That Thing About Writing

I can write well. I know I can write well, and I can write long coherent prose without having much writer's block. But for some reason or so, I've been having the writer's black lately. Recent blog posts have also been crappy and downright meaningless. This was also reflected in the term paper that I submitted last Thursday.

Due to the horrible writer's block, I was choked into stillborning my first draft.

My first draft:

"Commercialisation of Sports
The effects of commercialisation of football as sports was modernised and professionalised.

Introduction

From the mid to late 19th century in England, the game of football has been slowly developing. With the founding of the Football Association in London in 1863, the rules of the game was laid down and set to be universally accepted. This signified the modernisation of sports as sport is now [insert details from lecture here]. However, with the modernisation of sports, sport became a tool for money making and with the growth of monetary interests in sports, sports is commercialised. In this paper, the effects of commercialisation of football will be highlighted.

With the introduction of the FA Cup in [insert date], there was a motivation for clubs to compete in the sport. In the early days, football players were mostly middle to upper class “gentlemen” who had the time and income to indulge in sports. The supporters were mostly the working classes residing in the region. This ignited the growth of the spectator sports enjoyed by the masses. The development of spectator sports will be further illustrated later in this paper.

With the development of spectator sports and the advancement in technology, the introduction of broadcasting marked a watershed event in the commercial development of sports. With stadium entries limiting the number of spectators, broadcasting brought more people closer to the sport. It started in [insert date here] with radio broadcasting, but later it was in [insert date here] when football matches started to be telecasted live which brought about the greatest economic development of spectator sports as a whole.

With the greater exposure of the sport among the masses, this brought about the convenient advertising of sports over the national television.

Along with advertising, the growth of sports as a spectator activity led to the development of sponsorships of the sport which injected funds into the development of the sport while reaping a different kind of benefit for the firms.

In all, this paper seeks to highlight these commercial effects on the sport and evaluate if this brought about greater benefits or harm to the development of the sport. Also, in review of the present day persistent effects, this paper aims to plot the growth of trend and speculate if this trend will persist.

Football as a Spectator Sport

The Football Association

With the founding of the Football Association, a set of universal rules now governed the game and fair matches can be held between two teams. There was also now a legal body governing the development of the sport.

As the game spread to the continent and to the South Americas, governing bodies also sprouted out in those regions. To further integrate the various governing bodies in the various regions, an international governing body of the sport, the FIFA was set up in [insert year].

The Development of Football Clubs

It started with the alumni of the English public schools who “having entered business or professional life and being anxious to continue playing their favourite game from their university days” .
Broadcasting

Radio Broadcasting

The first radio commentary of a match was broadcasted by the British Broadcasting Corporation in January 1927 of the match between Arsenal and Sheffield United. However, in the early days, there were concerns that live commentary would affect attendances in the stadium, leading to a drop in revenue from ticket sales. A broadcasting ban was thus imposed in 1931 which lasted until after the Second World War. Only cup matches and international matches were exempted from the ban.

Televised Broadcasting

The first televised broadcasted match was the international match between England and Scotland on 9 April 1938. It was followed by the broadcasting of the FA Cup final between Sunderland and Preston North End three weeks later. However, the broadcasting of live matches was not regular in those early days, occasionally there were televised highlights of football matches from 1955.

Broadcasting Fees

In the early days of live broadcasting, because the BBC and Independent Television operated from an “informal cartel”, the broadcasting fees were low and proceeds from the fee was divided equally among all the football league members. In 1968, the fee paid out was of a mere £120 000 with each club receiving only £1 300. However, the amount paid out for live broadcasting increased exponentially with a total payment of £534 000 with each club receiving £5 800 in 1979. This amount continued to rise.

