Political Science

    This paper seeks to determine the transformations that sporting activities have undergone during the process of commodification. Many critics of commodification of sports have argued that it has resulted in the degradation of sports. The debate over such transformations has been centered on the mass culture. The controversy surrounding commodification of sports has been basically focused on whether the modern sporting culture has been corrupted as it has been incorporated in the marketplace. As a result, sport has been perceived as bringing tension between its prospective as emancipator and as a commodity.

The commodification of sports
In our contemporary society, there are ways through which other institution like churches, schools, and multinational corporations reach the community and one of the ways is through sports, since sports is regarded as a special form of human venture. Sport is considered as an efficient institution since it appeals to human sense of emotion. While playing or even watching, sports brings about self satisfaction. Sport touches us at emotional and visual point of view and this is why some other institutions use sports in reaching the community since they are unable to provoke such senses (Sewart, 1987).

The importance of sports to media and corporate interests is creating a fascinating and also a disturbing condition for sport. Sport which is a very old human activity together with its own cultural importance in many societies is starting to lose its independence. Instead of people participating in sports because they enjoy, sports has been turned into a consumer commodity because of corporations and their media counterparts. The process of turning sports into consumer goods or services is called Commodification. Sport has been turned into an economic activity like selling goods, airtime, earning a living as a player or even a camera man. The sporting activities which have huge economic rewards grow while those which do not produce any reward are abandoned. Players whose skills are loved by many are allowed to play most of the times while those who are moderately skilled are discouraged from playing (Sewart, 1987).

Changes in rules, format, and scheduling
Evidences which show that the sport has been turned into economic activity include rising player salaries, high intensity of advertisement of sporting events and also in sporting uniforms, sponsorship and promotion of sporting events by commercial companies, and selling of stadium naming rights. In the process of Commodification, the parties involved are the laborer who is the player, the consumer who is the spectator, and the capitalist or the owner of the competing club. The competition of the trio of roles enables the capitalist system to succeed and form an arena for the exploitation of the laborers and the consumers (Sewart, 1987).

 All sports are considered as games but not all games qualify to be called sports. Sports are games where the physical component is highly needed and it is the physical component which make such games special. In such games, the players are expected to show their physical wit. Physical nature of such games is considered as a very important factor in Commodification since it is the physicality of the sport that enables it to gather many consumers more than other games since it is considered  fun seeing players outdoing one another as  observed in boxing, running after the ball as seen  in either rugby or football. In such scenarios, a spectator is a consumer he consumes the product or the service and does not pay for the right to consume the product. At times, such consumers pay for the service through paying for the gate pass to the stadium where the game is taking place (Sewart, 1987).

The sporting activity has been turned into a profession where one is involved in sports to earn a living. The rise in the number of spectators in various sporting activities has led to the ability to play sports to earn a living or even to generate some income. In the early days, the wealthy patrons used to pay athletes or even musicians so that they remain as artists or athletes, but currently the players are called professionals or even semi professionals and they have sports as their primary source of income. Emergence of professional sports requires the owners. The need for organized sports on regular basis with good players requires someone to organize matches, sell entry tickets and pays the players. The owners of the clubs make maximum profit from their laborers. In such a case, all the three players in Commodification process have participated, i.e. the laborer, the consumer, and the capitalist (Sewart, 1987).

There are a series of changes which have been experienced in the sports industry has it undergoes Commodification. The critics of Commodification believe that this process is leading to the degradation of athletic activity. The current situation in sporting industry is compared to the pre modern sports which was not contaminated by the mass commercialization and sensationalization that is associated with the modern sport industry. Today, technology is highly employed in sports like directives issued to fans and big electronic video screens instructing them when to cheer among other thing (Sewart, 1987).

 Scientific and technological developments which occurred in the 20th century have had a lot of influence in the sporting industry. The impact has changed all the aspects of sporting ranging from the management of athletic competition to the amount of money allocated for different sports events. There has also been a rise in the number of promoters of sports competitions which has led to increased public interest to such sporting events. We can therefore conclude that modernization and Commodification have contributed a lot to the current development in the sporting industry (Sewart, 1987).

Sporting events during the pre modern times were not organized but they were sudden and informally organized. The sporting competitions were arranged by the people who were involved either directly or indirectly. The rules which guided the sporting competition were simple and unwritten, made according to the local customs and tradition and were different from one place to the other. Because of technological advancements, current sporting activities are organized very officially, rules are uniform and official, practically and rationally elaborated, and legalized by organizational means (Sewart, 1987).

Currently, sporting events are conducted at various levels e.g. national, international and preliminaries which are based on local contest. This enables the participants to be known both nationally and internationally. Initially, there was no difference between participating in sports and observing. Coverage of sporting events which was previously done locally has also advanced with all information about sports being recorded on daily basis in the local newspapers, and journals and they contain detailed sports review. Statistic and records about sports are valued in modern sports and the information is kept regularly. Supporters of commodification believes that it has affected sporting industry in a positive manner since it has attracted many people to sporting industry. Commodification has also transformed every sporting event into a bright and exciting event (Sewart, 1987).

The abandonment of the ethic of skill democracy
It has been shown that the corruption and dehumanization of sport is as a result of both commodification of athletic activity and the social behavior and consciousness of sporting fans consumers. Sport was considered as a social occurrence linked to interpersonal ethical order. It has been identified as the ethical, aesthetic, and dramatic occurrence at the same time a way of individual satisfaction. A sport is meant to create interpersonal bonding (Sewart, 1987).

There have been tremendous changes in the rules, format and even scheduling of sporting activities. The media consider sports as an entertainment and will put a lot of pressure on the bodies governing sports to put up large advertising revenues. This leads to changing the rules of the game which will also modify the nature of contest, changes in scheduling, long playing periods among other changes. Commodification has had several harmful effects on the sporting world. It has resulted in bad morals within the participants. Since they are regarded as good, they try as much as possible to please their fans by engaging in activities like doping. The popular use of drugs by athletes is not an individual choice but it comes from the pressure put on them to win as well as commercialization of the games. Since sports have become business enterprises, then winning gold is a must for a participant since silver and bronze have very little commercial value. The drugs which the athletes use are potentially dangerous to their health like the currently popular erythropoietin which thickens blood in the night exposing the victim to heart failure (Sewart, 1987).

Commodification has turned sports into consumer goods and services making club owners to work very hard in order to attract most consumers. Success of the team is regarded as success of the spectators as well as the community where that team is coming from. With the sports changing its role in the society, its ability to represent the fans symbolically via the action in the field has been snatched away. The interest of the owners and the players have changed from winning the competition to making huge profits and this in return affects the ability of the spectator to feel like part of the team.