2026-09-23T05:20:42Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105233 2023-07-11 col_2142_5131 col_2142_16325 com_2142_5130 com_2142_16324 com_2142_16323

Cole, Cheryl L. Cole, Cheryl L. Denzin, Norman K. McChesney, Robert W. Stole, Inger L. Christians, Clifford Lewis, Jonothan 2019-08-23T20:48:20Z 2019-08-23T20:48:20Z 2021-08-24T09:15:28Z 2019-04-19 2019-05 Using a framework of cultural studies-informed political economy, this dissertation is a critical examination of private team ownership in the major North American professional sports leagues. Despite drawbacks that are apparent to players, fans, media, and scholars, private ownership has been taken for granted as the natural way of organizing professional sport. This analysis argues that private ownership became the norm as the result of social class conflict in the mid-nineteenth century, and the efforts of upper-class sport participants to exclude the working class from the playing field. A decades-long effort to first prevent, and later control, working class sport participation eventually led to the formation of the first major professional sports leagues, with the men in charge guided by the same ethos of exclusion and control. In the era of neoliberal capitalism, private ownership has served to enrich owners at the expense of players, fans, and the public, who are on the losing ends of collective bargaining negotiations and stadium subsidy deals. To make these arguments, this dissertation provides an in-depth analysis of how the professional sport industry developed; an overview of how the professional leagues currently operate; and a proposal for a hybrid ownership model that gives the players control of league operations and communities ownership of the franchises. Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01 The student, Jonothan Lewis, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-19 at 10:42. The student, Jonothan Lewis, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-04-19 at 11:03. This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-04-19 at 12:42. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13781 on 2019-08-22 at 16:23:23 Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:48:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 4 LEWIS-DISSERTATION-2019.pdf: 1668129 bytes, checksum: b9aaddde8c17c6813de2a78049f858a6 (MD5) Jon Lewis Dissertation.docx: 485281 bytes, checksum: 6d6154f918a0a6c5be935d9740cd1610 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4211 bytes, checksum: c0302f2def85356a50d75602ef90c034 (MD5) PROQUEST_LICENSE.txt: 4557 bytes, checksum: 89763a61d570a4846bab809ad29ce0cb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-04-19 Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 112355 Lift date: 2021-08-23T20:48:32Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 112355 on 2021-08-24T09:15:28Z. application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105233 en Copyright 2019, Jon Lewis labor, class, ownership, capitalism, neoliberalism, cultural studies, political economy, sport, nba, nfl, nhl, baseball, soccer, rugby, media, sport history Who makes the game? Examining private ownership in professional sports text text Inst of Communications Rsch Communications and Media University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dissertation Ph.D.