There are two reasons for professional sports. The first is to make money and the second is it makes money.
The Public Relations professional must be actively involved in marketing helping the clients cause or improving the clients’ profits. The PR professional must have known as much about the whole marketing process as the marketing manager.
In the past few years, salaries in professional sports have escalated, with corresponding increases in ticket prices, beyond anything remotely resembling economic good sense. In most cases it is a wise move for players to use agents to negotiate contracts. Many agents are reputable lawyers or accountants who not only negotiate contracts, but also guard the players’ money and investments. Since sports teams are private businesses managed for their owner’s profit, the Public Relations expert is involved at a high level – justifying athletes’ high salaries, encouraging attendance for winning and losing teams, arranging appearances for player to personalize the teams’ public image and creating special events to keep the interest alive when the play on the field is dull.
A new area of investing in a team is the selling of “official” team representation. Local and national companies are willing to pay handsomely to become an official sponsor or provider. The public relations team must take part in attempting to attract bidders and then letting the community know who the major sponsors and providers are for the team.
In order to be considered a success, a major sports team must be as successful at the bank as they are at the stadium. This is aided by a strong, knowledgable public relations team
A sport is an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. Activities such as card games and board games, are classified as "mind sports" and some are recognized as Olympic sports, requiring primarily mental skills and mental physical involvement. Non-competitive activities, for example as jogging or playing catch are usually classified as forms of recreation.
Physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first often define the result of a sport. However, the degree of skill and performance in some sports such as diving, dressage and figure skating is judged according to well-defined criteria. This is in contrast with other judged activities such as beauty pageants and body building, where skill does not have to be shown and the criteria are not as well defined.
Records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news. Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition. However, professional sport is a major source of entertainment.
While practices may vary, sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, and observe standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.
Sportsmanship is an attitude that strives for fair play, courtesy toward teammates and opponents, ethical behaviour and integrity, and grace in victory or defeat.[9][10]
Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake. The well-known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice, that it's “not that you won or lost but how you played the game," and the Modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing... is not winning but taking part" are typical expressions of this sentiment.
Violence in sports involves crossing the line between fair competition and intentional aggressive violence. Athletes, coaches, fans, and parents sometimes unleash violent behaviour on people or property, in misguided shows of loyalty, dominance, anger, or celebration. Rioting or hooliganism are common and ongoing problems at national and international sporting contests.
[edit] Professional sports

Modern sports have complex rules and are highly organized.
Main article: Professional sport
The aspect of sports, together with the increase of mass media and leisure time, has led to professionalism in sports. This has resulted in some conflict, where the paycheck are more important than recreational aspects, or where the sports are changed simply to make them more profitable and popular, thereby losing certain valued traditions.
The entertainment aspect also means that sportsmen and women are often elevated to celebrity status in media and popular culture.
[edit] Politics | This article needs additional citations for verification.
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Main article: Politics and sports
At times, sports and politics can have a large amount of influence on each other.
When apartheid was the official policy in South Africa, many sports people, particularly in rugby union, adopted the conscientious approach that they should not appear in competitive sports there. Some feel this was an effective contribution to the eventual demolition of the policy of apartheid, others feel that it may have prolonged and reinforced its worst effects.[11]
The 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin was an illustration, perhaps best recognised in retrospect, where an ideology was developing which used the event to strengthen its spread through propaganda.
In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were connected with cultural nationalism. Until the mid 20th century a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other sports administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) if she/he played or supported Football, or other games seen to be of British origin. Until recently the GAA continued to ban the playing of Football and rugby union at Gaelic venues. This ban is still enforced, but was modified to allow football and rugby to be played in Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was redeveloped into Aviva Stadium. Until recently, under Rule 21, the GAA also banned members of the British security forces and members of the RUC from playing Gaelic games, but the advent of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the eventual removal of the ban.
Nationalism is often evident in the pursuit of sports, or in its reporting: people compete in national teams, or commentators and audiences can adopt a partisan view. On occasion, such tensions can lead to violent confrontation among players or spectators within and beyond the sporting venue (see Football War). These trends are seen by many as contrary to the fundamental ethos of sports being carried on for its own sake and for the enjoyment of its participants.
[edit] Physical art

