Sports, politics, and commercialism (no spam)

[fable]

I'm not a sports spectator, never have been. (So there.) But I'm surprised these days by the sheer amount of cynicism from sports watchers who sneer at the length of commercials, the size of product-proclaiming banners, and even the choice of sports included in the Olympics. In the last instance, they point to beach volleyball as proof that the purpose of the event has been kidnapped by wealthy advertisers whose only concern is to get the largest luxury-buying audience watching the television while the spirit of the original game is satirized.

Other spectators seem equally annoyed from another angle: they claim the game has been completely taken over by politics. They point to the way petty dictators use international games in their homelands as proof of the legitimacy for their rule--Zimbabwe being one example; or how some nations have given the nod to either drugs or professional athletes for use in the Olympics, which was originally intended to be about human accomplishment, and the achievement of amateurs. Or was it? How do you feel about these two issues? Commercialism and politics: is either taking over international sports?

[Minerva]

Adding to that, South Africa will not allow people wearing wrong merchandize in the ground. For example, Pepsi is one of the sponsors of the World Cup, and they won't let people with a can of Coca Cola in the ground.

[HighLordDave]

As long as money can be made off of something, commercialism will take it over. Look at the trend in the United States to sell the naming rights to sports facilities. Instead of the old venues (ie-Three Rivers Stadium, Candlestick Park, etc.) we now have things like Enron Field, Quaalcomm Stadium and the Outback Bowl. In addition, we see a sport like soccer ending ties with a shootout instead of scheduling a tie-breaker match or baseball limiting the time between pitches to make the game faster for television.

International sports have always been a political forum. The country hosting the Olympics was chosen as much for political reasons (and to the lengths the host country would go to bribe the committee) as for the games they can put on. Individual sports which require subjective judging (ie-figure skating) have long been dominated by politics and back-room deal making (this was true even last year in Salt Lake City).

[Nippy]

Originally posted by HighLordDave
In addition, we see a sport like soccer ending ties with a shootout instead of scheduling a tie-breaker match

Football has always been like that - even before the days of TV. It's supposed to add to the excitement, and by God so it does. The FA Cup and Worthington Cup in England have a two-tie system, with the result of a draw at the final whistle comes 30 mins of extra time (now Golden Goal rule) and if no score results from that, then a penalty shoot out. If you take the World Cup as an example, with Rep. of Ireland vs Spain, the penalties were very exciting.

Admittedly, a lot of sports operate this system, I just had to say that at least one sport operates a fair system.

I'd pretty much agree with everything here, though. I'd say the reason is idolism of players - with corporations seeing that, taking advantage, and selling us what the idol uses or wears. It's a simple fact of life that commercialism is inherent in any society with a free market. It's life.

As politics, I don't know what to make of that to be honest. New Zealand have good cause in my opinion, as probably do a lot of teams coming for the Cricket World Cup. The problem is that sportsman and woman are seen now as a type of international diplomat, and indeed, the case was that the English government did not want Mugabe to have propaganda. I'm afraid to say that Cricket is just a damn game. Lets just play it, shall we?

[The Z]

A lot of the things that are put into the olympics don't really celebrate human achievement. Most of them are just games (hockey, basketball, tennis, etc.). IMO the only "true" sports are the ones that require the raw athleticism and discipline (swimming, track and field, bi/triathilon, rowing, etc.). Things that require human judging are arts (diving, synchro, gymnastics, figure skating) So in a way, The Olympics have been taken over by games that modern society wants to watch (the "cool" stuff like slam dunks, or great hockey saves/hits/goals/whatever) and not what celebrates human achievement (strength, speed, endurance, and in the case of archery, accuracy/perception). In turn, there is more commercialism and media hype than if they were to only feature the sports that the Greeks used.

As for politics, I would say that it only happens in the 'sports' that I have categorized under 'arts'.