1.04 Governing Bodies in Sports
Sports & Entertainment Marketing II
By Joanna Reese
For use with guided notes.
Types of Governing Bodies
• There are many types of governing bodies,
because each levels of skill within a sport needs
to set different regulations.
• The main types of Governing Bodies are:
▫ Leagues
▫ Federations
▫ Multi-sport event organizers
• Let’s look at each in detail.
Leagues
• group of sports teams or individual athletes that
compete against each other in a specific sport
• create a common set of rules and organize
competitions.
• usually work with the national and/or
international federations.
• Ex: NBA
Federations
• Are responsible for one sport or sometimes a
group of similar sport disciplines (i.e. aquatics).
• Also help with the promotion of the sport
• Can be national or international.
• National federations are responsible for a
country's participation in the Olympics
• Ex: FIBA
Multi Sport Event Organizers
• are responsible for the organization of a certain
event which contains more than one sport.
• The best known example is the International
Olympic Committee (IOC), the organizer of the
modern Olympics.
Why have Governing Bodies?
• Without governing bodies, the sports industry
would be like a country under anarchy… in
chaos!
• The governing bodies of each sport have several
main goals:
▫ Maintain order and unity while allowing healthy
competition
▫ Ensure athlete’s safety
▫ Encourage good sportsmanship
▫ Provide fair and consistent enforcement of rules
▫ Maximize financial profits
What do they do?
In order to fulfill these goals, the governing bodies
perform many tasks:
• Promote their sport to gain fans and make more
profits
• Organize game schedules and tournament
brackets
• Settle disputes & ensure that rules are followed
fairly
• Constantly eliminate, update and add
regulations to the sport.
Rules & Regulations
There are many types of regulations:
• Game play rules: specific rules on how to play the
game; how many timeouts, penalties, etc.
• Safety rules: rules put in place to protect athletes,
fans and all involved; recently NFL has strickened
rules on hits to the head
• Eligibility rules: determines who is eligible to play;
covers use of drugs/steroids
• Selection rules: how are new players drafted and
how are game schedules made
• Equipment rules: what types of equipment must be
worn, can there be logos, etc.
• And more!
Other Info about Rules
• Because governing bodies do update and add
rules so often, athletes may have a hard time
keeping up with it all.
▫ So they must rely on their agents to do so!
• While the rules that are set by the governing
bodies are not legally enforced by the
government, they are enforced by the teams that
participate in the league or federation.
▫ Governing bodies make sure their rules comply
with laws as well
Commissioner
• In American leagues, if a rule is broken or a
player is in question about a rule, the leagues
often turn to the commissioner.
• the exact powers of the commissioner depend on
the constitution of the league, but the
commissioner is usually the highest executive
position.
• Commissioners are elected by the owners of the
league's teams, and handle matters such as
discipline, arbitration of disputes between the
teams, etc.
1.04 Activity
Select a major sport and determine the nature of its
governing bodies. Does it have a commissioner; if so,
who is it? Search the web to locate current news
articles about the governing bodies and recent
actions/changes. Prepare to present this info to your
classmates.
• NFL
• NBA
• WNBA
• MLB
• NHL
• MLS
• CFL