Gender and Sports

During the November 20^th lecture in my American Sport in the 21^st Century class we discussed whether women and girls have similar and fair opportunities in sports compared to men and boys. In our lecture, we briefly touched the topic of gender expectations. In society, boys are expected to be tough, strong, athletic, and non-sensitive. Girls are expected to be sweet, cute, emotional, and sensitive. These gender expectations are enforced on kids from literally the time they are born, all the way until adulthood. Why is society built in this fashion, where it is viewed as unacceptable, or weird for a female to be tough and rough; and for a male to be super-sensitive?

The expectations that identify gender come from sex categories: male or female, they are defined in biological terms and are viewed in terms of difference and opposition. All people in the male category are believed to be naturally different from all people in the female category, and they are held to different normative expectations when it comes to feelings, thoughts, and actions (Coakley, 2010; p.258). Assumptions like these lead to stereotypes that create a gender ideology, such as: “men can’t do this, and women can’t do that.” To learn the factors and influences that impact a child’s sex role we talked about the main three stereotyping agencies during our class discussion.

Agencies of Sex Role Stereotyping

  1) The Family

·         The first question asked when the woman is pregnant, boy or girl, showing the deemed importance of gender

·         Parents direct behavior towards masculine and feminine activity. This is where the early influence starts

·         The toys and color of the clothing that the child receives. When are class talked about their childhood toys, all of the men said they played with cars, action figures, and sports toys. All of the women said they played with dolls, toy-ovens, and princess items when they were young girls.

2) School

·         Reinforces differential expectations. In class, we reviewed a kindergarten’s year-end awards, some of the girls awards were: “best-sharer”, “cutest”, and “sweetest”. It was clearly obvious that the awards for the boys encouraged a different, more powerful ideology. Some of the awards were: “best thinker”, “funniest”, and most creative”, these awards suggest possible careers as a lawyer, doctor, or just any job that requires more than a high school diploma. The girls’ awards suggest that it is more important to focus on appearance and personality, rather than pursuing a career as a doctor or lawyer.

·         Steers boys and girls to different activities. This refers to the suggestive encouragement that a certain kindergarten’s awards mentioned above imprint on a child at this young age.

3) The Media

·         One of the most influential and persuasive forces. The media’s influence is seen primarily in Magazines and TV because they focus on women’s outfits, hair, and makeup which create the societal ideology that it is acceptable for women to build themselves on their appearance and wardrobe. The focus on men mostly pertains to whether or not they have muscular builds and their athletic ability. From this, the ideology that men are expected to be athletic and gritty is created.

·         Pre-school children watch 24 hours of TV/week. The media-influenced ideologies that I mentioned above are being fed to kids at an extremely young age, putting the “acceptable” society expectations in their young minds.

·         By the time kids graduate high school, they have seen an average of 100,000 commercials. This is another way that the media keeps shoving society’s “gender expectations” in children’s heads.

·         Sets agendas of how we act, feel, and think. During class, it was said that TV tends to portray the woman as three things: the sex-goddess, homemaker, or the bitch. Notice, that none of these inspire or suggest that it’s acceptable for women to be athletes.

As you can see, girls are at a disadvantage from the start. Between the family, school, and the media women athletes are not spotlighted and given anywhere near the same respect as men are. Title IX has definitely made progress in giving women equal and same opportunities as men, without it the story of Samantha Gordon would not even are thinkable. Samantha Gordon is a nine-year old girl who not only plays, but DOMINATES a Utah-little league football league. Her stats for this season: Nearly 2,000 yards rushing and a total of 35 touchdowns in this year’s just-completed season. She also was the leading tackler on her team and her performance has earned her national attention and even her own Wheaties box! Samantha Gordon hopefully can encourage other girls and young women to play any sport of their choice and to not be discouraged from perfecting their craft. Will she or any female make the NFL? Who knows, but if she can inspire other young women then it is a defiantly possible.  

