 285. Dabscheck, B. (2012). A primer on Australian player associations. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 23(3), 61-70. Esteve, M., Di Lorenzo, F., Inglés, E., & Puig, N. (2011). Empirical evidence of stakeholder management in sports clubs: the impact of the board of directors. European Sport Management Quarterly, 11(4), 423-440 Enad, J. (2014). Increasing incidence of hamstring injuries in Major League Baseball pitchers: original research article. International SportMed Journal, 15(3), 225-230. Lathlean, T., Finch, C., Gastin, P., & Newstead, S. (2017). Wellness and injury risk in elite junior Australian football players. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 20, e93-e94. Murray, N. B., Black, G. M., Whiteley, R. J., Gahan, P., Cole, M. H., Utting, A., & Gabbett, T. J. (2016). Automatic Detection of Pitching and Throwing Events in Baseball With Inertial Measurement Sensors. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 1-18. Nichol, M. (2016). 4. Making sense of labor regulation in Major League Baseball: some insights from regulatory theory. Research Handbook of Employment Relations in Sport, 69. Stewart, B., Nicholson, M., Smith, A., & Westerbeek, H. (2012). Chapter 1-Sport and Australian society: Chapter taken from Australian Sport: Better by Design? ISBN: 978-0-203-46292-8. Routledge Online Studies on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 1(48), 3-15. Winand, M., Scheerder, J., Vos, S., & Zintz, T. (2016). Do non-profit sport organisations innovate? types and preferences of service innovation within regional sport federations. Innovation : Management, Policy & Practice, 18(3), 289-308. doi:http://dx.doi.org.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/10.1080/14479338.2016.1235985 Appendices A. Australia Baseball Federation (ABF): http://baseball.com.au/ B. ABF 15-16 Annual Report: https://assets.sportstg.com/assets/console/document/documents/ED48FFDD-5056-BD36-A3F4F3543DE7978C.pdf C. ABF Strategic Plan: http://baseball.com.au/Portals/27/Strat%20Plan/BA_Strat%20Plan.pdf D. ABF Contact Details: E. ABF Social media channels Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BaseballAustralia Twitter: https://twitter.com/BaseballAust Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baseballaustralia/ F. Membership and Participation (ABF 15-16 Annual Report p. 29) G. The Development of the Australian Little League Teams (ABF 15-16 Annual Report p. 31) H. ABF Social Media Growth (ABF 15-16 Annual Report p.39) I. Coach Development (ABF 15-16 Annual Report p.30)