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