 

To read more on Samantha Gordon go to: http://espn.go.com/new-york/story/_/id/8660812/samantha-gordon-9-year-old-female-football-star-utah-makes-wheaties-box

To SEE her in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFSGhasyHhY & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oclLKHg9rsc

Race in Sports

During the November 13^th and 15^thlectures in my American Sport in the 21^stCentury class we focused heavily on race in sports. As we have previously discussed how sports are a direct reflection of American Societal values, if race plays an important role in society then it most definitely plays a prominent role in sports. To make sure that everyone in the class had a proper understanding of the concept, we broke off into pairs and defined some vocabulary words such as: bigot, prejudice, judging, stereotypes, discrimination, race, ethnic group, and minority group. For the purpose of this blog I am solely focusing in on race, but all of these words mesh together towards the topic of race or ethnicity. When the class discussion resumed, the definition of race was stated as a social category constructed and accepted by society to describe members with genetic similarity. Race was developed in the 1500’s and was socially constructed as a result of slavery. Race is also based on physical attributes and divides all of us.

An interesting point of focus is the statement that I highlighted in purple, “race is based on physical attributes.” Research suggests that many young African-American men grow up believing that the black body is superior when it comes to physical abilities in certain sports (Coakley, 2010; p.286). This is the case when racial ideology influences African-Americans to have this mindset. Some of the things that contribute to racial ideologies are stereotypes, restricted opportunities in mainstream occupations, and certain sports that have a more appealing chance of success. In class we took at some of the stats and research as to why young African-American men have a perceived sense of biological cultural destiny (Coakley, 2012; p.286).

Traditional Race Logic used in Sports	Physiological Dominance of African-Americans
Achievements of black athletes are due to:	· Blacks have a slight genetic advantage over whites in some areas
· Biology	· African-Americans’ are more physically suited for activities that require speed and power
· Natural physical abilities	· Longer arms and legs, slimmer pelvis, and less fat on the muscles
	· More fast-twitch muscles = a better reaction time
	· More advanced motor skills at an early age

The above data clearly shows the area that gives young black men an instilled sense of biological destiny. It is important to note that both pieces of data are due to racial ideologies and neither tells the whole story because there is no-where near any significant amount of data or research to justify these claims. The question as to why there is such a high number of African-American participation in football, basketball, and track & field compared to low numbers in a lot of other sports has yet to be answered.

Let’s take a quick moment to think while I give you a couple pieces of numerical statistics and then construct an answer to this question:

Why is African-American participation in football, basketball, and track & field so significantly greater than the participation rates in other sports such as baseball, hockey, tennis, and etc.?

1. 55% of blacks live in inner-city areas

2. Inner-city areas are filled with basketball courts instead of golf or tennis clubs

3. Basketball, football, and track & field all require little or no money to play; making it easier for black children to pick up these three sports at a young age and perfect them throughout their athletic careers

With this in mind, here comes the answer! The inner-cities are filled with poverty and people who do not make tons of money; and 55% of the population is African-American. If you had no/little money as a kid living in one of these areas, how would it be possible to play a sport like baseball or hockey that requires a lot of resources (bases, gloves, bats for baseball and sticks, gloves, nets, skates for hockey) when the money is not there? It’s simple, you don’t. Instead you would go get a group of your friends or go alone to your local basketball court, grab a ball and play for free. Inner-city children gravitate towards basketball, football, and track & field because of the lack of cost and the easiness to play each of the sports with as little equipment as possible. With everything that we’ve already discussed, it’s easy to now understand the reason that the NBA and NFL have such high number of African-Americans; and why the number of African-Americans in the MLB and NHL are scarce and decreasing.  To see the information from page 287 of Jay Coakley's book Sports in Society -->   Click here

The data and Coakley's diagram are perfect resources to provide the reason that African-Americans tend to gravitate and for some, master sports such as basketball, football, and track & field. But how much can we invest in this? A 2011 article published by ESPN offers a different take that puts some old stereotypes and racial ideologies to rest. http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/6777581/importance-athlete-background-making-nba

This article starts off supporting the theme shown by Coakley and our class discussion, but as the article goes in-depth the opposing argument is stated. In a study of NBA players from 1994 to 2004, “it was found that among African-Americans, a child from a low-income family has 37 percent lower odds of making the NBA than a child from a middle- or upper-income family. Further, a black athlete from a family without two parents is 18 percent less likely to play in the NBA than a black athlete raised by two parents, while a white athlete from a non-two-parent family has 33 percent lower odds of making the pros.” Ultimately, the article supports the theory that the intersection of race, class, family structure, and background presents unequal pathways into the league.

