Commodification of sport and physical activity

Sports have been enjoyed as a form of entertainment at least since the times of the ancient Greeks. The perfection of the human body through athleticism is likewise nothing new. Team sports and leagues have been part of (at least male) communities throughout the modern era. However, the role sports play in the 21st century is qualitatively different than the role sports have played in the past. Even a hundred years ago, athletes who did earn money did not earn enough to make their sport a full-time job. Elite athletes now are not just eking out a living; they are signing multi-million dollar contracts that tie them to teams. Corporate sponsorship and celebrity endorsement advertising supplement their fat salaries further. It is the latter, the corporate infiltration of sports, that is a phenomenon unique to the late 20th and early 21st century. The relationship is fostered and nurtured by the media, creating a complex web in which athletes, the media, and capitalist enterprise are entangled.

The relationship between sports, the media, and capitalism is exploitative and symbiotic at the same time. What Real (1998) calls "the institutional alignments of sports and media in the context of late capitalism" is taken for granted so much around the world that spectators do not seem to notice or care the extent of problem (p. 15). While athletes surely benefit from the injection of financial torque into their profession, the spectator is reduced in many cases to a marketing tool. The athletes may be the ones wearing corporate logos on their jerseys as they do in Australia. As McKay & Miller (1991) note, such blatant corporate branding has transformed the character of sports in Australia. "The once hegemonic amateur ideology has become increasingly marginal and residual…most amateur and semiprofessional men's and women's sports have also become reliant on corporate support," (McKay & Miller 1991, p. 7). The same can be said for sports in nearly every region of the world, save for pick-up games played casually on the street.

Hughes & Coakley (1984) illustrate one of the ironies of the commodification of sport. In the United States, and perhaps elsewhere, spectators have become deluded as to their own athletic capacity and sometimes imagine themselves as being equally as capable of greatness as an elite athlete is. "Many of the viewers of media sporting events are not drawn to those events by their respect for and appreciation of excellence," note Hughes & Coakley (1984, p. 59). "Quite the reverse, they are drawn precisely by the belief that anyone can play and there is nothing special about those who do, at least nothing special enough to discourage active emulation," (Hughes & Coakley 1984, p. 59).

Thus, the consumer is dumbed down not only in the sense of being an easy marketing target but also in the sense of becoming actually stupid. The commodification of sport is more a mirror than it is a cause, though. Sport is not the only arena in which mass media harnesses its fantastic money making power at the expense of taste. Music is one of the most noticeably tainted fields at the professional level; the commodification of music represents equally as parasitic a relationship between itself and the media as professional sports.

The relationship between media and sports can be considered both parasitic and mutually beneficial. Real (1998) refers to it with one word: MediaSports. The term reflects Real's (1998) observation that MediaSports is pastiche in a type of distorted commercial art form. Sound bytes, images of sexy athletes, highlight reels, and the commentator's voices all come together in a cacophony of capitalism. As Real (1998) claims, MediaSports "can make significant positive contributions" in the sense that sports are healthy and fun to watch, and elite athletes deserve to be recognized and paid well for their talents (p. 26). The athletes are not being victimized in this sense; they are surely laughing their way to the bank because they are getting rich by doing what they love to do most.

However, "because of institutionalized capitalist priorities, there is the danger of mindless, misdirected adoration and devotion toward activities and heroes that can so quickly become violent, exploitive, greedy, and narcissistic," (Real 1998, p. 26). The fan culture that sprouts up around MediaSports is a curious social phenomenon. While there were no doubt fans of ancient Greek athletes who booed for their most vilified opponents from the rafters, the obsession with sports in modern society is unprecedented. Hovden (2003) points out an even more potentially destructive facet of MediaSports: the "sexualization and erotization of women's sport and female athletes," (p. 11). The relationship between the media and women's sports is paradoxical. On the one hand, women are participating in what has been an almost exclusively male venue and reaping rewards. Female athletes provide positive role models for young girls, and competitive physical activity is no longer viewed as being the province of men only. As women take control of their bodies and their images, then, it is ironic to see how many female athletes are talked about because of what they wear, or how "hot" they are and not because of how well they play. To be fair, though, the sexualization of male athletes takes place just the same.

The media helps to create and disseminate images of female athletes that appeal to consumers. In fact, the viewer market for women's sports is a strong political issue. The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) has fought tooth and nail for mainstream coverage and has failed repeatedly on the grounds that women's basketball doesn't sell. Female sports are usually considered second-tier unless a "hot" player like Sharapova plays.

Groups that are systematically exploited are ironic recipients of some of the spoils of MediaSport. The media is helping to perpetuate stereotypes of women as the "weaker sex" valuable more because of their sexy bodies than their personal achievements. At the same time, the media is helping to undermine those stereotypes through the presentation of strong females who achieve greatness purely of their own accord. In the same way, the Maori culture is engaged in a dysfunctional and codependent relationship with MediaSports. As Jackson & Hokuwhitu (2002) point out, "In New Zealand, team sports, and in particular rugby, have been one of the few cultural sites where Maori have achieved any sense of equality," (p. 127). The selling off of All Blacks imagery and especially the use of the traditional Maori dance called the haka "has simply been colonized as a national rugby symbol to represent racial harmony despite the lack of Maori material advances," (Jackson & Hokuwhitu 2002).