Introduction
Over the course of the two weeks that we, the students of the University of Memphis and the University of Maryland, spent in London I was able to grasp much information surrounding sport and leisure in the global marketplace. Some of the main things I acquired include the globalization of sport and its connection between the global and the local mentioned by Dr. Andrews, the four C’s in the new global marketing experience mentioned by Dr. Amis, and the five key strategies in the lecture titled “The Paradoxes of London: Place, People, and the Past” mentioned by Dr. Silk. Previously, before the study abroad trip I had no clue as to how some of these concepts could connect to organizations and how it can even be closely related to business. Throughout the readings however, I was able to grasp the knowledge of how companies and organizations can be globalized throughout the world as society knows it today. I believe that the visits we had each day during our trip was a critical factor of us learning more about how these companies work in the UK. The cultural glocalization scramble, Twickenham Stadium, RFU, Sky Sports, DCMS, Octagon Sports, Tottenham, Visit Britain, and finally VISA were all magnificent sites. They helped us to relate the concepts that we learned throughout the readings prior to the trip and also the topics that we discussed about in class. This trip was summarized around the term “globalization”, which in the articles that we read, can be defined in many different ways. Globalization and internationalism, global sport, global sport capital and sponsorship, global sport media, global sport ‘bodies’, and global sport spaces were all topics that we discussed about before our trip and now that the program is over I will be able to analysis more on these topics and how I saw them while in London and in each visit that we as a class participated in. Also, throughout this paper I will elaborate more on the term “globalization” and how it is spread across the world today into business, economy, and most importantly sport.
Theorizing Globalization and Internationalism
As previously mentioned, globalization is one of the key terms that was discussed both before and during the study abroad trip. I mentioned that in some of the articles that we read, each author throughout each passage had a different perception on how they think globalization could be defined as. According to “A Globalizing World”, the article basically summarized globalization as drugs, crime, sex, war, disease, people, ideas, images, news, information, entertainment, pollution, goods, and money (Cochrane and Pain, 2000: 6). From what I learned from our discussions, specifically Ben Carrington’s lecture, globalization can definitely be summarized into this definition. His lecture on sport, race, and English identity sums up this meaning from “A Globalizing World”. People, news, and information are some of the main points that I captured from Mr. Carrington. People are one of the key points in his argument of sport, race, and English identity in which he states, “People in England come from all over the world, especially northern Africa and southeast Asia.” I found interesting civic and ethnic nationalism which more than anything can relate to this specific definition of globalization. Civic nationalism is defined as an individual belonging to a nation by civic identities, while ethnic refers to someone needing to be on the same blood-line. Globalization involves many things surrounding a particular nation, some of which that can be found in nationalism. Mr. Carrington stated that symbols play an important role in nationalism and some example of these may include a nation’s flag, national anthem, allegiance, and finally their school systems. According to “Globalization, Athletic Footwear Commodity Chains and Employment Relations in China”, globalization was defined as an economic process characterized by the growing integration of national economies coordinated by multinational companies (Frenkel, 2001: 532). Similar to the previous description of globalization in the earlier quote, this meaning can coincide with Mr. Carrington’s idea as well. Sport is a contested arena through which to understand dynamics of race, nation and class. Globalization can be spread from one specific region to another and it can lead to the integration of another company in a new country. I have learned that once this process has started it can continue for a long period of time. Throughout some of the readings in our first topic we learned about some of the main ideas that go along with globalization. Stretched social relations, intensification of flows, interpenetration, and global infrastructure are a few of these concepts. Along with these terms I would like to add a term that Dr. Andrews stressed from the first day, “glocalization”. I stated in my first topic that of all the terms stretched social relations is one of the most important. Why is it important you may ask? Well considering how many businesses and organizations there are in the world today one needs to be connected with them in some type of way. Stretched social relations can be described as networking across the world in a cultural, economic, and political point of view. On our visit to Octagon, they stressed to us the importance of networking and getting our names out there to other individuals and companies. They didn’t just mention this statement because they are a worldwide sports agency, but because they see us future professionals in the sports-business world and while we are still in school it is important to build up our contacts for future references. While on the subject concerning social relations, glocalization can be mentioned in this discussion as well. Glocalization was one of the most important terms that I learned about over the span of two weeks. The term includes homogenization, heterogenization, something, and nothingness variables. During our first day the scramble really showed me the difference between the global and the local and vice versa. Some of the sites we visited that day were local in a sense that some things you wouldn’t find in any other place but London, and some were global in which you could find everywhere in the world. Of these places I believe that most of them were global rather than local. Harrods was an upscale Macy’s with not that much British feel, Nike Town London consisted of most items that you could find back in the states, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, and Covenant Garden seemed like places you could find in New York besides the traditional magicians that were there (probably the only local sense I saw), and finally the Sports Café was far from local on the spectrum seeming as though they didn’t have any American hot dogs left to eat. Globalization and internationalism can be summarized into one genuine sense and that is the boundaries serve to express, represent, and reinforce the boundary definition of the nation and also to unite the members inside through a common imagery of shared memories, myths, and values.
