Changing Face in Sport

Whether you follow football, rugby, athletics or any other type of sport, the experience, interest and the whole approach of sports has changed immensely over the past century. Before the late 19th century, sport was somehow provisional event with absolutely no interest from the government but has now as not only it is national but global phenomenon (Houlihan, 1997, p. 1). Sport has grown from being a recreational event since the end of the 19th century into a global, and commodity and commercial event.This essay will discuss how sport has transformed from local event to an international centre-piece in the last 100 years. Today’s sport is bound up in a global network of interdependency chains that are marked by global flows and uneven power relations (Maguire, 2005).

Globalized audience since the late 19th century has ever been increasing as a result of the development of satellite television (Houlihan, 1997, p. 1; Gupta, 2009, p1781). For instance in the years 1998, 2002 and 2006 the FIFA World Cup finals attracted global audiences of 1. billion, 1. 1 billion and 715. 1 million respectively (Harris, 2007).

The growth of technologies such as the internet and mobile phones has also lead to global audience of sport. Globalization of sport has also lead to the participation of people from different ethnicity and the increase in gender awareness all around the world. In 1978, in the United States of America, a law was passed on to include women in sports to achieve gender diversity and equity and participation opportunities (Lapchick, 1996, p. 3). Again, commercialization and commodification of sport have changed since the late 19th century.

According to Levinson and Christensen (2005) commercialization of sport is more pervasive today than the late 19th century. Commercialization of the modern games has become more business-like as sport organisations have become money centred and responsive to customers’ needs (Houlihan, 2008, p. 308; Levinson and Christensen, 2005).For instance, FIFA’s President Joao Havelange transforming the World Cup into a big business with global audiences and profits by attracting multinational companies such Coca-Cola and Adidas with lucrative sponsorship and selling TV and radio rights (Homburg, 2008; Boyle and Haggerty, 2009 cited in Eick, 2011). The TV rights and advertising revenue of the 1980 Moscow Olympics were estimated around $87 million and $150 million respectively (Hargreaves, 1982, p.

38; Levinson and Christensen, 2005). These rights on the rise ever since commercialisation and commodification of sport were introduced.The rights to broadcast the Olympics from 1996 to 2008 in the United States cost the television network NBC $4 billion (Jackson and Andrews, 2005, p. 9). In recent decades, commodification and commercialization of sport have changed greatly as they define the relationship between fans and athletes.

The relationship between athletes and fans in the modern sport is seen as a business contract as fans pay good money to watch them and therefore expect good entertainment from the athletes (Coakley and Donnelly, 1999, p. 178). The athletes’ images or likenesses are sold to promote product.Nike in the year 2000 signed Tiger Woods on a five-year deal worth over $100 million (Jackson and Andrews, 2005, p. 9) and in 2006, Adidas signed Lionel Messi also on a five-year deal worth ? 400,000 a year (Dunnell, n.

d. ). The athletes themselves in the modern sport are seen as commodities as clubs make place huge offers to acquire their services. Taking a look at how much football clubs pay to acquire the services of players are enormous in the modern game. The sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid FC from Manchester United FC for an amount of ? 0 million in 2009 is a very good example of how athletes are as seen today as commodities (BBC, 2009).

The international events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup have created influx of income for the hosting government. The success of commercial sport requires a strong interest from spectators. Spectator interest over the years has increased worldwide and it appears to be highest in places where there is the existence of widespread system of youth sports programs and general access to television, newspapers and radio (Levinson and Christensen, 2005).Commercialisation and commodification of sport have been a success over the years as corporations and company sponsors with profit orientation tend to aim at societies with high or large populated cities that provide potential spectators that translate to ticket buyers. A sum of $1. 78 million was generated in the 1960 summer Olympics and decades after, the broadcasting revenue increased immensely to $286.

9 million and $1,496 million in the years 1984 and 2004 respectively (Houlihan, 2003, p. 310-311). Also, the contribution of ? 16. 68 billion was made by the sport sector alone to the economy between the period of 1985 and 2008 (SIRC, 2010).

Spectators’ consumption of the product merchandised by football, rugby or any other sporting club in the past decades have risen and the hosting cities of event such as the FIFA World Cup, Olympics or Rugby World Cup use the opportunity to merchandise their product and attract tourist. In 2006, Germany generated a sum of €500-600million from tourism of which greater spending was on food, beer and gadgets (Chen, 2008, p. 47 cited in Florek and Breitbath, 2007; Deutsche Welle, 2006b).The growth of employment in the commercial sector over the years is on the rise as shown in 2008, it contributed about 76% (339,000) sport-related employment (SIRC, 2010). This sector of sport contributes a great amount to a country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Formula 1 (F1) over the years have contributed to employment within an economy. British GP provided a total of 1,148 full-time jobs in 2002 with increase income equalling ? 17. 2million (Chen, 2008, p. 48 cited in Motorsport Industry Association, 2003) and in 2006, 2000 full-time jobs and 505 part-time jobs were provided employment to 0. 7% of the Bahraini population during the Bahrain GP (Chen, 2008, p. 48 cited in BIC, 2007).

There is an indication that over 500 permanent businesses will be created in the United Kingdom as part of the Olympics and 900 temporary businesses opening in London in the hosting stage (Chen, 2008, p. 52 cited in Blake, 2005) Moreover, hosting nations or cities of mega-events such as the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics use that opportunity to sell all kinds of products. These mega-events boost up the economy of the hosting nation. Chen (2008, p. 0 cited in Brunet, 1995) states that the creation of the city ring-roads eased overall traffic congestion and 600,000m2 of office space was created.

In London, the University of East London is fortunate to benefit in the area of construction, engineering, hospitality, catering, sport science and physiotherapy degrees by 17% from the upcoming Olympics, London 2012 (Chen, 2008, p52 cited in Hoare, 2006). Furthermore, the commercialisation and commodification of sport in general has been beneficial to those who invest and the sporting organisations that put to use the investment and not the general public.The govern bodies, government of a nation, multinational companies such as Coca-Cola and Adidas, and the athletes benefit greatly from this sector of sport. According to Coakley (2003, p.

514) the commercialisation of sport programs in educational institutions places much emphasis on the financial gains of it than on education. Also, the survival of the corporate sponsors of college sports depends much on profit and place less emphasis on educational issues.Sports injuries are sometimes overlooked by the athletes as they are persuaded with prize money and appearance fees and the corporate sponsors that invest in sport organizations expect the maximum commitment from the athletes (Slack, 1998). Sport falls in the same category as any other product in capitalism where marketing is all about making profit by exploiting labour. For instance, the enormous wages of some footballers such as David Beckham masks the more modest earnings and short careers of most footballers. No matter how talented they are, players from poorer countries mostly Africa are exploited most, (Houlihan, 2008, p.

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