Sports Worlds

2004-05-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Sports Worlds, the online sports magazine.

Original articles, news and research updates ranging from sports in history through competition and leisure to the realms of gender and sporting personalities are added to the Sports Worlds site monthly - so don't forget to check back later for new content.

Why are we so captivated by the results of contests to be the first a kicking a ball across a line, the fastest at throwing it through a metal hoop, or the best at keeping it in the air with a racquet? Why should someone jumping heights or lengths in a field so be eagerly watched and applauded? Any why are millions of dollars spent on securing the appearance of the most talented athletes and players, turning recreational pursuits into professional enterprises and fostering the ever-increasing growth in popularity of spectator sports?

These are some of the questions that Sports Worlds attempts to answer, as well as those of more basic issues concerning the history, development and future of sports. Encompassing sociological, economical, psychological and cultural fields of study among others, Sports Worlds presents an inter-disciplinary approach to making sense of the popular world of sports.

External Links

2004-05-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

Sports Psychology

Athletic Insight: The online journal of Sports Psychology providing a forum for discussion of topics that are relevant to the field of sport psychology through quarterly publications.

Selfhelp Magazine: Articles, questions and answers on sports and performance psychology.

Sports Sociology

Centre for the Sociology of Sport: The website of this Centre in the Department of Sociology at the University of Leicester provides access to resources and publications, especially on football.

North American Association for the Sociology of Sport: A resource and information site for researchers and professionals in Sociology of Sport.

Sport in Society: Website of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

Research Guide — Sport, Culture, and Society: The Schaffer Library, Union College online research guide contains links and information about sports reference sources, indexes, abstracts and websites that are useful to all students undertaking research in sports sociology.

General

The Virtual Library of Sport
Provides global links to key resources in all sports, with a strong section on Sports Training

The Sports Network: An international sports information service providing up-to-the-second sports scores, news, trends and predictions, statistics, pre- and post-game reports, historical data, weather updates, injuries for both college and professional teams, features and a great deal more.

BBC Sport: Up-to-date news and sports headlines, photo galleries, fun and games, guides to the rules and terms of sports and the opportunity to watch or listen to BBC Sport via an audio/visual console.

Yahoo! Sports: News headlines, reports, scores, opinions and more.

International Association for Sports Information: Sports information for physical educators, sport scientists, documentalists and sports researchers.

National Sport Information Centre: Australia's premier information resource centre for sport and its related disciplines.

SIRC: Produced by the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC) in Canada, this site provides a central point of access to sport related information on the web, sorted under names of individual sports or particular sport related topics.

Link-to-all-Sports: Links to a wide variety of sports information including newspaper sports sections, sports on television, columnists, individual sports and injury reports.

Scholarly Sports Sites: This subject directory brings together sites which will assist the serious sports researcher. An Index to Sport Subjects provides access to specific parts. A keyword search engine is also provided.

Sports Link: This directory contains hundreds of comprehensive links to assist competitors, coaches, trainers, researchers, educators, psychologists and the athletic medical community.

Sports Fans of America: A portal for fans and coverage of fan issues, including accountability of quality officiating and affordable tickets.

Teach-nology: Resources for teachers.

Alumbo: Directory includes resources for exercise, fitness and sports.

A Special Kind of Power

2004-01-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

Reprinted at Sports Worlds with permission June 2004 (c) Season Magazine

By Dr Ronald Goldstein

I admit it. I’m addicted to watching rhythmic gymnastics,
a demanding and delightful sport that combines ballet and creative
movements with music. Participants maneuver ribbons, balls, hoops,
ropes and clubs in choreographed dance-and-tumble routines that
can be astounding in their artistry and athleticism.

The sport is relatively young – the first rhythmic gymnastics world
championship was held in Europe in 1963, and it became an Olympic
medal sport only in 1984. To me, this sport represents the ultimate
in grace, beauty and power, and I find it no surprise that it is
primarily practiced by women.

During a recent speaking engagement in Russia, I successfully arranged
to meet and interview Alina Kabaeva. At 21, Alina is the grande
dame of rhythmic gymnastics, having won all the major world competitions
and now is her country’s hottest prospect for the 2004 Athens
games. With this column in mind, I asked Alina questions on beauty-related
topics, among others, all of which she graciously answered.

As I reflected on her answers and learned more about this world-class
athlete and her sport, I began to wonder about our expectations
of female athletes. Do sexist stereotypes affect how the media and
consumers observe them and report and write about them? Before sharing
with you my conversation with Alina, I will tell you what I learned.

OOOPS, WE DID IT
AGAIN!
It probably will not surprise you to learn that many people have
a hard time separating women’s physical attractiveness from
their athletic prowess. In an article on the subject, women’s
sports expert “Beez” Lee Ann Schell observes that, “In
written texts, visual images, and spoken commentaries, women athletes
are often portrayed as sexual objects available for male consumption
rather than as competitive athletes.”

She points to the June 5, 2000 Sports Illustrated cover and inside
photos of tennis player Anna Kournikova who posed seductively for
a photo shoot, wearing non-tennis clothing. Schell’s study
of a now-defunct women’s sports magazine published by Conde-Nast
concluded that, “most covers and story photographs featured
white, slender models wearing scanty fitness clothes exposing those
body parts equated with feminine sexuality, such as thighs, abdominals,
cleavage, and buttocks.”

When the U.S. women’s soccer team won the World Cup in 1999,
Brandi Chastain’s spontaneous flinging off of her jersey (of
course she was wearing a sports bra underneath) received nearly
as much attention as the team’s win over China on penalty kicks.

WORDS AND IMAGES
In order to help guide reporters and commentators, the Women’s
Sports Foundation has developed a list of “Words to Watch”
and “Images to Watch.” The foundation says descriptions
that place too much emphasis on physical appearance or skills not
related to the sport should be avoided. For example, Sports Illustrated
erred in the foundation’s eyes when it described champion skater
Katarina Witt as: “… so fresh-faced, so blue-eyed, so
ruby-lipped, so 12-car pileup gorgeous, 5 feet 5 and 114 pounds
worth of peacekeeping missile.” Similarly, the Toronto Star
called goalie Manon Rheaume as “a comely nubile with hazel
eyes, a glowing complexion, and a decidedly feminine grace.”

Male
athletes, by contrast, are generally described by physical attributes
with words like “dynamic,” “powerful,” “agile”
and “swift.” In answer to frequently asked questions,
the Women’s Sports Foundation states on its Web site that,
“There is nothing wrong with women wanting to look feminine/attractive
from a traditional perspective. However, female athletes deserve
the same respect for their athletic abilities as is afforded male
athletes.”

BACK TO ALINA
I am in full agreement with the foundation’s position, while
at the same time recognizing that no matter what the venue or pursuit,
physical appearance plays a role in our perceptions of those we
encounter, whether in person or in the media.
This was among subjects I covered in a wide-ranging interview with
Alina, a gracious competitor who answered questions through a translator.
Alina Kabaeva was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan May 12, 1983. At
age 3 she began her gymnastics training and by age 12 moved to Moscow
to study under the renowned coach, Irina Viner.

Alina burst onto the world stage in 1998 where she dominated the
European Championships and Goodwill Games. At 17, she successfully
competed in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney (earned the bronze medal),
and captured five gold medals at the 2001 World Championships in
Madrid. She is preparing for the 2004 games in Athens, after which
she plans to retire from the sport.

How did you
get interested in rhythmic gymnastics?
AK: I came from an athletic family – my mother played basketball
and my father played soccer. When my mother was training, Irina
Viner was practicing her sport in the same center. My mom always
dreamed that if she had a daughter one day she would train in gymnastics
with Irina.