The argument from ESPN and the data from our class discussion and Coakley’s material both are valid. In my opinion I feel that we will never find an exact answer, but instead we should focus less on an athlete’s race and put more attention towards an athlete’s accolades.

 

 

 

 

Drugs and Sports

There are many issues and problems that currently occur in today’s sports, but the biggest problem in my opinion is drug use. During the November 6^th lecture in my American Sport in the 21^st Century class we spent the entire time discussing this issue. Since our talk went very in-depth, I have chosen to share my thoughts on the reasons that make athletes take Performance-Enhancing Drugs.

Drug use in sports and society is reaching endemic proportions, meaning that it is out of control. However, most people do not know that drug and substance use in sports has a long history. For centuries athletes at all levels of competition have taken wide varieties of substances to aid their performances (Coakley, 2012; p. 179). To get things straight, drug and substance use is not a new trend in sport that originated in the 1990’s; in fact it has always been a part of sport since the very beginning. The advancement in science-technology and widespread use are the contributing factors that have grown the drug and substance use in sport into the major problem that it is today. So, what exactly is a PED? A Performance-Enhancing Drug (PED) is defined as: any substance that is taken in non-pharmacologic doses specifically for the purposes of improving sports performance by increasing strength, power, speed, and endurance or by altering body composition and weight. After my class had an understanding of what classifies a PED, we were given a couple minutes to break off into pairs and to come up with five reasons that athletes use PED’s. When we all returned to the class discussion most of the people were asked to share one of their reasons. It only took about to the midway point of our class until we had covered all of the reasons for use of drugs. I have listed all of these reasons below:

 Reasons Athletes take Performance-Enhancing Drugs

P To recover from injury quicker and to mask any pain

P Desire to be the best at all costs

P Winning provides greater financial rewards

P To make the most of a short life in sports

P Influenced by others to improve performance immorally

P The will to win overrides moral conscience

P Better results lead to better sponsorship and endorsement contracts

P Natural ability is not good enough

P Willing to risk cheating for public acclaim

P To meet other’s expectations

All of these reasons are legit and understandable. In today’s sport the level of competition is at an all-time high and looks to keep rising, which creates a high sense of urgency among athletes to keep up with these standards in order to keep their job. In order for some individuals to be able to keep up with today’s elite level of performance, PED use is the answer. In my opinion, PED use should not be tolerated and is cheating. PED use has hit baseball the hardest, as records are being broken and challenged by now-condemned PED users. It’s gotten out of hand to the point where there are congressional discussions about whether an asterisk should by placed by these newly set records, i.e. Barry Bonds’ career home run record. My response is, yes the guilty players cheated by enhancing their strength, but as a batter you still have to be able to swing the bat and make solid contact with the ball to then use your power to drive it out of the ballpark. The same applies for pitchers, as they still have to be able to locate their pitches while maintaining the correct mechanics in order to be successful. With this being said, I agree that using PED’s is cheating and should not be acceptable, but I disagree with adding an asterisk beside any record.

This past August, It was reported by the Associated Press that Oakland Athletics’ pitcher Bartolo Colon received a 50-game suspension for testing positive for testosterone. At the time, Colon’s suspension was the second in a one week period that earlier saw the San Francisco Giants’ outfielder Melky Cabrera suspended for the exact same violation. This occurred in late-August during the Athletics’ hunt for the playoffs. As stated in the article A’s players, Grant Balfour and Brandon McCarthy both expressed their surprise of the violation, but also stated that Colon’s suspension would leave a hole in the starting pitcher rotation, but still insured that the team would find a way into the playoffs. Despite Colon’s 50-game suspension for testing positive for testosterone, the Athletics would give us one of the most exciting finishes to the baseball regular season in recent years. The A’s overcame a 5 game deficit in the final two weeks in order to come back and win the A.L. West division on the final day of the regular season. They would lose an exciting five- game playoff series to Detroit. Bartolo Colon’s selfish decision of using testosterone ended up not costing his team and us baseball fans a fantastic finish to the season, but it does not excuse the fact that he cheated and could have cost his team.

