What's the biggest challenge facing professional sports today?

Question

Is it the salaries? Is it the allegations of performance enhancing drugs? Is it the possible interference from gamblers (see today's NBA news)? Or is it something else entirely? What are your thoughts on the current state of pro sports?

Answer 1

In a word it's integrity. The salaries of the players and the profit opportunity for team owners has become so great that everything else is secondary. The league leaders must enforce reasonable rules of behavior and cooperate with policing authorities in order to have competitive sports played by moral athletes that become positive role models for the youth.

Answer 2

I think it's the pressure that's put on it by the public. The public wants their hometown teams to win championships and as a representation of people in that community show others that they're the best. That's a lot of pressure to be under.

Some players because of this pressure deal with it in ways that, while illegal and downright dangerous, seem to help the team out by making them stronger, taking some of the pressure off, or by keeping them on the teams roster. The stress from it might cause a few to even lash out at the public.

Of course, not all players deal with the pressure in this manner. Some push themselves physically but realize their limitations. Some play the game with integrity and show people respect on and off the court. Some use their status and give back to the communities that gave them so much. Some have even sacrificed a season for the sake of their loved ones.

I really hope that overall the scandals that riddle professional sports will be done away with. At the same time though, I'm not going to hold my breath until that happens.

Answer 3

The short answer is a lack of morality. These athletes are coddled from peewee sports until pro. Then the get their huge payoff but don't know how to act like a law abiding citizen, because someone had always cleaned up their mess after them, "for the good of the program." What exacerbates the situation, is that teams are more than happy to pay big money to an athlete as long as he can perform "between the lines." What they need to do is start giving players long suspensions (a la Pacman Jones, only make it for life). Since teams are more than willing to look the other way as long as the athlete performs, the league would have to get involved, but of course the players unions would not stand for that. If one or two times, a player were to be suspended for life they might begin to clean up their act.

I stopped watching pro basketball years ago, it seemed that NBA commissioner David Stern was embracing the bad boy image of the players.

There are far too few players that I can point out to my son as an example of what he should aspire to be. And that is very sad.

Answer 4

I think that one of the main challenges is that it has turned into an industry which involves a lot of money. Several companies invest tons of dollars to sponsor and support their athletes/players, and also to contract new key players.

That puts a lot of pressure into the team and individual. It's not just winning for the joy of it, but also there is a big monetary loss if the team/player looses. So thats why some people go on performance modifing drugs.

On team players, maybe I'm speculating, but maybe there is pressure from companies to have player 'A' score rather than player 'B', so teams might sacrifice a certain score in order to make somebody else try to score.

Gambling? Maybe, but I'm not sure about that.

Answer 5

i think the money is the biggest issue facing pro sports. The average fan cant afford to take the family to a game.The more the players make the less interest i have in the game because its really no longer about the team its about the player . Today you dont know who is on the team and how long they will be there.I grew up a steeler fan in the 70s and the roster didnt change from year to year like it does today.I still follow them but i cant name half the players onthe team.The owners dont care about the fans either for example the bills are 20 mill below the salary cap but raise the rate for parking at the stadium from 15 to 25 bucks. They want us to pay out the butt to watch a team that they are not willing to spend money on to improve.Basicly i feel the biggest challenge facing sports is how to keep the average fans interest without making them pay way too much money to support their team.Most fans are more loyal to their teams than any players or owners whose loyalty is to the almighty dollar!!

Answer 6

Oh yes they are. As George Orwell said "serious sport is war minus the shooting" for both participants and fans. Bill Shankly said "Football is not a matter of life and death. It's more important than that." Felipe Scolari,World Cup winning manager said of international football "It's war out there, and I don't want to get hurt" The Olympic Games and other sporting events in ancient Greece were religious festivals, dedicated to the gods, so gained their importance through being a manifestation of religious devotion and faith.The ancient Greeks were extremely superstitious, and were very chary of doing anything that might upset one or any of their gods.

Answer 7

The biggest challenge is balancing on the field performance with off the field conduct. Will the NFL suspend one of its most exciting players in Michael Vick, even though a court of law has not yet convicted him of the crime? And to argue the other side, will allowing him to play the 07 season be a bad example and taint the league's image?

The difficulty will be deciding how much importance off the field conduct should have.

Answer 8

I myself was a state player in gymnastics. I use to get various prizes in different apparatus of gymnastics at state level. Gymnastics is a game of high skill, to achieve skill one has to under go rigorous training. With all these it is found that authorities managing these games are not knowing the pain of achieving the skills. They play games on papers such that an unskilled participant gets prizes and goes to national level competitions. At the time of competitions he will withdraw stating that he is not well and cant attained competitions. Thus he will get state level participation certificate and this helps him in getting admission easily in professional courses like, B tech, M tech, Medical etc. Poor hard working / practising athlete or gymnast wont even get any certificate even after hard practise round the years. This is the reality which is always suppressed in all the games. I feel that if some one is sponsored for state or national games and he is not attending the / participating at higher level he must be asked to re pay all the money spent to take him to higher competitions not only that his state national certificates must be withdrawn immediately. I feel that all authorities must be state payers and a chance must be given to participant and authorities to raise voice.
Thanks with regards.
Shrikant S. K.

Answer 9

Athletes out and out greed. People who don't care about being honest and truthful any more. Athletes who won't admit they are role models for impressionable children. Dumb sports fans who support all this. I love sports, especially the Tx. teams. I get aggravated about the $$ their paid and some of them can't seem to stay out of the news with steroid usage. A lot of athletes are great and do many good things but we hear more about the downside.

Answer 10

In a word, virtualization.

I don't see why I should run around and do stuff when I'm perfectly happy devolving into a tub of lard doing nothing but eating, digesting, writing, reading, watching TV/DVDs, and maybe walking around a little.