I write about
beauty, and to me, yours is the most beautiful of any sport. How
aware were you of the importance of beauty to the sport?
AK: It’s a natural for me, as I was always very expressive
and artistic, I was always laughing and smiling and rarely cried.
My coach has to tell some girls to keep smiling and show their teeth!
Gymnastics today has become more professional.
Before, it was more athletic and now it is more classic and beautiful
in terms of the training criteria. My coach does not pick ugly girls.
One girl came in with a perfect face and a perfect body, but her
ears were sticking out. My coach told her to come back after she’d
had plastic surgery done on her ears.

But what about
the beauty of the sport itself? Were you taught that this was important?
AK: Beauty does play a major role, but are we talking about a gymnast’s
facial beauty, or the beauty of her body or her movement? These
are all very different concepts. So if you are beautiful and move
beautifully, it’s hard to compete against that. Beauty for
us gymnasts is in choreography, trying to pull the beauty from inside
to outside. As far as judging, there is facial beauty and there
is beauty in terms of how you dance and move, and if those two elements
combine, then it is perfect.

Are concepts
of beauty changing in your country as they are in the US?
AK: Yes, beauty is changing because fashion is changing. We used
to have a Russian beauty ideal, and now we’re getting more
of the Western European culture – world culture actually.

Is the Internet
playing a role in these changes?
AK: I don’t think so. More so, the borders have opened and
people are now able to travel. We’re making friends with people
from other countries.

What is your
personal beauty regime like?
AK: I use cosmetics, but it only takes five minutes. I’ve learned
that if you use foundation properly you don’t need much else.
I use a little bit of mascara and I don’t really use eye shadow.
I do put highlights in my hair.

What would
be your advice to parents who want to help their children excel
in gymnastics or other sports?
AK: My parents were very much in love and I was raised in a very
warm atmosphere. Parents should understand what a child is capable
of. It is nice to send the child to gymnastics, but the child has
to like it. The parents shouldn’t push it.

How do you
react to being a role model in Russia?
AK: I don’t feel any pressure and I’m very happy to be
popular in this way because I like when people are nice and have
affection for me. When I go to gymnastics schools the kids are very
kind and affectionate toward me. Their parents are too, and I like
that. The only fear I have is not to disappoint my fans.

Britney Spears
is having some problems because she was a role model to young girls,
but as she’s matured, she’s taken on a sexier image. What
are your thoughts about her?
AK: I think what Britney is doing is good, because she’s doing
what she wants to do and she is evolving. [In my country] you can
change your image to a certain extent, but you can’t take your
clothes off in front of the camera or put yourself in Playboy. In
the United States those things seem more normal, but in our society
a person who respects herself would never do things like that, even
for money.

Is there anything
else you’d like to tell our readers?
AK: I’m so grateful that I’m involved in gymnastics at
the professional level. I love the sport and I enjoy it. And I thank
God for my coach Irina who saw me once and made me a champion –
if it weren’t for her, nobody would see my beauty and my smile.
I wish that everyone who plays sports enjoys it!

Thank you so much, Alina. Best of
luck in the future!

Boys On The Playground

2004-01-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

Reprinted at Sports Worlds with permission May 2004. (c) The Fairness Project

By Robert N. Minor, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas

If you were a boy, you know that at some point playground culture became sports culture. If you were able to master the first, that did not always mean you could succeed at the second. Play moved into competition as early as society could get us to internalize the idea that we were vying with other boys for affirmation and the emblem of "manhood."

The boys who were "real boys" (those who would grow up to be "real men") were the best at competitive play. They were "winners." They were the ones who most successfully internalized the competitive spirit that our culture needs to keep its economy and military going.

Internalizing that model of manhood is how most of us actually came to believe that "competition is good." And we have built a society so dependent upon competition that it's hard to even think about how we could live well without it. It's one of those unquestioned basic truths, even if what competition is good for is not human relationships but production and profits. It's sure "good for business." It can produce lower prices and cheaper goods, more sales and faster computers, larger portfolios and bigger empires, but its current cost is our humanity.

On top of all that, a competitive attitude toward others is a key ingredient in homophobia. It keeps us separate. And competition between men keeps them unconnected and fighting with each other at the other person's expense in order to get society's "rewards."

Male sports are one place we learn all this. We also learn who the "losers" are. If we didn't master sports' skills, we not only were left out, but were picked on by the other boys. If we couldn't throw a spiral pass if our life depended on it, stood in right field praying that no one would hit the baseball there, didn't want to punch or get punched, or threw a ball "like a girl," we were the targets of this "manhood." If we were the youngest, smallest, thinnest, or most gentle and caring boy in the class, we could expect "fag" jokes from the other boys.

It could have started even before the sports culture hit. The elementary school playground usually had bullies who lived out their insecurities on the smaller boys. It was full of boys who had internalized masculinity's "beat or be beaten" requirement for acceptance. In most cases, the boy who tried to remain in touch with his full humanity was just out of luck

And if you also began to realize that you "liked" boys, that you fantasized about them, especially the ones who fit the culture's model of the "real man", confusion was added to fear. Whatever those feelings meant (and who was there to explain them?), they set a boy apart even further from the ideal man.

In reality we were all afraid of each other on that playground. Some of us remember the fear. Others buried the fear under the role of the bully or sports star, or by staying inside and mastering the subjects of the mind, like reading and math. These would somewhat begin to replace physical accomplishments as we entered the "grown-up" world.

Of course, "real men" can't admit such fear, even to themselves. But it was there. And it is still there on athletic teams at all levels. It promotes homophobia and the gay bashing that continues in most sporting venues.

I'm convinced that the level of competition in sports today requires homophobia. Teamwork for men means the ability of one group of men to band together to beat, defeat, or kill other men, whether that's on the athletic field, on the battlefield, or in business. And true winning as currently defined is always at another man's expense. This means that though we are "improving" the "level" and opportunities for women's athletics, they must be kept separate from male activities. "Beating a girl" is an insult for "real men," not an accomplishment.

I am not talking about play, but sports. Play is free, fun, a letting go of oneself and one's ego. It's the child-like activity which does not concentrate on techniques, talents, abilities, and the evaluations of others. It gets caught up in light-hearted, "unproductive" fun. But how often do we begin a game in play and realize that we have flipped into the issue of winning and losing, of "beating" the other person. That's the conditioning.

Sports are the opposite of play today. They are either the big business of college and professional athletics or they are farm leagues for younger children which provide competition for future players on the "next level." And they need homophobia, the fear of getting close to your own sex. You can't treat people this way and be really close.

This attitude is carried over into our most intimate relationships. Play is the key to good sex, not techniques, talents and comparisons. Play takes place when we are comfortable with ourselves. And it is childlike. But everything in our society tries to take that out of us, and the hurts of the playground and the demands of our athletic system are part of what changed us to keep us from playing and connecting on a real human level.

The boy who was "left out" because he didn't fit was the one most in touch with his humanity. He was also most aware that sports culture was trying to tear his humanity from him to prepare him for what our fear-driven society, not human beings, needed. If he could have been able to fight all that, he would have been the one with real courage, the real hero. And often he fought as long as he could, against all odds.

Hohokam ballplayers made the bleachers at Yankee Stadium seem tame by comparison

2004-01-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

Reprinted at Sports Worlds with permission May 2004. (c) Weekly Wire

By Leo Banks

Pampered players, worshipping fans and a high-stakes mentality. It sounds like life in professional sports in the 1990s. But it's actually a description of the sports culture that existed among the Hohokam people of prehistoric Arizona.

