Who Benefits Economically From Sport

On October 17 2013 we learned about Sports and the Economy- Who Benefits from Sport?

In my opinion everyone benefits from sport but not as much as the athletes.

As stated in our notes athletes are granted:

·         Contracts

·        Salaries

·        Appearance Fees

·         Restrictive labor practices to keep salaries down.

Athletes get so much money from playing professional sports its ridiculous.  43 states in the U.S have implemented the pay for play policy at their universities. The NFL is $9 billion dollar revenue and the NBA is about $4million. It also says in our notes that “Money has become the foundation of sport at all levels.” I definitely agree with this statement. If this wasn’t true the Vikings wouldn’t be building a new $500million. The Affiliated Press who wrote the article “Vikings bump stadium share past S500 million” stated that they will increase their contribution to a new stadium to $500 million to make sure the project has everything they want. Let’s get serious here. We can spend $500 million dollars on a brand new stadium despite the things we need to pay for such as our debt with china our loans. This is outrageous, the athletes, coaches, fans and family benefit from sport but, in reality its mainly the ATHLETES. By us building new stadiums to accommodate the fans this brings in revenue and pays the athletes and coaches a lot more money. Stadium authority chairwoman Michele Kelm-Helgen said the rising costs are a sign of an improving economy. Of course this is true if your rise the cost then sport will grow. As long as the population grows sport will to, just like I mentioned before in another blog. The NFL makes about $1.9m, NBA, $5.15million, NHL $2.4million,and the MLB $3.31million. You would think average salaries in sport would be higher.

 In Coakley’s text (Pg. 378) he writes that the owners of top pro teams in the major men’s sports make money from …..

·          Gate Receipts

·         Media revenue

·         Stadium revenues

·         Licensing Fees

·         Merchandise sales

So not only do athletes benefit from sport but, the coaches share a huge role to. But,what about the fans family and other people involved in sport,why do they barely benefit economically from sport? Think About it!

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Changes and Implications

On November 21 2013 we talked about Sports in the Future- Changes and Implications

Coakleys text states “We play an important role in making them what they are today and what they will be in the future (Pg. 571).” A lot of people may not realize it but, this is true. Sport is something we as humans cannot live without. For some of us sport is the air we breathe. On average humans send about 7-10 hours a day watching TV and about a half of that is sports related. Christine Brennan posts an article on USA Today titled “It’s time I stop calling team Redskins”. She wrote this article because she realized that the name Redskins wasn't a good name for anyone even though she lives in washington and used the term"RedSkin" all the time. Brennan writes “This is a personal decision, as it was for some of my colleagues in the sports media, led by Sports Illustrated Peter King. I'm guessing others will eventually make this call. Why? It's the right thing to do...."

She also said "Or, consider this: Could an expansion team enter any league in any sport today with the nickname "Redskins?" Of course not."

I think Brennan and her colleagues made the right choice by not saying Redskins in the future. Even president Obama wanted to change the name of the NFL team. In the notes from class it says that technology will change in the future and sport will grow as the population does.On So not only is technology going to expand but as stated in this article so will phrases, team names, nick names and logos will also change. Brennan says that “Someday, hopefully very soon, the team will get a new nickname. Things are changing. How do I know? Here I am writing this column”. This is exactly the mindset I had when writing this blog.

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Why Shouldn't They Take Drugs

On November 5 2013 we discussed Why Athletes Shouldn't Take Drugs?

Here’s some of the reason from class:

·         It gives an unfair advantage

·         Undermines the true spirit of sport

·         Reflects badly on others such as spectators and coaches

·         Against laws of sport

·         Sets bad examples to others

·         Against U.S law

Coakley’s text states that drugs especially PED’s are a common place in sport (Pg. 179) (Lippi et. Al, 2008). This is so true. Drugs are often used in sport to enhance athlete’s performance, calm them down, steady their bodies, fear of not winning reduce tiredness and the belief that if others are doing it why shouldn’t I. A lot of athletes use drugs in ways that are not appropriate in sport. Not to mention this is huge form of cheating. You wonder why you barely witness an athlete on drugs, this would jeopardize their career. Athletes even coaches don’t want anyone to know their doing drugs they will not only be embarrassed by fans and family but, they can lose their job. I am against athletes using drugs. I believe if you use a drug in sport you should suffer the consequences. Things that are being done to improve this situation are stricter laws, life bans, more money for testing programs and more role models talking about then” No Drug Policy”. In an article written by USA today titled “Barry Bond Says He Wants to Start serving Sentence” by AP it talks about how Bonds took PED’s, was caught and is now saying he’s ready to do his 30 day house arrest and year probation. Bonds was convicted of a felony of obstruction that happened back in December 2003. As long as Bonds spoke truthfully his punishment would be less harsh. So as you can see drugs aren’t not good for athletes especially if athletes re the face of younger children. Below is a video from the London Olympics that shows what drugs can do to your body:

