We all love sports in one fashion or another, either as fans or participants. Next to family, work and religion, sports is one of the most prevalent things in many of our lives.
For some, sports might be even higher on the priority list, for better or worse. The world’s obsession with sports has pumped almost ungodly amounts of money into many of the franchises in the world.
There are now a whopping 33 sports franchises worldwide that are valued at over one billion dollars. How can a sports team possibly become valued at over three billion dollars like Real Madrid in Spain’s Primera Division?
And where does all of the money come from anyways?
Truthfully, it’s you and me that are putting the money in their pockets.
We buy tickets to fill the stadiums. We watch the games on television, which leads to companies buying advertisements directed at us.
Many argue that athletes are paid too much, especially when there are so many people struggling in the world.
Yes, they are paid a lot for catching a ball or just playing a game they love. Was Gareth Bale really worth 130 million dollars?
Is Alex Rodriguez worth 29 million a year?
Probably not, but this is the world we live in and we all are partly to blame for it.
Fans demand winning, and many owners will spend the money – whatever it takes – to become competitive and appease their fan-base, which eventually should yield returns worth millions of dollars from endorsements and ticket sales.
The cost of winning
English soccer teams alone spent close to 1.5 billion pounds on foreign transfers in 2013 and the worldwide total amount paid to get players across borders was somewhere near four billion.
That is the cost of winning. Almost gone are the days of building teams from the ground up – either developing talent in youth leagues or by improving solely through the draft and socialising them into your system.
Fans demand winning now, owners demand it and coaches get fired if it doesn’t happen. The simple fact is this: winning in today’s world is not cheap.
Teams finding new ways to make money
Back to advertising – and this is something that is bound to leave many of you slightly puzzled – Intel recently paid Barcelona’s popular football club a lofty 25 million USD to have their name printed on the inside of Barca’s jerseys.
Yes, you read that correctly – the inside.
The theory is that many football players pull up their jerseys during celebrations after scoring a goal, and these moments are highly photographed and repeated on highlight shows around the world – which should give Intel a lot of exposure.
But really? 25 million to have a name maybe get shown a couple times a month? Again, this is the sports dominated world we live in and it will only get worse.
Is this bad for spectators?
For those of us who like getting tickets to the games, do all of these huge numbers being floated around have any bearing?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. To make up for these huge transfer fees, multi-billion dollar arenas and other costs, ticket prices will continue to rise in most major sports.
Maybe at some point prices will reach a point that fans refuse to pay – or simply cannot afford – however, for now this appears to be a cycle that will probably continue on into the foreseeable future.
We, as lowly fans, will have to just learn to accept it a sad fact of reality – a reality that we all helped to create.
What’s your best bet? For great odds on all your favourite sports check out PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
It’s a pretty good time to be a Tasmanian sports fan right now. After years in the sporting wilderness with not much to celebrate,…
Olympic swimming legend and Australian Sports Commission boss Kieren Perkins has warned that "someone will die" if a multi-sport event that allows athletes to…
In 2015 when heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko, the fighter regarded by many as the ‘Greatest of all time’ in the sport,…
Join Australia's most vibrant online sports community and you have the chance to win $1000. The Roar is the perfect blend of sports reporting,…
Here is a review of our boxers who made a splash in the world rankings over the past year.
After intense debate at Roar HQ, we’ve selected the 23 most controversial moments for 2023.
