Though this may be seen as a disadvantage as well, funding is distributed unequally, so the sports that have been commercialised are funded more money due to their increase in popularity that comes with commercialisation.
However, commercialisation allows people of all social statuses to enjoy sport, as they are able to become spectators in their own living rooms without setting foot in the stadium. This is because sport is shown so much on television and there are many channels dedicated solely to sport, Sky Sports for instance. Similarly, companies are able to sponsor sports teams to get money and are used as a way of advertising. A company, who either sponsor a team or event, are promoted by having their company name or logo on the kits or on billboards. When these events are televised people see the company name, thus giving them effective publicity, therefore increasing business, which in turn produces more money.
On the other hand, the commercialisation of sport also as many disadvantages, and it is a plausible argument that our country, o the world for that matter, would be much better off if sport hadn’t been commercialised in the first place.
With all the money that is invested and gained from sport, the financial side is getting out of control. To commercialise a sport it needs to have top of the range equipment and kits that make people want to buy them. However, much of this equipment, leather footballs in particular, are stitched in third world countries where people ate being exploited for their productivity, and paid below the minimum wage. Moreover, these products are often being sold at extortionate prices for what they cost to make, but large companies don’t seem to be concerned as long as a massive profit is being earned. An example is the cities of Jalandgar and Batala in the Punjab, India, where the official minimum wage is 82 Rupees per day, and women are even paid four to five Rupees less than men. Child labour in poorer countries is damaging to the children’s health and education, so the Sports Goods Foundation of India (SGFI) has initiated a monitoring system in Jalandhar and also supports awareness-raising programmes on child labour,
A major problem with commercialised sports is that there is greater pressure on sportsmen and women to succeed in sport no matter what it takes, where winning is the be all and end all, and it is no longer the taking part that is important. It is for this reason that the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport has been increasing. Greg Rusedski, for example, tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic androgenic steroid that increases strength, despite claims of his innocence. Footballers are paid a great deal of money and therefore can afford to drink alcohol excessively, use drugs and live playboy lifestyles. Two good examples are Adrian Mutu, who was given a six-month ban after he tested positive for cocaine, and Tony Adams overcame his alcohol addiction and has set up a clinic for alcoholics. Sportsmen and women are often exposed and splashed across the media, of which tabloids are the most common.
Advertising is an important part of the commercialisation of sport, however, this is not always fair. Larger companies are able to spend more money on promotion and publicity, whereas smaller companies are less able to do so, creating unfair competition. Another negative aspect to emerge from the commercialisation of sport is hooliganism. Using football as an example, there has been a massive increase of hooliganism where competing teams or countries fight over superiority, and in many cases people have been injured and even killed.
