The business of Monster Trucks!

In the 1980s, promoters such as the United States Hot Rod Association (USHRA) and TNT Motorsports began racing monster trucks on a regular basis. By 1991, there was a consolidation in the industry when USHRA bought TNT Motorsports and merged the point series. As of 2007, USHRA runs Monster Jam and the Thunder Nationals. Monster Jam is the largest series based on the number of events, which includes freestyle (drivers perform stunts and tricks) and racing competitions. Thunder Nationals is different from Monster Jam because the course is made of concrete rather than dirt, and drivers who are flying their trucks through the air can look forward to rock-hard landings. Big-name trucks, such as Grave Digger and Madusa have taken part in both events.Clear Channel Communications, a broadcasting and entertainment conglomerate that rakes in $9 billion annually, promoted monster truck shows until the end of 2005, which means that the sport was gaining a lot of popularity and was actually worth being broadcasted.

Tourism and sports.

The new trendy thing to to, is to go on vacations in some beautiful place, and compete in whatever sport. Several are the 'vacations offices" that now offer the package hotel-plane ticket-tournament fee and participation.
Famous event such as the the Tour De France, uses the popularity of the sport and creates a few events all over Europe .
People want to go to Africa and drive race cars. Others want to go to the Alpes and run around it and Compete in the North Face Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc ( A famous competition sponsored by The North Face and that gathers the nest runners in the world).
All in all, some sports organizations use nature and beatiful settings in order to make money.

Eating contests

Some people consider this as an insult reguarding developping countries but others think it is amusing and really entertaining.
However, it has become a real businness of yes.... sport! In the year 2002 it has officially been declared a sport! Unbelievable.....
A bunch of national circuits, like the 2007 Hot Dog circuit, have actaully being created, offering entries to several contests, including fastest eating, biggest dish eating, and so on...
The most famous organization is called the IFOCE ( The international federation of competitive eating). The prizes can go up to a few thousand dollars, and the competitors are often sponsored by food brands.

Pool is becoming a real sport.

Pool, snooker, however you want to call it is invading TV broadcasts. Like poker, it as conidered more a leisure than an actual sport that need skills and concentration. Contrarily to many other sports, Pool is not expansive at all and people do not need to belong to a club in order to play it. The price people pay to play pool is tiny. The price varies between 20 cents and a dollar per game.
On TV, pool is becomming more present, as dotations for tournaments become bigger and bigger week in and week out. In Europe, there is a channel especially made for "pool-addicts" and it gets more famous a people start seeing the game as a sport and no longer as a leisure.

Business in Baseball

Forbes magazine featured an article two years ago in which they wrote that the Major League Baseball (MLB) team values rose 15% from 2004 to 2005. That is their biggest gain in since Forbes has tracked the leagues' financial success. The major reason for this is the new ballparks, which attract more fans due to activities and features aside from baseball. Although these stadiums are very costly, the teams don't suffer losses because taxpayers mainly pay the money to put up the new stadium. However, the team still receives all the revenues that go along with the new attraction. The article also features the top ten team values. At top ranks the New York Yankees, owned by the infamous George Steinbrenner. The teams' value is estimated at $950 million, almost twice the value of the second-place Boston Red Sox.

Arena Football Business Rising

With the release of its new video game and in the absence of the NFL, Arena Football is growing into another big professional sport. The players play indoors on a field that is half the length of a regular football field, and there are no sidelines but rather boards along the sides, like hockey boards. There are 20 teams in the league, ranging from all major cities among the U.S. The league was created in 1987, but games weren't regularly shown on t.v. Nowadays, the sport is broadcasted on ABC and ESPN and has regular sponsors. The league is also used as a jumpspring for football players to be drafted by teams in the NFL and get major contracts. As the sport receives more t.v. time, more money will be put into Arena Football by sponsors and the sport will continue to grow.

Tennis

Tennis is a worldwide popular sport with people playing all the time thru out the world. If you drive past a public tennis court you will usually find someone on the courts playing. Whether it be in am or pm. Professional Tennis, is deemed by many as one of the hardest professional sports to compete as it is an extremely lonely sport with the playing not having a team behind him to hide behind if he is playing poorly. However, the rewards for playing well are extremely lucrative. Roger Federer makes millions of $ every year thru prize money and sponsorships from Nike! However, if you are not at the top of ur game week in week out then making a living becomes stressful and hard work.