Examples of Deviance

 October 31 2013 we discussed Deviance in Sport

In our notes it we wrote the definition of deviance to be any act that differs from the norm especially behavior or attitudes that differs from the acceptable social standards. I would like to specifically focus on the Example of Deviance in sport and in Society. One in particular would be fighting. Why do athletes fight each other? Well in Coakley’s text they have low self-esteem, athletes see sport as there only way to get ahead and be treated with respect also male players who link their identities of being athletes and as a man become one in the same in their minds (Pg. 166). Sad to say but this is all true. If you think about it men act tough in all sports and they also pick on other’s when they feel bad about themselves. They also just do certain activities that’s bad such as hazing for attention. In an article written by Michael J. Stuart, David W. Dodick and Aynsley M. Smiththey talk about how fighting in sport can be bad especially in the NHL. In one section of the article it hits crucial points as to why fighting is an example of deviance in sport. When you fight in the NHL sometimes players don’t have on helmets and they end up hitting their heads off the ice. Situations like this can eventually cause players to have Dementia, psychiatric disease and premature death. This is not an activity I would want my son to play especially because fighting is a major aspect to the NHL .Spectators love going to games to see blood and intense fights. In the notes took in class it says that "Violence and aggressive behavior aren't acceptable social practices but, what about sport where aggression is encouraged".  Even with all of this excitement that fighting has on the NHL it promotes bad leadership skills to younger kids.

Fighting is only one example of deviance in sport not to mention:

·         Academic Cheating

·         Gambling

·         Performance Enhancing Drugs

·         Illegal Recruiting Practices

·         Bounty Hunting

In Coakley’s text there is a quote by Dave Pear a former NFL player who once said “You do whatever it takes to play…you find a way…You just suck it up and push through and if you can’t you’re out (Pg.167).” This was a great reference chosen by Coakely. Athletes are so money hungry and love the game of sport so much they do whatever is needed to become successful.

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The Facts

On November 7 013 we discussed Race and Ethnicity- Are they Important in Sport

In class our notes stated a question “Does race/ethnicity have an effect or define who is best at certain sports?” The answer to this is no!  Of course this answer is no, no matter if you African American, Caucasian, Hispanic or Latino you can play sports. Jackie Robinson one of the first African American baseball players in the MLB played baseball. This was a sport dominated by mainly white males but, because he played the game so well he actually was able to pay on an all-white team. 

Tim Keown wrote an article September 25 2014 called “An Elite Pass Time”. This article is talking about if the MLB can give African Americans better opportunities in baseball. Steve Bandura’s team the Anderson Monarchs neighborhood kids who are mainly black beat the best "elite" travel teams, even the "elite" teams that have individuals circulating from all over the country. Bandura is trying to do all he can to get black kids playing baseball at a high skilled level.  An important point this article states is how Bandura’s whole team in tournaments is African American males. This shows how the face of Jackie Robinson has changed the game of baseball. Not all whites have to play baseball, today in age we see more Latinos and other individuals with different races besides whites taking over this game. 

I like the fact that this idea is actually moving forward. Blacks are a representation of not only their selves but also their community. To me this is an important factor to the black community. Having a sport that was dominated by all white males at first then you began to see more black males shows neither race nor ethnicity have to do with who is better at certain sports. Great evidence in Coakley's text states that “Sport participation patterns among African Americans, Native Americans, Latino’s, Hispanics and Asian Specific Americans each have unique histories. Combinations of social and political factors have influenced those histories (Pg. 312).” I find this to be true Hispanics and Latinos are dominating baseball now, blacks are dominating basketball and football and people form out of the country are good at soccer. We also stated some facts about sport in our notes on November 7 2013 it said that “Sport is considered to be meritocratic institution, doesn't matter what race you are you can play sport (2012 ESPN).Racial minorities in the U.S continue to face systematic and pervasive discrimination. Dr.Higgs said something very important to the class that made me think ponder more about sport. She said that "Sport mirrors what goes on in society." As much as you are thinking to yourself this is not totally true, in this is mostly true.

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