Environmental Sustainability Communication on Minor League Baseball Team Websites

Abstract

It is increasingly important that sports organizations consider their impact on the natural world. Sports not only require numerous resources from the natural environment but also have the potential to bring diverse groups of people together and provide them with pro-environmental messaging and behaviors. Research has examined the way that professional sports leagues communicate environmental sustainability efforts and information to fans; however, little is known about the way that one very large professional organization, Minor League Baseball, presents this information to its fans. This study utilized qualitative content analysis to examine Minor League team websites to determine if Minor League Baseball teams are communicating environmental sustainability information and which environmental sustainability practices were most frequently appearing in their web presentations.