Archaeologists have located about 220 amphitheater-like structures that researchers believe were used by the Hohokam primarily as ball courts. It's impossible to know with certainty the kind of game played inside these arenas, built between 750-1200 AD. But based on evidence excavated at the sites, and documents describing a similar game played in ancient Mexico, archaeologists say it's easy to imagine a game-day climate that makes the bleachers at Yankee Stadium seem tame by comparison.

"Spanish explorers observed the game in Mexico and left behind quite a bit of information on it. Columbus even brought a rubber ball back to Spain with him," says Todd Bostwick, an archaeologist at the Pueblo Grande Ruins in Phoenix, the best preserved Hohokam ball court in Arizona. "We can assume the Arizona game was similar to the Mexican one."

These ball courts, which probably were used for other public ceremonies such as dances, or as a marketplace, are found from the northern mountains to the southern deserts around Tucson. They're oval-shaped, flat-bottomed and vary in size up to the dimensions of a football field.

They contain stone markers indicating zones of play and probably goal posts. It's likely that players moved a stone ball, about the size of a baseball, up and down the court to either hit the goal marker or push the ball past it.

Less commonly used, primarily because stone was so readily available, was a rubber-like ball made from a native plant resin. Such a ball, believed to be close to 1,000 years old, was discovered in central Arizona in 1909.

The sides of the ball courts are banked, which allowed fans to gather. The Snaketown court, located on the Gila River 20 miles southeast of Phoenix, was capable of holding 500.

"We can assume people were sitting there hollering and screaming just like they do at Suns' games today," says Bostwick. "We know the Mexican games were pretty lively, with many sizable wages made."

But more than money was at stake. In the Mexican version, fertility, the smooth operation of the universe and the fate of kingdoms hung on the outcome, and in some cases, the captain of the losing team was beheaded.

No evidence exists that human sacrifice took place in Arizona, but diggers at Pueblo Grande made an intriguing discovery: A grave in which a severed head was buried with a full body.

"I've suggested it might be trophy head," says Bostwick. "But whether it was part of the games or not, I don't know."

No major Hohokam village was without a ball court, and some had as many as five, an indication of the game's place of importance in the culture. Within the villages themselves, the courts were located close to platform mounds, a ceremonially significant formation akin to small temples found in Mexico.

The games in that country were considered sacred.

"They were a ceremony, a kind of religious drama," says David Wilcox, an archaeologist at Flagstaff's Museum of Northern Arizona. "The court represented a contact point with the underworld and the players sometimes represented gods. The games probably had the same ritual significance here, too."

If Hohokam athletes were as revered as their Mexican counterparts, Bostwick says they were likely exempted from everyday work, such as building irrigation canals or working in fields. And the most die-hard fans, or the wealthiest, probably possessed icons representing their favorite players.

Among the items scientists have unearthed are four-inch clay figurines depicting men wearing hip and shoulder pads. These likely player replicas have even been found interred alone in burial caches, meaning they must've had a ritual significance.

The figurines add further clues to how the game might've been played. The ball was probably moved down court by bouncing it off the shoulders and hips, soccer-style. A similar game, using a small rubber ball, is played to this day in the flat farm fields around Sinaloa, Mexico.

Wilcox, who has written extensively about the Hohokam game, says different versions of it are played elsewhere in Mexico. The Tarahumara people of Chihuahua play a kick ball game, and in the state of Jalisco, athletes kick the ball against a wall.

"Given the shape of Arizona's courts, I don't think hip ball was played here," says Wilcox. "A kick or stick game is more likely."

At one time the game here involved the use of a paddle. Diggers in Arizona have found dozens of what are called manaplas--flat pieces of stone, like a paddle, with a hole at the top that served as a grip for whacking the ball.

When the Hohokam courts stopped being used about 1200 AD, they became receptacles for trash, and by the late 1400s the Hohokam themselves vanished. But two of their Arizona ball courts have become tourist draws.

The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, which includes a ball court, draws 180,000 visitors a year, and Pueblo Grande attracts 100,000.

"People are intrigued to learn that kingdoms could change and lives could be lost over sports," says Bostwick. "I think it helps them feel vindicated at being such big sports fans. They think, 'Hey, it's been important for thousands of years, I'm going to watch the game this Sunday.' "

New nikewomen Store To Open At South Coast Plaza

2004-01-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

Press Release: for immediate release

Beaverton, Ore. (23 April, 2004) – Nike, Inc. announced today it will open its new nikewomen store at the South Coast Plaza shopping complex in Costa Mesa, California. The store is scheduled to open in July 2004.

Totaling almost 6000-square-feet of premier retail space, the South Coast Plaza store will be designed as an interactive experience where female consumers provide feedback on style, design and performance of Nike products. The insights from the store based on the consumer feedback will ultimately be used to develop products that meet the high expectations and active lifestyles of today’s women.

“Nike has been at the forefront of cultivating the relationship between women and sports,” says Elliott Hill, Vice President and General Manager for Nike US Retail. “The new store at South Coast Plaza will provide Nike another outlet to build new relationships and foster existing ones. It will offer women expert customer service, high-performance athletic wear, along with a complete assortment of Nike apparel, footwear and accessories designed for women.”

About Nike
Nike, Inc. based in Beaverton, Oregon is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly owned Nike subsidiaries include Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Bauer NIKE Hockey Inc., a leading designer and distributor of hockey equipment; Cole Haan®, which designs, markets, and distributes fine dress and casual shoes and accessories; and Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories.

Social Developments and the Growth of Sports in Britiain

2004-01-11T06:32:00.000-08:00

The poor were so poor in Victorian England that they invariably lived near to disaster. The majority of the nation, however, grew increasingly prosperous during the third quarter of the 19th century. One of the results of this general prosperity, and urbanisation, was the growth of the holiday habit: most people wanted to escape, if only for a day or a week, from the towns the Industrial Revolution had created.

One of the most helpful factors in creating greater opportunity for holidays during these years was the increasing spread of the Saturday half-holiday. Another was the Bank Holiday Act of 1871, which made Boxing Day, Easter Monday, Whit Monday and the first Monday in August into Bank Holidays.

Pastimes for the new urban populations soon developed. Cricket and football of various types had been played in Britain for many centuries, but during these years they were organised and with the growth of big crowds of spectators they tended to become more professional. The laws of Association Football were first laid down in 1863, but even in 1880 goals had tapes instead of crossbars and a player could charge the goalkeeper when not in possession of the ball - so that one player could shoot while another disposed of the goalkeeper.

Rugby was much popularised by the great interest taken in the school and the game after the publication of Tom Brown's Schooldays in 1857.

In cricket these were the days of W. G. Grace, who played first for Gloucestershire in 1862 at the age of fourteen, and the first Australian cricket team, which visited England in 1878. Overarm bowling was made legal in 1864, but pitches were still poor.

For the suburban villa there was the new game of lawn tennis, the rules of which were more or less finally drawn up in 1877. Golf was still spreading only very slowly beyond its native home of Scotland.

By 1914 the following of professional football teams, an increasing habit from the 1880s onwards, had become for many an all-absorbing occupation. A dying Sheffield workman travelled to London for the Cup Final. On his return he collapsed, and in his last moments asked his mother to place the Wednesday colours where his eyes could rest on them. 'I am glad I have lived to see Wednesday win the Cup' were his last words.

