Explain What Was The Move To The Commercialization Of Professional Sports In America
Professional Sports in America
Sports have long been an important part of American life. Sports evolved from amateur endeavors to lucrative businesses with highly paid professional players who are traded as commodities. This change occurred slowly and took time to build traction, yet now in modern times sports players are amongst the highest paid people in the world and the teams are big businesses. The commercialization of professional sports in America reflected capitalist ideals, in that they became largely about making huge amounts of money for the owners. A professional sport is commonly defined as a game played by athletes who are paid for their performance. Professional athletes are also dedicated to high levels of achievement in the sport, perhaps higher than was ever possible with amateurs who …show more content…
This form of player-organization may have been a social change similar to workers who organized unions which also began in the nineteenth century. However, players likely received money under the table for years before the first recognized all professional baseball team was established in 18691. Both forms of payment opened the door to the professionalization and commercialization of sports.
The next sport to follow baseball’s suit was boxing. This move to professionalization was met with much more resistance than baseball’s transition as boxing was seen as a gentlemen’s sport, meaning, it had more status as an amateur sport. Originally, the most famous boxers were black slaves who were forced to fight and train by their plantation masters. It wasn’t until white men realized they would make more money doing the fighting themselves that the sport truly took off in America. This paralleled the social change which held that money had more status than being “a
Sports have long been an important part of American life. Sports evolved from amateur endeavors to lucrative businesses with highly paid professional players who are traded as commodities. This change occurred slowly and took time to build traction, yet now in modern times sports players are amongst the highest paid people in the world and the teams are big businesses. The commercialization of professional sports in America reflected capitalist ideals, in that they became largely about making huge amounts of money for the owners. A professional sport is commonly defined as a game played by athletes who are paid for their performance. Professional athletes are also dedicated to high levels of achievement in the sport, perhaps higher than was ever possible with amateurs who …show more content…
This form of player-organization may have been a social change similar to workers who organized unions which also began in the nineteenth century. However, players likely received money under the table for years before the first recognized all professional baseball team was established in 18691. Both forms of payment opened the door to the professionalization and commercialization of sports.
The next sport to follow baseball’s suit was boxing. This move to professionalization was met with much more resistance than baseball’s transition as boxing was seen as a gentlemen’s sport, meaning, it had more status as an amateur sport. Originally, the most famous boxers were black slaves who were forced to fight and train by their plantation masters. It wasn’t until white men realized they would make more money doing the fighting themselves that the sport truly took off in America. This paralleled the social change which held that money had more status than being “a