Management of communication in the main sports leagues: Indoor soccer, volleyball, basketball, and handballinSpain

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the management of communication in sports teams playing in the highest categories of the Spanish leagues of futsal, basketball, volleyball, and handball. The presence (or not) of team communication departments and plans, the academic profile of the staff, and the degree of outsourcing of these tasks were investigated through semi-structured interviews to those in charge of it. In addition, the differences in the communication management between sports are analyzed, reflecting on this reality in other areas. This is a novel study that originates from the understanding of professional and well managed communication as a challenge or essential need for teams of different sports and categories, not only for the multimillionaire LaLiga football clubs, in order to achieve greater media projection and social visibility. In this sense, we hypothesize that there exists a high level of professionalism in the management of communication in the teams analyzed, for they all compete in their corresponding category of honor. Despite that, great differences between teams and between sports were shown. In addition, professionalization of communication in these areas is still incomplete.