Why The United States Should Adopt European Sports Systems
Today, the United States has a seemingly very solid and undoubtedly functional sports system for multiple sports like the NBA for basketball & the NFL for football, etc. Sports are the biggest entertainment for the American people and have been on top for as long as most of us can remember. Everyone watches sports, from children who dream to become top athletes and idolize the greatest players our leagues have ever known to adults who gather for parties around the television and religiously attend games cross country to show their support. Sports is a big deal in the United States and because of this, you’d think that someone would have looked at the way the Europeans are stringing their leagues together through various systems and think to themselves, “Maybe we should integrate some of these systems into our sports over here”. Europeans run things much differently than we do and I believe that we could learn a lot from them and benefit greatly if we would pick up on some of their systems in the future.
Promotion and Relegation is a very simple and sensible way of controlling the skill level of leagues and has been used by Europe in various sports since they began playing them. In this system, teams either advance or become relegated (dropped down to the league under their current one). For example, the bottom three teams in League A at the end of the season will drop down to League B while the top three teams of League B will be promoted into League A. This system provides a much more competitive environment because it keeps all teams motivated to win their games whether they're on the top or the bottom due to fear of relegation for lower ranked teams. It also motivat...
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...ne their skills through the years until they are not wanted or are pushed up through to the top team by playing for various other teams of different age levels under the same club name. In the academy, players are fed specific meals at specific times each and every day to maintain a healthy diet to prepare them for the lifestyle they’ll be living if they become professional players.
The United States enjoys sports as a top form of entertainment today and Europe has various systems they implement into their leagues to keep their sports as interesting and enjoyable as possible, more so than any other part of the world. If the United States picked up some of these systems and integrated them into their leagues and teams, it would surely be controversial but all in all, most would accept it and in time, it interest would grow and entertainment level would increase.
If I had the opportunity to create a new college sport system, it would not look anything like the current system American colleges use today. My system would rid of college athletics and create a separation between athletics and higher education. According to the Pew Research Center 47% of Americans believe the purpose of college is to teach work related skills while 39% feel that it is to help students grow personally and intellectually (PewResearchCenter, 2011). Personally I feel that the point of college is higher education, meaning that the skills and knowledge learned in college are meant to create a valuable and productive member in society. The education from college should be specific to what a person plans to do with the rest of their life. Of all of the sports played professionally around the world, many athletes’ careers are short lived. The average career of an athlete in each of the fo...
Association such as the NFL and NBA aren't filled with a lot of people. Barely anybody will actually make it that far, and some people practice for countless hours. "According to a poll from last year only 7.6% of highschool athletes play for college level sports, and only 1.7% go pro from college sports. And when you think about it people who play for college had to practice for such a large amount of time and there not even pro (Manfred)!" So why should the 55.5% of students who play ...
Although many sports are not considered American-made like soccer, basketball is one of the few sports that began in America. In fact, it is the only major sport that can be considered American-made (Encyclopedia.com Basketball). The inventor of basketball
...nged other soccer leagues in Europe as well the struggling NFL. The ASL’s stars would eventually lead the United States to a third-place finish in the very first soccer World Cup in 1930. Soccer almost became a major sport in the USA. But, just before the 1930 World Cup, disaster struck. The ASL clashed with the USFA (United States Football Association) because the ASL wanted to use rules that were never used before in soccer. The ASL was eventually brought to an end in 1933. Although this was a big tragedy for American soccer, it has started to show signs of life again. Soccer has started to gain popularity again, with top players from around the world playing in America’s MLS (Major League Soccer), and many fans cheering on MLS teams and the USA national soccer team. If this continues, then, maybe one day, American soccer will return to its illustrious golden age.
...t very seriously and expend most of their free time trying to get better. In the United States, though, this is virtually reversed. This is not to imply that countless players at all strata in the U.S. do not take the sport as earnestly or try as much as their European counterparts. However, soccer is placed neatly on a high shelf next to tennis and golf, written off for the large part as a sport of the affluent and wealthy. Masculinity also plays a role, as many see football to be much manlier, played traditionally by the archetypal jock. Major League Soccer (MLS) achieves only a fraction of the viewership of the National Football League (NFL). Matches are only broadcast on national networks once in a blue moon, if at all. It is plain to see, especially at U of M, how little emphasis is placed on soccer in comparison to football. One need only to follow the money.
Sports in the United States are not only looked at as entertainment, but a way of life. Baseball once looked at as Americas pass time has taken a back seat. College football changed American culture by opening doors for masculinity, feminism, race diversity and the, disconnect between athletes and the general population.
