1. Three of the given activities are clearly sports by the definition given by Cookley. Racing at the Indy 500, playing handball at the YMCA, and bowling in a Friday night league all meet the physical, regimented, competitive definitions of sport. Three more – skiing with friends, jogging every morning, and doing aerobics in a PE class all can be considered sports, but more information is needed. Each of these can be done competitively and under a structured set of rules, but each can also be done non-competitively and without rules. Chess, even at a tournament, will not meet the definition because it is a cognitive rather than a physical activity. The problematic example is "The Super Bowl." If the author had chosen to say "a championship game played between two professional football organizations," then the answer would definitely be yes, this is a sport. But the term Super Bowl has become completely bound up with myriad aspects and activities divorced from the actual competition on the field. I suspect Cookley would say that the game is sports, but the Super Bowl spectacle is not.
2. If I were the consultant in question, I would choose Figurational Theory as the framework for my analysis. It is clear that theoretical frameworks that assume an intent to harm the lower classes do not fit in a case where those classes were, in fact, benefited. Figurational theory recognized the complexities of modern sports and allows a means to determine the importance to the particular community as well as the social interdependencies, coalitions, and political alliances that allowed the citing of the stadium in such a location. Figurational theory accentuates the way that power balances shift between individuals and groups, so it is especially well-tuned to analyze why (a) the stadium was placed at this location vs. another neighborhood and (b) why this plan for economic development was chosen over others. Figurational theory wil...