Sports is becoming a strong social and economic movement during the last decades and this movement is a determining factor for any sphere of our life. It influences the forming of a variety of spiritual, moral, ethical, and social-economic relationships. The growth of public significance of modern sports (mainly big-time sports) allows considering the sports as a complicated process. Sports as a separate and self-developing phenomenon has not yet become an object of “classical” sports theory researching.
The professionalism of sports at last quarter of XX century has got a general character and now it is considered as a natural process. The events and people’s activity in professional sports attract much attention of population of any country. Sports influences all spheres of life such as economics, policy, and culture. And touches many ethical problems of nowadays environment.
It is considered that professional and big-time sports increase state prestige, peace consolidation, and even popular sports. It is difficult to tell about the health problems which many sportsmen have. It is a fact that most sportsmen have serious diseases. Full-time training (especially for women and children), off-centered methods which include dopes and stimulators, various injuries, contests, and fightings for the first place – all these things hurt morally and physically greatly. It is not a secret that very often criminal cases take place in the professional sports industry.
The sports economy has got important quantitative and qualitative changes lately. The new technologies of the market are in use now and the interaction looks in such a way – sports – fan, and sports – the customer. The instruments and methods of management and marketing are actively used now.
Along with the perfection and stirring up of the traditional instruments of influence on people (such as cost policy, advertising, and quality) new trends got the impulse to development, the promotion of which became possible only with the help of the Internet. A new virtual system of “new economics” began to develop. This system includes a complex of branches and groups of innovation economical activity. In the structure of the virtual economics of sports, the information business plays an important role. It seems to be a paradoxical circumstance, but it is easily explained by the great advantages which new instruments of business communications have. We should pay attention to the main features and advantages of these instruments.
In countries with well-developed economics and market, the gambling industry is successfully used as a source of sports financing. For example, in Finland according to the law, the gambling industry is the main source of sports financing. The biggest companies are the National lottery of Finland (Veikkaus) and The Bet Horsing Association. The greatest part of the income of these companies goes to the state budget. The income of the first company is used to finance national culture development and the income of the second is used for developing national horsing and contests (Berkey-Gerard).
The National Lottery of Finland was founded in 1940 by sports organizations. Earlier it was a company which financed only sports development. Now many other spheres are sponsored by this company. Veikkaus has a large structure, agents in different places which control their shops.
Nowadays the company has 16 games which are classified into three groups: lotteries, momentary lotteries, and sports bets. Sports bets include Football Pools, Fixed odds betting, Result odds betting, Winner odds betting, V65 Off-track horse betting, V5 Off-track horse betting. At the end of the last century, Finland was at the top according to the level of bets, which was higher than in Norway, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Great Britain, and Canada.
The processes of commercialization and professionalization have got an irreversible character. At the end of the XX century, professional sports has become an integral part of the international and Olympic movement (Berkey-Gerard).
Here it would be appropriate to speak about the Incentive Pay Programs. These programs have a great number of advantages and disadvantages for the economical situation of sports and the sportsmen in particular.
From the point of view of sports positions, such programs are very risky because they demand careful work and thinking about future risks and gains.
From the point of view of a sportsman, it is a great aim to take first place or to win in the competition.
The variety of social functions divided the sports into the following trends: popular sports, big-time sports, Olympic sports, and professional.
The professional is considered a sportsman who earns money and takes part in Incentive Pay Programs working in the sports industry. Professional sports is represented as a kind of business in society, it is an important part of the show industry, a form of commerce and business, the aim of which is selling a show of sports. Sports professionalism is an objective process that makes for improving the results, techniques, and aesthetics of sports. Besides as a new organizational and economic base sports can serve as an additional source of financial income to the state budget.
Professional sports give many possibilities for creative activity as any other kind of art. But characterizing the dynamic development of professional sports it is vivid that sports lose their humanistic functions and role in society.
The first feature of the Olympic sports crisis is its commercialization when the Olympic movement begins to represent the synthesis of sports show-business advertisement technology and public policy (Berkey-Gerard).
Law regulation of professional sports is made out International Committee. Here it is possible to see two ways: European and American. The USA was the first country that defined the status of a professional sportsman. The professional clubs of the gambling industry appeared in the last decades of the XIX century. Then they were united into professional leagues to decide some common problems such as game schedule and rules. At the beginning of the XX century, new baseball leagues were created – National, American, and Federal.
Each of us has heard that famous athletes earn a lot. Many of us would like to become champions and get just the amount, which lasts until the end of days. But very few of us dared to try to earn money from professional sports because nobody knows how much you need to invest, spend time, health the minimum result.
Virtually all know that the Olympic champions, record holders, titled athletes get enough for life, but not everyone can become the first and the best.
A professional sport is a separate category, which is not available for everyone. But sport is work and business, which has its niche and sectors filled with athletes. Not everyone can run quickly, swim and play football, more precisely, no one dares to try, just as not everyone goes to the miners, police officers, or firefighters. These professions are associated with the risk for which the State pays extra money to people. What is the system of fees for athletes in professional sports? In general, the circuit looks in such away. Sport – is a huge market for manufacturers of sports equipment and clothing.
And they are willing to invest huge money in the development of sports infrastructure and athletes to increase the number of people involved in sports, and, consequently, the levels of their sales. Professional athletes are the locomotives of advertising – those who are the examples for an ordinary citizen, is seeking to them is the same sport, wears the same brand of sportswear, travels in the same car. Each of the manufacturers is trying to choose their sport, to emphasize their target of the group of buyers. Sport can be compared to show business. Therefore, the size of the fees depends on the sport.
References
Berkey-Gerard, Mark “New York’s Sports Economy”. Web.
The Economics of Professional Sports Leagues: The Bottom Line in the Kintetsu Buffaloes Merger Issue is a Lack of Management. Web.
“The Value of Sports Economy in the Regions”, 2003. Web.
Incentive Pay Considered Harmful – so instead.. ?. Web.