Lecture Two – sports business

Global consumer culture and the impact of commercialism

Impact of Commercialisation

• Increased monies for sports (some) –football , super bowl, Olympics

• Increased sports business industry – agents, banks, players, stadia

• Increased sport profile – wider, more global audience• Increased social change agenda – use as a catalyst to affect

change (homeless world cup)• Increased political agenda – its global mass appeal (China

‘communist’ Olympics, American ‘dream’ super bowl), racism, sexism, religion

At what cost?Increasing commercialisation of sport has corrupted itsessence. How?

Exclusion – Too much emphasis on generating and creating wealth and focuses on those sports that deliver this

Elitism – over funding of ‘successful’ sportsCorruption – in almost every sport, betting, governance, biddingWider funding gap – media related - Social inequality and social injustice – polarised groups are under

represented

Case study -Nike

Sports Events

Examples – Olympics; Commonwealth games; World CupsNations/cities obsessed with bidding for sport spectacle eventsToo often success and legacy promised from short term

evaluations and over projectionsLack of strategic thinking –students should refer to Glasgow 2014

website for specific legacy promises and interventions

Mangan talks about too many white elephants borne out of major games (unused stadia and infrastructure, public funds not yielding ‘value for money’)