Sport in Society Essay Example for Free

Sport in Society Essay In this assignment I will be introducing and explaining how sport effects the economy in the U. K and how important the sport industry is; focusing on Football and tennis. The definition of economy is: â€Å"The state of a county or region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money† (Oxford dictionary) My definition of economy in sporting terms is: When I read the above definition I interpret it as; the production is the development of players both tennis and football. I also see it as the development of the club and the merchandising of all the products linked with football and tennis. I interpret consumption as the use of player, this can be the buying and selling of players in football, the amount of money that is brought in by tennis players is then put back into the development of young players. My overall understanding of economy is that clubs buy and spend the money that they gain from selling players (football). Each year the government put a certain amount of money into sport, to pay for facilities; equipment and much more. Since London won the bid to hold the 2012 Olympics the government have pumped in a lot of money into it; however the budget for the Olympics has just increased. â€Å"Culture secretary Tessa Jowell has announced an increased budget for the London 2012 games of ? 9. 3bn. The funding will now include ? 6. 75m more from the national lottery, bringing its contribution to ? 2. 2bn. The arts council England, heritage lottery fund and sports England were among groups who were disappointed at the increase. Ms Jowell said she planned to transfer 3425million from the big lottery fund and ? 250 million from other good causes after 2009. Sport England, which will lose ? 55. 9m in funding, said the decrease was a ‘real blow to community sport in England’ (BBC news). There are two types of different sporting people; professionals and amateurs. Professionals: Is an athlete that receives money for their performance, this is a set payment for the year, or however long their contract is for. In the last couple of years professional women have started getting paid the same as professional men. An example of a professional in football is David beckham who gets ? 16. 9 million a year. (Guardian 19/1/07) It was announced that â€Å"premiership footballers are to pocket a record ? 1. 1million average wage next session. † (Daily mirror, Thursday may 31st 2007). Amateurs: Is an athlete that takes part in sport out of pure passion. Amateurs get paid for winning a competition unlike a professional. An example of an amateur in tennis is Naomi Cavaday she got paid $100,000 for winning a tournament in Mumbai. (British tennis Lta) The split between professionals and amateurs happened in the Victorian period (1830- 1901) (class notes) Consumer spending: Consumer spending is a huge part to sport and advertising the club. Football is one of the biggest sellers of all time; they sell anything that you can think of. When looking on the official Liverpool F. C site, I was able to have a look at everything that you can buy for the team there is; the teams home and away kit; t-shirts/ bottoms/hoodies for men, women and babies; badges and key rings; books; flags and pennants; subscriptions; scarves; glassware; jewellery; mugs; stationary; toys and games; DVD/video/audio; footballs; caps and hats; bedroom (such as bedding, carpets, lamp shades etc); watches/clocks; bags; bathroom (towels and flannels); car accessories; pictures; baby accessories (bottles, dummies, rattles etc); gifts and misc (golf balls, dog bowl and lead, socks, phone charms, I-pod covers, and much more.) (Liverpool F. C shop. ). â€Å"For the United Kingdom as a whole in 2001, consumer spending on sport was ? 14. 98billion which represented 2. 4% of total consumer spending. † (Pch) When comparing this to consumer spending in 2006 there is a very big difference. â€Å"U. K consumers spent an estimated ? 9. 7bn on sport in 2006. This figure covers the cost of participation (including club sub-subscriptions), sports equipment, sports clothing, sports footwear and admissions to live sporting events. The ? 9. 7bn is only 1. 2% of total consumer spending. † (Market research) This consumer spending is set to rocket between 2007-2011, due to the football world cup, rugby world cup and the 2012 Olympics. Gambling: Although gambling is linked to consumer spending, as it accounts to how much each household is sending each year. There is a massive gambling market in the U. K, this accounts for mega events such as the F. A cup, the football / rugby world cup and Wimbledon. â€Å"Screen digest forecasts that U. K consumers spending online gambling will increase from the ? 660million to ? 1. 6bn in 2010. At the same time the number of active U. K clients will grow from 1. 1m in 2005 to 2. 1m in 2010. † (Screen digest. ) Sponsorship: Is a commercial deal that brings itself or a product to the attention of consumers. Advertising is the most frequent method used. It announces the availability of a product and creates a good image for a brand. It also provides information on a product, quality, characteristics, prices and performance. Sponsorship is important as not only does it give the sponsor recognition but it also provides money for the athlete and the sponsor. The Oxford mail newspaper sponsors the local boy’s league, which includes local football teams such as the Cholsey bluebirds, Didcot and Abingdon A. (Cholsey blue birds, pageys) â€Å"the total value of Premiership football shirt sponsorship[ deals is set to hit 370m a year next season, up 25% from the current season and about tenfold since the league’s inaugural season in 1992-93. † (Football economy) Andy Murray gets ? 