Problems in professional sport. One of the most frequent complaints leveled against professional sports these days is that the news about them often concerns various disputes between players and management, court cases, and other legal proceedings more than it does what takes place in the games athletes play and spectators watch.
Part of this comes from the fact that people have been slow to recognize that professional sport really is a business and that people make their living engaging it. In addition, the world of professional sport, as the rest of society, is more complex than it was in the past. Another familiar complaint, not without some justification, is that professional athletes in the most popular sports such as baseball, basketball, and football are paid more money than they could possibly be worth.
For example, as of this writing the average major league baseball player s salary is just under the incredible sum of one million dollars per year! No wonder people complain.
Yet, when a star player demands more money from his or her team, it is often the fans and the press who take the side of the athlete. One of the most unfortunate results of the currently inflated price of tickets to professional sports events such as baseball is that they are now accessible only to the most well off. This is a sad break with the past tradition of having a sizable number of inexpensive tickets available to all segments of society.
Over time sport in the US has become more open to all classes and ethnic groups. Recent moves by professional sports management to cater more and more to an elite clientele through such means as special luxury viewing areas called sky boxes at stadiums and arenas are an unwelcome departure from the mostly democratic development of American sport. Only the most naive observers and spectators of American professional sport now believe that it exists in a realm that is separate from other social concerns.
Sport is also related to politics. It has become a practice for politicians to associate themselves with championship teams. For example, the president usually phones congratulations to the winners of baseball s World Series presidents have hosted the National Basketball Association NBA champions at the White House. The attraction of major league professional sport is so great that there are keen competitions among cities for franchises.
It is widely accepted by politicians, the public, and the press that having a major league team in their city or region is good not only for the local economy but also for the prestige of the area and even the morale of the population. Professional franchises often exploit this desire of localities to have a major league team by demanding and receiving extremely favorable terms for the use of public stadiums. When teams do not get what they want from local government, they often begin to play one city off against another and sometimes move to an area that offers a better deal. Sport also has an international political dimension.
After the Soviet Union joined the Olympic movement in 1952, the US and the USSR engaged in a long, hard-fought battle, especially at the Olympic Games, for overall supremacy in sport 2, p.307-308 . 2.1.4.