The thirty years before the First World War were also probably the greatest days of county cricket, rowing and horse-racing, and they witnessed the rise to popularity of many games, including lawn tennis and golf.

For the great mass of the population there was a considerable increase in leisure from 1918 onwards, partly from shorter working hours and partly from the growing practice of granting paid holidays. By 1939 most industrial workers got a week's paid holiday, and most office workers a fortnight.

The increased availability of leisure time gave people much greater opportunities for games and outdoor activities. Amateur football was widely played, and professional football much more widely watched. The increasing professionalism of Association Football converted many amateurs to rugger. Tennis and golf became popular games, though not as yet greatly enjoyed below the middle class - except in Scotland where golf was cheap and played by all.

Another increasingly popular pastime was swimming. The many new baths built from the 1920s onwards made learning to swim much easier than before. The 1920s also saw the introduction of dirt-track motorcycle racing - a sport for spectators.

For those who preferred gambling to exercise there were the football pools, which became an enormous industry in the thirties and have remained so ever since. The dogs had a slightly earlier boom, when they were found to be sufficiently gullible to be deceived by the electric hare, introduced in 1926. And, of course there were, and are, the horses.

Report on the Globalisation of Sport

2004-01-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

Reprinted at Sports Worlds with permission May 2004. (c) Independent Manchester United Supporters Association

1. Introduction

This short paper looks at the involvement of Rupert Murdoch in sport and at the resulting impacts of his involvement on the individual sports themselves. The paper draws on a wide range of (predominantly but not exclusively) academic references which focus on the politics and the media implications of this involvement.

In terms of "supporter issues", concerns may not be addressed specifically but we point to the community based origins and long established traditions of the sports themselves for evidence in this area.

The impact Murdoch has had on these sports have devastated the traditional viewing culture, the basis on which the sport was founded and became initially established.

We leave the reader to judge wheteher or not Murdoch will treat the traditions of Association Football any differently as he becomes more closely involved in the sport through his purchase of clubs such as Manchester United plc.

2. The American Experience

Business Week (September 22 1997) was typical in its reports that media companies were now finding it cost effective to own teams which draw an audience. The publication claimed that media companies can run teams at a loss and make up the difference on advertising and subscription fees. "Sports programming sells anywhere, anytime" the report quotes one analyst as saying. "Sports franchises are software, something to put through their distribution pipelines"

The 'classic' example of this "willingness to gamble the whole company on one acquisition or project" (Keith Beckstead in 'Frontline' Video produced by the American Public Broadcasting Service) is seen in Murdoch's purchase of NFL rights.

Explaining the purchase of the LA Dodgers for 25 times the team's current earnings, Business Week cited the Dodgers "multinational" line up including players from Mexico, Korea and Japan. The report concludes that Murdoch is "betting" the rules currently prohibiting individual TV rights deals would soon be lifted.

On that 'bet' he has recently significantly upped the stakes. The recent signing of pitcher Kevin Brown on a seven-year $105m contract (roughly $400k per game) has been widely seen as the sport's further step towards showbusiness. Smaller clubs have complained bitterly about the deal and its chief implication - that small teams will no longer be competitive whilst media- owned companies, fuelling the spiral, can market their own clubs as "must see" attractions - not to mention avoiding the bidding war to show the team. (Observer December 20th 1998).

This particular deal led the Major League Baseball vice president Sandy Alderson to comment "As a member of the commissioner's office I'm alarmed by the terms. As a fan of the game I'm alarmed by the terms".

Cultural commentator Brian Stoddart (1997) has already warned of "an intriguing challenge for control of the global sports empire". Significantly however he sees the battle as being not between broadcasters alone, but between broadcasters - with their "strategic sports and communication alliances" - and the fans themselves. This latter group has to rely increasingly on Internet-based technologies, not television, for 'unmediated' access to their favourite sports, and to a similarly sports-minded peer group, as "extant media blocs [try] to rein in that freedom by taking over...technology." He concludes:

"Over the past century and a half, sports have become increasingly marked features of modernizing cultures. The major issue now is whether indigenous cultural sports forms can survive the onslaught of globalised sports....there can be no denying that politics, industry, economics and media have now penetrated the world of sport in an unprecedented way."

3. Murdoch & Rugby

A key case study in Murdoch's involvement in sport, underlining the apocalyptic views of the culturalists - and the sports fan - is surely the way he has exerted a stranglehold on the two codes of rugby.

Despite the cultural discourse, the media analysts and business press rarely consider sport as a cultural activity but as a product. Yet consider the impact of "SuperLeague" in Australia. Murdoch's News Limited in Australia became convinced Rugby League, based on twin (local and complementary) leagues in both New South Wales and Queensland, was a sport which could generate pay-TV subscriptions.

It arrived at this conclusion following discussions with the Brisbane Broncos, a private 'franchise' club - which allowed the NSWRL to adopt a 'national' league format, to the detriment of the Queensland League.

Ken Cowley, head of News Limited's Australian operations insisted that if they were going to spend A$60m on rugby league, as proposed, "News Limited wanted some control over the game" (Nauright and Phillips, 1997).

Super League was based not on the traditional, fan-led model of club ownership traditional in Australian sports, but instead on private, US-style franchises that are run for profit with fewer teams - each being granted territorial rights - and market zones. In addition for such exclusivity, league-wide merchandising deals and advertisement revenues were pooled through joint marketing arrangements. Indeed the Super League concept was seen as being spread globally. Rugby League was similarly remodelled in other countries (most notably Britain and 'Europe' with the establishment of a team in Paris) and the sport was heavily marketed in areas where it was not already being played.

The results have been bitterly opposed by fans world wide, not least in Australia where supporters were used to exercising democratic control and participating in social activities organised around the sports club itself.

In terms of the impact on the sport, 'civil war' would be a cliched term which, in this instance would not be misplaced.

The ARL (formerly the NSWRL, which itself had trampled on its Queensland 'sister' league) and Murdoch's bete noire, Kerry Packer stoutly opposed the setting up of Super League. Murdoch however launched on a strategy of signing as many clubs, players, officials, coaches and referees as possible, including those in England and New Zealand, thereby effectively controlling international fixtures.

The net result was a bloody court battle. As the Nauright and Phillips (1997) paper states:

"The fight...pitted player against player, club against club, city against city, state against state, country against country, pay-television operator against pay-television operator, phone company against phone company, and media mogul against media mogul."

Interestingly, the authors do not claim the result was to pit fan against fan.

Rowe (1997) describes the impact on the sport as "cataclysmic" - at one stage the Australian Courts outlawed Super League players (branded as "rebels" against Packer's "loyalists" by Packer: ironic with it coming from the man who almost split cricket in two during the 1970s with the Cricket 'Circus').

An inevitable phase of rival leagues came into being, but the game was irreversibly changed. Players who had spent their careers together on the Australian national team found themselves divided by accusations of dishonour and greed. Dismal TV ratings and attendance figures soon became the norm in both leagues, whilst team expenses soared.

Prior to that the Australian Court found that News Limited had been guilty of "deceit, dishonesty and duplicity" with a "meticulously planned operation, involving secrecy, suddenness and deception".

Despite the ARL (and Packer's) attempts to persuade the fans that they were the custodians of the sport, Murdoch and Packer met on the former's yacht and hatched a compromise deal which "shocked" the ARL's chair - who resigned, as well as the fans. Rowe (1997) comments "All the ARL's and Packer's rhetoric about the people's game, loyalty and tradition was ultimately subordinated by individual economic interests."