Another watershed mark in the course of televised broadcasting was the formation of the Premier League in 1992. This new Premier League had its own governing body negotiating broadcasting fees among other economic issues. Also with the Premier League consisting of the best 22 clubs in England, the Premier League was on a better bargaining position. This resulted in the initial five-year contract worth £304 million, a far cry from the first payment of broadcasting fees. It’s subsequent four-year extension was more than doubled with £743 million being paid out by the broadcasting corporations. However, the proceeds from the television broadcasts were not equally paid out to the clubs, rather, the proceeds were distributed according to the final placement in the league. The higher placed clubs were awarded with a higher paid out than the lower placed clubs.

With this system being in place, there is a greater drive for clubs to strive to do well in the league and earn a higher place finish to be rewarded with a larger pay out from the broadcasters. The equation is further complicated with the introduction of the UEFA Champions League. The Champions League has its own broadcasting rights sold to an international broadcaster, and broadcasting to over [insert exact figure] countries in the world.

Hence a higher placement in the league would ensure that the clubs can get to play in Europe and thus earning the international broadcasting fees from the UEFA.
Advertising

Advertising is the making use of sports by commercial companies to directly or indirectly promote their products which might or might not be related to the sport.
Sponsorships

Shirt Sponsorship

Football clubs in bid to earn more commercial revenue have allowed commercial corporations to have their company logo emblazoned on their jerseys. This has come to be known as shirt sponsorships. To the bigger and better known clubs, the sponsorships are worth more than £1 million per annum. [insert more recent figures here]. The selling of such rights has integrated the cooperation of sports with commercial businesses. And in this commercialisation process has now placed the brands of the sponsors over the name of sports trying to create an illusion of the links between the sponsors and the game.

To the commercial companies, this form or sponsorship is advantageous to them due to the high profile of the football club and the respective jersey can bring. For a 90 minute game, the shirt with the company’s logo would be televised live for the amount of time for every match.

Game Sponsorship

Equipment Sponsorships"

I was meaning to draw an outline then slowly fill in the gaps, but in the end, it was stillborned.

Then suddenly, one painful night, it hit me that what was wrong is my central topic. This topic asks for me to draw out and write and provide a content chock full of facts and figures and stuff. And that was something that I am personally unable to do. My strong points in writing is that I'm able to coherently write rhetoric arguments and persuade people. Obviously, I wasn't exploiting what I'm good at the my first draft.

I decide to change my topic, and rewrite the whole damned thing.

"Commercialisation of Sports:
The effects of commercialisation of football on the football player as sports being mordernised and professionalised.

1. What is a Football Player?

Before entering this topic on the commercialisation of sports and its effects on the sportsman, the most important question to tackle is “What is a sportsman?”, or with regards to this paper’s focus on the football player, “What is a football player?”

Simply said, a football player is a person who plays football, but professionally speaking, not everyone who plays football is a football player, so in this paper, the focus would be “What is a professional football player?”, but then again, if the main motive of a professional football player is to earn a living out of playing football, then what would be the importance of the game of football in this circumstance? Hence, in relation to this paper, the answer to the question of “What is a football player?”, it would be determined as a person who plays football and while playing it, happens to earn a living out of it, with playing the game on a higher importance of earning money. This definition is determined because of the origins of football as a game started “for gentlemen only” with money not an important factor for playing the game.

Modernised football was, according to Murray, was invented by the “old boys [of English public schools] who, having entered business or professional life and being anxious to continue playing their favourite game from their university days” . Coming from different universities and used to playing under different sets of rule, they had set a common set of rules which provided the foundations for the later determination of national rules for the game. As such, the beginnings of the game had no relation to any monetary aspect. However, this was to change over time and as football became more of a spectator sport and one which merely satisfy the players. The first football clubs formed in England consist mainly of these “old boy” players who more often came from the upper classes families and were already living comfortably without the need of extra income from playing the sport.

This was to change by the end of the 19th century with the influx of the working class in the game. To the working class, professional football was “competitive [and] commercialised, [and was] a presitigious (sic) occupation to which many young working-class men aspire” . This can be seen as the earliest sight of commercialisation of football which the importance of monetary benefits outweighs the motivation of the game. The football player is still a football player, but now a more professionalised and commercialised one.

