Conclusion of Sport Globalization

As always, it seem like when it's the last week of the semester you can't help but question yourself where has the semester went? At the start of this class I had no idea what was expected to be covered in the materials but soon learned that sports around the world is just as popular and in depth as it is in America. The class has been such a learning experience about different cultures and different insights about sports globally.

I really enjoyed to broad range of topics we discussed over the semester. Dr. Spencer covered anything and everything it seems like over a period of three months we discussed everything in the alphabet A through Z. Recently covering the Paralympics, along with every other single sport from baseball, cricket, rugby, basketball, football, and of course the other "futbol" or as we call it soccer.  My favorite topic discussed out of everything we touched on was the subject of hooliganism. I can relate to this topic the most because being a die hard college football fan I can relate to soccer hooligans and their passion for the game. To get a first person view of the topic we had a guest speaker whose name was Dr. Meek who gave an outlook on the degree of radical stunts hooliganism can reach in Europe. I enjoyed his presentation out of all guest speakers because he gave great detail of how hooliganism is prevalent and in some circumstances dangerous. One subject I wish we could have covered briefly is the sport of Polo. A sport played on horses is a unique game and the rules and objective are not very wide known.

Another positive thing from the class I enjoyed was the cohesiveness of the class during a majority of discussions. We had many open debates on random material and many of the discussions were open minded and free to debate your point of view on the matter. To further advance the class room learning potential it was a special opportunity to have a classmate from Switzerland which everyone knows was Wiebe to add outside perspective on certain topics.

In retrospect on the semester and the class it was a great experience to learn about the Globalization of Sport around the world. ESPN only gives limited spot light to events around the globe and I can really say when I was sitting in class it felt like I was watching ESPN Global, a new channel about global events around the world.

NBA trade controversy

A very interesting event occurred today in the NBA involving recent trade talks between the Hornets and the Lakers acquiring point guard Chris Paul. Recent talks in the last few days have led to a deal between the two teams that would send Chris Paul to the Lakers in a trade for Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. The deal was almost set in stone however an email was sent out from Cleveland Cavalier's owner and General Manager Dan Gilbert to league commissioner David Stern and a few other owners in the league stating his thoughts on why the deal should be vetoed and how the trade would be a "travesty" to the league itself. After the email was received by the commissioner the deal was cancelled and has left many people asking the questions of how did this happen and why did Dan Gilbert send such a letter? First to try and look at the reasoning behind this let's discuss the details of what the letter said. It started off in the opening sentence that the trade for Chris Paul to the Lakers would be a "travesty". Then going on to state that the for-said  trade should be put to a vote of the 29 owners of the Hornets due to the details of the trade that would save the Lakers 20 million in salaries and also 21 million in luxury taxes which are used to dividend up money to lower salary cap teams. As coincidence would have it luxury taxes are received by smaller market teams such as the one Dan Gilbert owns, the Cavaliers. He goes on to state the the established trade doesn't even involve the Lakers relinquishing any draft picks which would other further the aid of the Lakers next trade move in acquiring Dwight Howard from the Magic, which leaves the Lakers in a position of having three very dominant players on the court at the same time. This is not the first time Dan Gilbert has seen a team try to create a super power, he was part of the whole experience last year when LeBron James left his Cavaliers to combine with All-Stars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh when they made their "Big 3". Does this past experience have any motivation for Gilbert to want to try and dismay any teams such as the Lakers who are wanting to put together big name athletes? In my opinion yes he is becoming a front leader in the movement of banning super powers in the NBA in order for it not be a four team super power conference in the NBA. I believe Dan Gilbert sent the email to the commissioner in order to get a voice out there saying that the smaller market teams in the future won't have any opportunities if big market venues are "buying out" all the talent.