Almost as soon as the yacht deal was brokered, News Limited contacted various senior figures in Australian Rugby Union to, in the words of Business Week (September 11 1995), "reassure" them that Murdoch was ready to enter Rugby Union too.

The report suggests "It was as if Murdoch had created a distraction with Super League...while he was garnering even more money for rugby union, an international code with wider appeal".

Business Week reports that "when those first News Ltd calls came in April (of 1996), rugby union literally had nothing to sell" but less than a month later Australia annnounced the end of amateurism. Shortly after, the competition schedules of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had been torn apart and restructured into a package of southern hemisphere competitions.

Just four days after the rugby unions of the southern hemisphere had met Sam Chisholm, a new governing body SANZAR had been formed. Six weeks after that Murdoch agreed to pay US$50m over 10 years for exclusive world rights to all rugby in those three countries.

As with rugby league, capturing Union as a global sport is what drove Murdoch. In June, Murdoch's final phase of his master plan almost split the northern hemisphere game in two, and the reverberations continue to this very day, even whilst he begins to turn his attentions to the next phase of his plans to exert control over association football.

In June 1996, the Rugby Football Union - the governing body in England - stunned the rugby world by announcing they had signed a unilateral ten year £87.5m deal with Sky TV, encompassing the Five Nations championship - one of the oldest and most famous sporting tournaments in the world. The deal went completely against the previous, long establishhed tradition of the four home unions (France having always had a separate TV deal since they were admitted into the tournament) negotiating and agreeing joint rights.

The three remaining nations were furious. After attempts to compromise, England were expelled from the Five Nations. This signalled the demise among others of the Calcutta Cup, the sport's oldest fixture that is held between England and Scotland.

Murdoch's strategy became clear - to increase the number of fixtures between England and the Southern Hemisphere nations, at all levels of the game, and, for the international fixtures at least, offer a pay-per-view 'service' (though this element of the deal was not to surface until twelve months later).

Naturally the row became global. The Daily Telegraph (25th July 1996) reported the row as an event which also neatly crystallised the impact and intentions of Murdoch on the sport:

"The row which has culminated in England's expulsion from the championship does not stop in Britain and Ireland. Senior officials in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have been told that if they come to England's rescue by finding a slot for them in an expanded Tri-Nation series, there will be no Lions tours to those countries.

Much as the southern hemisphere countries relish their 10-year, £362 million deal with satellite television, they dearly want incoming tours, especially from the British Lions. They add much-needed variety to a calendar of mind-numbing similarity. Next month South Africa have Tests on five successive Saturdays, four of them against New Zealand."

August 29th: The Independent reported that "Representatives from Scotland, Ireland and Wales yesterday stood back from the brink...[it was] the first suggestion that...their own situation is far from strong...Many consider the the moral high ground to be theirs but...every commercial argument favours England."

The eventual compromise was brokered largely on the basis not of right and wrong but commercial expediency: The owner of club side Saracens, Nigel Wray, remarked - "I do not think there is much interest in watching Ireland play Wales or Scotland...the rest of the world likes bashing England."

Before a compromise was reached however, the sport faced turmoil from a different angle - leading clubs decided they would like to form a Premiership-type league and breakaway from the RFU. The row led to England players - promised more cash under the breakaway deal - boycotting training sessions in a manner reminiscent of the conflicts which have emerged in all major US sports in recent years.

The Five Nations issue was resolved in September of 1996 - though as can be seen now, this proved to be only temporary. As a compromise was reached, Jim Telfer, Scotland rugby union's director of football remarked "England bring so much to the Five Nations - they are the country everybody wants to beat. To be honest, Wales, Ireland and Scotland need England more than they need us."

The breakaway still threatened to overshadow Sky TV's deal. In September, Sky threatened to walk away from their England deal if the RFU were unable to field their top players in internationals.

In October 1996, Sky refused to deal with the breakaway clubs. "It is simply not in Sky's interest" said Sky TV's Sam Chisholm, who repeated threats to pull out of Rugby unless the clubs pulled back from breaking away.

Ultimately, the clubs opted to fall back in line with the RFU, not least because of the lucrative club level deal based around the new European Cup competition. Whilst the deal to secure club rugby tightened Murdoch's grip on the game still further, terrestrial television now no longer broadcasted club rugby union regularly - the BBC had decided to drop Sunday's traditional Rugby Special after 31 years.

One former BBC rugby correspondent said: "I think part of the reason that Rugby Special has been dropped is that the BBC always saw it as a loss-leader, a sop to the RFU and the other unions, ensuring that they got international matches live.

But if that part of the deal has gone down, the BBC has probably reasoned: why should we help to promote club rugby for the RFU if they have sold off the crown jewels to someone else?"

There are a number of points which emerge from this chaos:

1. In March 1997, Sky announced England's home Five Nations games would be held on Sunday not on the traditional Saturday - much to the dismay of match going supporters who always (and famously) viewed the Saturday internationals as a great social occasion;

2. England lost three of its major sponsors, at least one - Save and Prosper - as a direct and publicly stated result of Sky's involvement in the sport and uncertainty over kick-off times;

3. As has become clear subsequently, rugby union has over extended itself in the initial period of professionalism. A number of clubs - Bath being the prime example - found themselves with heavy debts. Newcastle, a club 'launched' in a blaze of publicity by magnate Sir John Hall, now face an uncertain future;

4. One upshot of this is a further restructuring of the English game. The threat of the implications of this has persuaded a second division side to literally buy out a first division side and rename it.

Recent news coverage has brought the conflict and Sky's TV deal back to the fore. Reports suggest that over a century of another tradition, that of the sport as a winter game, is about to end.

Murdoch envisages a March to November international season, complete with "global play offs" between Five and Tri-nations competitions (Observer 20th December 1998).

The RFU's rugby director, Don Rutherford said "I can see that happening...and the change is not as far away as the traditionalists may think. Never underestimate the power of television."

Irrespective of how rugby deals with the Murdoch whirlwind it is clear that if you want to watch live rugby matches on TV - with a few notable exceptions - you must be a Sky subscriber to do so.

In conclusion, the above case study suggests that sports associations and governing bodies have structures that are ill-equipped to deal with the dramatic changes resulting from the involvement in sport of media companies such as those owned and controlled by Murdoch. Governments meanwhile have been fearful of challenging the likes of Murdoch head on.

It is purely in coping with the fragmentation of television audiences that the interest in sports shown by media companies has emerged, hence the decline in audiences coinciding with a rise in television revenues. Rugby has undoubtedly struggled to come to terms with Murdoch and it remains a paradox that globalisation threatens to destroy the very reasons behind the media companies' interest in sports. But as Williams (1994) points out:

"Sport's one, but important saving grace is that the joys of performance..still have the ability to transcend the commodification of sport. To watch great soccer players at their inspired best - Giggs, Baggio, Romario, Cantona - is to be reminded, if only temporarily, that sport is not simply a product but a performance."

But it is with a view of Murdoch and sport that we conclude. The Washington Post's columnist Thomas Boswell commented, we feel, resonantly:

"The question that has hung over baseball for twenty years has always been the same. What happens if the game ever gets an owner who is utetrly shameless, totally amoral and absurdly rich? If the [Kevin] Brown-signing works out as badly as it should, then we may find out if Rupert Murdoch is that owner."