200k in sponsorship: ?1m from David Lloyd ?1m for his left sleeve/cm2 ?250k for his racket (head) ?1m for his watch (tag hever) ?4m for his right sleeve (R. B. S)?1m for wearing Fred Perry. (Guardian Dec. 30 ’06) Private clubs: The United Kingdom’s leading health-club operators include David Lloyd, fitness first and Holmes place. (Market research) The closest David Lloyd centre is Oxford, for both tennis and football they hold regular clubs and training sessions. Tennis: world class facilities; ladder league; men’s and women’s teams; regular club nights, coaching and match play sessions. Football: on a Monday night at 7 o’clock our outdoor courts convert into excellent 5-a-side pitches for which we have weekly competitions for teams or individuals. (David Lloyd. ) Income received by participation sports activities in the private sector is ? 133 million (sport England PDF) Funding: Funding is money which is raised from various sources to help pay for new ventures such as new facilities and equipment in sport. Funding is a big part of sport, because if we didn’t have funding then we wouldn’t be able to play sports as there would be no facilities, equipment etc. â€Å"The south east receives about ? 120m in sport related grants; about ? 13 per person of this ? 106m comes from local and central government. About ? 14m is from the lottery. (Sport England 2000 PDF) Funding from the F. A is based on an 11 side team, how many teams enter the league, and is based on ? 10 per 11 aside team. The minimum grant is ? 200 and the maximum is ? 800. (The F. A) Since sport England lottery fund began in 1995, tennis has received 568 awards, totalling in excess of ? 87million towards improving tennis playing facilities in the community. (Sport England PDF). Previous funding: YearNationalCommunity 1995-1996? 0? 6,013,989 1996-1997? 0? 5,395,101 1997-1998? 0?4,441,582 1998-1999? 37,188? 12,911,549 1999-2000? 0? 30,821,126 2000-2001? 0? 4,852,807 2001-2002? 0? 14,052,789 2002-2003? 0? 8,154,732 2003-2004? 0? 2,453,348 Note: national funding is a total of Exchequer funding and the world class programme. Community funding is a total of the following programmes: Community Capital, safer sports grounds, active communities development fund, all active sports programmes, community athletics refurbishment programme, football youth development, school sport coordinators, sport action zones and awards for all. (Sport England tennis PDF) Retail and merchandising: Retail and merchandising account for everything that a household may buy each year, this can be anything from tickets, T. V fees, internet fees, the clothes industry and personal sports which go towards equipment and match fees. â€Å"In total households are estimated to have spent around ? 2. 1bn on sport related goods and services in 2000. This was some 2 ? % of total household spending. The main categories of spending are subscriptions and fees (? 560m), sportswear (? 435m) and gambling (? 375m). Only around ? 125m was spent by those in the region on admissions to spectator sports. (Sport England PDF) Media / T. V: There is a wide range of media that covers sports such as: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, adverts and much more. Sports in newspapers varies as to what paper you read, for example; in the Sunday times from May 20th 2007, there was 4 stories inside the paper about sport however also included in the paper was 32 page paper dedicated to what has gone on over the weekend, it also includes stories as to what will be happening later on in that week. In the daily mirror from June 7th 2007, there is a section on the front page about the England game against Estonia, from then on to page 59 there is nothing about sport; from page 60 which is horse racing results etc, it starts talking about sports, altogether there is 13 pages of sport in which football dominates 8 of the pages which includes the back page. There is no mention of tennis in that paper, this may be because there isn’t a tennis event happening at the moment. Along with newspapers there is also a huge amount of T. V channels that are dedicated to sports: sky sports 1 -3 sky sports news sky sports extra British Eurosports Eurosports 2 Premiership plus PPV Events 1-2 Extreme sports Manchester United TV NASN Sport At the races Racing U. K Setanta 1-2 Celtic TV Rangers TV Set golf Motors TV Chelsea TV Participation: There are so many different sports clubs to take part in, whether they are at school or at the local leisure centre each year more and more people are joining sports clubs in a bid to keep fit. â€Å"Around 863,000 people participate in organised sports clubs, which have an annual income of around ? 550 million. † (Sport England PDF) In 2005 USTA and the tennis industry association said: â€Å"24. 7m Americans are playing tennis, the most since 1992. Participation grew by 1. 1m players, up 4. 1% vs. 2004† â€Å"5. 8m new players began playing the game in 2005. † (Nrpa, tennis) In 2000 60% of males under 16 took part in football, 17% of females over 16 took part in football and 6% of all adults took part in football. (Football academy) Employment: There are so many sports related jobs in the U. K, when the class was asked how may of them worked in a sports related or non sports related job the results were: Sport related jobNon sport related jobNo-job 5101 (Table taken from class notes) There are so many different things that you can be employed for in both football and Tennis, the players themselves, officials, mangers, couches, doctors. â€Å"74,900 people are employed in sport related activities in the south east, some 2% of all employment in the region. † (Sport England PDF).