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Sports impact on american culture
Sports impact on american culture
Essay on sports in america
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Football Is The True American Pastime
In today’s world of big time professional sports there are the two major players and they are football represented by the National Football League (NFL) and baseball represented by Major League Baseball (MLB). Now there are other sports that the American public enjoys watching, however the argument generally boils down to which sport is the true favorite of the American people: baseball or football. In this paper I will attempt to examine both sports from several different angles to include attendance, television revenue, ticket costs, venues, salaries, entertainment value, and athlete perception. The goal of this exercise will be to determine, once and for all, which sport is the American favorite and can truly be called the “American Pastime”.
One of the single greatest measurable facets of professional sports is attendance. A sport’s popularity is in direct correlation to the number of people that will show up to watch that sport. Overall 2000 regular season attendance in Major League Baseball was a record 72,782,013 in 2,416 games for an average per game crowd of 30,125 whereas official overall paid attendance in the National Football League for the 2000 season was 16,387,289 in 248 games for an average per game crowd of 66,077. The average per game crowd is the measurable statistic due to the fact that the number of games in a regular season for baseball and football are very different. A NFL team plays a regular season schedule of 16 game however a MLB team plays a regular season schedule of 162 games so average attendance per game presents an accurate picture of popularity. Therefore, football appears to be more than twice as popular as baseball when measured by ...
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Infoplease.com (2000). Major League Baseball Ballparks. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0105512.html
Infoplease.com (2000). National Football League Stadiums. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0105600.html
Infoplease.com (2000). Rank by Capacity. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0105519.html
Infoplease.com (2000). Top 10 Salaries in Each Sport. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0875101.html
NFL.com (2001). NFL sets all time attendance record. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from http://www.nfl.com/news/010326attendance.html
Poole, David (1999). Nascar confirms it will negotiate TV deals. The Charlotte Observer, 24 February 1999. Retrieved July 15, 2001 from http://www.thatsracin.com/99/docs/0225nascartv.htm
At the time, I was not impressed with the “American” sport, but now that I have read Stephen Jay Gould’s essay, “The Creation Myths of Cooperstown,” I will have something to say when the subject arises. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t like America’s baseball then and I don’t like it now. I do, however, enjoy thinking critically and so I, too, am drawn to that great wad of spit we call baseball because the heterosexual ego and rabid patriotism hiding behind its dirty, sweaty disposition have appeared on my radar screen. Thanks to Gould, I now have the ability to let go of my hostility toward an innocent sport and see the hostility for what it really is: anger towards the males who use baseball as an excuse to unleash their violent hormonal urges.
What has changed the way America’s pastime is looked at forever and prompt worldwide discussion? Joe Jackson and his seven teammates changed the face of baseball forever during the intimate scandal of 1919. No other time in baseball history did Americans question the state of the game. Pete Rose had also brought a debate like no other before in baseball. Since his banishment in 1989 the country has been split on the issue. Gambling by these men and others has caused great problems in baseball. The game of baseball has been destroyed by gambling.
Douglas E. Foley offers an interesting analysis of American football culture in high schools, in his article titled “The Great American Football Ritual: Reproducing Race, Class and Gender Inequality”. The author covers the ways that the football culture splits people apart and segregates them into groups based on what they contribute to the football scene. The football scene seems to bring negativity to the lives of every group it touches, yet it is still a staple in American culture to this day.
Noll, Roger, and Zimbalist, Andrew. Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums. Brooking institutions press, Summer 1997. Vol. 15 No. 3.
Sports are a great business that creates great revenue for organizations that are in the major leagues. In this particular industry, revenue is generated through the sales of tickets to the game spectators and loyal team fans. Baseball, hockey, basketball, football and other sporting teams playing in their corresponding teams gain a substantial percentage of their revenues from the sale of attendance tickets. Many studies have been conducted to establish the factors that determine game attendance in different leagues. One of the most important findings is that, despite increase in ticket prices over the years, the attendance demand has not decreased.
Mutually, television and sport understood that together profits would continue to increase. The emergence of global fan bases increased revenue across markets. The technological enhancements and the aesthetically advanced additions to sport broadcast boosted interest in events. Expanded coverage to occasional live major events gave the sports and the games a national level of recognition. The attractiveness of sport on television networks provided extreme financial gains with the revenue from advertisements and sponsorships. Live sporting events provide exciting content for the viewing experience, leading to why sport played such a significant part in the growth of television. Quality broadcast performances enhanced the viewing experiences of the fan through the television medium. Bringing major sporting events worldwide, conveyed major income for both television and sport, and also started the bases of global fans. Television and sport are highly dependent on the success of one
Baseball remains today one of America’s most popular sports, and furthermore, baseball is one of America’s most successful forms of entertainment. As a result, Baseball is an economic being of its own. However, the sustainability of any professional sport organization depends directly on its economic capabilities. For example, in Baseball, all revenue is a product of the fans reaction to ticket prices, advertisements, television contracts, etc. During the devastating Great Depression in 1929, the fans of baseball experienced fiscal suffering. The appeal of baseball declined as more and more people were trying to make enough money to live. There was a significant drop in attention, attendance, and enjoyment. Although baseball’s vitality might have seemed threatened by the overwhelming Great Depression, the baseball community modernized their sport by implementing new changes that resulted in the game’s survival.
