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.