The NHL

The National Hockey League is the professional ice hockey league in the USA, one which is extremely lucrative. However, like all facetes of live there are those people whom have complaintsabout how it is run and the money involved.In 2006 the players went on strike due to issues about the salary cap system. They deemed that they were not being paid as much money as their other counterparts in the NFL AND MLB the walkout lasted an entire season until finally the players came back without little resolution taking place.

Bowling a Sport?

When one thinks about bowling, professional sport isn't the first thing that comes to mind. However, each Sunday ESPN only features the PBA, or Professional Bowling Association. Though one doesn't need esteemed physical attributes to play, it is a skill that has been taken to the next level. In addition to the help of ESPN, the PBA has also strived from the help of sponsors. Denny's restaurant, Bayer pain relief and Discover credit card are among the many sponsors of the tour. The bowlers also make a pretty decent living, as Doug Kent, the money leader, has racked up $200,000 in earnings in 20 events. In the future, as more sponsors are gained and more viewers watch the sport from both home and live at the tournaments, the earnings and cash prizes of players will rise. This will also encourage more future bowlers. Perhaps within the next decade, the sport is expected to rise in popularity and in money.

The Business of Golf revisited

As the golf season takes full swing with the first major out of the way, the money is rolling in the bank accounts of many golfers on tour. However, not all golfers are in the money as some are already struggling to make enough money to keep their playing rights for the next year. So far the leading money winner has $1.5million and countings. So it seems that some people are having succeses despite the failures of others

Mountain Sports become more expensive year in and year out

Skiing and snowboarding have become luxury sports. A week spent in a skiing resort in the north of Spain, France, Italy, or the United States can cost up to $3000 per person including accomodations, board rent and skiing fees. New snow sports have also been created such as the kite snowboardind which includes a kite and an expensive rescue system.
Snow parachuting is executed from a helicopter from an altitute of about 5000 meters (15000 feet). Snowboarders land on steep slopes that couldn't have been reached by hiking. The last "new sport" is called free riding. Created in the rocky mountains in the late 1980s it is now a very common activity among professional "riders". The best is to rent a helicopter for the day to pick them up at the bottom and drop them at the peaks. Moreover they can change spots and be rescued if something was to happen.
All in all, because of several factors such as globalization, currency change(euros), expensive hotels, new sports, snow sports are becoming as expensive as going fishing or playing a round of golf in some prestigious place.

The Business of N.B.A. Stars

There are many professional basketball players in the N.B.A. that have growing endorsements each year. Ever since Michael Jordan's dominance in the sport, basketball players have seen increasing revenues each year. Young star Lebron James signed a $90 million deal with Nike when he entered the league at 18 years old. This was before he even played a minute in the league. He also receives endorsements by Coca-Cola for the soda Sprite, as well as Jordan's own company, "Jump-Man 23." The image of the N.B.A., however, is a big concern for the commissioner, David Stern. When Kobe Bryant faced rape charges in 2004, he lost some of his major sponsors, which included Sprite. Now, it is young stars like Lebron, Dwyane Wade, and Carmello Anthony that represent the N.B.A. in its main advertising. In addition, they all hold major sponsorships from companies such as Nike, T-Mobile, Sprite, Reebok, and Converse. These deals all add up to over $100 million. As the N.B.A. grows, the league is using its star players to advertise, as well as major companies in the U.S. From Michael Jordan, all the way down, the N.B.A.'s finest have reaped many benefits, and there will be plenty more in the future.

