Corey Kirkland
HIS 350L
Bruce Hunt
12/11/13

Sports, Media, and the Fans: The Business of Selling Sports The relationship between sports and the media has evolved drastically thanks in part to the proliferation of electricity and its resulting technology. This relationship has now become the “defining commercial and cultural connection for both industries at the beginning of the 21st century. The media has transformed sports from an amateur pursuit into a hyper-commercialized industry, while sports have delivered massive audiences and advertising revenues to the media.”1 This symbiotic relationship has taken many shapes throughout the years, and each evolution in sports broadcasting has the intent of constructing larger audiences and markets to create higher revenues no matter the medium. In the long run, the only real loser in the sports broadcasting realm is the obsolete medium. As technology has evolved, the way in which sports have been presented has followed suit. “Over the course of the twentieth-century sport was transformed from a typically ad hoc unregulated amateur activity to one driven by professional standards and accountability at all levels.”2 This change came slowly at first, and has advanced rapidly over the past few decades. Now, due in part to advanced broadcasting techniques, watching live events and highlights of the day’s games can be brought to our fingertips with relative ease.

Sports Coverage Before the Radio Before the broadcasting of sports on radio and television, “the only way of watching a sports contest was to go to the stadium.”3 If you worked during the day (when all games were played due to no lighting at stadiums at the time), your best bet of learning what happened came from reading the newspaper. The relationship between print media and baseball was so simple that there was actually no money involved.