Performance-Enhancing Drug use in sports is NOT acceptable, but the question that resides is how to stop it. One thing that really got my attention during our class lecture was that PED use mostly begins in Junior High School. People! We r talking about 12 and 13 year old kids who are beginning to use steroids, this is ridiculous! Children in Junior High School should be nowhere near steroids or any other Performance-Enhancing Drugs. They are just beginning puberty and starting to grow and develop. Most children have no idea of any side-effects; let alone how to properly use these drugs. The answer to solving this endemic, is to start by putting an end to PED use in Junior High and High School kids and then to migrate up to the college and professional levels. For sports to keep their integrity, the use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs by athletes at all levels has to be put into extinction.

 

For more on Bartolo Colon's suspension: http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2012-08-22/bartolo-colon-suspension-drug-testsuspended-50-games-ped-use
 

Deviance in Sports

What does it mean to be deviant? During the November 1^st lecture of my American Sport in the 21^st Century class we discussed what deviance means and also how it relates to sports. Deviance occurs when a person’s ideas, traits, or actions are perceived to differ from the societal norm (Coakley, 2010; p. 157).  In other words, deviance can be found in attitudes or behavior that differs from the acceptable social standards. Deviance occurs everywhere in society, and at some point we all could have been easily categorized as acting deviant. During the class lecture, all of us were given a note card and had to write our answer to the following question, “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the term deviance?” After a minute, all of our answers were passed up to the front and read aloud. A good proportion of us, myself included, listed criminals as our answer. My reasoning, criminals are people who acted against society’s norms by committing a violation of the U.S. law that results in a crime. When the class was asked if pulling a weapon on someone is an acceptable action in society everyone responded with a “no”. Well, what if pulling a weapon was an act of self-defense or in war? Then the answer changes to yes, pulling a weapon in self-defense is acceptable. This shows how the circumstances of determining deviance change based on the situation; making it difficult to determine deviant actions.   

No matter where you look in society deviant actions are to be found. In everyday life violent and deviant acts occur, but it is the off-the-field deviance among athletes that attracts widespread media attention (Coakley, 2010; p. 173). The main question is, is deviance out of control in sports? All the time we hear on the news about athletes at big-time universities getting unfair and illegal benefits that violate the NCAA’s rules. We also constantly have to hear about how universities commit infractions in recruiting, and pro athletes who get into legal trouble. In class, we covered the extreme deviant actions that occur in both professional and collegiate sports:

Deviance in Sports

v  Academic cheating                                                 

v  Bounty hunting

v  Fighting

v  Gambling

v  Illegal recruiting practices

v  Performance – enhancing drugs

 

We all know that deviance occurs on the field of play in sports in the form of violence. In society it is not viewed as normal to have the intent to aggressively tackle or force another man to the ground. Despite this, most people watch and support this violent action every weekend while watching American football. The tough part is comparing the off the field deviance of athletes with non-athletes. I have displayed some research that makes a clear distinction in off-the-field acts of deviance.

 

Off-the-field deviance

Ø  Athletes do not have higher delinquency rates than those who do not play sports

Ø  Data on academic cheating is inconclusive

Ø  Athletes have higher rates of alcohol use and binge-drinking

Ø  Felony rates among adult athletes do not seem to be out of control, but they do constitute a problem

 

All of these reasons can be verified on pages 176 and 177 in Coakley’s Sports in Society. The information that my class discussed and that Coakley has provided on this subject all supports the claim that deviance is not out of control in sports, it is just a major problem. An ESPN article from this past July highlights the University of Miami (FL)’s current athletic violations problem. At the time of publish, head football coach, Al Golden was facing a new wave of recruiting and athlete benefit violations. Throughout the article a few University of Miami (FL) boosters have been accused of providing current players and recruits with money and improper benefits. A couple of men’s basketball players had to serve short-term suspension, while a couple of football players and recruits were under a close watch by the NCAA. Star safety Ray-Ray Armstrong was dismissed from the football team after it was discovered that he had violated undisclosed rules. This article highlights the act of deviance, known as illegal recruiting practices. The main message of this articles shows that even though deviance happens in sports, consequences are handed down for the violating parties. Deviance occurs in all levels of sport, but there is just as much of it in society which means that No, deviance in sports is not out of control.    