Sports are a huge part of American culture. With football, basketball, and baseball being the most popular, the sports industry is worth an estimated 422 billion dollars. Of course, there would be no sports industry without the fans. The fanatics are what make sports so special. Even though each devotee is unique, most can be categorized into four main groups – Bandwagon fans, Casual fans, Hometown/True fans, and Coaches.
Crafting the national pastime's image: The history of major league baseball public relations William B Anderson. Journalism and Communication Monographs. Columbia: Spring 2003. Vol. 5, Iss. 1; pg. 5
For most sports fans there is nothing like opening day and a baseball field. In recent years I have over heard several people say Baseball is not the National Pastime or National Game any longer. When I query these people the typical response is Football is our new National pastime/game. Frank Deford (Nov 7, 2012) a writer for Sports Illustrated said, "Baseball is what we used to be. Football is what we have become." I refuse to believe this based on my knowledge of both games. In this paper we will exam the facts and I would submit to you that Baseball is still the National Pastime/Game and it cannot be disputed.
Over the past twenty years, many things have changed and evolved to impact our economy. From cell phones to music to media, we are all constantly affected. The most influential aspect though, in my opinion, has been America’s biggest game, the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl by all means effects our economies in every way, shape, and form. The sport is one of the most complex social institutions in American Society. Sports effect major institutions of society, including: the mass media, politics, religion, education, and family. The Super Bowl gathers thousands of viewer’s attentions including those who do not usually watch the regular season games.
On a crisp afternoon in late September, thousands of ordinary people drive hundreds of miles from home in order to witness what they believe will ultimately be a sporting event that will go down in the record books. As fans enter the packed parking lot, their eyes light up as the enormous structure that is known as Arrowhead Stadium stands starkly above them against the autumn sky. When they come to a stop in the parking lot, their clocks reads 11:00, two hours until kickoff. They excitedly exit their vehicles and open their trunks to reveal grills, and great times ahead. These ordinary people begin to continue the legacy of pre-game tailgating, a rich tradition that encourages fans to meet up with total strangers with only one thing in common: Football. Yet, what seems on the surface to be simply about an experience, of watching great plays and rooting for one’s team, is in fact a complex business arrangement which is based on the concept of making money. Indeed, “Since professional sports began, running a team has always been a reasonable investment” (DeMause VII). Just as each team implements a certain series of plays to score, each franchise implements a series of strategies to draw in the average fan. What may seem like a satisfying Nathan’s Hot Dog, and an ice cold Pepsi in the fans’ eyes, is the product of complex calculations about profitability made in a business office nowhere near the events on the field. Professional sports generally, and the National Football League specifically, are not what they seem to be from a fan’s perspective.
Sports in the United States are a billion dollar industry. There are many pieces that make up sports and sports teams such as venues, workers, coaching staffs, and the players of course. But arguably the most important piece to the puzzle called sports are us, the fans. For a long time sports have been an essential for fans around the world. It has been a corner stone for American revenue and enjoyment for ages. Employees will call in sick off work and pay sometimes hundreds of dollars to see a simple baseball, football, or basketball game. But what causes this behavior? What would make someone paint their body and go shirtless to a College Football game in 20 degree weather? Why are sports video games so popular? And how much money do these
While sports for the spectators are merely entertainment, the economics of the industry are what drives businesses to become involved. Sports have become more of a business entity rather than an entertainment industry due to the strong economic perception of the over all industry. There are several instances in which economics may contribute to the effect on the sports industry, such as: the success of a team, the price of a ticket, the amount of money an athlete will make, and the amount of profit a team will make. The success of an...
Sports are rooted in tradition and many fans develop their beliefs based off their own biases and preconceived notions. Examples of bias exist in each sport: Bud Selig has called the Oakland A’s success “an aberration”, walks were an irrelevant statistic in baseball for over 100 years because of one statistician’s opinion, and an ESPN author once ran an article titled “Wisconsin: The Most Boring Team in America.” Throughout the history of sports, coaches and managers have been trying to find inefficiencies and rethink the way their game is played. When resources run low or tradition doesn’t exist, those in charge need to have a willingness to reconsider their sport: how it is managed, how it is played, who is best suited to play it, and why.