ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on the chapter about baseball (Chapter 4) and explains the organization of professional sports in the USA today. In addition, advantages and problems connected with the professional sport leagues in general and the dominance of pro sport in the US are presented and discussed. Baseball was not the only sport which experienced professionalization at a much earlier period than in other countries. Professional rowers and harness racers competed already during the antebellum era, and in the 1840s pedestrianism became a spectacle for large audiences and an opportunity to earn huge sums of prize money for the athletes. As early as 1844 thirty-seven competitors registered for a foot race in New Jersey that offered $1,000 in prize money. “The contest was to determine who could run the farthest distance in one hour . . . Between 25,000 and 30,000 spectators turned out to watch this event” (Kirsch 1992, 316-322). In the second half of the nineteenth century, athletes competed for salaries in a large number of sports, from billiards to boxing and track and field.