To read the full article go to: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8185297/miami-hurricanes-staff-broke-recruiting-rules-report-says
 

The Relationship between Sport and the Media

The society that we live in today can easily be classified as the age of technology. Personal computers, the Internet, and wireless technology have propelled us into transition from an era of sponsored and programmed media for mass consumption into an era of interactive, on-demand, multi-facilitated, and personalized media content and experiences (Coakley, 2010; p.394).  Everyone in today’s world is addicted to, needs, and uses technology on a daily basis. Sports are arguably just as essential to today’s society as is technology, which largely includes the media. During the October 25^th lecture in my American Sport in the 21^st Century class, we took a close look at the relationship of sport and the media.

The media and sport are the two most successful businesses in the United States. Their success can be described as having a symbiotic relationship; meaning that they are very closely related and feed off of one another. The media’s purpose is to put us in touch with information, experiences, people, images, and ideas outside the realm of our everyday, real-time lives (Coakley, 2010; p.394). The symbiotic relationship is shown through the popularity of sports. Media coverage directly creates and increases sport popularity. The media also generates enormous sales in advertising and circulation based on the extensive treatment of sport.  

So far, all the information from Coakley’s text and our class discussion suggests that sport and media need each other to survive and thrive. We know that media will survive regardless of sport or any other factor’s success. The question is could sport survive without the media?

In class, we discussed the characteristics of the media in its two forms:

                1) Print media (old media) – Words and images that are printed on paper.

                   Examples: Books, catalogues, event programs, magazines, newspapers, and trading cards

                2) Electronic media (new media) – Commentary, images, and words that people receive  through audio and video devices.

                       Examples: Cell phones, film, Internet, radio, TV, video games, and other technologies

Today’s media is classified as more electronic media and definitely impacts sport in all aspects. In the article that I have listed below, the focus is on Twitter’s impact on sports.

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/14/how-does-social-media-affect-college-sports/

This article has a decent amount of statistics that show twitter’s involvement and use in sport. Daniel Martin starts by saying that Twitter carries the most trending topics during any sport event and changes minute by minute. A statement towards the end of the article is what caught my eye, “As soon as information is tweeted out, it usually doesn’t take long for it to pop up on a message board somewhere.” This is what makes Twitter the phenomenon that it is. Its rapid spread of information about sport and other news impacts publicity, interest, and also recruiting for collegiate sports (as mentioned in Martin’s article).

One final piece of info that I have is the direct linkages between sport and the media:

·         Sports depend on and have sold out to the media in reliance on the TV revenues

·         Changes to sports as a result of the media include:

o   Schedules and game start times

o   The length of halftime periods

o   The amount and length of TV timeouts

o   The expansion and formation of leagues

As seen above, the media already heavily impacts the structure and revenue of sport leagues by effecting TV timeouts, halftime shows, league schedule and start times, and provide major revenue through TV contracts. In the world we live in today, if it is not easy and instantly at the hands of people, then it will not survive. Take away the media, and sports will lose their easy and quick access, leading to a major loss in public interest.

Since today marks the ten-year anniversary of Herm Edwards' famous "You play to win the game" rant and I am talking about sports and the media, here you go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W42iiCcFbxE

Without the media's coverage on sport, we would have missed out on one of the all-time greatest rants in sport history! 

In my opinion, sports need the media more than the media needs sports. The media has many other areas of entertainment that they can cover and promote such as: the news, TV shows, movies, reality TV, and others. On the other hand, sports would be nowhere near as successful if they didn’t get their media coverage. The die-hard fans would still have great interest but the casual fans would lose interest because they would not be able to get their sports information easily off of ESPN, online, or any other source. The media and sports could survive without each other, but sports would suffer a great deal. At the end of the day, no one is complaining about the symbiotic relationship of sports and the media.  

Are Athletes Overpaid?

Sports news has many areas of topic, but one common are of discussion that is routinely brought up is about athletes and their contracts. During the October 23^rd lecture in my American Sport in the 21^st Century class we focused on whether or not athletes are overpaid. In the class discussion, we talked about the history and progression of professional athletes’ pay. The general public consensus is that athletes are overpaid and during a contract dispute most people tend to claim that the athlete is being selfish, greedy or a crybaby because he is already getting paid hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars. I have two pieces of knowledge that will change some of your minds; so the next time you hear of a contract dispute you just don’t jump to the usual criticism towards the athlete and can actually understand that most athletes are NOT overpaid.