NFL vs NBA lockouts

Sports is a part of life. Fans in this world can live or die on their favorite sports team and to watch your team win can bring you great satisfaction. If your a die hard fan and your team has a losing season it may feel like your world is over. However, if your team doesn't even get to play a single game in a season because of a lockout, you may feel like your dead for a whole season. Lockouts in professional sports are a part of the negotiations discussed in order to decide on how profits will be compensated in exchange for the labor the players give. Recently lockouts have been a major talk in the two biggest sport markets we have here in our country. Here in the year 2011 sports fans had to endure a rare occasion, the NFL and the NBA both were in their contract negotiations at the same time and both leagues did not negotiate very friendly. The NFL negotiations had talks of threatening to cancel parts of the season if a deal wasn't made however that came to an agreement. However, the NBA negotiations started in the same track although still hasn't diverted and consequently has resulted in a delayed season. What has been the differences in these two cases to why one league has came to an agreement but the other league has chosen to delay.

First let's look at the details for the NFL lockout. The NFL market makes more revenue than any other professional sports league in the U.S. That said the NFL commission and the NFL union of players were debating on how to split up the 9 billion dollars of revenue the league makes. As a fan and an outsider perspective of the situation the NFL was going through I thought it was absurd that the two sides could not make a fair agreement to split up the revenue. However, hours before the deadline the two sides came upon an agreement to divide the revenue, after realizing what the devastation that could occur if the part of the season were to be cancelled. The NFL association and the players realized that an agreement had to be made in order to save a full season and the integrity of the game.

Now looking down the road at the NBA lockout the deadline for the season is approaching. Similarly to the NFL negotiations, talks are heated and neither side is budging. The difference between the two however is that the NBA season opener has long been passed back in October and now currently in December there is still no professional basketball. This brings myself to ask, why has an agreement not been made? The NBA is second behind the NFL market grossing a total of around 5-6 billion in revenue so why can't they agree on how to split the revenue? Talks have recently been suggested of an agreement to be made where the season starts on Christmas Day and a full season to be played out ending around the normal time in June. This brings fans to wonder how the players are going to feel towards the end of the season when they are not getting the rest in between games and injuries start to arise.

As a fan you have to endure times like these when the ugly parts of the game have to be dealt with and luckily they only come around once a decade. Before fans had to endure this years NBA lockout the last sport lockout was baseball in the 1990's. Sports went 20 years without having to be put on hold, hopefully another 20 plus years will go by with uninterrupted play.

Hooliganism Horrors

In class on Thursday we had a guess speaker who was a citizen from England named Dr. Meek. Personally, I thought the presentation that Dr. Meek gave the class was exceptionally great and gave a lot of insight into the game of soccer in the international arena. The main focus of his presentation was how hooliganism effects the game of soccer and its presence it still has in today's game.

One of the most interesting things that Dr. Meek mentioned in his presentation would be the effect of racism that is still current in the game of soccer internationally. He stated that in the game of soccer in many countries around the world that racism plays a factor in soccer games even though it is the 21st century. He said that in his home country of England they have just made recent reforms to seclude the hooligans out of the stadium or even near the premises after causing incidents in the arena. It makes sense that the hooligans that cause the trouble in the stands are the same fans chanting the racist remarks toward the black soccer players. But the main problem I have with this situation in international soccer is how is it possible that a majority of international arena's allow this hooliganism to occur and not take actions of zero tolerance such as England has?

Even though I am not efficiently familiar with the current times of international soccer venues I would venture to take a guess that many institutions allow this hooliganism to occur is because it is such a strong part of the soccer culture. One scenario that I can compare hooliganism in international soccer right here in the U.S. would be the game of hockey. In hockey fights break out between players on the ice almost every game and the only thing that happens is a couple minute penalty time in the penalty box. This violence is natural to the game of hockey and would be unthinkable in any other sport such as football or basketball.

However, the level of racism in the game of soccer is too high when such situations effect the players directly on the field. Dr. Meek showed a video of a game being played where a black soccer player was getting ready for a penalty kick and the fans were chanting monkey grunts and even throwing bananas right next to him on the soccer field. This behavior should not be accepted by any soccer institution and countries should reconsider their tolerance rules on hooliganism.

Soccer: A Suspense Sport

Soccer is a unique sport to talk about when considering the immense popularity the sport carries throughout the globe. When talking about the spectator popularity of the sport in the United States it's about the third of fourth most popular spectator sport, but when talking about majorly around the world it would be easily the number one spectator sport. So why is that the United States put the sport so low on the Tatum pole?