Theorizing Global Sport
The theory of global sport spreading across the world today is quite prevalent and in my opinion is a great idea. In one of my earlier topics, I mentioned about globalization, particularly involved in sport, around the world today. Globalization can be quite important and beneficial. An example of how beneficial globalization on sport can be includes the diversity in athletes’ origins participating in many of the professional leagues around the world (Thibault, 2009: 3). Along with this example, you could include the different companies and organizations that put forth the effort to televise and spread sport even further past the local area. Global sport was a key discussion that I had in topic two of my readings, and I have gained even more incite now that I have actually been to London. According to “Globalization of Sport: An Inconvenient Truth” the virtues of globalization and sport are “unique in its ability to bridge differences (Thibault, 2009: 5). From this quote, I summarized that sport and globalization come together and can attract anything no matter how different they are from one another. While in London, I could see this theory being put into effect when I visited with my visit to Twickenham Stadium and RFU, DCMS, English Premier League, and Octagon Sports. Twickenham Stadium and RFU basically come together since they are both surrounded around the sport of rugby. Although rugby is not popular in America, I could see that internationally and especially in Europe it is a growing sport. I believe that one of the main reasons why it is a growing sport is because our presenter mentioned, “Rugby was formerly known as a family oriented sport” which makes it easier for them to attract fans and families. RFU’s mission statement states, “We as an organization will lead, promote, and govern the whole of English rugby union with expertise”. Once I heard this statement I immediately thought, how and can they do this? I learned a great deal of information from Andreas and Natalie since their visit was on rugby. It is not a popular sport globally, but only present in the UK. Now that I have discussed briefly about rugby I would like to move my attention towards DCMS. The Department of Culture, Media, and Sport is an organization that the government is involved with and they are mainly responsible for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Throughout this lecture, I was able to grasp that they represent a world class performance. The money that they invest is targeted at those who will likely deliver Olympic and Paralympic medals. Their investment, I think, can be compared to VISA as well, which I will discuss more about in my section of sport capital and sponsorship. The English Premier League is a great example of how an organization can spread sport globally also. Our presenter, on this particular visit, displayed a chart that showed the percentage of people across the world that watch “futbol” and how they are trying to increase the ratings each year. It is quite evident that other regions of the world watch the teams that are in the Premier League since these teams visit them each year, clubs such as Tottenham and Arsenal visiting different parts of the globe each summer. Finally, the essential motive as to why the impact of globalization on sports has continued includes the migration of athletes, global sport-media complex, and environment (Thibault, 2009: 9). Octagon Sports is the organization that could fit well under this category. A worldwide sports agency, Octagon has 76 offices in 22 countries, which I did not know at the time and found extremely interesting. They represent athletes from everywhere around the world and better yet they communicate with each other around the globe. While a person in LA working with Octagon Sports may be working on a project and send it to another individual working in Australia. In a matter of a day a group project can be completed just because of how many offices there are around the world. The migrations of athletes, global sport complex, and especially the environment are shown throughout this company and with some of the Olympic athletes that they are representing this summer in London.
Global Sport Capital and Sponsorship
Global sport capital and sponsorship as well as global sport media are the two most exciting sections of this entire study abroad program. Octagon Sports and VISA are two of the main visits that had a good focus on sport capital and sponsorship. Octagon Sports is a sports agency so it automatically has to have athletes that have sponsorships from companies around the world. Also since Octagon Sports has 76 offices around the globe that means that they have tons of athletes that they represent. I visited their website and some of the people that they represent around the world include Randy Johnson, Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies, and a list of other Olympics athletes participating in this year’s 2012 Olympics.
