ABSTRACT
Professional sport, wherever it is played, is the most expensive, most visible and most watched sporting activity. It captures the lion’s share of media coverage, as well as almost all sponsorship revenue and corporate support that is on offer. Professional sport is played in cities all over the world, from Kolkata, India to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Melbourne, Australia, in the very best stadiums (Eden Gardens, Maracana Stadium, Melbourne Cricket Ground), by athletes who often earn, depending on the size of the market, millions of dollars. Professional sport, and the industry that surrounds it, dominates world sport and those who play it are cultural celebrities on a global scale. Local, regional, state and national sport organizations are often geared around feeding professional sport leagues by developing player talent or spectator interest. These same organizations are also often forced, somewhat ironically, to compete in vain with professional sport for media coverage, sponsorship and general support (from fans, governments and communities). At its best, professional sport is the peak of the sports industry that supports those organizations below it by generating fi nancial resources and cultural cachet. At its worst, it is a rapacious commercial animal with an insatiable appetite for fi nancial, cultural and social resources.
