Attractivity of Commercial Sports - Essay Example

Why Commercial Sports More Attractive Than Non-Profit Sports It is apparent that commercial sports attract many people both professional athletes, businesses and individual fans compared to the non-profit sports attention. The obvious reason is money that acts as the main motivators especially of businesses and professionals. Professional sports are generating billions of U.S dollars annually and possess the potential of generating even more as the paying fans and their preferred athletes or teams enjoy exceptional relationship. There has been evolution and total commercialization of sports where big businesses with their uncompromising bottom line motives spread their wings into sports such as soccer and athletics. Attractiveness of sports has really been influenced by commercialization where some fans are disenchanted, their fierce loyalty reduces, players who used to play the game for the love of it, often spending money from their pockets are nowadays demanding compensation package. Heavy and intensive marketing is geared towards sports compared to any other activity because of the larger population of sports lovers and wider fan base (Andreff 68-70). On the other hand, revenues and incomes got from sports tend to encourage young people to participate in sports and further enhance promotion of sporting activities. Nonprofit sport is only encouraged where many residents live below the poverty level and the sporting activity is not popular. Commercialized sport attracts great talents due to high pay and attractive packages. Messi, Rooney, Bale, and Christiano Ronaldo are among the footballers earning huge amount of money. Looking at soccer in England, many rich clubs that pay their players well have all the advantages over others. Money does much in football because only rich clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City have always dominated the England Premier league because of their financial muscles. They are capable of acquiring any player they want regardless of the price put on that player. Many football professionals also dream of playing for the top football clubs because of the clubs’ attributes and performance. Unfortunately, performance cannot be achieved without proper financial muscles to buy resources such as players, good training ground, and pitches. Additionally, commercialization of sports tends to draw a large fan base. It is hard to find a team performing so well unless it has funds or sponsorship that triggers it to success (Andreff 68-70).. Lucrative sports are very popular and attractive because there are enough resources to acquire the best facilities and sports people. Football is actually the most popular sport in the world with a good number of players, viewers, and heavy financial investment. It is undeniable that commercialization of football has hugely contributed to popularity of sports. Football coaches have the resources given to them by their clubs to begin football academies where they can nature talents or even buy players from all over the world. Acquiring foreign players or even a good player from one place to the other has been made successful by the availability of funds. It is also clear that players are attracted to compensation they get and the popularity or stability of clubs. Popularity of football could have not been made possible without media, which has played a key role in marketing and popularizing it. Commercialized sports are regarded as superior to non-profit sports because people believe money can only be invested in good things. English Premier League is regarded superior to other League’s globally because of the ability to contribute a lot of revenue as well as the popular support it enjoys worldwide. English premier League football clubs have a larger worldwide support thus increasing their global viewers (Andreff 68). It is therefore certain that almost every player is interested in playing for the English Premier League clubs because of the revenues and huge fan base attached to it. Sport is a career, which many people, are involved hence prompting the need for career development. By moving from one small club or team to the other superior and financially stable one, players develop and grow their talents and careers by taking themselves to more challenging environment. That is what sports entails; doing better and improving one’s career is very Lucrative tournaments are very motivating and rewarding thus forcing many sports men to yearn for them. A tournament such as Champions League, which is the most lucrative tournament, has seen many European clubs working hard to win the trophy and the cash prize attached to it. Interestingly only football clubs such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich have managed to reach the peak of the tournament or even win the Champions League titles and their local League trophies easily because of their financial capabilities. They have also drawn global fans because of their style of play that has majorly been triggered by acquisition of good players and coaches. This is a sure sign that only financially capable sporting activities can attract more fans and highly skilled professionals. Commercialized sport has wide media support and advertisement hence reaching large audience. Audience is in return able to identify with their favorite players. Wide media coverage of commercialized sports customizes audience with the styles, techniques, and players involved in the game. For instance, people who love football will always, at least once in a week, watch their favorite super stars playing. This kind of experience is significant in creating a positive relationship, though virtual, with the players. Audience and fans get learn more about their favorite super stars. Sportsmen and women may also be attracted to the larger audiences that appreciate their talents as this motivates and empowers them to work harder. Relatives and friends of commercialized sports such as football may be eager to watch one of their own playing, a factor that attracts so many people to football. Heavily sponsored commercial sports are able to spend huge funds and resources to train raw talents into world class professionals. Developed talents are more appealing to audience. Big football clubs such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, and Manchester United have their academies that help in nurturing and developing new talents because of their gigantic financial muscles. Having funds and resources because of commercialization triggers career development because there may be available funds that may be used in purchasing facilities. Sporting is more than just engaging in the sport activity because there are facilities and the need to get involved in practice that may lead great performance (OBrien 226-229). It is therefore worth noting that every sporting activity requires certain resources that can only be acquired by money or through commercialization. Stadiums such as Old Trafford, Emirates, and Stamford Bridge are just a few examples of what commercialized sporting activities can gain. Commercial sports are able to develop world class infrastructure such as football stadiums such as Old Trafford Stadium for Man U. Commercialized sport is able to hire best in the world coaches and managers such as Sir Alex Fergusson of Manchester United. Best sport coaches and managers are recipe for excellent sport teams such as Man U. It is undisputable that Sir Alex Ferguson has left a mark, not only in English Premier League but also in the football coaching and in the Manchester United fraternity. Fergusson’s entrance in Manchester United in 1986 evidently reflected his management style of instituting discipline and family wood in the club. This resulted into many successes that included five EPL tittles out of six probable occasions between 1995 and 2001. It is never easy to acquire a high class coaches such as Alex Fergusson, Pep Guardiola of Bayern Munich and Jose Mourinho without having strong financial capabilities. Hiring quality requires heavy financial investment thus making it a possible thing only in the commercialized sports. Fergusson and Arsene Wenger of Arsenal have managed to raise huge fan base and audience because of their style of football and abilities. Commercial sports are able to offer value addition packages to their customer base during promotions such as free entry tickets, sport websites, sport TV channels, sport updates. Companies such as Etihad Airways may offer entry free tickets or Barclays Bank in England sponsor English Premier League websites that may be of great help to the audience and fans. Companies also benefit from commercialization through marketing of their products. Etihad Airways does a lot of outdoor marketing by taking part in sporting events, which are essential in marketing itself. Etihad has successfully sponsored major sporting events such as Ferrari F 1, Aviva Premiership rugby union and Manchester City football club. The groundbreaking sponsorship program has really helped in branding the company and improving its market share in the Airline industry. It is therefore clear that commercializing sport attracts both companies and audiences because of the benefit the two parties derive from the sport. A company will receive larger audience because commercialization markets and promotes sponsors while audience may benefit from value addition services. For organized professional sports, commercialization is very important especially in sports such as basketball, baseball, football, hockey, and athletics that annually participate in the main leagues. Commercialization has further led to spread of sport facilities such as stadiums that require large amount of funding. For these reasons, maintaining a sporting activity or sport professionals requires heavy commercialization. A rise in the gate ticket is only possible when the sporting event is attractive and the appeal can only be made possible by using huge amount of funds to finance and attract highly skilled sport professionals with good training tools. Acquiring stadiums brimming with modern facilities to attract top notch teams and sport professionals needs heavy commercialization. Works Cited Andreff, Wladimir. Contemporary Issues in Sports Economics: Participation and Professional Team Sports. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub, 2011. Print. OBrien, Steve. The Canadian Football League: The Phoenix of Professional Sports Leagues. Morrisville, NC: Lulu Press, 2005. Print. Read More