The Impact Of Sports
...a close look at sport as a business, it is more than obvious that sport has become a huge part of the economy. Not only because of the fact that the term "sport" in the present practically goes hand in hand with the term "money", but also because of sport's influence on politics, the operations of major corporations, and the human as an individual.
The economic changes associated with sports came so fast that even the regular sports fan often feels stunned. Sometimes it feels that the world of sports is no longer controlled by actual sport, but rather is dominated by hard-driving player agents, labor negotiators, hard-nosed owners, millionaire players, and skillful lawyers (Davies, 1994). Even sportswriters now tend to write more about salary negotiations or player holdouts than about the outcome of games. Some people are even already predicting an alienation of the traditional sports fan due to the ridiculously high player salaries (Davies, 1994).
A big influence which made sport become what it is today is certainly the phenomenon of big sport events, such as the Olympics, the Soccer World Cup, and the Super Bowl. These are events in which practically everybody interested in sport turns back into the traditional sports fan and enjoys the humongous entertainment factor of these events. Why else would it be that during the Super Bowl the highways empty of traffic and shopping malls are suddenly barren of customers (Eitzen, 1993)? And how is it that the Olympics have become one of the largest media events of our time? In Sydney in 2000, there were over 16,000 broadcasters and journalists present for the Olympics, and the estimated number of viewers who watched the games on television was about 3.8 billion! But where did this all develop from? And where is it going?
The development of sport throughout history gives a great view on how the nature of...
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