Robbie Millar BSc (Hons)
Researcher
Summary
Robbie first joined the Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) in 2011 as a Casual Researcher, whilst he was studying Sport Business Management at Sheffield Hallam University. After graduating with a first-class honours degree Robbie joined SIRC as a full-time member of the team in 2014. Robbie’s primary role at SIRC is to generate income through commercial research projects for a portfolio of clients. Robbie is an active researcher within SIRC, his research interests focus on the finance and economics of professional sport clubs and assessing the impact of major sporting events. In addition, Robbie engages in student facing activities at Sheffield Hallam University, delivering guest lectures and providing dissertation supervision within the Department of Sport.
About
Since joining SIRC, Robbie has worked on a range of different research projects for a number of high-profile public and private sector clients, namely the R&A, Ryder Cup Europe, UK Sport, RFU, Badminton England, London Marathon, All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club and Sport England. Robbie has a wealth of experience in conducting research at major sporting events. He has taken a leading role in SIRC's major event impact evaluation portfolio and regularly leads teams of researchers collecting data in the field at major sporting events for UK Sport, the R&A and other clients. Robbie co-developed and tested the spectator subjective wellbeing measures to align event evaluations to the Sporting Future outcome areas. In addition, Robbie co-led the recent research projects for UK Sport on the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup and 2019 UCI Road World Championships. Currently Robbie manages SIRC’s research partnership with Badminton England and recently completed an innovating project, designing an AI chatbot to support with Badminton England’s return to play guidance and membership enquires.
Teaching
Robbie takes responsibility in engaging in student facing activities at Sheffield Hallam University. He has delivered a number of guest lectures on Sport Business Management, applying findings from commercial research contracts and personal research into relevant content for students to utilise in their learning. Robbie regularly delivers seminars and lectures on the finance modules of Sport Business Management. Since 2017 Robbie has supervised several students through their final year dissertation projects. In September 2019, Robbie was part of the team from the Department of Sport that delivered Sport Business Management to students at the Shape Campus in Hong Kong.
Research
Robbie is an active researcher and his research interests focus on the finance and economics of professional sport clubs and assessing the impact of major sporting events. In recent years, Robbie has presented at national conferences and in November 2020 will present at SMAANZ, one of the major Sport Management conferences in the world. Robbie has numerous publications that focus on the financial health of professional sports clubs, the impact of major sporting events and other contemporary sport management related topics such as home advantage in professional football. In 2019, Robbie held a key role in supporting the organisation of the Football Collective conference that was held at the home of Sheffield United Football Club, Bramall Lane. He recruited and managed student volunteers from various courses within the Department of Sport for the conference. Robbie is also a member of the Football Collective, which is a dedicated network of people who wish to bring critical debate to football.
Publications
Journal articles
Bullough, S., Edmondson, L., & Millar, R. (2023). Piloting the use of Football Club Community Trust's to create social Hubs for older adults. Public Health in Practice, 5. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2023.100381
Ramchandani, G., Plumley, D., Mondal, S., Millar, R., & Wilson, R. (2023). You can look, but don’t touch: competitive balance and dominance in the UEFA Champions League. Soccer and Society. http://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2023.2194512
Ramchandani, G., Wilson, D., Millar, R., & Ashworth, B. (2022). New sports and no spectators: Japan’s performance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Managing Sport and Leisure. http://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2022.2119158
Millar, R., Plumley, D., Wilson, R., & Dickson, G. (2022). Federated networks in England and Australia cricket: a model of economic dependency and financial insecurity. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal. http://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-09-2021-0100
Ramchandani, G., & Millar, R. (2021). Investigating the "twelfth man" effect in five European domestic football leagues: a Covid-19 induced natural experiment. Journal of Global Sport Management. http://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2021.1951614
Ramchandani, G., Millar, R., & Wilson, D. (2021). The relationship between team ability and home advantage in the English football league system. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research, 51 (3), 354-361. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-021-00721-x
Ramchandani, G., Millar, R., & Coleman, R. (2019). The perceived influence of sport event spectatorship on subjective wellbeing. Journal of Global Sport Management. http://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2019.1669066
Plumley, D., Wilson, R., Millar, R., & Shibli, S. (2019). Howzat? The Financial Health of English Cricket: Not Out, Yet. International Journal of Financial Studies, 7 (1), 11. http://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs7010011
Bullough, S., Ramchandani, G., Coleman, R., & Millar, R. (2017). Central contracts in Test cricket: a model of best practice? Managing Sport and Leisure, 21 (5), 338-352. http://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2017.1283643
Bullough, S., Millar, R., Ramchandani, G., & Coleman, R. (2014). The effect of central contracts on the stability and performance of the England Test cricket team. [El efecto de contratos centrales sobre la estabilidad y el desempeño del equipo inglés de Test cricket]. RICYDE. Revista internacional de ciencias del deporte, 10 (35), 4-15. http://doi.org/10.5232/ricyde2014.03501
Conference papers
Plumley, D., Wilson, R., Millar, R., Coleman, R., & Davies, A. (2022). Counting the cost of Covid-19 on professional football clubs (Abstract). In EASM 2022, 30th European Sport Management Conference. Bridging Sport, Tourism & Leisure Management, Innsbruck, Austria, 5 September 2022 - 8 September 2022. https://easm2022.com/
Millar, R., Plumley, D., Wilson, R., Coleman, R., & Davies, A. (2022). Counting The Cost Of Covid-19 On Professional Football Clubs and Their Communities (Abstract). In EASM 2022, 30th European Sport Management Conference. Bridging Sport, Tourism & Leisure Management, Innsbruck, Austria, 5 September 2022 - 8 September 2022. https://easm2022.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/EASM2022_Innsbruck_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf
Millar, R., Plumley, D., Wilson, R., & Dickson, G. (2020). Cricket’s financial Ashes: A model of economic dependency [abstract only]. In SMAANZ Week 2020 Program, 30 November 2020 - 2020. https://smaanz.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/ali_a_abstract-merged-1.pdf
Ramchandani, G., Potwarka, L., Millar, R., & Coleman, R. (2020). Toward More Nuanced Understandings of Demonstration Effects: Insights from the 2019 Netball World Cup. In North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) 2021 Conference, Virtual, 3 June 2021 - 5 June 2021. https://www.nassm.org/NASSM2021/ProgramSchedule/nassm2021abstractsbook.pdf
Plumley, D., Wilson, R., Millar, R., & Shibli, S. (2019). Howzat? The Financial Health of English Cricket: Not Out, Yet [abstract only]. In European Association for Sport Management, (pp. 43-45). EASM
Book chapters
Barrett, D., Edmondson, L., Millar, R., & Lennox, P.S. (2023). Ducking and Diving. In Boxing, Narrative and Culture. (pp. 40-54). Routledge: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003312635-5
Reports
Bullough, S., Edmondson, L., Millar, R., & Storey, R. (2022). EFL Trust Extra Time Hubs.
Ramchandani, G. (2021). 2019 UCI Road Cycling World Championships Social Impact Evaluation. DCMS, UK Sport, Sport England and British Cycling.
Bullough, S., Edmondson, L., Millar, R., & Gregory, M. (2020). Every Player Counts evaluation.
Ramchandani, G. (2020). Economic and Social Impact Assessment of the Vitality INF Netball World Cup 2019. UK Sport and England Netball.
Vernon, T., Gregory, M., Moore, R., Millar, R., & Storey, R. (2019). Evaluation of the Specialist Teacher Training Pilot - Final Report, July 2019.