Sociology of Sport III Essay

Sports in Society:

Issues and Controversies

Chapter 9

Social Class:

Do Money and Power

Matter in Sports?

Resources in the form of money and power influence what

sports you play and when, where, and how you play them.

Social class =

. . . categories of people who share an econom ic position in society based on a com bination of their

 Incom e

 Wealth

 Education

 Occupation

 Social connections

Social stratification =

. . . structured form s of econom ic inequalities that are part of the organization of

everyday life.

These inequalities influence life chances.

 Life chances are sim ilar odds for achieving econom ic success and power in society .

 Life chances vary from one social class to another in the social stratification system.

Class relations =

. . . the ways that social class is incorporated into the organization of our everyday

lives.

 Social class differences affect most parts of

people’s lives in the U.S.

 W hy do Americans accept the reality of class

and class relations without debating it?

Because of . . . (next three slides)

“Society ’s winners play golf here.” This is what wealthy and powerful people want

everyone to believe, because it legitim izes their claim to privilege in society.

Class ideology =

. . . interrelated ideas and beliefs that people use to

→ Understand econom ic inequalities

→ Identify their class position

→ Evaluate the im pact of econom ic inequalities on the organization of social worlds

Class ideology

in the US is based on:

 The American Dream

 A hopeful vision of boundless

opportunities for individuals to succeed

economically and live a happy live based

on consumption

 Belief in meritocracy

 A form of social organization in which

rewards go to people who earn them due

to their abilities and qualifications

Belief in the American Dream*

Belief that the U.S. is a Meritocracy*

*

CLASS

IDEOLOGY

Major beliefs that constitute

class ideology in the United States

*Opportunities to support self & family are available to all

**A system in which rewards go to only those who deserve them

Class realities

in the United States

The reality

Exclusive sport clubs are widely perceived as a

legitimate privilege of people in the upper class. This is an outcome of the belief in meritocracy.

Economic inequality,

class relations, and sports

 The meaning, organization, and purpose of

sports are heavily influenced by money and economic power.

 Class relations in the U.S. are based on an

ideology in which economic success is equated with individual ability, worth, and character.

 Competitive power and performance sports reaffirm this ideology.

Sport is frequently a site where the wealthy reaffirm their status and privilege

Class relations

and power in sports

The most powerful people in sports are white men who control the

resources that sponsor sports and represent sports in the media.

 The most visible sports around the world revolve around the meanings and

orientations given priority by people with wealth and power.

“Power 50” in U.S. sports

Sports Illustrated’s “50 Most Powerful People in Sports” ranks people on their power in and over sports.

Rankings change each year, but they consistently show that  Power is based in organizations and rests in

the hands of the white men who control them.

 Athletes and coaches have little or no power to control the organization of sports.

W hite men hold nearly 100 percent of the major power

positions in elite sports today— ALL of the top 20 (below).

These men have much in common with other

econom ic elites in the United States

According to Antonio Gramsci . . .

 Sports and other forms of exciting entertainment are cultural vehicles for

establishing “ideological outposts” in the minds of people.

 These outposts relay into the popular consciousness messages that reaffirm a

class ideology that legitimizes current forms of class inequality in society.

Class relations and

cultural ideology

Sports are valuable cultural vehicles for developing ideological “outposts” in the minds of people around the world.  This is why transnational corporations

spend billions of dollars to be primary providers of popular pleasure and entertainment.  Then corporate spokespersons use sports to

deliver other messages about what should be important in people’s lives (commercials are just one part of this).

Outposts comes in many forms; these are in your face

for an entire game at Coors Field in Denver.

Young people in working class fam ilies usually play sports in public parks

and schools. These activities often are creatively arranged, but they lack

the support and consistency characterized by the organized sports

played by young people in upper - and upper-middle-class families

Social class and sport participation

Social class and class relations influence who plays sports, who watches sports, who consumes information about sports, and the information that is available.  Generally, the higher the social class, the

greater the involvement and influence.

 Sport participation occurs in the context of class-related lifestyles.

Young people in upper-middle-income households often have

the resources and safe places to play sports close to home

— and they have many choices of what sports to play.

Schools in middle class neighborhoods have nicely

equipped playgrounds and indoor facilities for sports

Schools in low income neighborhoods often

lack decent outdoor and indoor sport facilities

Nothing is more sacred in sports

than a level playing field. Too bad it

doesn’t exist. . . . it now takes more

resources— a lot more— to compete

at the highest level.