I myself find soccer to be one of the lesser action packed sports to watch on tv which may be one factor of why I do not choose to be a spectator of the sport. One theory to why Americans have a low tolerance for soccer as I do may be because the nature of the game is to build up the suspense in between the goals that are scored in the game. Many games are low scoring and fans have to be patient to see scoring in the game. I feel as though many Americans do not have to patience for this because we love action packed sports such as football and basketball which are constant scoring. Even our national past time sport of baseball is falling down the list of most popular sports in our country maybe because of the slow pace of the game.

The world cup however is a great spectator event to watch because of the high profile status of the event and many countries participate. The event is a great way for each country to rally behind their team and show their national identity. I remember watching the 1999 Women's World Cup final when the Unites States took on China which ended up be a thrilling game. It is great for the game when countries that aren't high profile soccer programs such as the United States makes it deep in the tournament to provide some light on the countries program in order to gain some growth for the sport.

Glocalization: South Korea

Last week in class we had a guest speaker who is actually a professor here at the university which is Dr. Cho. The main thesis about his presentation is how sports effect other cultures and how globalization of sports effects the world. He gave a lot of great back round history of sports in South Korea which is where he is from. The main sports he discussed were baseball and soccer in Korea and how the two sports impact the country as a whole.

The main emphasis that I took from Dr. Cho's speech is that of how sports in his country has such a great impact between the various countries in Asia. He pointed out that even though all the different countries have similar aspects due to their close proximity to each other but the countries have many differences between South Korea, North Korea, China, and also Japan. The video of the soccer game when South Korea was playing shows the support the country gets for its sports. The entire downtown area was filled with spectators watching the game and most likely a large number of those people were not interested in the game of soccer however they were there to support their country as they play for a win but also for their countries pride. Dr. Cho mentioned how South Korea has high moral for their country and when their country plays nearby neighbors such as Chine it's a big rivalry and the whole country watches the event.

What I believe is a main difference between countries such as South Korea and the United States are things like these that are little individual citizen differences that make up the complexity of a country. Here in the U.S. if a mens soccer game was on tv the only viewers that would be watching are one's that actual follow the game of soccer. However as mentioned South Korea the majority of people would be supporting their country. That's just how I feel about how Americans differ than what other countries have for their national pride.

Globalizing Sport: The World Baseball Classic

For the three questions we talked about in class Thursday, I discussed the three questions with Wiebe.

1.  In the Klein article when they talk about "growing the game" the meaning behind it would be along the lines of a way to be able to measure the global consumption of a popular sport and its various accommodations to local concepts. Growing the game is the result from any positive exposure to new areas that benefit the game of the sport.

When talking about the contribution that the WBC has done for the game of baseball it has done a great job at combining various cultures into one single tournament which had never been accomplished before the creation of the World Baseball Classic. Different cultures of the game all come together to compete and show other countries their style of play which is great for the game to show how diversified baseball really is.

The WBC's contribution to the growth on baseball is similar to the effectiveness that the organization of FIFA has had on the growth on the game of soccer. FIFA how ever has had more of an impact on the game of soccer than what the WBC has done so far. However the World Baseball Classic has only played two tournaments that were recently in the past decade so future events will provide more insight on what is has to offer the growth of baseball.

2. The idea of having global competition in baseball would be a fantastic opportunity the competition in the sport of baseball. Although the difficulty of doing such would be high because of the conflict of scheduling all the teams to play each other.  One simplistic way might to have leagues that are divided by geography that have leagues of teams that are on the same continent. Then implement a playoff system where the winner of each division play in the playoffs.

If a system were possible to let every team play global competition there would be many pros and cons. The side of the pros would be the level of competition would rise because you could see the global competition and players could move to any team around the world. Cons on the other hand would be high expenses such as travel and also the time commitment that would put wear and tear on the bodies of the athletes.

3.  One particular effort that could help the growth of baseball would be a similar move to what the NFL does for the efforts to expand the game of football which would be to host a live game over on international soil that the game of baseball could be played in order to give exposure in a new market.