Volume 6, Issue 3

In order to open up the German Bundesliga to investors in a competitively neutral manner and to limit outside influence on professional football clubs, the constitution of the German Football Association (DFB) was amended to include the so-called “50-plus-1” rule. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of constellations with controlling influence that are not covered by this rule. The analysis is aimed at subsequently proposing an alternative concept that would be able to achieve the objectives of the aforementioned rule consistently. Furthermore, concrete recommendations are made for enforcing the regulation. The advantages of the proposed concept are evaluated from a sports economic and legal perspective.

Baseball is America’s national pastime. For over 100 years, the game has held a special position as an institution. Many Americans, from normal fans to scholars and intellectuals, maintain a deep emotional tie to baseball. The following study discusses how baseball developed its unique national und cultural position in America. In a long process, American society transformed baseball into a patriotic ritual of American exceptionalism that serves as a means of national integration. To capture the special, particularly emotional relationship American culture has developed towards baseball, the study will apply the theory of classification by Emile Dürkheim. According to Dürkheim, individuals and societies treat phenomena that hold special significance as if they were sacred. The study takes the perspective of an external observer who describes the way American society sees itself through baseball.

The article considers the extent to which the phenomenon of volunteer participation in sports clubs is compatible with the basic assumptions of rational choice theory. The logics of decisions are analyzed and modeled mathematically on both the club member level and the club level. In this context, the important role of socialization in sports clubs for volunteer work is addressed and integrated into the model.