References:

Nauright, J. and Philips, M.G.; Us and Them: Professional Sport and Resistance to North American Ownership and Marketing Models, Sport Marketing Quarterly, volVI(1), 1997

Rowe, D.; Rugby League in Australia: The Super League Saga, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, vol 21(2), May 1997

Stoddard, B.; Sport on the Information Superhighway, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, vol 21(1), February 1997

Williams,J.; The Local and the Global in English Soccer and the Rise of Satellite Television, Sociology and Sport Journal,vol 11(11), 1994

February 1999

Sports Research

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Can athletes go faster, higher, stronger?: This article reviews research findings on the limits of human performance and considers the ethical dimensions of their application to the world of sports. Physiological, biomechanical, technological and psychological factors are discussed, and the need for an ethical debate on the impact of genetic engineering in sport is highlighted.

NCAA finally faces gambling in college sports: Findings of a national study on sports wagering among collegiate student-athletes in America revealed a "disturbing" frequency of gambling-related behavior. Nearly 35 percent of all male athletes surveyed said they participated in some type of sports betting over the past year. At least 1.1 percent of football players reported taking money for playing poorly in a game; 2.3 percent of football players admitted they had been asked to affect the outcome of a game because of gambling debts; 1.4 percent of football players admitted they actually affected the outcome of a game because of gambling debts.

Whether you stay fit depends on your personality type: A study at the University of Florida indicates that an individual's personality type can be used to predict the conditions they will find most favourable for their exercise. Since 60 percent of people who start an exercise program drop out within the first six months, and 90 percent do so by two years, these findings have important implications for helping people to make permanent lifestyle changes and to combat obesity.

Group dynamics and sports: A useful overview of research in group dynamics and its application in sports. The concepts of group cohesion and leadership skills are as relevant to the performance of sports teams today as they were to the productivity of industrial workers in the 1920s.

New Nielsen Service Measure Impact of Sports Advertising: Nielsen Sports, a division of New York-based Nielsen Media Research, plans to measure the value of a marketer's televised sports sponsorship. Signage inside stadiums, broadcast promotions and audio mentions will be evaluated and compared for their effectiveness in sports marketing.

Mild Concussion Causes Emotional Upsets: An athlete's eagerness to continue playing after injury is linked to a 'culture of risk' in sports. However, this research shows that the emotional effects of having mild concussion include frustration, depression, tension, confusion and anger. The elevated mood disturbances subsided within three weeks post-injury.
SOURCE: Mainwaring, L. Journal of Sport & Exercise, April 2004; vol 26: pp. 119-135.

Children and Sports Media: A US national survey among children ages 8 to 17 to explore their exposure to sports through various forms of media. This report presents important findings and points out instances where responses vary among major subgroups.
Published by the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, August 1999.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read this document.

Gender Stereotyping in Televised Media Sport Coverage: This study investigates the potential effect that mass media may have in influencing beliefs about gender-appropriate sport behavior. Samples of televised sports in Sweden were examined during 1995/96 (1,470 minutes), with a follow-up examination in 1998 (528 minutes). The results indicated gender differences regarding both quantity and type of coverage. It seems that televised media sports coverage continues to reinforce constructions of divisions along lines of gender and to reproduce traditional expectations regarding femininity and masculinity.
SOURCE: Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Oct 1999. Research by Nathalie Koivula, Department of Psychology at Stockholm University.

Physical Activity and Sport in the Lives of Girls: This US report, subtitled 'Physical and mental health dimensions from an interdisciplinary approach', was produced for the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sport in 1997 by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, University of Minnesota. The report compiles research information from the areas of psychology, sociology, and physiology. It emphasises the importance of sport for growing girls, how participation in sport enhances body image and self esteem, increases confidence and school performance and reduces the risk of obesity, osteoporosis, and depression. The report identifies barriers to sport involvement and recommends how to improve girls' participation rates in athletics.

Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research : Fact Sheet 14 : Football and Families: This fact sheet considers social aspects of attending football matches with an emphasis on the family unit. It summarises the work of Williams and Nectrour and considers the role football plays in developing and maintaining family relationships, what values can be learnt from football, the increasing appeal of football for women, and includes some personalised accounts of past attendance. The survey data is supported by graphics and a short bibliography is provided.

"Girls can wrestle too": gender differences in the consumption of a television wrestling series: Viewing sports programs has been traditionally associated with major gender differences. This study examines the role of the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF) programs in the lives of elementary school children. Findings are presented on gender differences in the consumption of television violence and girls' perceptions and evaluation of WWF as a masculine world.

Americans' Use of Time Project: A longitudinal study that started in 1965 at the University of Maryland examines the changing nature of Americans' use of time, including leisure activities. An article by John Robinson, The Irrelevance of Time discusses these and other findings.

Gender Equity in Sports: Research project at the University of Iowa, USA. The site contains documents relating to the legislation, and links to sites aimed at people who are investigating "the state of affairs in interscholastic or intercollegiate sport". Project leaders: Mary C. Curtis and Christine H.B. Grant.

The Role of Sports and Games in the Self-Image of Girls and Boys: This study examines gender stereotypes in sports and their effect on the self-perceptions and performances of girls and boys. The results of questionnaire surveys indicate that gender stereotypes are produced by school children and that sports play an essential part in their construction of gender. Whilst girls are generally open and positive towards the 'male' team sports, boys show more disapproval of the 'female' individual sports. This research poses questions for the teaching of sports with regard to established gender-related expectations and the equal participation of both girls and boys, especially in co-educational settings.
Project leader: Christa Zipprich, Institut für Sportwissenschaft at Hannover University.
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Sports in the News

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World Congress of Women's Golf hailed as success: The three-day World Congress of Women's Golf conference (May 20-22) held at New York's Waldorf-Astoria was an unqualified success as nearly 150 women and men representing 19 countries and 33 golf associations around the globe achieved major strides in pledging to work together on a variety of issues impacting the advancement of women's professional golf. The World Congress of Women's Golf clearly outlined a growing support for meaningful global collaborations and partnerships.
iseekgolf.com: Thursday, May 27, 2004

Olympics: Two Afghan girls will make history in Athens: More about the first two Afghan women to compete in an Olympic Games (see below: May 19, 2004), but this time from the perspective of the women themselves.
The New Zealand Herald: Thursday, May 27, 2004

Working off their daily bread: Employers in companies like Hayes Lemmerz are using company-sponsored team sports, prizes, competitions and general wellness programs to encourage physical fitness among their employees. This article refers to studies that cite the benefits of increased employee fitness, including better decision-making and workforce efficiency as well as decreases in health-care costs and medical insurance claims.
The Muskegon Chronicle: Tuesday, May 25, 2004

For Afghan women, Olympics mean opportunity: Sprinter Robina Muqimyar will make history in Athens this summer when she and a judo player become the first two Afghan women to compete in an Olympic Games. As Afghanistan puts itself back together after quarter of a century of war, the country is slowly reviving its sports culture. Anwar Jekdalek, a former national wrestler who heads the Afghan Olympic Committee, believes the inclusion of women on the team is an important symbolic event. Under the Taliban, most sports were banned and women's freedom was severely restricted. In order to field criticism from powerful conservative leaders who still object to women competing in public or on television, Muqimyar runs with a headscarf knotted under her chin and says she will wear long pants -- not the shorts commonly worn by sprinters -- at the Greece games.
Pak Tribune: Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Future writ in red-and-gold: This report claims that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) bosses’ failure to fathom the power of television is only now being redeemed. In this "cricket-crazy country", the reinvention and repositioning of East Bengal (football club) as a marketable product has been a structured initiative off the beaten track. Plans include fan merchandising with apparel sponsors Reebok, promotional films on satellite TV and lessons in public and media relations for the players.
The Telegraph, Calcutta, India: Saturday, May 15, 2004

