Globalization’s Positive Impact on Sports



Globalization’s Positive Impact on SportsBy: Andrew LannonClar-401-02Sports have been a staple in the world since the beginning of time. Dating back to the early Olympic games in Greece all the way to professional sports now, sports have had a huge positive impact on society. This positive impact has been felt in culture, entertainment, economics as well as many other areas. Each society and nation has created its own sports, games, and events that have shaped their way of life. Those sports have been integrated into other societies as well through globalization. Globalization is the process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world. (Globalization 1) Some critics argue that globalization has negatively affected sports or not made enough impact at all to consider it a process of globalization. Through studies and research, however, it shows that there has been a definite impact involving sports and globalization, especially in modern sports being played around the world today. From professional sports leagues to recreational sports games, anyone can tell that globalization has had a major effect in a positive manner. Since the beginning of civilization and the earliest Olympic Games all the way to the modern era of sports both professional and amateur being played today, sports have clearly been positively impacted by globalization in every aspect. The earliest known games date back to 3000 BC with a game called Senet in Egypt. Egyptians invented more commonly practiced sports like throwing, catching, running, jumping and fighting later on which are still played today. The most famous BC games, however, which still get talked about today, are the Olympic Games in Greece. Established in 776 BC, the games at Olympia were first just running competitions held once every four years. These Olympic Games would continue to evolve over the years by adding more sports and events as different cultures joined in. This is where the globalization impact first begins. As early as BC times, sports evolved because different cultures worked together and integrated there sports with one another for better competition and entertainment. Some examples include the Romans taking the sport of boxing from the Greeks and integrating it into their own society. Sports like polo, hockey, and even rugby, soccer and football can be traced back to BC times in Greece, Persia and Rome. (History of Sports 2-4) Without globalization, who knows if sports that we as a society and a world worship today like soccer, football and rugby would have stuck around and evolved in the way that they did. In AD 393, a hit to globalization of sports took place. The Olympic Games were ended after over 1000 years of existence. However, other sports started popularizing and mixing through cultures. Boxing became arguably the world’s most popular sport as England and other European nations took it into their societies. Horse Racing, from its earliest stages as chariot races in ancient Greece, becomes popular again in England, as the English turn it into its modern form it is today. (History of Sports 5)The greatest effect of how globalization has positively impacted sports can be seen in the modern era, from late 19th century through the 20th and now into the 21st century. This era has brought about the evolution to professional sports and migration of athletes and sports onto an international interdependent level. This impact can be seen majorly in three types of sports. These are the Modern Olympics, Basketball, and Soccer. The Modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens after a man named Baron de Coubertin proposed reviving the games which hadn’t been around in over 1500 years. Coubertin wanted a global event where competition between nations would bring everyone together and promote agreement and peace between everyone. People could root for their home nation and enjoy friendly competition between other countries. It would integrate sports of different cultures and promote globalization of sports and ways of life between all nations. (AL-Busafi 87) This is exactly what happened. The Modern Olympic games were first held in 1896 in Athens with around 200 male athletes from 13 countries competing in 43 events in eight sports. This has evolved into the largest and most popular sporting event in the world. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, there were 11,028 athletes, both men and women, from 204 countries competing in 302 events in 28 different sports. (AL-Busafi 89) These numbers represent the Summer Games alone. In 1924, the International Olympic Committee introduced the Winter Olympic Games. This was because the committee saw a widespread popularity in snow and ice sports occur across the globe with many countries participating in the same types of sports as each other. They held the first games in Chamonix in 1924 with 258 athletes from 16 countries competing. The event has evolved greatly as can be seen from the 2006 games in Turin. 2,508 athletes, both men and women, participated from 80 different countries. (The Modern 4) The Olympics, both Winter and Summer, have evolved immensely in a positive way since their first establishments. The biggest innovation is the hosting of the Olympics. The Olympic Committee decided because of the popularity globally and the integration into societies these games had, each games would be hosted by a different city and country. This change sparked another change as due to the popularity of the games many athletes from all over the globe wanted to participate. The Olympic Committee allowed any athlete from any country to compete in any event they wish too. This innovation caused globalization of many of the sports involved in the Olympics as now countries who anyone would least expect to have athletes in certain sports do so. A major example is countries like Brazil, New Zealand, Thailand, and Madagascar (all very warm climate countries) having athletes participate in the Winter games. (The Modern 3-4) Another huge innovation which was due to globalization was women competing. With human rights and equality becoming a major issue in the world, the Olympic Committee allowed women to begin competing. In 1912, the first women competed in Stockholm Now, 40% of the athletes that compete are