1. It has become much harder to identify the true and amateur-taught values around sport in our culture. The passion for competition, the aspect of a team, and the actions of sportsmanship are deep values that sports act to instill. It becomes one of the most important ways to teach those values to our young and unfortunately is becoming easy to forget. Throughout the semester we scrutinized sports, looking at their influence, role, and meaning in our American society today. Two foundations to view sport, critical and functionalist theory, were brought upon early in the semester, laying groundwork for looking at the rest of the topics. To better understand these two view points a working definition of each is needed. The three C’s of: capitalism, coercion and commercialism help describe the critical/conflict theory and view of sport in our United States. When looking with this viewpoint some of sport’s purposes in society include, promoting and expanding capitalistic drives as well as showing the power and privilege of elite groups within society. (Coakley, 2001) On the contrary the ...
Abstract: Society is affected every day by many different kinds of sports. These sports often govern society's way of life. People all over the nation turn their TVs to sporting events, such as golf, during the weekends. Scott Stossel states that "more than six million Americans enjoy watching golf on the weekends." Parents use sports as a teaching tool for their children. Kids learn teamwork and discipline from team sports programs and sports have also helped many students with their grades. Kids who want to compete in school sports are taught to keep their grades up or they won't be able to play, but the greedy coaches and schools often look around grades to keep their "star athletes" in the games. Adults have been affected by sports in their bank accounts. Tax increases for funding a new stadium, golf course and even school programs have hurt the middle class Americans. Sports have taken control of small communities and soon will take control of society
Sports have been played all around the world for hundreds of thousands of years. Its help shaped the way we live as human beings. Everything reveals around sports these days. Take baseball for example, it’s has grown to be known as Americas past time. Mainly because it has help shaped America. How? Why? You may ask yourself. Baseball has been a sport that has been around for a long time all the way it roots date back to the late 1800. However it didn’t really get popular until the 1860. During this time America was going throw some difficulty’s because of World War 2 with Germany becoming an ultimate power house and African Americans not having equal rights. People turned to sports to put their minds to ease however African Americans wanted to be equal as well but people weren’t not giving them the respect they wanted to revise.
Sports were created for the enjoyment of beings and friendly competition. Today society has shifted the friendly competition to more of a money based system rather than fun and games. The typical athletes’ road to success is starting from a young age, playing in high school, and then receiving a scholarship for College and all athletes overall objective is to constantly get better and play professionally. Universities have really manipulated athletes in the world today giving them “free education” for the exchange of their blood, sweet, and tears, while they receive revenue that athletes bring in yearly. It is very evident that College athletes deserve to be paid, and universities need to find a way to pay them a reasonably amount because of all the revenue they bring into each of their universities.
Sports may have impacted our culture much more then we thought it would, and keeps impacting. Sports have affected some of the most important aspects of life, such as jobs and money. It has also affected things as little as who we look up to and how we dress. Culture means “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” The definition of sports is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” So when we put two and two together we get a a nation or world that has changed due to sports. Back in the mid and late 1900’s sports were used to see whose way of life was better. As time went on and keeps going on, we
Hundreds of millions of people around the world play or watch soccer. There are more than one hundred and fifty professional leagues in the world for soccer. While America has one major soccer league in the country Europe has a handful. Soccer is becoming more popular in America, but is far from having the popularity similar to overseas. Soccer has progressed in America from the North American Soccer League to Major League Soccer. The fact is, soccer overseas has had more time to grow and develop. In time, the MLS can become a powerhouse for soccer in the world alongside the premier leagues.Eventually, the MLS will compete with the pace, shots, and skills observed on and off the ball.
"Money makes the world go 'round." Sports could not exist without the presence of money. You have high paid athletes asking for multi-million dollar contacts, while at the same time you have doctors not even making close to that amount. There are corporations buying out sports teams, buying stadiums, and buying everything that has to do with sports. Someone may ask why they do this. Sports are one of the most profitable industries in the world. Everyone wants to get their hand on a piece of the action. Those individuals and industries that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these sports teams are hoping to make a profit, but it may be an indirect profit. It could be a profit for the sports club, or it could be a promotion for another organization (i.e. Rupert Murdoch, FOX). The economics involved with sports has drastically changed over the last ten years. In the United States, we spend about 13% of all money on sports and entertainment. Sports has obviously done its job; entertained and drained money out of our pockets.
“Sports are for fun, but they also offer benefits and lessons that carry over into all aspects of life”. This well-known anonymous quotation conveys the message that sport is the game which has some rules and custom. It is not only for fun and entertainment, but there are also some benefits of playing sports and which gives some important lessons for life. Every kind of physical sports is healthy because it involves running, jumping, stretching, mind skills and much more. There are so many sports available in the world nowadays, but we can categorize them by the numbers of players, the three main categories are individual sport, dual sport and team sport.
...cated and very expensive. Nobody has ever imagined things we have accomplished in our day and age so sports is just another one of those great achievements.