Sports and Society

Professional athletes in the United States are given extremely substantial contracts and lucrative endorsement deals and it has been argued that their salaries should be reduced to smaller wages but others say they are paid accordingly. The argument that athletes are overpaid not only exists in the United States but also all over the world. Most countries however do not have the variety of major sports that the U.S. has. When athletes are being paid millions of dollars each year, it raises an important discussion. This discussion is about how we value and compensate athletes and whether or not their salary is too much. This also leads to an argument asking if American priorities are altered by the significant difference of athletes

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.

Sports are part of the everyday life of many people across the world, and in the United States sports are even more present in its society's life due to the fact that there are four major sports in the country. But should the professional athletes from these sports earn salaries as high as ten or twentieth times more than the national average wage? The answer should be NO. Professional athletes must be well remunerated but can not be overpaid when there are many issues around the world that can be solved with money. At this present age, professional athletes do not play for the love of the sport, and what they really care is what is going to be the amount of money in their contracts. The fans who support their teams have the majority of guilt in the high salaries of these athletes. Any team or franchise of any sport will not be able pay excessive salaries to their players if they do not sell jerseys, tickets, packages trip, accessories related to players, and games package on TV cables. The national government should intervene in the sports federation's policies and set a salary cap that do not diverges from its population reality.

Although sports aid in the prevention of heart disease and obesity. As the article What in The Name of High School Football? states, “The single greatest factor in preventing the nation’s number one killer - heart disease - is regular and vigorous exercise, and that gets my vote.” Exercising regularly and keeping a healthy diet can prevent many health-related diseases. But there are many, much less dangerous,

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.

In the Journal “Sport and Society: Annual Review of Sociology” written by Robert E. Washington and David Karen they talk about gender and sports in one section of their Journal. In this section the author addresses masculinity in sports and the attempts of Title IX to try and make sports equal in the sense that if women make up 40% of the athlete population they should receive 40% of the resources. However, this is not the case “The most recent data (Suggs 2000) reveal that in 1998–1999 women made up 42% of Division I athletes, received 42% of scholarship monies, 31% of recruiting budgets, 34% of coaching-salary budgets, and 33% of total operating expenses. According to Andrew Zimbalist (2000:B9), women “still play in inferior facilities, stay in lower-caliber hotels on the road, eat in cheaper restaurants, benefit from smaller promotional budgets, and have fewer assistant coaches.” (Washington and Karen, 2001) This long quote showcases that although women are starting to get what they deserve when it comes to a the percentage of Athletics that they comprise it is still not up to par. Although it is not technically salary, the gap in scholarship money and money spent of faculty for female athletes showcases how money it’s sports always goes to the male athletes no matter at what level. In a more recent example that further pushes the points that were made in Washington and Karen’s journal would be the U.S. Women’s Soccer team compared to the U.S. Men’s Soccer team. Both

One key factor is that much of the revenue that people make in whatever they do is put towards sports, whether it is the merchandise, the actual games, and putting money into the different types of items that are advertised during all the games. William H. Anderson for the Foundation for Economic Education says that even though we all think that the sports industry is taking away from the education system that’s actually not true at all, saying that the growth in the salaries of professional athletes is actually an indication that the economy and that people are much more prosperous right now than they have ever been. The sports industry, as Mr. Anderson, is one of the indicators that we as individuals are doing much better than we were in

There is no question that sports are a big part of American culture. Almost anyone that you speak with has a favorite team in some kind of sport. These beloved sports are not cheap, however. The sports industry pumps out billions of dollars each year. While a lot of this money goes towards stadium renovations, front office benefits, and marketing, nearly half of the money spent on sports in America goes toward the salaries of the players. Daniel Roberts, a sports writer for the popular Sports Illustrated, wrote an article entitled “Fortunate 50.” In this article, Roberts describes the fifty highest paid American athletes of 2013. In order for the athletes to make the list, they had to be a citizen of the United States or play within a United

We can also take an account that athletes are getting paid a lot of money because the professional sports industry is a huge business with millions of fans going to games each year. As it was said earlier, players get most of their money from endorsements and from the fans buying merchandise and buying tickets to see games. Professional athletes only make about 1% of an organization's total earnings. This means that the income the athletes are getting from organization’s is barely anything.People also argue that playing a sport isn't a real job so they shouldn't get paid.The only problem with that argument is how many people go to games or have something memorable,like a hat,from their favorite team.So, their argument means nothing as they are the ones feeding cash to the players, buy buying tickets, buying food at the games, buying merchandise, etc. The people who complain do not

Sports participation is something that is looked at closely in todays society because of the amount of participants there are in sports today. Social classes and participation is heavily influenced by the way people live their lives, where they live, what country they live in , and perhaps most importantly, the socioeconomic class they may fall into. In some understatements, sports may serve as an identifier of what social class a family or individual may fall into, simply by looking at who we are dealing with and what sport this individual may play. As a student in a sport sociology class we find trends in countries worldwide when comparing certain sport involvement and social class. Throughout this essay I will have three arguments that will support my point about social class and participation in sports. My first point will be how economic resources affect the middle-class, second will be how social capital affects middle-class sports, and lastly lower-class and participation in sports.

Sport plays a huge role in today’s society. It contributes to one’s health and fitness, social interaction, social and motor skills, patriotism, fun and entertainment. It also stimulates the economy and tourism leading to interaction between different cultures, for example the Olympics, and sport role models. Sports clearly are an important part of cultures and societies around the world as such events as the Olympics

The passages present a discussion about arguments concerning whether or not professional athletes are overpaid. This is an important debate since professional sports represents a multi-billion-dollar-per-year industry. The two positions argue whether or not professional athletes should be paid the large yearly salaries they are paid. Both viewpoints have valid claims warranting consideration. For example, evidence suggests that people with far more important jobs are paid much less than professional athletes; in contrast, opposing evidence suggests that since professional athletes generally have short careers and must train very hard to build and maintain their skills, the higher salary is justified. While both sides of the issue have valid points, the viewpoint that professional athletes are not overpaid is the best-supported position, the position supported by the preponderance of the evidence cited in the passages. The strongest and best reasons supporting this position are that professional athletes must endure grueling and intensive training, they generally have short careers that often end in injury, and the amount that they are thought to be paid is often inflated. Accordingly, these reasons and opposing viewpoints will be discussed next.

Sports have always been one of the major factors of the society and economy. Back in Ancient Greece, the homeland of the Olympic games, the Greeks believed that a healthy body was very important and sports played an important part of the society. Nowadays, the sport industry has grown to a direct and indirect economic impact of the countries, with organizations and sport events that have fans and supporters from all over the planet that are willing to spend a great amount of money in order to show their support for their favorite team, player or club. That happens because sports entertain people by watching their favorite sport teams play in some of the sports mega-events.

Sport sociology examines sports as a part of cultural and social life, and adds a different dimension and perspective to the study of sport and exercise. More specifically, sport sociology examines the relationship between sports and society and seeks answers to many issues and questions regarding sport and culture. Sociology of sport poses critical and controversial issues; additionally, sports are considered a microcosm of society, the same social issues that exist in larger society also exist in sport culture. I have chosen eight peer-reviewed Sociological Journals to expand upon the understanding of this topic that I found to be the most relevant and offer diverse yet complete perspectives on sports.