Professional Sports As A Business Essay, Research Paper

The way owners and athletes of sports have clouded the meaning of sports by turning a favorite past time into a business is sickening to any sports fan. Free Agency, Advertising, Enourmous Contracts, Large Endorsements, Moving teams from city to city are all the aspects of business. What happened to the time when you went to a baseball game for a reasonable price to watch the players who have made a team a franchise, though still only receive what an average man deserves. Sitting in the ballpark you loved (Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park, and Wrigley Field) you could watch 9 guys who played as hard as they could each night because they loved the game. Sports are no longer played for the gratification that comes with them but for the money that they generate. This assignment is going to outline what sports should be like, what has happened to them over the years and where they re at today.

To win a championship and have fun is what sports are all about in High School. Our school athletes don t receive any incentive to do what they love they do it because it s what they enjoy. This shouldn t change as the ranks get higher but it does. Why is the money more important then a Championship? Championships are the second thing sports should be played for, the first is the satisfaction of seeing that all those times you practiced a little longer have paid off. You have been given a chance to do something that is #1 to you and call it a job. A great movie that puts what is going on today in sports in perspective is Basketball. Two guys create their own sport because their tired of watching player strikes, tired of owners juicing fans and cities to make more money, tired of watching their teams big name guy jump ship for more money, tired of modern day sports. Their new sport is the opposite from all of that, there is no free agency, no endorsements, no advertisements, no owner s switching cities, no blockbuster trades, no huge contracts, and no disputes. At the beginning of the film they show stadiums named after big companies, teams moving from a city to another city and back again (Raiders), they show the poor idea of inter league play to bring back fans from shorten strike seasons, and even introduce the idea of inter sport play by showing a baseball player getting hit by a football player. It completely depicts what sports are like today in a very humorous but true scenario. Though how did this come to be?

The start of all these problems begins with free agency. Without free agency there isn t such a diverse range in talent from team to team, then no need for big contracts to keep players from leaving, no need for advertisement for another source of income, no need for strikes because everyone would be paid well and equally, and no need of going to new markets because they would already have a loyal market. It is obvious that some of these things wouldn t change but it would be a lot better if free agency wasn t allowed. Why is it rare for a team to win back to back titles like the Broncos? This is because they cannot keep the team together since other teams are out searching for better talent and players are going to where the money is (Kevin Brown (LA Dodgers) $100, 000, 000). Now you get small market teams who don t have the money therefore don t produce causing owner s to leave to bigger markets to make more money. And what if the big market city isn t bringing in the large amount of money, you move again or raise ticket prices (A ticket to a football game costs about $50 each on average. Though they only play about 8 home games. A hockey ticket costs around $40 and they have about 45 home games) Where does all the money in hockey go? It is one large chain reaction and one thing effects the other. Owners are producing a product to entertain the fans (what professional sports should do) but are taking advantage of how much they are taking from the fans (money from advertisements, ticket prizes..). You could call it a monopoly and there is no one trying to change things.

It is hard to tell what way sports are heading nowadays. It appears that free agency has decreased with teams like the Yankees and Broncos winning back to back championships, and seeing teams with no big names making runs at playoffs (Blue Jays and Lions). All strike disputes have been worked out and attendance at these sports is increasing finally (Baseball due to the McGuire/Sosa homerun race, Basketball just because the loyalty of the fans) Though everything won t be perfect as long as sports are still big money makers. There will still be the Woods Duval Prime time Showdown for a million dollars and the holdouts such as Alexi Yashin who isn t going to fulfill his final year of 3 year contract because he doesn t believe he is making enough. Sports as enjoyable as they are will always be flagged as a business and not a league were the elite come to play to entertain the world. That is only what we receive with it.

It would be nice to create our own sports that didn t come with all the negatives that we have today. Basketball is just a movie but it could be what the future holds. Or possibly the fans will fight back which they are threatening to do in Ottawa if Yashin doesn t show up to training camp (Season ticket holders are going to sue him if he is a no show though do they have a case and is this the future of sports). PAST TIME vs. BUSINESS. I believe that there are alternatives to the way owners are doing things to produce franchises. Though maybe I m wrong and this is what sport needs. Maybe we wouldn t have the high level of competition, the increased talent in athletes, or the high number of records that fall each year if we changed things. Change can be bad but I don t believe this case is an exception.

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