The Business of Spots - Term Paper Example

Commercialization of Sports and its Effects. Commercialization of Sports and its Effect In the modern society, commercialization of sporting activities has become a common phenomenon. Commercialization is the inclusion of commercial activities into another activity or thing (Guardian News Media Limited, 2015). The commercial sport is fused into another activity to target a particular audience. The aim to influence the audience to purchase the advertised products or service (Gaebler, 2015). The television set has increased the marketing and advertising procedure and the complexity too. TV used to be a source of entertainment and news, but now it is considered as the most successful strategies to market products and reach a more specific audience. The most popular type of commercial is the sporting commercial that is aired during sporting events. Taking into consideration the fact that masculine stations are the ones that primarily aired then, it is never wrong to conclude that almost all the spectators are guys and that makes them the particular audience that they intended to be reached. Commercial sports thrive and grow under various economic and social factors. To ensure a continuous growth and increased income for the sporting industry, commercialism should be made available in big urban locations with high attention to the targeted audience. Cities and towns are the best options for starting new teams, stadiums and introducing new sports to the millions of spectators and populations (Lench, 2000). The viewers need to stand up for the high and middle revenue group of the population that like to view the sports. This is so because the low-income segments of the population are not likely to spend their hard earned money on trivial issues like sports and leisure. Apart from throwing away money through the purchase of tickets and payment of decoder subscription to view televised events, new entrants and visitors are expected to spend their money to buy merchandised that are supported by star athletes and excellent sporting teams. The Olympic Games and its Commercialization. From the introduction of the Olympic Games at the beginning, when it was what many people now call the Olympic movement, entrepreneurs and civic leaders always recognized the economic and political benefits of hosting Olympic Games (Rose & Spiegel, 2011). Sponsors too know this, and they have done well to brand their products with philosophies that embrace Olympics so that they can acquire a greater market share. Despite the great similarity between Olympics and commerce, it is until very recently [2 decades ago] that Olympic movement has started to capitalize on its potential to reach people globally and to commercialize their products and services (Marr, 2000). Earlier during the 1980s, mainly sponsors, local business, and governmental funding supported Olympic activities. It was because of the “armature spirit” that wanted the games to remain free and pure from the commercial ventures that were regarded to have the capability of destroying the game. Giant companies like Kodak and Coca-Cola were associated with the Olympic Games since 1896 and 1920s. Recently, The Olympic Program has given sponsors exclusive arrangements that are meant to enable them market their items to an audience of around five billion people (Glenday, 2014). Most Olympic spectators only ever watched the games in mediated versions of the Olympic Games. To ensure that the audience is more involved in the games and allow viewers to participate personally in the games, the Olympic Program has licensed its associated symbols and products. Currently the spectators can feel more participating in the games and have some experience of it by eating Olympic cheese, drinking beer that is associated with Olympic, putting on the official Olympic clothes or even purchasing the official Olympic mobile gadgets for communication. For the Olympics to reach all its global consumers; it relies on selling its television broadcastings to the bidder who is ready to offer the highest amount of money. The selling of Olympics, televised events have led to the generation of large amounts of money, which has benefited The Olympic Program to grow into a larger organization. A suitable example is the Sydney 2000 Games that generated a staggering 1 billion dollars to The Olympic Team. Because of this, to say that Olympic competitions are highly commercialized will be a gross understatement. However, the current commercialization of the Olympic Games started being criticized since the early 1900s. America’s first Olympic gold winner James Connolly, who firmly made accusations to the then American Amateur Union, agreed to the cohesion advertising companies and the commercial market in general. Connolly said this while suggesting that the manufacturer of sports wears, A.G. Spalding, had so much power in that he was able to determine who participates in the US Olympic team and who does not. Connolly also said that the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) was simply another agent of advertising companies. Several years later, the President of International Olympic Committee (IOC) Brudge Avery, expressed how disappointed he was, not because the Games had become what he referred to as a vast business enterprise instead of another sports event. Brudge went further and expressed his worry that the Olympic Games could end up becoming another commercial carnival. The commercialization of the Olympic Games should be a gradual process with each generation being complacent with the additional magnitude of its commercialization (Pope, 2003). In 1984, a member of the International Olympic Committee member, told the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, that they represented the icon of capitalism, and its struggles to control the Olympic Games and change the sporting into a highly commercialized one. The committee that was charged with the responsibility of managing the Olympics of 1984, Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, was also accused of the commodification of the Olympic torch in that, whoever wanted to weld the torch would have to pay $3,000 just to have the honor of carrying it. This allegation was also seconded by the irritated Greek National Olympic Committee (NOC), which accused the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee strongly, for using the torch as a means of collecting funds, which is to be used to purchase services or products for the Olympic Games. Peter Ueberroth, the chair of Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, saw this allegation as ironic, considering that the financial position of Olympia was and still relies on the torch’s commercialization. He cited its Olympic Flame Hotel and Retail shops that one can purchase Olympic torches that are made of plastics and other memorabilia that are associated with the Olympic Games. In issues of commercialization and commodification of the Olympic movement requires critical and careful analysis since it has been a very contentious issue for the past century (AT&T Archives Carry the Fire, 2012). After a thorough and critical research, it was once concluded that situational and commercial ethics have made the modern day sports to become a market in this century, this is not very surprising. It is no surprise because the situational-commercial ethics have become part of the game due to the commercialization. Since this is the case, some of the characteristics in the commercial world have been introduced to the game. It includes the central trait of the commercial world; the primary motto is achieving the target, and the fairness of the means of attaining the set target takes the last priority. It is because of this that players indulge in malpractices and behaviours that are unethical, and this may include; match throwing to reduce the chances of another team winning a tournament. Some of the athletes do such actions so that they can secure financial benefits (Dhokrat, 2012, p. 42). Commercialization of sports has been condemned by many scholars to be the reasons why sports is losing its essence. Many people agree that it is an undesirable process. Specialism, commercialization and professionalism have caused the alteration of the focus of sports, which was considered recreational, and a community thing. The increased cases of gambling, violence, match fixing and doping are all attributed to the commercialization of sports. Money made by star athletes, and professional sports clubs, are the general focus to professionalization of sports that were amateur. The ever increasing amount of money to be paid to televise sports events tend to point that not everyone may be pulling towards commercialization but, the process of commercialization is taking place at a rapid rate and little can be done to stop it (Robinson, 2008, p. 310). Commercialization has always been about maximum media exposure for the athletes and the sports in general. When a giant company or conglomerate sponsors a sporting event, there are higher chances that the big company will get prime television time. In return, it will bring enormous profits because of the advertising revenues and also end up exposing more individuals to the game. The product to all of this is that there will be increased number of people wanting to watch the game, improved profitability of the sports clubs locally, nationally or internationally. It will aid both the local and national economy, and the community spirit will be revived if the team will be performing well (Slack, 2004, p. 192). It is natural that more exposure comes with more participation in the games since more people will see and get inspired to try out the sport. A suitable example is, for instance, an athlete from a given nation is the undisputed champion in a certain race, it is only normal that there will be an increase in the number of people participating in the sport. In the event that there is a national worry concerning the health of children due to lack of participation in sports, then the body responsible will have an easy time. This is all due to commercialization that brought with it increased participation (Opinion of Advocate General Kokott, 2011). Sporting clubs possess the same characteristics of business organizations in that they have to make money in order to be in existence. The main and only way for sporting clubs to improve facilities, pay the rising wage expenses and acquire new players is by selling any advertising space available to realize an increment in profits and revenues (Cooper-Chen, 2005, p. 231). The one central issue that come with the influx in commercialization from the fan’s point of view is that the increased expenses that are caused by increased commercialization are only passed over to them. This is noted by the increased costs of ticket prices, club shirt prices, and refreshments. It also comes with all the advertising space around the stadium being sold as the every game’s television rights are ever increasing (International Olympic Committee, 2009). Many scholars have claimed that due to intense commercialization in some sports, the performance of the players and athletes is poorer both at the local and international level. A notable example is the poor performance displayed by the England national team at the world cup. It is contrary to the fact that domestic Premier League in England has the best wages than any of the world’s leagues in soccer. What has also been noted is that, some top name players have been signed by high labels to promote products (Cortsen, 2014). For the viewers in their homes watching a highly commercialized sport, the main drawback is the frequent commercials and ads that keep on appearing when the game stops or even as it continues. The commercials and advertisements that take place during half time and breaks are the most expensive that could be purchased. All the above can be viewed as a significant distraction from the game itself. Some critics claim that the outcome of big league sports games are dictated and controlled by television commercials ( Bolls & Muehling 2011). Reference List AT&T Archives Carry the Fire, 2012. att.com. [Online] Available at: http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2012/7/26/AT&T-Archives-Carry-The-Fire [Accessed 1 May 2015]. Bolls, P. D. & Mueling. D. D., 2011. Taylor Francis Online. [Online] Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1352726032000068032 [Accessed 1 May 2015]. Cooper-Chen, A., 2005. Global entertainment media. 1st ed. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cortsen, K., 2014. The future points to a better blend between in-depth athlete performance data and commercialization. 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