women. (The Modern 3-4) Another major change was the lengthening of the games. With more competitions being held and with increased popularity in just about every inch of the globe, the Olympic Committee increased the games to 16 days. (The Modern 3) These positive innovations that changed the games drastically for the better were spurred by the process of globalization affecting this global event. Influences of different nations and societies and the globe as a whole caused the games to be changed for the better. Now, the rules of each event are the same in every country where the event is participated in. An example would be tennis, where the rules may have been different in different countries that played the sport centuries ago. Now every country uses the same rules and regulations so that if a participating athlete qualifies for the Olympics, they all know the same rules and play by them. The sport of Basketball was invented in the United States in 1891. It was played almost singly in the US for the first 30 years of its existence. Then, thanks to globalization, the sport was taken to the international level in the 1920s, and in 1932 the International Basketball Federation was formed. This originated with eight nations who played the sport on the amateur level. The sport was introduced into the Olympics in 1936 and has been played ever since. (Basketball 1) The first professional league was formed in the US in 1946. Ever since then, leagues have been forming in nations all across the globe. The biggest leap for the globalization of basketball came when professional players were allowed to compete in the Olympic Games in 1992. The US “Dream Team” dominated the event and won the gold medal. This immensely rose the popularity of the sport to the global level as fans and athletes adored these American players and aspired to be like them. The National Basketball Association in the US is widely known as the most popular and most talent filled league across the world. After the “Dream Team,” players from around the world started coming to America to play in the NBA and compete with the best American players. (Basketball 1) Now, there are almost 100 foreign born players in the NBA from 40 different countries. Basketball is now rated the second most popular sport in the world. (Hancock 1) This can be accredited to globalization. The sport’s appeal to just about every type of person allowed the sport to spread from the United States to just about every other country in the world. Anyone could enjoy playing or watching the game and that’s why it was able to globalize and keep the same rules and regulations all over the world. The NBA, itself, has experienced globalization too. The NBA has gone from just a professional league in America to one of the most popular and most watched leagues of any sport around the world. Adam Silver, the deputy commissioner for the NBA, said, “From a fan standpoint, technology is how we bring our game to fans on a global basis. Only a small percentage of our fans, probably one percent actually experience our games in person, in arenas.” (Hancock 1) The NBA has branded itself globally and popularized the sport immensely in the last 20 years. The international game has benefited from it. It has gone from the USA dominating in all global competitions to now countries being able to compete and beat the USA on a regular basis. Globalization has integrated the game worldwide and even leveled the playing field. Now, if you go to any other country in the world, you will see a basketball court or center in every town and city. If you ask a majority of people from just about every nation, they will know what the NBA is and most of them will say their favorite athlete plays in the NBA. This is because globalization has positively grown the NBA and basketball as a sport into a household name and watched game across the world. Everyone knows it and just about everyone loves it. Soccer, or football as it’s known throughout most of the world, is the most popular sport in the world and the epitome of how globalization has positively impacted sports. The game can be traced back to as early as 2nd century BC in China and in England as early as the 14th century. The modern form of the game started in 1863 when a set of fundamental rules were established and leagues began striking up in England. (History of Soccer 1) The sport started to become globalized when countries such as Italy, Austria, and Germany adopted the game. A big step came when countries in South America such as Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil integrated the sport into their society. As popularity grew and integration continued into many nations around the world, the Federation of International Football Association was created in 1904. (History of Soccer 1) Now, soccer is the most adored sport in the world with almost every country playing the sport and most having its own league. The FIFA World Cup is the dominant event in the sport of soccer and the biggest beneficiary from globalization. The World Cup is a soccer event in which national teams from each country compete at the highest level against each other for pride and dominance. The Secretary General of the United Nations remarked on the sport when he said that “football (soccer) is more universal than the UN and that the FIFA World Cup brings the family of nations and people together celebrating common humanity in a way that few other cultural events can equal.” (AL-Busafi 6-7) The World Cup has reached remarkable global television audiences going from 13.5 billion in 1986 to 33.4 billion in 1998 and continues to rise. (AL-Busafi 9) This shows that billions of people are watching the sport throughout the world and interacting between nations to give the sport a more global atmosphere. Soccer is the most globalized sport, and it shows through the international operation of the sport as a whole. Players are very often playing professionally in foreign countries, teams often times play against teams from other countries and in different leagues, most notably in Europe where many countries leagues play against each other on a consistent basis. The fans of the sport are global as well, having knowledge of many leagues and teams throughout the world and even supporting teams and players that aren’t from their own country. The