The 2012 London Olympics is the key sponsor that organizations want to be under since that will attract numerous people because that is the main event going on in London right now. While in London, every time I tuned it on the radio, the television, or even social networks I would see commercials that were sponsored by the 2012 Olympics. There was a commercial of a local cellular phone company in London and in this particular commercial there were a group of people from a different part of the world, possibly Mexico. These individuals of diverse culture were staying with British people from the area of London and the groups of people were on the internet talking to their families back home about the environment of the Olympics. Afterwards, you could see the sponsorship by London 2012 and the Olympic games posted in the corner. This particular commercial was in depth and could be analyzed into how many people from around the world are coming to London this summer and also how big these games will be for both the city of London and organizations and companies as well. This is just one of the many ways sponsorship was spread just throughout television. You could see the sponsors on buildings and signs as well throughout London as well as on the tubes. In each tube station you could see animated pictures of people that helped prepare for the Olympics this summer as well. Throughout my readings I made a comment surrounding the deals on athletes. I stated that it is quite evident that the key players are the more skilled players who are offered better contracts which are contingent upon those skills. Now that I have had lectures and discussions on this topic I think otherwise, especially our lecture from Chris Foy representing VISA. Chris Foy’s major topic throughout his lecture was of Usain Bolt and how he is being sponsored by numerous companies, one of which including VISA. Usain Bolt is everywhere in the city of London on local signs, on taxis, and especially in Stratford where this is a large poster of him within the shopping center where everyone can see it. He stated that VISA chose to sponsor him not because of his ability to win but his personality and his willingness to talk to the media. One question that had though they may have been off topic was how people of England would feel that the top sponsor of VISA Europe is from Jamaica and if it brought about controversy. Whether it brought about controversy or not, Usain Bolt is a prime example of how far sponsorship can go. Finally, I saw Adidas as another top sponsor, primarily towards this year’s Olympics as well. Adidas is everywhere one goes in England or for that matter internationally. In my opinion, it is even globally bigger than Nike because of well the company markets themselves onto the big stages of sporting events such as the World Cup and now the Olympics. Adidas sponsors the athletes clothing and gear that they are using for the games and that transitions to more exposure across the world since people from every country will be watching it on television. Today numerous organizations have started to rely on sports to market their products as each day globalization is growing and continuing to take place around the world. The organizations that have started to rely on sports to market their products have to go beyond to be certain that approach of advertising relates somehow to their audience wherever they may be.
Global Sport Media
As I previously mentioned, of all the topics that I have read and learned about while in London capital sponsorship and sport media were the most interesting of all. Global sport media could be drawn in towards a couple of visits that we attended. Some of these visits included Sky Sports and the English Premier League. Sky Sports gave us an amazing tour of all the different buildings in which how and where they organize the broadcast of their media. Some of the different departments that we toured where the news room as well as where they televise and handle all the sport programs that are taking place all at once. The English Premier League targeted their focus on spreading “futbol” around the globe in other regions rather than just England. Of all the continents, Asia and England had the highest ratings in people who watched “futbol”. Regions such as West Africa and even the Middle East were rapidly growing in ratings. However, the United States was the lowest of them all. The English Premier League plans to change it, but it is not a primary concern since they have high media ratings everywhere else across the world. I could see how well these companies and organizations were organized and how they try to make things run easier each day. Also from the readings, I mentioned that global sports media is organized in a manner as to where organizations choose to connect their name or brands with big name athletes or even sports teams in this instance. In a lecture that Dr. Amis gave us I remember he stressed the fact of why organizations choose to connect their brand with these athletes or teams as well. An increasing awareness of the particular organization, firm enhancement of their image, overcoming cultural barriers, and most importantly gaining direct media access which is where this all ties in together. An example of which may include the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport and how they invest in those who only deliver in their specific sport event. Our speaker in the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport also mentioned the athlete personal awards. The athlete personal awards could be summarized up into saying that the organization awards those who compete at an elite level, however they will be awarded a specific amount of money depending on different circumstances. The 2012 London Olympics are a great example of the global sport media and how it is being broadcasted over the world, which Sky Sports will televise on some of their channels locally. Many may not think that the Olympic Games play a role in the media play of defining national identities but it does. The Olympic Games has been known for years as one of the largest and magnificent venues that showcase athletes and their true definition of skill from all around the world. The Olympics helps to create a nationwide distinctness between different nations and cultures. However, from experiencing where the games will take place I was not so sure that there will be as much distinctness since many people say that the Olympics are concentrating only on the area of London and not the diversity of cultures that the event will bring. For example, I noticed a television commercial on the Olympics in London only focused on areas of London and not the entire world. The commercial was targeted around British Airways and an airplane on a runway going past Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and the terminal gate ends at the Olympic Stadium. The final quote on the commercial stated, “Don’t Fly Out, Support Team GB”. Throughout some of the readings prior to the trip I found an interesting quote surrounding media. “Software is what media empires call the teams they own. Fans may see the Los Angeles Dodgers or the New York Knicks as home teams with illustrious histories, but the new breed of owners—Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Time Warner, Disney, Cablevision, Comcast—view them as content…for the insatiable beast called television (Andrews & Grainer, 2004: 27 ).” It is a fact that global sports media emphasize their appearance to people around the globe through the media world today. From this, global sports media gains an awful lot of capital as well.
