Money In Sport Essay Research Paper Sport

Money In Sport Essay, Research Paper

Sport and Money

Everywhere you look you see sport intertwined into everyday life, be it on the television, in your back yard, in schools, universities or in social networks. Nobody can escape the influence of sport, either as a spectator or a participant it s everywhere. But who is to blame for this new era in sports. Is it the sponsors who are pouring millions of dollars into the sports industry that are changing the attitudes of athletes. For professional sports players it is no longer about the love of the game or staying loyal to your team or fans. It is all a question of money, or more to the point, Show me the money. The bottom line being, if the managers can t offer enough zeros on the end of a paycheck, they can wave goodbye to their top athletes. Controversy has erupted across the globe as to whether athletes are worthy of their million dollar contracts. The bottom line is, athletes deserve all the money they earn because big corporations are willing to pay. High expectations are placed on athletes personally and professionally, and they have to subject themselves to risk on the playing field as well as personal sacrifice. An athlete being sponsored to play professional sports was once unheard of. How times have changed. Nowadays, wherever you see a top class athlete, you will see a corporate name splashed on them somewhere. The 90 s saw a dramatic change in the amount of money an athlete could make from contracts and sponsorship deals. But what exactly is sports sponsorship. The Howell Report (CCPR, 1983) defined sports sponsorship as, the support of a sports event, sports organization or competition by an outside body or person for the mutual benefit of both parties, (Gratton and Taylor, p.164). Basically the sponsors will give the designated sport team or player financial assistance in return for publicity that does not reflect adversely on them. It is amazing to think that sports sponsorship hardly existed as an, economic activity in Britain before 1970, (Gratton and Taylor, p.163). By 1999, however, it was estimated to be worth $350 million (Noll, p.494). Sports sponsorship globally, is projected to be worth around $20 billion (Gratton and Taylor, p.165), with the United States cornering about a quarter of that market. As you can see from these figures, the companies behind these price tags can have a big say in dictating the nature of the sporting industry. The question is has the commercialization of sports harmed our sporting traditions, or played a key factor in its survival and popularity. The problem with the market for sponsorship is that it can be fairly patchy in the way it is divided up. Obviously there are going to be a small number of major sports events, teams and elite athletes that will be swamped in contracts. Due to competitive sponsorship bidding some of the sponsorship deals go sky high. However, the down side to this is that some of the less popular sports like Women s golf, are left struggling to find backing as they don t fit the sponsors criteria. A fragile balance between a sport and its sponsor is clearly evident, as they provide a major source of revenue for any sport. If a big named sponsor decides to withdraw its companies backing from a particular tournament or league, crisis can erupt as sport organizers are left trying to fill a void from lost revenue. Why not just get a new sponsor. Sometimes it is not always that easy. At the moment a lot of European sports are struggling, partly because the European union passed a ban on tobacco advertising in the sporting industry as of 2001 (Noll, 1997, p.157). It is not proving to be an easy task trying to find replacements, so some sports schedules like motor racing are on the brink of going under. The commercialization of sports through endorsement contracts, (Gratton and Taylor, p.167) seemed to explode in the 90 s with eight figured deals popping up all over the place. Phil Knight, the founder and chairman of Nike, played an instrumental role in making the basketball legend Michael Jordan, a brand name in the international consumer marketplace, (Putnam, 1997 p.255). Jordan s assignment was pretty simple, to be himself in order to establish a foothold in the athletic footwear market. So far it has been a major success story, and the only other athlete capable of overtaking Jordan s commercial clout is Tiger Woods. This is where the term cultural construction comes in to play. Is it Tiger Woods himself, his family or the media and marketing firms that have made him such a sporting superstar. No one can deny his overwhelming natural talent for the game. He has broken records that most golfers thought impossible, so not all of his success can be a result of marketing exploitation. However, a lot of people argue that he is being paid too much money to represent Nike at $100 million for five years ( Tiger woods Earnings ). People resent the fact that he could never spend all that money even if he tried, but that isn t really the point. It is necessary to assess what he is worth to Nike to endorse their products. First we have got to take a look at Nikes total revenues for last year, which was 8.8 billion dollars ( Stanford Study ). Phil Knight alone, the founder of Nike, made 1.7million dollars in salary earnings (Putnam, p.255). With these types of figures, we can see why there is nothing to stop giving out the multi million-dollar contracts to people like