sponsors and owners of the teams throughout leagues are often times companies or people from nations foreign to the team they are stakeholders of. It is very common to see an American company sponsoring a team in Europe. (AL-Busafi 9) In their scientific journal, Majid AL-Busafi and Abdulmalek Mohammed Ali Banafa state, “football is not only the world’s most popular sport, but also probably its most globalized profession.” Just about every major sport has become globalized in some way. Golf and Tennis are played around the globe with tournaments in five out of six continents. American Football is integrating into Europe with games being played overseas now. Track and Field has contests throughout the world with a very evenly spread countries who win medals at these events. One huge area is in athlete migration. In just about every sport, players are playing professionally in foreign countries. Many African runners train and perform in Europe and the US. Baseball has leagues in the US, Latin America, Japan and the Caribbean with players integrating into each league from foreign countries. Ice hockey is played throughout North America and has gone overseas with great success with leagues throughout Europe and Russia. Even cricket, with its origins in England, has moved dominantly to leagues in Australia, South Africa and South Asian countries. (Globalization and Sports 1) There are so many examples of how just about every sport, recreationally or professionally, are globalized. With the two main global sports in Soccer and Basketball and the Olympic Games, it’s hard to argue that globalization hasn’t had a positive impact on sports. In Global Trends and Local Needs, a figure shows that the United Nations with 192 member countries has less members than FIFA with 208, the Olympic Games with 205 and the IAAF (track and field) association with 213. This shows that sport has globalized to even more prominently than the major globalization association, The United Nations. (AL-Busafi 8) Even though it is very hard to argue that globalization has had a positive impact on sports, there are some critics who do so. They would say globalization has negatively affected sports and made it worse. In Susan Froetschel’s review of Globalization and Sport, she quotes sociologist Barry Stuart who says, “As modern sport has become global in scope it has largely lost its playful character and its professional practice has become both a global media spectacle and a serious and financially significant global business.” (Froetschel 1) This is arguing that by globalizing, sport has gone away from the prideful, fun games to only about money and media craziness. Froetschel goes on in her review and brings up points that critics make arguing that even though globalization has occurred positively in some sports, it can’t be considered a full positive impact because it has also negatively impacted some sports as well. Some examples given are cricket, baseball, and hockey. She writes that these sports as well as others have been negatively impacted because they can’t reach the popularity on the global scale. (Froetschel 1) Another argument comes in Global Trends and Local Needs, where they look at naturalization as a negative impact of globalization on sports. Naturalization occurs when an athlete doesn’t represent their own country but is either recruited or by own choice becomes a member of another country’s national team and represents them in global games. This is seen as a negative because instead of competing for pride, these athletes and these receiver countries are focusing on money and better training to win. They are taking pride of one’s country out of the equation and competing to help a foreign country win. The countries receiving these athletes are criticized because they are taking away from the pride of the games and focusing on the money they can obtain from these better athletes. (AL-Busafi 9)These are a few examples of why some critics say globalization has had a negative impact on sports. However, these are not enough to overturn the argument. There is way greater evidence to show that globalization has had a positive impact on sports. Sports have evolved from their origins dating back to the BC era. They have become a huge factor in the culture and economics of every society around the world. These societies and nations have integrated their sports with one another and formed governing bodies that have established set rules that are practiced universally in many sports. Sports as a whole has become an interdependent industry between countries and leagues across the globe. These sports come together to show off this interdependency at the greatest event in world unity and pride, The Olympic Games. Through globalization, sports have evolved immensely in a positive way and continue to improve to make for better entertainment, pride, economics, jobs, unity and celebration for everyone who participates and watches. Since the beginning of civilization and the earliest Olympic Games all the way to the modern era of sports both professional and amateur being played today, sports have clearly been positively impacted by globalization in every aspect. Works Cited AL-Busafi, Majid, and Abdulmalek Ali Banafa. "Global Trends and Local Needs- The Trouble With Sport "Globalization"" European Scientific Journal 8.21 (2012): 83-97. Web. <;. <;"Basketball." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <, Susan. "Globalization and Sport." Rev. of Globalization and Sport. n.d.: n. pag. Yale Global Online. Macmillan Center, 2009. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <;."Globalization." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <;."Globalization and Sports Processes." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <, Benjamin. "The Globalization Of The NBA." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 17 June 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <;."History Of Soccer." History of Soccer. Geno Jezek, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <;."HISTORY OF SPORTS AND GAMES." HISTORY OF SPORTS AND GAMES. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. < Modern Olympic Games. Rep. The Olympic Museum, 2007. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <;. ................
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