Global Sport Bodies
From what I have gathered over this summer, global bodies are important in the area of sports. From both the readings and the lecture that Mr. Carrington gave us as a class, I was able to compare how race or people in a particular region and cultural intermediaries coincide with one another and how they come together with sport as a whole. A key example of finding how they relate to one another was from Mr. Carrington and Dr. Pringle. I found both, Mr. Carrington’s lecture and readings intriguing because it was based around race and how it comes to play in organizations and companies. As I mentioned before in my analysis involving globalization and internationalism, Mr. Carringtion stated, “a diversity of race within a nation leads to imagined communities’ movement of biological to cultural intermediates.” Furthermore, this statement shows that global bodies can grow and when evolved around a sport business the possibilities could be endless. Dr. Pringle mentioned that when he was in New Zealand Mcdonald’s offered a “Kiwi Burger” as a special promotion. This particular burger was only offered in New Zealand because it appealed to that group of people, while people in America have promotions such as the “BBQ Cheddar Burger”, and while a McDonald’s in Japan may offer something different. Dr. Pringles’s lecture showed a great example of globalization and how even a global franchise like McDonald’s can be different in multiple regions. However, throughout our readings on global sport bodies, they gave excellent examples on football and how it is different around the world compared to America. Throughout some of the readings surrounding this topic, I was able to configure that football around the world is soccer not the National Football League or even football on the collegiate level that we largely know in America. The sport known as “futbol” has an enormous fanbase when you include everyone around the world. The players are seen as superstars and while in London I was able to see how much the community supports them. The Department of Culture, Media, and Sport are responsible for 50 public bodies. While at Tottenham, and my special visit to Arsenal I was able to see how much local fans love their teams and it is vice versa with the organization. Tottenham is building a new stadium as we learned at our visit there, but one of the many reasons they are building it is because of limited tickets to the public. Every year season tickets are sold out and that only leaves 11,000 individuals able to buy tickets to one game a week. However, when the Spurs move to their new stadium they will be able to increase the number of season ticket holders as well as the general public that would like to attend a game they would like to go to. The English leagues contain a very small percentage of Englishmen and a vast percentage of international or overseas players. Once again the Tottenham organization was able to explain this fact and how they actually attract foreign players to come to their team. Every year the Spurs go on tour to America which attracts soccer players to play for them especially what they do in the community and what they have been doing in the past. Also, they have a connection with South America and South Africa in which they establish relationships with these countries and help them out in the environment. One of the key players for the Tottenham Spurs is from Brazil and they actually signed him when they visited the continent of South America. He know is one of the premiere players in the Premiere League and he is attracting more individuals back home to come play for a club in England. This trend has not just recently started; in fact it has grown to become more dominant and will continue this way for years and the crowds are a great indicator of this trend. The economic rewards to players and surge in revenue from sponsors and media have taken the sport internationally. Italy, Spain and France have been a major impact on the sport and are trying to influence the way that the world views football (Magee & Sudon, 2002: 4). It is becoming increasingly popular for the players in these above mentioned countries to achieve rock star/super star fame from both their fellow countrymen and the government.