Sports sponsors are turning our kids into junk food freaks: An emerging new culture in children's sports equates junk food with exercise. Encouragements awards by McDonalds reward children with high-fat foods, while Cadbury's 'Get Active' campaign encourages schoolchildren to buy chocolate bars and collect wrapper tokens to exchange for free sports equipment for their school. Not only is childhood obesity continuing to rise at an alarming rate, but a recent Australian study has shown that an unhealthy lifestyle is causing hardening of the arteries in children as young as six. Endorsing junk food in the "healthy" context of sports is making it increasingly difficult to address the childhood obesity problem.
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia: Wednesday May 12, 2004

Danger sports see rise in rescues: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution has warned that increasing numbers of inexperienced sailors and dangerous sports enthusiasts has prompted a corresponding rise in inexperienced enthusiasts getting into danger. They believe that this is linked to a rise in credit card culture.
Norwich Evening News: Tuesday May 11, 2004

New world order brings new demand from sports entertainers: Changes in America's culture and values are charted through the rise and fall from popularity of the nation's sports, from horse racing and baseball in the 1930-50s to automobile racing and professional wrestling in the 21st century.
Snitch Newsweekly: May 11, 2004

Teacher was soccer violence 'general': Football hooliganism is a world social problem and, as this news report shows, hooligan leaders are active in directing operations. The arrest of an English teacher in such a leadership role clashes with popular notions of football-related violence and the root causes of its production as typically espoused in the media and by politicians.
The Daily Telegraph: Saturday, May 08, 2004

The Death of Fame: Daniel J. Boorstin, who examined the phenomenon of celebrity in his classic work, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, died last week at the age of 89. Boorstin’s observations have relevance in today’s sports world where heroes are more often than not celebrities.
Kansas City Chiefs: Thursday, May 06, 2004

A tangled web?: Major League Baseball has agreed to replace the traditional baseball diamond with a spider-web pattern as part of a promotion for the release of Sony Corp.'s "Spider-Man 2" next month. MLB executives say they respect baseball's traditions but need to attract younger fans. However, MLB's willingness to alter the field is part of the larger pressure across sports to accommodate sponsors.
Daily Herald: Thursday, May 06, 2004

Fleeting flies in to inspire Arsenal: A hat-trick from Julie Fleeting maintained Arsenal's reputation as a team for the big occasion when they secured the women's FA Cup for a sixth time in 12 years. This report of the match from sport.telegraph, May 04, 2004 is supplemented by a commentary on the status of women's sports in the Leicester Mercury.

Historic sport of fencing finds new popularity: The 500-year-old art of fencing appears to be enjoying a surge in popularity. Its associations with swashbuckling romance may appeal to younger people, while its intellectual challenges help to keep the mind alert in people from older generations. A fencing master with a degree in clinical psychology claims that fencing allows him to 'interact with healthy people in a therapeutic way.'
Alameda Times-Star: Monday, May 03, 2004

Confident Dowie is playing mind games: Iain Dowie, manager of Crystal Palace, outlines his approach to sports psychology and claims that it has helped his team win 13 of his 20 League games in charge, transforming them from relegation candidates to play-off contenders.
Evening Standard: April 29, 2004

Rugby: Mind Games: This news item claims that you need more than top physical fitness to play today's game of rugby. Sports psychologist, Eric Blondeau believes that the power of positive thought should be harnessed to encourage players to concentrate on their strengths and talents as well as on their weaknessess.
The Belfast Telegraph: 25 April 2004

Leafs fandom in full bloom: Fans of the Maple Leafs in Toronto are renowned for their joyous street celebrations of even the smallest victories. This contrasts sharply with a more usual reluctance to celebrate by other teams' fans until the final, big championship is clinched. Sociologists link this hesitation to a fear of failure but believe that extravagent street events are a potent means of fuelling a sense of community in the spectacular growth of spectator sports.
Toronto Star: April 25 2004

Area soccer players take Freddy in stride: The apparent professionalisation and rejection of the 'recreational model' of youth soccer in the US sees the rise of 14 year-old Freddy Adu. Having recently signed a deal with Nike and the biggest contract in Major League Soccer, his fame risks inciting the jealousy of contemporary teenage players striving for similar fortunes in the world of sports.
Contra Costa Times, CA: Sat, April 03, 2004

Malta takes advantage of globalisation: A review of foreign player influx and how it affects the local sports scene in Malta. Whilst agreeing with a move towards globalisation in sports, the writer argues that clubs should also actively encourage young, home grown talent.
Malta Today, 10 June 2001

Sports and the Media

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In the early nineteenth century, the British news-sheet Bell's Life in London started to include coverage of sports among its reports. They noticed that this led to significant increases in their sales and circulation figures, and the liaison of sports and the media commenced. The paper's successful monopoly was broken in 1865 by the launch of The Sporting Life. Other papers followed suit and dedicated pages of sports coverage became widespread.

The involvement of the media (primarily, it must be noted, for financial gain and promotion of their publications) is implemented in the creation of sports celebrities and personalities. Famous sports icons were instrumental in boosting sales from advertising and raising public attendance at sporting events. In a bitter twist, their fame today relies as much on the caprices of the mass media as it does on their own athletic performances.

Exploitation of the mass spectatorship potential of sports came to the fore in the 1920s when live commentaries of sports events bound communities of fans together around the crackling airwaves of the radio. Filmed news of sports were already being shown in cinema newsrools at that time, but these could hardly compete with the excitement of live radio broadcasting.

Then, in 1937, 25 minutes of a men's single match from Wimbledon was televised to a small London audience in an experimental service from the BBC. Technological limitations meant that cameras were fixed and players were miniscule. Nevertheless, the BBC regarded the televising of sports as one of its statutory obligations, whilst promotors and sponsors were quick to realise the attractive advertising potentials of the medium.

In 1946, 5000 television sets were sold in the USA; within ten years, the number had risen so dramatically that 75% of the country's households now owned a set. The televising of major sports events had played a key role during this period in ensuring the success of the television industry.

The relationship between sports and the media continues to be either mutually beneficial or parasitic, depending on your point of view. Public interest and spectator involvement in sports is certainly fuelled by extensive media coverage. On the darker side, augmentation of profits and consumer demands risk reducing sports to little more than icons, hype and saturation. This is clearly a highly profitable relationship, but also one that demands caution and balance.

Sports and Gender

2004-01-06T09:01:00.000-08:00

Sports are traditionally an exclusive male preserve. The fate of Cynisca, the first female sports champion in 396 BCE, foreshadows the spectator and outsider roles that women have typically been assigned: despite winning the quadriga chariot race, she was barred from repeating her victory in competitions of the Panhellenic festivals of ancient Greece. As such, it can be argued that the marginalisation of women in sports serves to enable men to secure an image of hero for themselves:

'Perhaps the most popular image of masculinity in everyday consciousness is that of man-the-hero, the hunter, the competitor, the conqueror. Certainly, it is the image celebrated in Western literature, art and in the media.

In a sense, the belief in man-the-hunter, or hero, would seem to have no foundation in the everyday world that most men inhabit. There are very few occasions available for men to be heroes, except as a hobby or for sport. Man-the-hunter has been transformen into man-the-breadwinner. Opportunities for heroism only arise in the sporting field, not in the forest in hot pursuit of food for the tribe.'

Brittan, A. (1989) Masculinity and Power, Oxford: Blackwell, p. 77

However, this view has serious consequences for sport and gender when regarded in conjunction with prevailing high rates of male unemployment and the importance of sports as an arena for constructing and performing gendered identities. Divorced from economic considerations, it becomes clear that sport both perpetuates and challenges gender roles and stereotypes in contemporary society.

