Date of Graduation

Spring 5-16-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS)

College/School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program

International Studies

First Advisor

Adrienne Johnson

Abstract

The world is facing a climate crisis – corrective action that will improve our collective situation is needed, now. Those with the power to do so, in the capitalist structure under which we live, are largely the individuals, corporations, and governments with financial resources and the platform to inspire others to act. Two such entities, complete with the financial heft to make a difference and inspiration to spare, are North America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) and Spain’s La Liga. This thesis seeks to understand what distinguishes the NBA’s approach to sustainability from La Liga, and by employing each league as a distinct case study, the teams or clubs from each may be understood as units of analysis for this phenomenon. In this study, the Golden State Warriors and Real Betis were the ideal match to examine whether organizations in each league exemplified the approach that the leagues themselves wished to model. This thesis incorporated participant observation, semi-structured qualitative interviews with sustainability experts and league and team employees, discourse analysis and on-site visits to explore the ways in which sustainability can be defined and manifest in society. After this analysis, findings included league-specific, distinct approaches to social sustainability, as well as differing beliefs from various practitioners on how to act in order to make an impact. Crucially, however, every stakeholder agreed that action must be taken in order to address our current circumstances. Recommendations included expanding sustainability frameworks in the NBA, augmenting sustainability efforts in La Liga through increased hiring for sustainability-specific roles at clubs and enhancing the league and organizational efforts by more heavily platforming their most valuable assets, the athletes. Lastly, future research ideas encompassed changing the variables of this study by engaging different countries and stakeholders like Germany or Italy or dropping the international angle to instead examine a single league and compare their organizations.

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