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For Whom Sport Tolls: Players, Owners, and Fans
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14909 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1988 |
5,881 Words |
| Author
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Dean A. Purdy
Dean A. Purdy is professor of sociology at Bowling Green State
University. He writes regularly on the sociology of sport. |
In recent years a number of issues surrounding professional sport have grown increasingly complex. The amount of money that currently fuels professional athletics has grown to such an extent that sport is conducted under a new set of circumstances, with many of the old values no longer being dominant. Players, owners, and fans are the principal groups affected by an increased business mentality and a decaying of the often mythical, idealistic values that prevailed in the past. All three groups have their own perspective on sport and therefore view their particular agendas as the most important. However, each element--the owners of the franchises, the fans who attend and watch sports events, and of course, the actual participants--also realizes the need for the other components, albeit not always conscious of the delicate balance within this labyrinthine network. While none of the particular elements are more important than any other, at different times each group attempts to dominate the sports world.
The dominating factor in the world of professional sport has become the dollar bill. Big money is the engine that drives the professional machine. Examples of this economic imperative are readily available. Owners of professional teams, while often seeking to bask in the bright lights showered upon this aspect of the entertainment industry, are primarily driven by the profit motive. This is especially true of the corporate component that has recently entered the ranks of ownership. Modern players, in turn, are chiefly concerned with the large and rapidly escalating salaries currently in place. Recent data reveals that the average salary in the NBA exceeds a half-million dollars ($510,000). Major league baseball follows with $410,000, the NFL with $212,000, and the NHL with $156,000. In a recent interview, David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, estimated that within the next five years the average salary in the NBA will be a million dollars a year.
Fans are also affected by this escalating economic imperative. They are asked to pay increasingly exorbitant prices to watch professional sporting events (live, cable, and pay-per-view), which not only are, in effect, media created but also are often anticlimactic spectaculars such as the Super Bowl and heavyweight boxing. As fans have continually been asked to pay premium prices for sporting events, they have grown increasingly vocal about what they perceive as their vested interest in the sports world. Criticism and second-guessing of players, managers, officials, and club management have recently in creased. Some fans now even claim as a "right" some emotional investment in the ownership of their favorite
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