— Peter Keating, Senior writer, ESPN (2011)

Public money and private profits

Sport venues are sites for transferring public money to wealthy individuals and private corporations by

 Using sales taxes to build facilities controlled by team owners and private corporations

 Funding construction with tax -exempt bonds purchased by wealthy investors

 Discounting property tax rates for sport facilities and development around stadiums

 Granting tax deductions for tickets purchased for business purposes (nearly all luxury box and club seats are purchased this way)

Fans often are

segregated by social class in stadiums;

people in luxury suites don’t want

“unity” and they pay to avoid it.

People may cheer for the same team, but this does not

mean that social integration exists

Does a stadium and team

create jobs?

Yes, but at a price that far exceeds other forms of job creation

 A large department store or a university provides many more jobs

than a pro sport team and stadium

 M ost sport stadium jobs are seasonal

and low paid

 Jobs from other areas may move to new businesses around the stadium, but the net increase in jobs is small

This is a LEED Gold-certified recreation center with multiple physical

activity areas. It is a community meeting place as well as a center

emphasizing healthy physical activities. Instead of using public money

to build a new stadium for the Denver Broncos and the team’s multi-

millionaire owner, the Denver region could have built 44 of these to

serve local citizens for nearly 365-days a year—instead of 10-days.

Which would you choose? Photo by Jay Coakley

Class and gender relations

 Girls and women in low -incom e households often face the greatest constraints to sport participation.

 Boys and girls from higher-incom e fam ilies seldom face constraints that interfere with participation in after-school and summer programs, camps, and leagues.

 Gender-related factors have a greater impact on sport participation patterns in lower-incom e households.

Class and gender

in men’s lives

 Ideas about sports and masculinity vary by

social class.

 Boys from lower-incom e backgrounds often see sport participation as a means of obtaining

“respect.”

 Early, exclusive commitments to a single

sport are more likely among boys from lower-incom e backgrounds— this is a

reflection of life chances.

W ealth: Median net worth of households

Percent

change,

2005 2009 2011 2005-11

________________________________________________

Whites $134,992 $113,149 $111,146 -18%

Latinos $18,359 $6,325 $8,348 -54%

Blacks $12,124 $5,677 $7,113 -41%

Source: Adapted from Pew Research Center (2011) and

Traub & Ruetschlin, 2015

W hen household wealth declines it has a dramatic impact on

discretionary spending and makes it difficult to borrow money

or pay for the sport participation of family members.

Social class,

gender, and race/ethnicity

Research shows that for some low -income, minority men, boxing is an alternative to

the violence of the streets.

 Boxing is a refuge from the violence,

hopelessness, and indignity created by racism and poverty.

 M any of these men know they would not be boxers if other opportunities existed for

them.

Boxing may be a refuge for young men from low -income

households, but it also exacts a price among the boxers.

If you want to know who’s in the

lowest social class, just look at who is boxing.

U.S. boxers since the 1880s have been Irish, Italian, Jews, African

Americans, and Latinos— as each

ethnic group migrated to the U.S. and was at the bottom of

the socio-economic ladder.

Class relations in action

 Cuts in publicly funded sport programs

disproportionately affect people with few economic resources (e.g., school program s).

 Tickets to pro sports events are too expensive for many people today.

 Ticket prices increase about 30% after new facilities are constructed (even when

regressive sales taxes provide the capital).

Between 1991 and 2012 ticket prices to the major men’s

spectator sports increased nearly three times more than the rate of inflation. Ticket prices are driven up by corporations that can deduct from their income taxes a portion of ticket

costs. Also, wealthy people are willing to pay high prices so they can separate themselves from those with lower status.

Unless you are relatively wealthy, you sit close to the rafters.

These are good seats in the lower

section of the arena at the blue line.

For a family of four to have

season seats in this section would cost nearly $22,000, which is

about 40% of the average annual income for U.S. families.

The 2016 cost of these same tickets has increased since 2008,

but family income & wealth have declined.

Global inequalities and sports

 People in the U.S. have (on average) $60/day to live; in 39 less -developed nations, people have 58¢ per day to live.  Nearly 50% of the world’s population live on

less than $2/day.

 Example: In 2008 Tiger W oods made as much money as 200,000 people in less - developed nations used to live for the entire year.

 Sports and sport participation is a luxury for over half the world’s population.

Global inequities:

The Olympics & Paralympics

 W ealthy nations are the medal winners at the Olympic

Games. Going into the 2012 Games in London

 80 of the 204 participating nations had never won an Olym pic

m edal

 51 had won fewer than five m edals in Olym pic history

 M any nations had not won a m edal for at least 40 years

 The United States, with its wealth and population size, had won

2,549 m edals— m any m ore than any other nation.

 Training for elite competition is now so expensive that about 80-percent of the global population has no realistic

chance of winning a medal— unless they find a way to train in the U.S. or another wealthy nation.