Gymnastics
Sports have many affinities with art. For example, figure skating, drum corps, skateboarding, artistic gymnastics, dancesport, and Tai chi can be considered artistic spectacles. Similarly, there are other activities that have elements of sport and art in their execution, such as bodybuilding, free running, martial arts, professional wrestling, performance art, Yoga, dressage, and culinary arts. Perhaps the best example is bull-fighting, which in Spain is reported in the arts pages of newspapers.
All sports involve physical and mental activities that are pursued for more than simply utilitarian reasons. For instance, running, when done as a sport, occurs for reasons beyond simply moving from one place to another. Value is gained from this activity when it is conducted simply for its own sake. This is similar to the concept of aesthetic value, which is seeing something over and above the strictly functional value coming from an object's normal use. For instance, an aesthetically pleasing car is one which doesn't just get from A to B, but which impresses with its grace, poise, and charisma. In the same way, a sporting performance such as jumping doesn't just impress as being an effective way to avoid obstacles. It impresses because of the ability, skill, and style that is demonstrated in its performance.
Art and sports were clearly linked at the time of Ancient Greece, when gymnastics and calisthenics invoked admiration and aesthetic appreciation for the physical build, prowess and 'arete' displayed by participants. The modern term 'art' as skill, is related to this ancient Greek term 'arete'. The closeness of art and sport in these times was revealed by the nature of the Olympic Games, which were celebrations of both sporting and artistic achievements, poetry, sculpture and architectures.
[edit] Technology | This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (July 2010) |

Golf, a dexterity sport.
Technology has an important role in sports, whether applied to an athlete's health, the athlete's technique, or equipment's characteristics. * Equipment - As sports have grown more competitive, the need for better equipment has arisen. Golf clubs, bicycles, American football helmets, tennis racquets, baseball and cricket bats, Football(Association Football), hockey skates, and other equipment have all seen considerable changes when new technologies have been applied. * Health - Ranging from nutrition to the treatment of injuries, as the knowledge of the human body has deepened over time, an athlete's potential has been increased. Athletes are now able to play to an older age, recover more quickly from injuries, and train more effectively than previous generations of athletes. * Instruction - Advancing technology created new opportunities for research into sports. It is now possible to analyse aspects of sports that were previously out of the reach of comprehension. Being able to use motion capture to capture an athlete's movement, or advanced computer simulations to model physical scenarios has greatly increased an athlete's ability to understand what they are doing and how they can improve themselves.
[edit] Terminology

Show Jumping, an equestrian sport.
In British English, sporting activities are commonly denoted by the mass noun "sport". In American English, "sports" is more used. In all English dialects, "sports" is the term used for more than one specific sport. For example, "football and swimming are my favourite sports", would sound natural to all English speakers, whereas "I enjoy sport" would sound less natural than "I enjoy sports" to North Americans.
The term "sport" is sometimes extended to encompass all competitive activities, regardless of the level of physical activity. Both games of skill and motor sport exhibit many of the characteristics of physical sports, such as skill, sportsmanship, and at the highest levels, even professional sponsorship associated with physical sports. Air sports, billiards, bridge, chess, motorcycle racing, and powerboating are all recognized as sports by the International Olympic Committee with their world governing bodies represented in the Association of the IOC Recognised International Sports Federations.[12]
[edit] Spectator sport
Main article: Spectator sport
As well as being a form of recreation for the participants, much sport is played in front of an audience. Most professional sport is played in a 'theatre' of some kind; be it a stadium, arena, golf course, race track, or the open road, with provision for the (often paying) public.

Australian Rules Football
Large television or radio audiences are also commonly attracted, with rival broadcasters bidding large amounts of money for the 'rights' to show certain fixtures. The football World Cup attracts a global television audience of hundreds of millions; the 2006 Final alone attracted an estimated worldwide audience of well over 700 million. The Cricket World Cup is another sporting event which attracts a global audience. The 2007 Cricket World Cup attracted about 2.3 Billion viewers all over the world. In the United States, the championship game of the NFL, the Super Bowl, has become one of the most watched television broadcasts of the year. Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday in America; the viewership being so great that in 2007 advertising space was reported as being sold at $2.6m for a 30 second slot.
[edit] Youth Sports
Participating in sports play a large role in a child’s life. NFL quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning and Mark Sanchez began their football career in high school.
The benefits of playing youth sports may include: * Better grades * Less risk of drug or alcohol use * Chance at sports scholarships * Health Benefits
The biggest risk for youth sports is the increased risk of injury, including concussions and gym class injuries.[13]

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