Professional Sports, Sportsmanship, & Advertising Money

[Zamboni_Driver]

To get on a soap box for a minute....and see if anyone else agrees....

For many years I've been turned off by the power of advertisers in all of television. In my opinion, advertisers and their money were a negative impact on sports. Advertisers and their money started to take center stage in various forms - 1) permanent advertisements painted on the fields (the Tostitos name painted from the 30 to 30 yard line in the college football Fiesta Bowl), 2) brand sponsored events (Verizon Call to the bull pen or the hockey UPS penalty box), and 3) continuous interruptions for commercials (remember that football in an attempt to speed up the game started the clock earlier on certain plays, instead of dropping the 2 minute warning - an obvious commercial friendly rule).

In each case these advertisement-friendly events diverted our attention from the work ethic, dedication, and team work each of the participants exhibit which are important to teach our young athletes.

For years my holy grail of how bad big business could effect sports was NASCAR - with the constant reminder of how I need to buy Jack Daniels and other products/services.

But just when I was about to condem Miller Lite, M&Ms, and Home Depot, I realized that NASCAR drivers, pit crews, and owners are the best examples of sportsmanship we have in professional sport. Yes, each driver might crash another or talk bad about another team. But each weak these high profile drivers who make a ton of money, constantly reference the hard work and tremendous effort of their crews and teams, from the guys in the pit to those in the front office. So many times in other professional sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL) players talk about how bad someone on their own team messed up, or how bad the coach is, or how the front office is holding the team back.

I'm beginning to think the advertisers in NASCAR don't want super-ego front-men or intra-team fighting (as they wouldn't want this in their corporations), thus creating more sportsmanship.

Any thoughts on advertisers and their role in sports? (Please don't argue about wether NASCAR is a sport - create another thread if you do)

[UofMLaxGoalie11]

One thing that bugs me about professional sports (even though it is a little bit of a tangent) is the fact that they don't even shake hands with each other after the game. Is there that much bad blood between the teams that they can't be civil for a whole 30 seconds? I was really glad to see it after the series in hockey. I mean, how are kids supposed to act when their heroes don't even acknowledge that their opponents played well? It really bugs me how little class there is left in pro sports.

[Texas Logger]

Can the media stop focusing on the personal lives of athletes? Please!

I don't think anybody should be using athletes as role models, nor should athletes be held to some kind of standard simply because they are public figures. There are certianly exceptions and stand up people who also happen to play sports, but their station as an athlete shouldn't automatically make them into something that people aspire to be.

There's something to be said for the business tennent that companies, producers, advertisers, etc. cannot create markets. The public has no one but themselves to blame for the current state of sports, which incidentally I have no objection to at all.

Even though I have chosen to pursue a career in sport management, I see the bottom line as this: it's just sports, it's not a big deal.

I do find commercials and their timeouts to be annoying though. Mostly for their propensity to break the flow of the game, no wonder I like soccer so much.

It really confuses me that America, the country that is the greatest consumer of sports has fans that desperately try to maintain some kind of purity. I suppose it's a noble thought, but it is ultimately futile. Simply put, you can't have it both ways. We've started down the slipperly slope of commercialization, and until the public objects with more than words, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

I share the rationale of many Europeans, in that advertsing is welcome because it infuses their teams with cash. Sure they have many of the same objections but they can rationalize it and accentuate the positives.

As far as placing the blame for NASCAR vs other sports, I think that a consideration of race might be helpful. How children of different races are socialized (or not) into team culture.

Great, now I look like some kind of anti-American racist, which I can assure, I am not.