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/

The Choice to be For or Against Interscholastic Sports

The majority of United States citizens do not question the existence of interscholastic sports in high schools and colleges (Coakley, 2010; p.472). Even though they are routine, interscholastic sports still generate a lot of debates and arguments. During the September 27^th lecture in my American Sport in the 21^st Century class, we took a close look at both sides of the interscholastic sport argument. If people don’t question interscholastic sports’ existence, then why do they bring so much disagreement? Certain controversies stem from issues such as budget cuts and highly publicized problems in some programs that raise questions about the relationship between the achievement of educational goals, the development of young people, and sports (Coakley, 2010; p.472). When problems and issues arise some people instantly jump to blame interscholastic sport. Sport supporters defend sport activities and obviously defer the blame to other school and non-school elements. Both sides have their valid claims to whether or not interscholastic sport is beneficial to students. From Coakley’s text and my class notes, I have listed the claims for and against interscholastic sport below:

Claims For	Claims Against
Involves students in school activities and increase interest in academic activities	Distract students from their academics and distort values in school culture
Builds self-esteem, responsibility, achievement orientation, and teamwork skills	Enable conformity, dependence, and a power of performance that is useless in today’s society
Foster fitness and stimulate interest in physical activities among students	Turn most students into passive spectators and cause too many serious injuries to the athletes
Generate spirit, unity, and maintain the school as a viable organization	Create a superficial, transitory spirit that is unrelated to educational goals
Promote alumni, community, and parental support for school programs	Deprive educational programs of community support, facilities, resources, and staff
Give students opportunities to develop and display skills in activities valued in society; recognized for their competence	Create pressure on athletes and support a hierarchical status system that gives athletes unfair privileges over other students

Both sides have legit claims to support their respective arguments. I am for interscholastic sports because I believe sports hold values that go beyond the current students and state of the school. The New York Times recently published an article covering how the surprising success of a small Southwestern, PA high school football team has been able to restore pride in their community. The people of Avella have three things to define their community: coal-mining, construction companies, and high school football. Coming into this season Avella High School had totaled 9 wins in the past 11 seasons, having not experienced a winning season since 1994, and having a playoff drought spanning all the way back to 1976. This lack of success over the past 35 years had made a community that was once proud and rich in football tradition lose their Avella pride. At the time of this article, Avella had a 5-0 record and was within one win of clinching a 2012 WPIAL-Single A playoff spot. This year’s success of the team has rejuvenated students to come out and support the team, but has also encouraged more boys to join and play on the team. Just like the claims for interscholastic sport on page 472 in Coakley’s text, this clearly resembles the first four (4) claims listed above. The factor that I found most interesting was how the football team’s success has also restored the pride and support of the Avella community, clearly representing claims 5 and 6 from above. I can personally relate to the people of Avella, because my hometown of Butler, Pa has also endured many years of losing in high school football. This season so far has also been a pleasant surprise from our football team, Butler Area who plays in WPIAL Quad A, as we have ended many losing streaks and are primed to make our first WPAL playoff appearance since 1998. The Butler community isn’t as small as Avella, but we take pride in our football and the entire town is excited and happy at the success of our team. The claims against interscholastic sport are all valid, and I’m sure articles can be found in their favor. In my opinion, all six of the claims against sport are more affected by the individual student’s own beliefs, values, and upbringing rather than sport being the driving force behind them. Interscholastic sports produce a lot more positive and beneficial influences on students, then having a negative effect. Sports, as shown by Avella, can have a positive impact, bring/restore pride, and unite any community. This is why I am and will always be For Interscholastic sport.

To read the entire article on Avella, follow this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/sports/avella-high-school-in-pennsylvania-regains-football-pride.html?_r=0

If you are interested in following Avella, Butler, or any other WPIAL schools then here you go! http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/highschool/

Current Problems in Youth Sport

In my American Sport in the 21^st Century class, we spent a week discussing the state of Youth Sports. One of the subjects we discussed during the September 25^th lecture was the major problems concerning Youth Sports. One of the major problems that we focused on in class was how the growth of private organized programs is having a negative impact on Youth Sport. Private sport organizations promote and focus on winning and developing children to be elite athletes. On page 139 in Sports in Society, Coakley outlines the 5 major problems that are a result of private sport organizations. I have also listed the CTSA’s Youth Sports National Report Card to show the poor state of today’s Youth Sports.       

Major Problems in Youth Sport

1. Lost their child-centered focus. There is too much emphasis on winning and too little on the child’s experience.

2. Parents who have unrealistic expectations for their children. They undermine their own child’s and the other children’s benefits of playing sports.

3. The failure to adequately evaluate and train the youth coaches.

4. Overemphasis in early sports specialization, leading to: potential burnouts, overuse injuries, and a hypercompetitive culture.

5. Ignored the interests and developmental abilities of children who view sports as a source of fun, friends, physical action, and skill development.

Youth Sports National Report Card

1. Child-Centered Philosophy: D

2. Coaching: C

3. Health and Safety: C+

4. Officiating: B-

5. Parental Behavior/Involvement: D

* A panel of experts brought together by the CTSA used their collective knowledge to issue grades for 25 elements of existing sport programs. These elements were then divided into the 5 categories that make up the report card seen above.

As seen in both of these figures from page 139 of our class text, the major problems in Youth Sport begin with private sport organizations, but are fueled by the coaches, trainers, and involved parents. I completely agree with the points made by Coakley, and in my opinion children play Youth Sports for a variety of reasons, but the consensus #1 reason they play is to have FUN! When winning is overemphasized and the expectations are set to unreachable standards, then sports are no longer fun. Michigan State University published an article that discussed the atmosphere surrounding Youth Sports and the psychological impact it has on its participant; http://www.educ.msu.edu/ysi/news/2012-Jan-25-YES.htm. The main focus is that the actions of the coaches create a positive or negative team culture, which has a very important influence on the personal development of the youth participants. In order to keep our kids involved in sports it has to start with an improvement of our current Youth systems. The best ways to improve is for the youth coaches to create a positive atmoshpere that is filled with encouragement, to wait until the high school level to start putting emphasis on winning and excellence, and to emphasis FUN in the Youth game.