Global Sport Spaces
In sport, there is always an opportunity for more space to be created and occupied. The people, place, and the past are a vital point of creating these global sport spaces as well. The decision to bid for the Olympics must be organized on a large scale by both the government of the city and its people (Newman, 2009: 5). Often times it will take the citizens volunteering on a grand scale in order for the games to run without fail. London was already in flux from having experienced the infamous bombings that took place in 2005 as well as their brilliant thinking of organizing children from all variations of ethnicity and culture. These different mixes of race were and are supposed to be represented during the Olympics and across the city of London. However, during my stay in London I would like to argue that I did not see much of a mix of diversity except between people. I mainly saw interest to the people living in London, which we discussed about during Dr. Silk’s lecture. The decision to actively bid for the games came at a time when government was still at odds with one other over the fraction of its citizen and their mood of being frightened. The governing body of London is a changing institute that is trying to move forward with the times and allow the Mayor to take a more active role. The planning of the government in years past has been influenced by the private sector and that has been a problem with the citizens of London since the 1960’s. London is not a stranger to hosting large events – the World Cup and Cricket series have been there in years past and the upcoming World Cup in the year 2014 shows how major of a city it is. London after receiving the honor of hosting the Olympics started upgrading its transit system and expanding hotel sites. The stadiums that are being built for the games will later be down sized and used for other sporting events that London already host. It is with this mindset that London decided to “Back the Bid”. Not all citizens are on board with the games being hosted in London. Some feel that the monies used to build up these venues can be better served by revitalizing the areas of London that are unkempt and in need of the government backing. There is also dissent in London within the East and West sides. The bulk of the Olympics will be held in the east side of London and others feel that the area will prosper more than others. The ever present concern of the cost incurred by hosting the Olympics and will it affect the city is a worry for the citizens and by government although not as vocal. The financial benefits to host either the Summer or Winter Olympics is a major boom for any city (Gold & Gold, 2008: 7). The benefits for the city are higher tourism, merchandise dominance, and broadcasting rights for the host city. The overall gain is that the world will see the host city as a major player and it will stand to gain other worldwide events. The Olympics’ are seen as a mega-event, an event that shifts the host city to a grander scale in the eyes of the world. The success of the events will be seen by the world but in turn the failure of the host city to take into account the overwhelming crowds, venue locations, and unsavory conditions will be shown to the entire world also. The pressure of meeting the deadline will always loom in the minds of the host city. It goes without saying that time is of essence in order to have venues in place for this mega-event. Any type of weather catastrophe, worker stoppage, or lack of funds can doom the outcome. The sway of making a profit is on the minds of the host city although earlier cities were forbidden by the IOC from profiting. The profits that are made now go into the host cities economy but also the sports commerce. Cities now try to incorporate as much regenerate of the buildings used for the Olympics as possible for the city after the events. Also, as in Beijing the substandard housing was torn down and the Olympic villages are now used for its citizens.
Conclusion
Overall, this 2012 London Sport Commerce in the Global Marketplace has been an extraordinary experience. Coming in to this trip, I knew loads of information about sports, but not that much concerning the business aspect of it all. I began to see more about it when I read the passages prior to our departure, but still that did not compare to actually being able to visit some of these big time global organizations. Within two weeks, I was able to grasp information that many people do not get the opportunity to learn and if given the opportunity would take years to learn within the classroom setting. Throughout my paper I analyzed the conceptual ideas of globalization of sport and its connection between the global and the local such as the experience we had going around town the first day in Central London and asking ourselves whether we could find these same things anywhere else in the world. I found this exercise the most thrilling and confusing because my group and I had no idea if we were going in the right direction. I also analyzed that global marketing is not about product, price, place, and promotion anymore rather it is about community, co-create, collective, and conversation which we learned at each of our visits as well. Finally, the most important of them all I learned about place, people, and the past and how things have changed over time and how they are being altered with this year’s Olympics. All of these theories played a critical part of this study abroad trip. I know that it was better for to learn these things in the real world perspective rather than in the classroom. These are all significant topics that I needed to know in my future towards sport business. I can now be able to hold conversations within these areas and elaborate my opinion on these discussions since I experience it this summer. The cultural glocalization scramble, Twickenham Stadium, RFU, Sky Sports, DCMS, Octagon Sports, Tottenham, Visit Britain, and VISA visits helped out in my learning process as well. It was good that we had a balance of sport organizations as well as business corporations so that we as a class saw how the two come together. This was truly one of the best experiences of my life. Not only because I learned about sport business and how it works in the real world, but also because I got the chance of a lifetime to see where the Olympics would be held and actually got a “sneak-peek” at the buildings that millions of people around the world wanted to come around and see. I truly thank Dr. Amis for allowing me to be able to remember this moment for the rest of my life.
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