Until the mid 1970’s, professional athletes in the major sport leagues had little or no legal power to control their careers. They could only play for the team that drafted, and as a direct result, owned them (Coakley, 2010; p.381). This was the life that pro athletes lived from the early 1900’s all the way to the mid 1970’s. In this time free agency did not exist and was far from its present form, so what happened when their original contract expired? The players were obliged to sign standard contracts saying that they agreed to forfeit to their owners all rights for the remaining duration of their careers (Coakley, 2010; p.381). I have listed below the two legal systems were responsible for implementing these restrictive labor practices.

The Systems that Restricted Labor Practices Until the last Two Decades of the 20th Century
Reserve System	Option Clause
Most restrictive in baseball and hockey	Most restrictive in basketball and football
Implemented from early 20th  century to mid 1970’s	Implemented from the early 20th century to 1976 in basketball, and 1993 in football
Players were bought and sold like property, and rarely consulted about their own wishes	Owners had the right to invoke the terms of a player’s contract one year after expiration
Players were at the mercy of team owners, managers, and coaches	Owners only had to pay 90% of the original salary, when the terms of a contract were invoked
Each club had the right to negotiate with the players whose services were reserved solely for that club	If a player wanted to become a free agent he had to play one additional year with his original team for 90% of his contract
Each player’s salary was determined by the owner(s) = lower and cheaper salaries	Heavily restricted player’s own wishes
Ended in 1976, when Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally challenged saying the system was like slavery and a monopoly	Ended for basketball in 1976, and for football in 1993 as a result of the end to the Reserve system

 

During the class discussion, everyone agreed that the Reserve System and the Option Clause both unfairly held money and better opportunities away from the athletes that played during that era. All of the information that I listed in the above chart, came from the class lecture and pages 381 and 382 in Coakley’s Sports in Society. Following the extinction of the Reserve System and the Option Clause, baseball, basketball, and hockey got to experience the creation of Free Agency in 1976. Football would experience Free Agency later on in 1993.

The second piece of knowledge I have is to simply look at the numbers of today’s sports. I have three things to display the money numbers of today’s athletes: the league minimums, the average salaries, and a comparative list.

League Minimum Salaries                                           League Average Salaries

  NFL:      $ 375,000                                                            NFL:      $ 1,330,000             

  MLB:     $ 414,000                                                            MLB:    $ 2,749,125

  NBA:     $ 473,604                                                            NBA:     $ 4,900,000

  NHL:      $ 525,000                                                            NHL:     $ 1,800,000

Yes, I know that we have are big-money athletes such as Alex Rodriguez, Peyton Manning, and LeBron James who are all making a healthy sum of money. Athletes of this caliber are only a small, elite group of players. Most athletes have salaries that are around the league minimum or the league average. In class we also compared a list of the highest paid athletes to the highest paid celebrities. Seen below, is a list by Forbes that corresponds to this part of our lecture. Notice that LeBron James is the only athlete from a pro team sport to crack the top 5. *If you would like to see the entire lists then follow these links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/floyd-mayweather-jr-forbes-highest-paid-athlete_n_1607490.html#slide=1114068

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mfl45lhfj/oprah-winfrey-21/#./?&_suid=1351199411879034918626601021113

Top 5 Highest-paid Athletes Verse Celebrities
Athletes	Celebrities
Floyd Mayweather - $ 85 million	Oprah Winfrey - $ 165 million
Manny Pacquiao - $ 62 million	Michael Bay - $ 160 million
Tiger Woods - $ 59.4 million	Steven Spielberg - $ 130 million
LeBron James - $ 53 million	Jerry Bruckheimer - $ 115 million
Roger Federer - $ 52.7 million	Dr. Dre - $ 110 million

 

As seen in the list, celebrities who have gained riches by non-athletic talents and who are at no real physical risk make A LOT more money for just safely sitting around, while athletes put their own physical health and well-being on the line at every practice and game. Being a professional athlete is not an everyday job and therefore is deserving of millions. The bottom line is if we can accept celebrities making 8-9 figures, then we definitely can accept athletes making 6-7 figures. This is why I say, ATHLETES ARE NOT OVERPAID!

