Climate change will present new and dynamic challenges for sport organizations, such as extreme weather event, new regulations, and broad market changes in response to climate change.
Sport, and outdoor sports in particular, are climate-dependent to some extent as these activities rely on certain climactic conditions, water resources, and energy resources.
The impacts of climate change on sport are under-researched. The nature of managerial decision-making in relation to organizational responses to climate change in the sport industry is also poorly understood.
12 organizations were studied using interviews, document analysis and observational data.
- Results show that the physical impacts of climate change were evident. Two recurring examples include (1) higher rates of water evaporation from the grass playing surfaces due to a warmer, drier climate; (2) the inadequacy of traditional grass varieties for coping with the persistently above average temperatures that are now typical in the region.
- Climate change has been a subject of intense debate in Australia in recent years, yet over half of the organizations studied (7/12) have discussed it as a management issue.
- The media was the main source of climate information for most of the organizations.
- Two organizations reported being vulnerable to climate change, while most reported being resilient.
- Water, energy, and waste management concerns were raised within each organization as key climate-related concerns and challenges.
CITE: Dingle, G. & Stewart, B. (2018). Playing the climate game: climate change impacts, resilience and adaptation in the climate-dependent sport sector, Managing Sport and Leisure. In press.