 This pattern is even more pronounced in the Paralympics

The annual Homeless World Cup is a site for initiating and sustaining

political strategies advocating the rights of homeless people worldwide.

But it hasn’t been effective in changing national policies on homelessness.

Photo by Jay Coakley

Photo by Kevin Young

Young people in poor and developing nations are required to

work, and they have little time and few resources to play sports.

W hen they do play, their facilities and equipment are

makeshift and inconsistent over time. Access to coaches, medical care, and other things taken-for-granted in

the U.S. are in short supply if they exist at all.

Photo by Kevin Young

Just do what?

“If only I had a seat, pedals, and wheels. Who knows where I could go?”

Economic and career

opportunities in sports

 Career opportunities are limited and, for athletes, they are short term.  The odds of making big money as an athlete

are so low that nobody should bet much on them, and bets should be hedged with other career goals!

 Opportunities for women are growing but remain limited.

 Opportunities for African Americans and other ethnic minorities are growing but remain limited.

The data in this table do not reflect that college and professional

sports now recruit athletes worldwide. U.S. high school and college

students now compete against age peers from around the world.

Therefore, these probabilities are far too high.

Estimated probability of competing

in athletics beyond the HS level

M ost pro athletes make less than teachers in the U.S.

Careers for women

 Careers as pro athletes for women have existed primarily in tennis and golf.  Other pro sports have been formed recently,

but they generate little revenue, and careers are insecure.

 Other job opportunities in sports remain limited by traditional gender ideology.

 The characteristics associated with being a woman are not seen as fitting many job

qualifications in sports.

Careers for ethnic minorities

 There are 28 times more African Americans

working as doctors, lawyers, and college teachers than there are black athletes in top -

level professional sports.

 Ethnic minority athletes have faced entry and retention barriers in the past.

 Employment barriers for ethnic minorities remain in many sports, especially in off -the-

field positions of power in sport organizations.

Sports are organized so that

 M embers of ethnic minorities are more

likely than whites to be defined as unqualified for off-the-field jobs.

 Job candidates most likely to be hired

have values and orientations matching those of people in positions of power.

 The values and orientations of ethnic minorities are seldom part of the culture

of sport organizations.

This photo provides a misleading picture of diversity in

U.S. tennis, because there are the only three black women

who play regularly on the W TA tour, and only one Latina.

A rare exception in sports! An African American woman coaching

a boys’ high school football team in Washington DC

Occupational careers

among former athletes

Former athletes experience career

benefits from playing sports if:

 They learn interpersonal skills that carry over to off-the-field jobs.

 People with power and influence define them as good job prospects because they were athletes.

 They can use their sport reputations to create the publicity needed to achieve career success.

 They are well connected with others who can provide opportunities or advocate their interests.

Only the top professional athletes make

enough money to retire comfortably.

These data are a few years old. The inequality gap illustrated

here has become even wider today. This pattern is causing concern among players on some professional sport teams.

Research suggests that playing sports

may be related to success when it

 Enables people to complete degrees and gain

knowledge about the world apart from sports

 Increases support from others who foster overall

development, not just sport development

 Provides opportunities to develop social

networks reaching beyond sports

 Provides material resources and guidance on

how to use them

 Expands experiences, identities, and abilities

unrelated to sports

 Does not lead to serious injuries

Changes that have increased the

likelihood of athletes’ career success

 Increased salaries for many professional athletes (after the 1970s)

 Increased visibility and name recognition that has value as a form of social capital

 Increased awareness among athletes that

resources must be managed carefully to

maximize opportunities in the future

Major challenges faced

by retiring athletes

 Reconstructing identities in terms of

activities, abilities, and relationships unrelated to sport participation

 Renegotiating relationships with others so

as to gain feedback and support for new identities

Do sport organizations have the responsibility to facilitate these processes?

Athletic scholarships

and occupational success

 The perceived number of full athletic

scholarships is greatly exaggerated.

 One third of 1% of all students in NCAA universities receive full athletic scholarships.

 Athletic scholarships are awarded year to

year, but athletes are obligated for 4 years.

 Class and race/ethnicity is related to who

receives scholarships in what sports

 M any students with athletic scholarships would attend college without such aid.

Most college athletes do not have athletic

scholarships. Apart from Division I football and men’s

and women’s basketball, most athletes have only

partial scholarships, if they receive any athletic aid.

Discuss:

Social class & college sports

 According to ESPN’s Tom Farrey, “beneath the

thin layer of sport entertainment . . . are the bulk of college athletes: Well-off and white.”

 The college sports offering the best odds for

scholarships are played primarily by young people from upper-middle-class families.

 The revenues generated by black male athletes often pay for the scholarships received by white

athletes from well-to-do families.