The centrality of sport in the lives of many people, both male and female, is a representational source of meaning, devotion and excitement. An understanding of the connection between sport and gender and its effect on the wider formation of social identities and self-images is therefore an important sociological concern for contemporary cultures.

New nikewomen Store To Open At South Coast Plaza: The new Nike store is designed especially for women and offers expert customer service, high-performance athletic wear, along with a complete assortment of Nike apparel, footwear and accessories designed for women. Are they planning to change the name of their existing stores to 'nikemen', perhaps?

Boys On The Playground: Are contemporary sports created for the purpose of validating masculinity? If so, then competition between men and homophobia are key ingredients in the construction and expression of such 'manhood'. The gender power relations that predominate within the culture of sport have serious consequences for both the 'winners' and 'losers'.

A Special Kind of Power: Dr Ronald Goldstein interviews Alina Kabaeva about rhythmic gymnastics and questions society's expectations of female athletes. Do sexist stereotypes affect how the media and consumers observe them and report and write about them?

Sports and Psychology

2004-01-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

Sports Psychology is a rapidly growing area of interest among professionals and amateurs alike. The Division of Exercise and Sports Psychology of the American Psychological Association was founded in 1986 without a single statement of opposition from any of the Association's voting members. In 2004, members of the British Psychological Society are working to create a new Division in Sport and Exercise Psychology, thereby raising the profile of the already-existing Section within the society.

Sports Psychology crosses traditional boundaries within the study of psychology. In both applied and research fields, sports psychologists are drawn from psychological sub-specialities such as developmental, educational, clinical, counseling, industrial, comparative, physiological, social, personality, hypnosis, motivation, human factors, ergonomics, and health psychology.

Reflecting this wide academic background, sports psychology addresses many different areas of interest within the broad themes of Sport, Exercise and Leisure. Some psychologists are concerned with research issues and applications involving competitive athletics, and some even restrict their attention to elite athletes who perform at the national and international levels. This includes the psychology of elite performance, individual and group processes in sport, and motivational issues in sport and exercise.

However, an equal number focus on the study and application of exercise and sport in noncompetitive settings. These psychologists, for example, study exercise and sport from the perspective of motor development and motor learning, compliance recidivism, the aging process, prevention of various psychic and somatic disorders, personality structure and high-risk occupations (e.g., firefighters) or recreational pursuits (e.g., scuba and sky diving), and cellular adaptations at both the peripheral and central levels. Psychological factors in the adoption and maintenance of exercise behaviour together with issues surrounding sport, exercise and mental health are key areas of research interest.

2004-01-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Link to Sports Worlds

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About me

2004-01-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

Why is it that people always want to read this bit first?

My name is Mike Jones and I'm a (hrumph, hrumph)-year old sociologist, officially retired but unable to quite leave it all alone. I live in a small fishing village on the UK coastline with extensive views of castles and long, long sandy beaches.

I first became interested in the sociology and psychology of sports when my wife tried to join the local football team shortly after we were married. After enduring several months of delays and veiled comments, we finally decided to start a practice night for women (this was quite novel way back then). Anyway, needless to say, the women's determination and motivation to prove themselves on the football pitch became legendary in the surrounding villages, and they soon formed their own successful league.

Since then I have maintained an interest in the culture of sports, although my wife and children have always been the ones you'd find actually running around a field! Now that my children have left home and their muddy football boots no longer hang on the door handles, this website is my retirement project to defend me against my morbid fear of growing old.

Now, I'm going to enjoy the view from my window, while you can go and enjoy the rest of the Sports World website. Please let me know what you think - your own views are always welcome!

Sports in History

2004-01-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

The Industrial Revolution of the late eigteenth and early nineteenth centuries is often cited as the conventional stating point for studies of sports. It was at this time that the organisational structure of sports began to distinguish these activities from simple play. However, the origins of these principal elements can be traced even further back in history, to primitive times of the hunter-gather lifestyle, when existence depended on the success of strategic methods for gaining nutrition.

The 'hunting' model of sports can easily be discerned in many contemporary sporting pursuits. Track and field events hone athletes' skills in chasing and stunning prey with missiles; the five events of riding, fencing, shooting, swimming and running in the modern pentathalon test the competitors' stamina and aptitude in undertaking lengthy hunting expeditions.

It appears, therefore, that the hunter-gatherer mode of life is central to our understanding of how sports began. As long as 3 million years ago, Neanderthals and their successive Homo sapiens allocated roles to each other in social arrangements, used tools in groups and formed parties to hunt for food. Covering ground in the pursuit of prey required mobility and endurance; speed in catching the quarry unawares from close quarters required speed and explosive energy. We see these same talents today in marathon runners, middle-distance runners, triathletes and sprinters.

Risk-taking was also a significant feature of the hunter-gatherer way of life. Courage in the face of danger from carnivorous animals and close combat was essential to reproductive success. Similarly, a willingness to develop aqautic skills in diving and hunting for fish helped procure a wider nutritional supply for survival. The ability to create a food supply was therefore closely linked to the develoment of abilities that are associated with success in modern-day sports.

The practice of farming and land cultivation, together with the domestication of animals, paved the way for the development of hunting as a recreational pursuit. Divorced from necessity, the thrill and excitement of the chase was recreated in killing for its own sake. This new motivation of pure pleasurable thrill underlies the drive or impulse in sporting activities today. Failure is no longer essentially life-threatening: the excitement it engenders is a means in itself.

Social Developments and the Growth of Sports in Britain: An increased availability of leisure time and holidays played a key role in the popularisation and development of sports in Britain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Hohokam ballplayers made the bleachers at Yankee Stadium seem tame by comparison: The sports culture that existed among the Hohokam people of prehistoric Arizona included pampered players, worshipping fans and a high-stakes mentality.

Sports and Global Issues

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The global economic powers of Great Britiain and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries paved the way for a proliferation of their traditional sports in promoting national expertise throughout the world. Until the 1960s however, these sports largely retained their amateur spectatorship and professional business organisational backgrounds.

The restructuring of capitalism in the late 1960s gave rise to an acceleration in globalisation processes at both economic and political levels of global accumulation. New technologies in telecommunication and computer industries have aided this globalising trend, leading to extreme disparities in the concentration of wealth worldwide.

Globalisation in sports mirrors these political and economic patterns. Sports are increasingly used as a marketing device by global telecommunications companies. Disney's ownership of mass sports related subsidiaries, including ABC Sports, Eurosport and Canal+, provides a vivid illustration of such globalising tendendencies in sports.

The production of sports clothing and eqipment can also be seen to exploit international divisions of labour. This shift of operations by large US-owned companies is not new. For many years now most leisure apparel and sports shoes manufacturers have relocated their child-labour "sweatshops" to countries like China, Thailand and Malaysia, a point emphasised by the "made in" label in Nike shoes.

The globalisation of advertising through the mass media is influential in trends towards the international promotion of sports team and league merchandise, the worldwide televising of competitive events, the increased appearance of foreign athletes in professional teams and the professionalisation of amateur sports. In short, it appears that changes in sports are related to changes in the world economy, in terms of the sports industry both profiting from and contributing to processes of globalisation.

Report on the Globalisation of Sports: Globalisation in sports ignites passionate controversies between fans and the media. This report suggests that sports associations and governing bodies have structures that are ill-equipped to deal with the dramatic changes resulting from the involvement in sport of media companies such as those owned and controlled by Murdoch.