Why Study Sport?

During the first week of class on January 23rd and 28th, we covered the topic area of what is sport, and why study it? As a class, we came up with eight specific reasons why sport is important and should be studied.

Why study sport?

• Millions of people are invested in sport
• Sport constitutes much of our conversations, reading, and leisure. It is a $73 billion industry
• 1/10th of the world almanac is devoted to sports
• 15% of major network time is devoted to sports
• The USA Today devoted 1/4 of its space to sports
• Sport constitutes the 4th largest industry in the US, and the 11th in the world. Sport has a gross estimate of $350 billion in revenue
• Sport wagering is a huge business - legal ($2.4 billion) illegal - ($380 billion)

As you can see, most of these reasons mentioned have to do with one common theme, and that theme is money. Connected to the text, Jay Coakley states in his book, Sports in Society:  Issues and Controversies, on pages 21 and 22, "People in wealthy postindustrial societies spend billions of dollars each year on game tickets, sports equipment, participation fees, athletic club membership dues, and bets placed to teams and athletes."

This year's Superbowl was held on February 2nd, 2014

An article written in volume 16, issue 39 of Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal written by Terry Lefton discusses this years Superbowl and how sponsors took advantage of this event for their brand. The article gives some statistics on the price to run advertisements during this year's Superbowl. According to the article, this year, a 30-second television advertisement during the Superbowl was valued at $4 million. The reasons we discussed in class on why studying sport is important reinforce why brands are willing to pay $4 million for an advertisement during the Superbowl, because our lives revolve around sports. This year's Superbowl was held in New York, and according to the article, brands tried to deliver messages to fans that had to do with New York. For brands, sporting events are a great place to share a message with fans because of all the reasons listed above.