ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of sports since the 1970s has turned the activity into an important sector of the world’s economy. In the United States alone, sport generates business worth approximately US$ 250 billion a year, making it one of the top ten industries in the country (Longman 2001a: 1). Consumers of the European Union’s 15 member states spent almost 34 billion euros on sports goods in 1999 (Sports Industries Federation 2001). In the United Kingdom, the sports market has grown by 15 per cent in value and 31 per cent in volume since 1994 and in Japan, the industry was worth 1.26 billion yen (approximately US$ 10 million) in 1999 (Sports Industries Federation 2001a; 2001b). Three factors have been largely responsible for turning sports into a highly commercialized activity in the past 30 years: the change of Olympic eligibility rules in 1972, which formally opened the door to professional athletes; the development of leisure-centred societies in Western countries; and globalization.
