The golden triangle
- Commercialisation is the management of sport to make a profit.
- The golden triangle is the link between sport, sponsorship and the media. Each needs the others: the media pays to show sport; sponsors pay to be seen in the media; sport uses the money to grow.
Sponsorship
- For the performer: money for training, equipment and travel, but pressure to perform and possible links to unsuitable products.
- For the sport: money to develop facilities and grassroots sport, but it may depend on a few sponsors and have rules changed to suit them.
- For the sponsor: publicity and a good image, but bad publicity if the performer behaves badly.
- Some products, such as tobacco, are banned from sponsorship, and there are limits on sponsors linked to gambling and alcohol.
The media
- The media includes TV, radio, newspapers, the internet and social media.
- Positives: more money, more interest and role models, more participation, and education about the sport.
- Negatives: matches scheduled to suit TV, breaks for adverts, pay-to-watch channels that reduce free viewing, and intrusion into performers' private lives.
Technology in sport
- Examples include video review, goal-line technology, Hawk-Eye in tennis and the TMO in rugby.
- Positives: fairer, more accurate decisions and more entertainment for spectators.
- Negatives: cost, delays that break up the game, and less authority for officials.
Key terms
- Commercialisation
- Managing sport to make a profit.
- Golden triangle
- The link between sport, sponsorship and the media.
- Sponsorship
- Money or goods given to a performer or event in return for publicity.
- Media
- Ways of communicating with the public, such as TV and social media.
- Pay-to-view
- TV that viewers must pay extra to watch.
- Hawk-Eye
- Ball-tracking technology used to help officials make decisions.