2. Introduction

This paper aims to analyse the effects of commercialisation of football still renders the football player to be a sportsman instead of having the identity of the sportsman being eroded by the process of commercialisation. Since the modernisation of football since the mid 19th century, football is not longer a game played between two sides under make shift rules compromised by both parties. With the founding of the Football Association in London in 1863, the rules of the game was laid down and set to be universally accepted.

The modernisation of professional sports led to the development of spectator sports and mass viewings of games by not only the upper classes but also the working classes during their off days and leisure time. The development of football as a spectator sport will be further illustrated later in this paper with analysis on its effects on the football player and whether his role as a football player has been diminished due to the pressure of the spectators. The spectators have a direct influence on the process of commercialisation of the game as revenue from the sales of match tickets remains an important source of income for the football club. In an economic sense, the spectators are the consumers of the game, and the football game being the product being sold. In this economic analogy, the identity of the football player would be questioned.

Along with the development of football being a spectator sports, a watershed mark would be the introduction of the media and broadcasting which led to the increase in viewership and allowed spectators from all over the world to indulge in spectator football not just limited to the stands of the football pitch. A new problem arising from this shift of watching football live in the stadium to watching it in the comforts of one’s own home would be the possible negative effects on the football players and also the identity of the game itself. Should a football match be watched from the stadium or from the television? Not only that, the effects of the monetary benefits from broadcasting will also be further evaluated in this paper.

The increasing importance of television and sports can be paralleled with the increasing role of advertising and sponsorships with the game. The greater exposure of the sport among the masses from broadcasting brought about the convenient advertising of commercial brands over the national television. Together with advertising, the increasing number sponsorships and the increasing amount spent by sponsors on football exponentially commercialised the game. This injection of funds into football led to the increasing amount being paid out to the football players. This paper will also plot the effects of this increment in earnings of the football player as a result of commercialisation against the backdrop of whether the main motivation of a football player is that of the game or the monetary benefits.

In all, this paper seeks to highlight these commercial effects on the sport and evaluate if this brought about greater benefits or harm to the development of the sport. Also, in review of the present day persistent effects, this paper aims to plot the growth of trend and speculate if this trend will persist.

3. Football as a Spectator Sport

To place a parameter on when had football became a spectator sport, it would be convenient to use the date of the founding of the Football Association as the start of a revolutionised and modernised game play in England, and also in the world since modernised football originated from England. With the founding of the Football Association, a set of universal rules now governed the game and fair matches can be held between two teams. There was also now a legal body governing the development of the sport. However, football was not only limited to the offshore island of the United Kingdom. It did not take long for the game to be spread across the continent and over to the South Americas and as such, legal governing bodies too sprouted out at those regions. To further integrate the various governing bodies in the various regions, an international governing body of the sport, the FIFA was set up in 1930 .

With a governing body integrating the various football clubs, games can be organised at a more efficient manner guaranteeing the allowance for the growth of supporters of the clubs to watch matches played by the clubs they supported. The first football club was founded in 1857 north of London and was followed by a few other clubs in the following years. All these clubs were founded comprising mainly of alumnus from the British universities and the loyalty lines along with the university the old boys were from. Along these lines, the early clubs were able to find supporters from their Alma Mata.

The early supporting crowds were few, with numbers not reaching 10 000 at the finals for the FA Cup until 1885. Hence the game was not so much as a game played for the spectators as it was played for themselves. However, by the late 1880s, crowds watching the FA Cup “increased dramatically” and in 1901, “a crowd of 110 820 turned up at the Crystal Palace to see Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United contest the final” The dramatic increase in spectators led to the rapid development of the game being a spectator sport. With that many supporters, winning and losing a game now no longer affects only the players involved in the game, the supporters are also directly affected when the club wins or loses. Hence, there is now a need for the football players to please their supporters by winning games rather than merely to win it for themselves. This dilutes to the motivation of self while intensifying the outside motivation of the crowds.

