Commercialism in Professional Sports

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses one of the central themes of the internal politics of sports, as being the conflict between commercial professional ethos and amateur elite ethos. The paper discusses the growing commercialism in British sports since 1945 and explores and analyzes the different perspectives of amateur elitism and commercial professionalism.

From the Paper:

"It is also worth noting that even during the peak of the amateur ideal, professionalism and commercialism were not eradicated, nor always treated with hostility . They were instead, bounded and subordinated for the most part. Arguably, distinctions between the amateur and professional sportsman remained crucial in that they "helped maintain a pre-existing set of social relations" and "often served to preclude or circumscribe class competition in sport" Though by the 1950s with the foundations of Britain's 'New Jerusalem' firmly laid ideas that the gentlemanly amateur should outrank the paid professional became unfashionable. Social change and a "less deferential spirit" provided the impetus for challenging traditional hierarchies of power in sports. Indeed the 1950s is often seen as the decade "when a set of crucial changes were set in train which were set to usher in the 'modern' game" of professionalized sports."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Addison, P. and Jones, H. A Companion to Contemporary Britain 1939-2000 Blackwell Publishing: Oxford 2007
• Allison, L. Amateurism In Sport Frank Cass: London 2001
• Allison, L. ed The changing politics of sport Manchester University Press: Manchester 1993
• Arnold, A.J.T. Harnessing the Forces of Commercialism: The Financial Development of the Football Association, 1863-1975 Sport in Society Vol.7 No.2 Summer 2004 pp.232-248
• Baker, N. The amateur ideal in a society of equality: change and continuity in Post-Second World War British sport, 1945-48 International Journal of the History of Sport Vol. 12, Issue 1 April 1995 pp.99-126

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