Category: About me

Dear Australia, it’s been a blast

Posted on by olanscott

Dear Australian friends and family,

It is with mixed feelings that I write this post as the end of an extremely long and wonderful era in my life comes to a close. Four weeks from now, I am set to travel to St Catharines in Canada where I have taken a new job at Brock University, so I’ll be leaving Australia for the foreseeable future. I have truly enjoyed living all over Australia starting on the Gold Coast and ending in Canberra. I have done some amazing things in this country, made some amazing lifelong friends, and achieved a lot both personally and professionally. It has been a wonderful ride that I will look back on with fondness and cherish the memories that I have forever.

Initially, I came to Australia to live for one year while I studied a Master of Sport Management by coursework and I ended up doing a thesis, then a PhD, working all over the country and travelling the breadth of the country too. It’s been a most wonderful and magical 13+ years and I’m so thankful that I was able to spend so much time here.

I’ve made some many lifelong friends, many of whom are like family to me. From the folks I met during my studies on the Gold Coast, who I keep in contact with to those wonderful people in Canberra who I see more regularly and all the rest of the people at various stops in-between, I will truly miss you all and I look forward to keeping in touch with you via all the methods we now have at our disposal. My friends have meant the world to me and have shared in all the great and good times with me and supported me through the less good times, so to all of you, I say Thanks! You’ve been fantastic. For those travellers, you’re all most welcome to come visit me; particularly those travelling to Niagara Falls or Toronto as I’ll be very close by.

Over the years, I’ve done so many wickedly cool things, like skydive, learn how to surf, travel the outback, scuba dive all over the country, and so many other things that I could spend days naming. Nonetheless, it’s been a brilliant experience and I’ve memories to last many lifetimes. It has been such an eye opener being able to experience so much of Australia (and the world) during my time here and I’ve loved it beyond measure. I look forward to experiencing more of Australia as life moves into different chapters and teach my niece the nuances of the pick-and-roll and ensure she becomes a basketballer.

However, this isn’t saying goodbye, it’s me saying so long and in the words of Arnold in Terminator 2: “I’ll be back”

My move will be 24 August when the new chapter in life starts and this one concludes.

With lots of love, Olan

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Why I #Movember

Posted on by olanscott

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Why I Movember

This is the nineth year that I have taken part in Movember, which is a charitable initiative in which men grow moustaches and raise money during this campaign. The Movember campaign seeks to raise awareness for health issues facing men, such as testicular cancer and depression. You can read more about Movember’s mission, vision, and values here: http://au.movember.com/about/vision-goals

I have a deeply personal reason for doing Movember and that is that my family suffered dearly as a result of my father’s life-long battles with depression after serving with the Canadian Armed Forces in the Korean War. We now know this more commonly as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but this was not a common phrase in the 1960s to 1990s.

Through his depression, my father also had a dependence on alcohol and our family suffered because of it. Truth be told, I’ve never seen him have a drink in my life. He wasn’t an everyday drinker or even an occasional drinker; he was a binger whereby he’d go out for a few days and binge, then sober up and come back home like nothing had happened. This binging obviously put strain on our family, as mom had to make alternate arrangements for her children’s caretaker when he wasn’t around and she was working in the evenings. It also impacted the family in that my father missed some family events over the years, so our family photos are incomplete because he wasn’t there.

My father died in 1998 and I often wonder, what if? What if he didn’t drink, would he still be alive? Would he have attended my university graduations (I’ve had four)? Would he have walked my sister down the aisle at her wedding? There are a myriad of other ‘what if’ questions that I could type, but won’t. I, obviously, will never know the answer to these (and all other) questions, but it’s something that I never want my family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else to ask about me. What if Olan didn’t drink, would he have (been to this event with us, gone for an early surf with us, been fit for life, supported us, and anything you can think of)?

This is why I do Movember annually and will continue to do so. Many men go unchecked for health issues for a myriad of reasons and my goal is to raise money for Movember so resources and programmes can be put in place to help me with their health issues. After reading this, if you feel compelled to donate to my Movember endeavour, click here http://mobro.co/scottolan to donate.

Thanks for reading, Olan

About Movember’s mental health initiatives

AUSTRALIAN MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE

In October 2014, the Movember Foundation announced the largest ever non-government investment in men’s mental health in Australia, allocating $22.3 million to fund programs to help change the face of men’s health. The Australian Mental Health Initiative will bring together teams from across sectors and around the country to collaborate on projects that focus on keeping men and boys mentally healthy in the community and workplace, encouraging those with a mental health problem to take action early and reducing the stigma associated with mental health.

Problem is seen in the seating

Posted on by olanscott

This is a copy/paste of an article I wrote for the Joondalup Weekender newspaper that was published on 13 June 2013.

 

THE WA Government recently released formal plans for the stadium to be built in Burswood and it appears that the planners of this stadium are taking the “if you build it, they will come” approach.

This line, from the movie Field of Dreams, suggests that the Barnett State Government just wants a stadium built that will easily host AFL and cricket matches.

However, the reality is that fans of rectangular field sports, such as soccer and rugby, will continue to have the same poor sightlines that the Subiaco stadium offers.

It is surprising that the new Burswood stadium will not have retractable seating, similar to Melbourne’s Docklands stadium that makes watching rectangular field sport more appealing. I made the mistake of attending the Wallabies versus Springboks match at Subiaco last year and could hardly see the action.

Viewing soccer or rugby matches at the Docklands arena is a much more pleasant experience compared to the Subiaco stadium.

The first tier of seats can be brought forward to enable seating close to the action and, naturally, justify the cost of higher category seating.

The Burswood stadium’s measurements, announced on May 7, indicate that its dimensions will be smaller than Subiaco’s in a nod towards housing rectangular sports more effectively.

However, there will still be significant space between the edge of the field and the first row of grandstand seating.

Is this move just a token gesture?

It remains to be seen if the WA Government will spend the extra money to build retractable seating, which will attract top-level sporting events to Perth and fans to the stadium.

Only time will tell if the “if you build it, they will come” analogy will turn out to be true.Problem_seen_in_the_seating

About me

Posted on by olanscott

Olan Scott, PhD is an Assistant Professor at University of Canberra in the Faculty of Health. Several courses I teach are: Sport Marketing, Sport Management and Development, and Sport Venues and Events. In my research, I explore the intersection of sport, business, and the media (print, electronic, and social).

I have published academic articles in Sport Management Review, First Monday, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Communication & Sport, International Journal of Sport Communication, among other. Further, I have several other articles either in review or in press in these and other journals. A full CV is available here.

My research has been presented at many domestic and international conferences, such as North American Society for Sport Management, European Association for Sport Management, North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Sport Marketing Association, and Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand.

I actively use Twitter and my personal website (http://olanscott.com) to disseminate information about my teaching and research. Further, I use these media to learn more about relevant teaching and researching topics by engaging with others in academia and the sport industry

Thanks for visiting olanscott.com. Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment!