ABSTRACT
Unlike at the youth and college sports levels, there is little question about the role of the golden triangle in professional sports. The emphases on commercialism and money are key elements of the definition of professional sport. There may be disagreements about how much professional athletes should be paid. But unlike college sports, pay for play is an accepted part of pro sports. As in these other sports realms, the amount of money invested in professional sports by the media and sponsors has increased, and the amount paid to athletes and coaches has also increased over the past few decades. Clashes have occurred between players and management over money and working conditions on a number of occasions in different professional sports during this period. Until the 1970s, professional athletes in the most popular North American sports leagues were largely restricted in the amount they could earn and the team for which they could play. It took legal battles and the kind of labor activism the Northwestern football players were seeking for pro athletes to achieve the economic freedom and legal rights they have today. With so much more money pumped into professional sports by the golden triangle, there is much more at stake today when athletes negotiate their individual contracts and when player unions negotiate their collective bargaining agreements. Conflicts over money, collective bargaining, strikes, and lockouts are not what fans want to see in professional sports, but they have become part of the game in these sports.