The Economic Benefits of Sport Stadiums

The sports in today’s world have evolved and are very different from their form 20-30 years ago. The level of competition, the rules, the creation of free agency, equipment, and many other factors of sport have evolved and improved to produce the products we see and talk about today. One of the other factors that has evolved in the last three decades is stadiums. During the October 23^rd lecture of my American Sport in the 21^st Century class we discussed the economic benefits that sport can have on athletes, the owners, the fans, and others. The one subject that I am going to focus on is the economic benefits of sport stadiums. With the progression of sport, has come the progression and advancement of stadiums.

Nowadays, we see professional teams and even some universities building these elaborate, brand new stadiums. In Major League Baseball the design of a team’s stadium has more to do with being a sexy attraction, rather than just being concerned with the regulations and dimensions. Organizations in all professional and collegiate sports are building these luxurious stadiums to house their team. The question is where does the money come from? The team owners of an organization are the ones with decision making and top-level power, but they do not just pull out $100 million dollars out of their own pocket to build a stadium. The money to construct today’s masterpiece pro stadiums comes from aid funds that ownership receives from the public. During our class discussion, we reviewed the four areas of public assistance and I have listed them below:

Public Assistance for Team Owners

Ø  The use of public funds to construct and maintain facilities

Ø  Income deduction on tax revenues

Ø  Tax breaks and rebates

Ø  Control of revenues in public facilities

These facts show that it is the local people who provide a lot of the money to fund the constructions of new stadiums. So shouldn’t it be easy to rule that these new lucrative stadiums are a waste of money and resources? Not so fast, according to Jay Coakley’s text stadiums provide a lot of benefits that justify and repay the community’s financial efforts. On pages 375 and 376 in Coakley’s text, five benefits are stated supporting stadium subsidies:

Arguments to Support Stadium Subsidies

v  A stadium and pro team creates jobs; those who hold the jobs spend money and pay taxes in the city so that everyone benefits

v  Stadium construction infuses money into the local economy; this money is spent over and over as it circulates, generating tax revenues in the process

v  The team attracts businesses to the city, and this increases local revenues

v  The team attracts regional and national media attention, which boosts tourism and contributes to overall economic development

v  The team creates positive psychic and social benefits, boosting social unity and feelings of pride and well-being in the local population

 

Even though stadiums provide these benefits and opportunities, obviously other factors influence the actual effectiveness of enhancing a city. For the people who still see these new sport stadiums as a waste of money or a rip-off to the non-sports fans, I have real-life proof that shows the economic benefits of sport stadiums. The NHL lockout has had a major negative impact on all markets, but locally speaking Pittsburgh. At the beginning of October the NHL cancelled the preseason, directly causing many Pittsburgh restaurants and others to lose business. To closely see the benefits of a stadium through the negative effects of the lockout, look at the Souper Bowl restaurant.

When the NHL announced the cancellation of the first two weeks of the regular season, including three Penguins home games, the owner of the Souper Bowl restaurant, Dave Sypherd replied: “We’ll be in trouble. It will kill us”. Dave Sypherd would continue by saying the lockout is taking away roughly 70% of his business with the removal of Penguin home games. Sypherd also shared that on hockey nights in Pittsburgh; the Souper Bowl has 15 employees on duty to handle the crowds and stays open until 2 a.m. On non-event days, the restaurant has eight employees on hand and stays open until 8 or 9 p.m. As a negative effect of the lockout, Penguin home games are canceled, resulting in those extra seven employees not getting a call into work. The same effect can be found at Cafe Fifth and other local Pittsburgh businesses that taste the whiplash from the NHL lockout. My point for illustrating this article to tie-in with my class information, because stadiums create and provide many jobs, attract business to the city, and infuse money into the city’s economy. As a direct result of the lockout, Pittsburgh and other NHL markets are being deprived of these benefits, creating unemployment and costing each city millions of dollars. Sport stadiums have a major impact on any city and its citizens, making them a beneficial part of the economy.

To read the full article follow the below link:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/nhl-lockout-is-bad-news-for-businesses-near-consol-656250/