The Business Side of Rugby League

Rugby League is a highly popular sport in the UK. However, it doesnt attract the huge coporate sponsors like the US sports of NFL/MLB etc, despite the huge physical demands of the sport. The players have to place their bodies on the line every day they step on the pitch, for minimum wage of many sportsmen in the world. It is clear that the players are playing for the love of the game as opposed to money and riches. In the UK Rugby League is a blue collar sport with many people from the Northern working towns playing as opposed the more densley populated and richer South of England

The Business Side of the Superbowl

In the past twenty years, the Superbowl has been equally anticipated for its commercials, not just the game itself. In these past twenty years, there have been nearly twelve full hours of commercials during the Superbowl, adding up to $1.5 Billion, states TNS Media Intelligence. Although twelve hours may not seem like much accumulated over twenty years, there has been a significant increase in the amount of commercial time broad-casted during the "Big Game." In this same time period, the cost of a 30 second commercial has quadrupled. This year, it is expected that a 30 second commercial will cost between $2.5 and $2.7 million. Obviously, these companies think it is definitely well worth the money to air these commercials year after year. Companies like Anheuser Busch have had ads every year, spending hundreds of millions of dollars. These are commercials that come to mind when we think about Superbowl commercials, like beer and car commercials. However, most people don't realize that the network hosting the game uses about one fourth of the allotted commercial time for their own advertising. According to TNS, this time is worth an estimated $46 million. In addition to this, companies work hand in hand with the Internet to create double advertising and thus double the amount of revenue. Last year, viewers rushed to the web throughout the game and especially afterwards. GoDaddy.com received the most views, due to their promiscuous commercials featuring gorgeous models, and their website URL. Viewers had no clue what the company was until they viewed the site, which is why so many people visited it. Schemes like these are what makes Superbowl advertising worth every penny. The Superbowl is a money making machine, and with over $140 million viewers expected, it will continue to grow in revenue again this Sunday. Every year, the Superbowl isn't just the game broadcasting, it is everything shown on t.v. between the opening kickoff and final celebration.

Contrary to what we could all think soccer is not "the sport of the poor". Soccer is by far the sport that deals with the biggest amount of money. Not only the players earn a tremendous salary but famous clubs buy player for several hundred millions of dollars. Zinedine Zidane, a former french player (won twice the best football player award) was bought by the REAL MADRID for a record of 500 million dollars. It is very common every year to see players tranferred for several million dollars.
Besides the players earn great incomes. David Beckam is the soccer player the most paid with $10 millions a year (without including cotacts with makes such as Nike, Addidas, or Reebock). Ronaldo follows with $9 million a year, then Zinedine zidane, Christian Vieri, Alessandro Del Piero, and Frank Lampard.
However the player get the most of their money out of advertismen. For instance, Beckam has a contract worth 20 millions a year with sport compagnies. It is now $30 million a year for him!
In addition he also gets a lot of extras from his clubs (as much as $500 000 a year).
The players and clubs aren't the only ones impacted by this great sport. When stadiums host big events such as the World Cup or the European Champions League seats close the the fied can be sold for several hundreds of euros (then resold for ten times more by people!).
Since soccer is player by millions of people all over the world the television broadcasts do get a lot of money. Finally all goods related to soccer are very popular amongst youngsters: soccer balls, soccer shoes, shirts with Barthez, Khan, Deco, Ronaldhino are sold everywhere in the world.

The Business of Golf

These days, golf tournaments are multi-million dollar creations. Professionals play for a total prize fund in excess of $3million. The size of these modern day prize funds dwarf those of two decades ago, when players would play for anything in the region of $500,000. However, the majority of a player's money is made away from the golf course. Tiger Woods, for instance, makes around $10million a year in winnings. That is a tiny amount compared to the $100million he reportedley makes from companies such as Nike, AMEX and Buick. These huge endorsement contracts are fairly common these days, with collegeiate golfers being offered millions of dollars to cut their college careers short and move into the pro ranks. The main complaint many people have around the world is that modern players are more concerned about their pay check than actually winning tournaments, which may be the case with some professionals. However, the majority would still play golf whether they earn't money for it or not. The game of golf is not just a money making business in the USA. Professional golf is spreading at astounding rates all around the globe with prize funds raising by the year in China, Australia and Europe. The driving force for such an astounding increase in money is largely down to one man; Tiger Woods, he has changed the face of the modern game. He has made it "cool" to play golf. Some say he isn't just an ambassador for golf but can touch people much further a field than on the golf course.

The Business of Sport

The Business of Sport