English league match attendances were generally stable over the years from 1922 to 1999, peaking in the late 1940s to early 1950s at more than 40 million , but contrastingly, average admission prices rose by 8 times the real value in 1999 since 1926. Gate revenues too exponentially increased from £1.352 million in 1926 to £312.056 million in 1999. The revenue collected from stadium tickets increased the price of the game from the spectators’ point of views.

4. Broadcasting

Football as a spectator sport is not just limited to the crowds at the football stadiums but also the supporters who support their clubs back at home while viewing the game from another media. This comes in the form of broadcasting of live matches. Broadcasting started out with radio broadcasting as with many people owned a relatively cheap transmitter piece. The first radio commentary of a match was broadcasted by the British Broadcasting Corporation in January 1927 of the match between Arsenal and Sheffield United. However, in the early days, there were concerns that live commentary would affect attendances in the stadium, leading to a drop in revenue from ticket sales. A broadcasting ban was thus imposed in 1931 which lasted until after the Second World War. Only cup matches and international matches were exempted from the ban.

The first televised broadcasted match was the international match between England and Scotland on 9 April 1938. It was followed by the broadcasting of the FA Cup final between Sunderland and Preston North End three weeks later. However, the broadcasting of live matches was not regular in those early days, occasionally there were televised highlights of football matches from 1955. Not many people owned a television set in the early days so the outreach of televised broadcasting in the early days was not significant and its effects were also negligible. Most supporters still dutifully went to the stadiums in support of their favourite club.

Broadcasting marked a turning point in the process of commercialisation of sports because of the very basic fact that with broadcasting came about the injection of large amounts of funds paid out from the rights to broadcast. However, the large amounts paid out by broadcastings rights was not a legacy from the early days of broadcasting. In the early days of live broadcasting, because the BBC and Independent Television operated from an “informal cartel”, the broadcasting fees were low and proceeds from the fee was divided equally among all the football league members. In 1968, the fee paid out was of a mere £120 000 with each club receiving only £1 300 , but the amount paid out for live broadcasting increased exponentially with a total payment of £534 000 with each club receiving £5 800 in 1979. This amount continued to rise.

Another watershed mark in the course of televised broadcasting was the formation of the Premier League in 1992. This new Premier League had its own governing body negotiating broadcasting fees among other economic issues. Also with the Premier League consisting of the best 22 clubs in England, the Premier League was on a better bargaining position. This resulted in the initial five-year contract worth £304 million, a far cry from the first payment of broadcasting fees. Its subsequent four-year extension was more than doubled with £743 million being paid out by the broadcasting corporations. However, the proceeds from the television broadcasts were not equally paid out to the clubs, rather, the proceeds were distributed according to the final placement in the league. The higher placed clubs were awarded with a higher paid out than the lower placed clubs.

With this system being in place, there is a greater drive for clubs to strive to do well in the league and earn a higher place finish to be rewarded with a larger pay out from the broadcasters. The equation is further complicated with the introduction of the UEFA Champions League. The Champions League has its own broadcasting rights sold to an international broadcaster, and broadcasting to many other countries in the world. Hence a higher placement in the league would ensure that the clubs can get to play in Europe and thus earning the international broadcasting fees from the UEFA.

In the earlier analogy of football being a commodity to be sold, and in the context of the rising broadcasting payouts, the commodity of football is becoming more and more costly even though the consumers are not directly affected by the rise in costs. The football players being the agent selling the commodity, now have to justify the rising price of football, but in justifying the high price of football, the question regarding their identity as a player would be yet again debated. As a football player in the sense of the definition drawn up in earlier in this paper, the football player’s mentality towards the game should not have changed no matter how different the circumstances now, and that the main focus of him is to play the game and win the matches but the pressure of the price of the game now weighs heavily on the shoulders of the football players.

Also, with the introduction of international broadcasting, football matches from Europe is broadcasted outside Europe in the Americas and in Asia, the further increases the viewership of the game and expand the supporting bases. Previously, the football player would only have to contend in playing football for his supporters in the region, now have to contend in entertaining viewers from all over the world. Lest not discuss about the identity of the football player turning from a club player playing in the region to an internationally recognised player, the motivation of the football player has still shifted.

