PED 217 - Social Aspects of Sport

Chapter 14

Sport and the Mass Media

The media constitute one of the major social processes affecting and affected by sport. They need each other for survival.

Leisure-time free from work and homemaking chores. It is an activity freely chosen, as relaxation or diversion.

Many choose sport: people are sports consumers. They can be:

direct-attending live sport events
indirect-watching it on television, reading a magazine or newspaper, or having a conversation about a game. Over 50% watch or listen to sports news on a daily basis. The top two sporting events people watch are the Super Bowl and the World Series.

Functions of Media Sport

Media sport performs an information function where it conveys knowledge of and about various sports, contest results and statistics.
Integration: Where the sport audience is exposed to bring in norms, values, rituals, and experiences.
Arousal: It adds excitement to one’s typical routine and predictable life pattern.
Escape: It takes us away from our boring life existences.

Theories of the Media’s Influence

Limited Effects Theory-the media are not very influential on people’s attitudes and behaviors because audiences are selective in what they watch.
Class Dominant Theory-Because the media are under the influence and control of society’s elite, it is their ideas that shape and create cultural perspectives.
Culturalist Theory- the media are owned and controlled and influenced by the cultural elites.

The media are powerful agents in framing contests to convey certain impressions. Visual stimuli can and are interpreted in different ways.

The Print Media

Newspaper: The first significant mass communication modality. Before 1800 only isolated sport reports appeared in the press, and it was not until the 1830’s where selling newspapers was going to make a profit and be recognized socially.

William Randolph Hearst purchased the New York Journal in 1895 and made a huge effort to report sporting events. His efforts culminated in the sport section of the newspaper as we know it today.

The emergence of the newspaper and the sport page came about due to 3 things.

Expansion of space and extent of coverage
An improvement in the quality of sports writing. The sportswriter must be knowledgeable about law, politics, business, fashions, domestic relations, war. Howard Cosell said that to cover sports one needs to be versed, not a shill (former athlete). Sports invade all of these facets: the least important thing that happens is what happens within the arena.
The 1920’s: returning war veterans, stadium construction at institutions of higher learning, postwar economic boom, and sport was coming of age (Golden Era)

Despite the spectacular growth television has made possible for sport; the financial success of teams has been greatly enhanced by coverage they receive in the newspaper.

Magazines and Periodicals

The first American periodical devoted to sport, The American Farmer, was published in 1819. It contained articles featuring fishing, hunting, shooting, bike riding, and the philosophy of sport.

One of the most successful periodicals devoted to sports is Sport magazine. Sports Illustrated made its debut in 1954, and is the most widely subscribed to sport magazine. A study of articles that was made between 1954 and 1987 focused on gender, race, and the sport. Of the 3700 articles reviewed:

91% were about men.
Baseball, basketball, football, boxing, track, and golf were the most featured sports.
Blacks were highlighted in less than one-fourth of the articles.
Very few articles were about women.

Broadcasting: pioneered by RCA and Westinghouse in the 1920’s, sports were beginning to be broadcast (baseball game video from 1950’s). Fights and baseball games were first broadcast in 1921, with a heavyweight fight between Jack Dempsey and George Carpenter the first in July 1921. Television altered radio broadcasting marketing approach, but there are still many sports shows and events broadcast around the world (SCORE).

Television:

The markets of TV have extended into remote areas of America. Big cities have been altered by stadiums, arenas, and theaters. The geography, economics, schedules, the sport and its surroundings have come to depend on TV and its advertising money.

The first TV sporting event appeared in 1939 with it being a baseball game between Princeton and Columbia. TV screens then were 5 to 12 inches in diameter and cost at that time was 600 dollars (today that would be 2000). It was difficult to see the ball or the players in action. The first World Series was broadcast in 1947 (video from 1950’s).

Today ESPN and ESPN2 broadcast over 1500 hours of live coverage per year.

Sports on TV

Football: An excellent TV game because of its having 4 downs to travel 10 yards and time between plays to permit viewers to observe and for announcers to set the stage for the next action, or to replay and comment on the last play (also instant replay).

Instant replay has made Packer great Jerry Kramer a hero because of his block in the so called Ice Bowl in 1967.

Football national TV revenues in 1952 were only 70,000 dollars per team, today each team is assured 40 million before a fan ever passed through the gate.

Baseball: each team, due to TV contracts, receives about 20 million. But because of local media contracts, the Yankees make around 70 million, while the Brewers receive 20 million.

How has TV affected sport: it has affected the economy, ownership, location of franchises, scheduling, management, and many other things. It has been criticized for several reasons:

TV turns people into passive spectators instead of active participants.
TV reshapes sports to satisfy their own needs.
TV is responsible for artificial time outs and excessive commercials.
TV provides select schools (Duke) with recruiting edges.
Sports changes rules due to TV.
TV distorts the nature of the games it covers.
It has created a new category of sports.

