Sports Participation And Social Class

The hot topic in amateur sports has been as to whether or not college athletes should be paid. The NCAA amateur rule states that an athlete in college sports cannot be paid other than their athletic scholarship. These athletes spend a tremendous amount of time at school practice and then working on schoolwork after practice. The NCAA is an organization that oversees all of the athletes that make up the basic unit of intercollegiate sports. The success of the NCAA whether it’s through the sale of merchandise, game day revenue or NCAA tournaments that each individual sports has, despite the absolute success of these tournaments these athletes receive any monetary compensation .Some of the main reasons why the NCAA lack of payments are that it wants to maintain its amateur status and

Abstract: Society is affected every day by many different kinds of sports.  These sports often govern society's way of life.  People all over the nation turn their TVs to sporting events, such as golf, during the weekends.   Scott Stossel states that "more than six million Americans enjoy watching golf on the weekends."  Parents  use sports as a teaching tool for their children.  Kids learn teamwork and discipline from team sports programs and  sports have also helped many students with their grades.  Kids who want to compete in school sports are taught to keep their grades up or they won't be able to play, but the greedy coaches and schools often look around grades to keep their "star athletes" in the games.  Adults have

Sports are something that everyone in the world, regardless of age, sex, or nationality, can enjoy. Whether it's a child playing in his first t-ball game or a professional athlete swimming in the Olympics and everyone in between, sports can connect almost everyone. Fan support and overall devotion for athletic competition has raised professional athletes to superstars and national icons; Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday to some, and sports are one of the largest moneymakers in the economy.

Athletics had relative importance in pre-industrial Britain mostly taking place at traditional fairs and festivals. For example a wake was seen as a great social occasion whereby mainly the lower class men would compete in events such as stick fighting, running, climbing a greasy pole and wrestling. These activities were seen as ‘athletic’ events and were an opportunity for the lower class men to show off their power and strength to the women. In addition women had the opportunity to take part in events such as smock races. Festivals and fairs such as these would take place on church holy days such as Easter and were seen as a chance for celebration and enjoyment. Prime examples of Festivals such as these include the Much Wenlock and Dover

Youth sports in general is being reshaped because of how competitive americans are becoming. Every aspect of kids’ sports has become hypercompetitive hyper organized, and all consuming. The craziness in the culture of kids sports has led to the realization the world has changed. An estimated 40 million young adults are participating in a variety of organized sports For those 40 million apart of organized sports they have to give an almost total commitment to playing and being apart of the team (Ferguson). Sports are considered to be a shared cultural experience between many children, and they can

Sports are a popular pastime among all ages and types of people. People not only participate in them for fun, but also for money, physical fitness, rush of competition, and for many other personal reasons. Playing sports is especially common among young people in schools. Athletics are great and enjoyable for many reasons, but there can be a point where sports participation can go too far and become negative for children and adults. Sports specialization for young people is an increasing trend that results in sports having a negative impact on individuals and society.

In our society sports are a very important social construction. As sports continue to grow, they are becoming more integrated into the major spheres of social life. Sports have become an entity, due to the fact that they not only create entertainment and jobs; sports have become a huge platform for various causes. Sports are extremely important to our society and have very powerful influences. Though experiences vary from person to person, most people have some sort of experience with sports. I personally have experienced sports more from the spectator and participant stance, and have been impacted from each perspective a great deal. Compared to sophomore safety, Jamal Adams my sports experience has been very different from impact and perspective.

Throughout generations, social mobility has become something everyone wants to attain in their lifetime. Through social mobility comes a better and more stable life. There are many ways to achieve maximum mobility, which include getting a higher education and reducing risk in your life. There are also a lot of myths towards this concept that has been portrayed by the media and one of the myths is the social mobility gained by a person playing a sport. Americans in today's world believe that sports are the path we should take to have full financial and social flexibility. Examples leading to this conclusion are obvious as we see kids from poor areas escalate their nobility and capital through their abilities to compete in sports. From the million-dollar contracts and endorsement deals, the ideology behind being an athlete is that your social mobility will rise, but many statistics will prove otherwise. Although it is possible for athletes to gain revenue and fame, the overall ideology of sports of gaining maximum social flexibility from being involved in a sport is a myth.

No matter what is your social class, everyone can participate in sports. Social class can determine which sports you play. For example, according to sociologist Thomas Wilson, the people who make up the lower class are most likely to play football and boxing, and the upper classes are most likely to play golf and tennis. The upper class are most likely to attend sporting events, and when the lower class attend sporting events, it is usually a boxing or wrestling match. Additionally, better-educated people are more likely to attend sports events, which relates to the higher educated you are, the more money you will make, and it will be able to spend on leisure. Furthermore, speaking from experience no matter what is your social class we all cheer for the same team whether it is in the nosebleed seats or courtside or even at home.

What is the social role of sport? To what extent does social structure influence the practice and experience of sport? Discuss in relation to two of the following: gender, class, ethnicity or Aboriginality, or region. Illustrate your answer with at least three examples from sporting contexts (local or international).

This essay will be an attempt to bring together the ideas from our class readings about the Marxist sociological perspective as well as insight from other readings to further my understanding of Marxism and its applications to sport. I will lay the groundwork for the theory then proceed with how his theory is applied to accessibility issues in sport, distribution of power in sport and commercialization of sport.

Since the creation of man, sports have had a tremendous role in the way people live their lives. From the time we are born, until our elderly age, most of us are involved in some way with sports. Whether it is a scrimmage game of soccer at recess in elementary school, playing on the varsity athletic team or simply watching the Olympics or sporting events on television, sports have an influential role in our everyday lives. The outstanding popularity of the sports industry has profoundly affected youth sports organizations that an estimated twenty-six million children ages six through eighteen participate in at least one school or community based athletic program (Smith & Smoll, 1997). Well structured sport programs can provide youths with

Social class is definitely related to sport participation because low income people are more worried about paying their bills and making a living, so they have bigger problems to worry about instead of attending or watching sports. There are many wealthy people that will make it a daily hobby to play golf and tennis during their lunch hour or doing their working hours, especially when they are the bosses of their own businesses. The seats at major professional sports events also indicates who is has the most wealth just like at an NBA finals game a wealthy person will spend close to a million dollars just to seat on the floor of the game and people from middle class will seat somewhere close by the floor or in the far seats away from the court.

According to Up2Us, a New York-based nonprofit that promotes youth sports, from 2010-2011 more than $3.5 billion in athletic funding was cut. This has been the case across America impacting athletics from youth sports all the way up to high school and college level athletics. To have more money for school funding, schools are using athletics as a scapegoat to have enough money to fund school based activities (“Baker”). Lack of funding, due to the recession’s budget cuts, for high school athletics is ultimately hindering sports teams potential, but with more efficient fundraising, better implementation of Title IV, and more athletic facility fundraising groups, a solution could be reached.

The article that we have chosen for our scholarly article was “Athletics as a Source for Social Status among Youth”. The main reason for this article is to further the understanding of sport as a source for youth popularity among a national US sample of 3rd through 12th graders. They first review previous work on the issue to discuss the roles gender, grade level, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status might play in the association between sport and social status and present there hypotheses regarding the relationship of each of these variables. Then they examine the relationship between athletic status and popularity using quantitative descriptive analysis and logistic regression to determine if this relationship varies according to gender, race/ethnicity, grade level, and socioeconomic status. The central purpose of this study is to examine first, whether youth perceive sport as a status enhancer for themselves and their peers. Second, to determine if variation in this perception can be accounted for by student’s athletic status, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and grade level.