5. Advertising and Sponsorships

Advertising is the making use of sports by commercial companies to directly or indirectly promote their products which might or might not be related to the sport. According to Hargreaves, business sponsorships want to make use of sports to “secure what [they] consider an appropriate image of the sponsor” and this in turn helps them “achieve a specific marketing objective”. In contrast with advertising, business sponsorships “establishes a closer relationship between corporate capital and sport” but both share the same aims in the making use of media coverage to expose themselves to a wider range of potential customers. In making use of these sportsmen to sell the commercial products, sportsmen have become the role of the salesmen in the analogy used throughout in this paper.

After the growth of television broadcasting especially, sponsors have been attracted to sponsoring football clubs as that would guarantee 90 minutes of television exposure for the commercial company. With shirt sponsorships, the sponsor is given a space on the football jersey of a club and for every match the team plays, the logo of the sponsor would be emblazoned for spectators and viewers to see. This is also advantageous to the football clubs as they are able to earn much revenue from these sponsorships. To the bigger and better known clubs, the sponsorships are worth more than £1 million per annum. The selling of such rights has integrated the cooperation of sports with commercial businesses. And in this commercialisation process has now placed the brands of the sponsors over the name of sports trying to create an illusion of the links between the sponsors and the game.

However, with the sponsorships of shirts guaranteeing the sponsors to 90 minutes of advertising of their company, this degrades the football match to a 90 minute long advertisement, and the football players to actors in an advertisement. As such, the identity of a football player from the earlier definition is eroded as sports becomes commercialised. Although it can still be argued that even with wearing the sponsored jerseys, the mentality of the football player is still him being the football player, the negative impact of these prolonged exposure to sponsorship still affects the spectators and viewers, hence, the perceived image of the football player is tarnished by the mindset the viewers have on him.

Not just football clubs can be sponsored by a commercial company, business enterprises can also sponsor a particular football player or engage him into being a spokesperson for their company and make use of his image in their branding advertisements.

6. Conclusion

Indeed, this commercialisation of sports have brought large injections of funds into the game and with this huge monetary benefits, a football player is no longer a person “who plays football and while playing it, happens to earn a living out of it”, but a person making money out of his ability to play football, and making a large amount of money to be more precise. Furthermore, since the end of the 19th century and the emergence of the working class as a dominant player in the football field, the game was no longer dominated by the comfortable “old boys”.

From the trends plotted out earlier, it is evident that commercialisation of sports is still ongoing and broadcasting payouts will still escalate, especially with the Premier League as exposure of the league is continually widened throughout the world and viewerships too increases. In bid to win deals with the leading football clubs, sponsors will continue to mutually outbid each other and set now records for sponsorship deals. Following the making of sporting superstars, football players are not longer merely football players but also celebrities attracting media coverage subsequent advertisements.

Still, a football player would need to be able to play football or he would not be able to enjoy the monetary benefits and commercialisation of the sport as a football player. As quoted in the book Das Goldene Tor by Norbert Weiss, there is an old Indian saying “Elephant has two kinds of teeth – one to show and one to eat” , the football player has transformed over the years from one who plays football to one who not only plays football but also to earn money."

Even without me giving detailed stuff which I wanted to put in before I submitted the paper, I passed the 3000 word limit easily. This is what I'm comfortable writing.

It's really good to be back in my comfort zone. I haven't been in my comfort zone for a very long time, hence my recent meaniness and irritability and other sort of emo problems. I don't think the essay is at my best though, also because I wasn't putting my whole effort into that paper. I'm graded as pass/fail, so anything that will get me a pass is enough to put me through.

I'll update more decent blog entries later~ and a sidenote: Zurich was not bad, very modern, nothing pretty, very expensive. But my camera broke down, so had to rely on my phone camera, hence not many good quality pictures. That's the reason why I don't think I'll go Prague. No good pictures, really no need bother going... *big sigh* I think this is karma...