The media affects sports (TV in particular) in numerous ways:

Sports popularity is due to media coverage.
TV money has affected player salaries.
Rules have been changed to accommodate TV.
College athletic recruiting has become more national as opposed to regional.
Audience perception of reality is conditioned by the selection between sports and within sports (for example: they do not show people running out onto the field).

Alterations and accommodations to sport games due to TV.

Rules have been altered to make the games more appealing (3 point shot, quarterback protected)
A livelier ball in baseball, and attractive uniforms.
Schedules and starting times are TBA until TV decides.
Halftimes and periods have been shortened.
TV timeouts during basketball and football games.
Games are added to extend seasons.

Paper due: Some ways that sport rules have been altered to accommodate TV. Pick a sport and research how TV has changed it.

The Location of Franchises

2 criteria are determining factors in the location of franchises

Area of Dominant Influence-this deals with every county in the US to the metropolis dominating its television preferences. Example: for Waukesha County: Milwaukee is the ADI.
Designated Market Area-an indicator of advertising potential that is used by program sponsors. Milwaukee has a problem in that there are 2 major cities, Chicago and Minneapolis, it is located in between. Tampa’s case is the reverse because there is little competition with other franchise cities. San Francisco and Oakland are having trouble supporting 2 baseball teams and 2 football teams because they are competing for the market. Denver and Miami were given baseball teams not long ago because there was huge TV potential.

What franchises have moved for a better market area?

Economic Impact of TV and Sports

The established leagues have a sound combination of local and nationwide contracts. We stated in earlier notes that the NFL has a 4 year 3.6 billion dollar TV pact, baseball 1.7 billion. These are amounts guaranteed before a single ticket is sold and it shows the nature of revenue sharing in some pro sports (teams share the money from the contract). Hockey lost its contract in 1975 until ESPN picked them up a while back. Until then they were struggling, and still are because owners are paying out to much money.

The other leagues that have tried to exist and failed did so because the teams were from smaller markets or were less attractive to the national networks and advertisers.

There are major revenue differentials at the local level (Yankees get 70 million, Brewers 20 million). Major league baseball is allowed to sell locally (the Brewers and Bucks network telecast many games on cable here in Wisconsin); football is not, so they have no local broadcast rights for any of the games on Sunday.

In college football, TV income can mean the difference between a financially successful and a financially unsuccessful season. Notre Dame University signed a national deal with NBC for 38 million dollars per year, but when the big ten schools make a bowl game, they have to share it with the other conference schools. It is not taxable income either because the revenues are related to the business of the college.

But as we have mentioned, TV has extended seasons, created scheduling problems, and contributes to stressing sports over academics.

In college basketball: the NCAA tournament brings in millions of dollars, which a third of that is kept by the NCAA. The remaining money is shared by the teams invited to participate. (Now you know why coaches get fired for not having good years and making the tournament). CBS is in the middle of a 7 year 1.7 billion dollar deal to broadcast the tournament.

Boxing used to be broadcast on network TV exclusively, but about 20 years ago the major fights were taken over by HBO, Showtime, and Pay per View (for a sweet price of 39.95 for most fights).

Baseball: Initially the owners grabbed every opportunity to broadcast games because of a drop in attendance from 1948 to 1953. They rethought the process when the Cleveland Indians won a World Series in 1956, but their attendance dropped 67% because many games were shown on TV. From 1969 on attendance continued to climb, and more people were watching it on TV (the Boston Braves owner moved his team to Milwaukee and did not put any of the games on local TV, but they still flopped financially and moved to Atlanta in 1965).

Even though the costs are unbelievable, the network are not willing to give up televising the major sports because of advertising dollars and the prestige that goes with it (NBC was outbid by Fox for football a while back, and they have regretted it ever since). Networks will withdraw broadcasting sports if the ratings nose dive, and for that to happen Americans have to stop being interested in sports.

Most favorite spectator sports on TV: football 28%, baseball 18%, and basketball 8%. The Super Bowl is the biggest sport event of the year broadcast on network television.

60% of American said that sports coverage on TV is just enough, 30% said too much, and 10% said to little. Women, whites, and those with higher education believe sports on TV are too excessive. 50% of all people believe some sports receive too much coverage.

Attitudes toward sport commentators:

50% said they contribute to the program.
36% say they have no effect.
13% say commentators detract (take away) the enjoyment of the game.

Cable television can offer a great deal of sport programming. The media has influenced changes in baseball (games played at night), football (Monday and Thursday night), and many other sports. ESPN began in 1979, and did not turn a profit until 1985 due to more cable viewers and the desire on the part of the advertisers to reach this audience.

Several teams sell their rights to broadcast their team to payable operators. In Chicago their owner sold a package of basketball, baseball, soccer, and hockey games to viewers for a subscription fee.