Sports and Social Justice Issues
Sports have evolved over time as a result of significant infrastructure investments, efficient sports administration, and an increase in spectators. Without a doubt, the sporting sector has developed into one that is incredibly profitable and generates enormous earnings. Major sporting events like the summer Olympics and the Australian Grand Prix have both been held in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne, respectively. Significant social justice issues, however, are frequently overlooked or given insufficient thought when holding competitions and when the government finances infrastructure, particularly stadiums. The purpose of this paper is to examine how social justice issues affect political issues related to sports games, bearing in mind Eitzen's perspective, and how those issues are not given enough coverage by the media.
Economic and Social Justice Issues
Economic and social justice issues have been of great concern to any major sporting event in any country or host city. This is because the majority of the sporting events increase socioeconomic inequality more than encouraging redistribution of resources between the rich and the have-nots. The economic and social justice issues regarding political decision include the location of sports venues, financing, and whether to renovate or build new facilities. The public funding for the new stadiums involves taxation that is regressive and affects the poor who bear most of the burden (Eitzen, 1996). Host cities usually prefer to build new facilities instead of renovating old ones, which are less costly. This was also the case in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 that saw financial budgets increase exponentially (Haynes, 2001). Many of the stadiums are located in neighborhoods where land is cheap and mostly occupied by low-income earners (Eitzen, 1996). In the case of Australia, the land for the summer Olympics in Sydney was located in Homebush Bay, which was occupied by poor individuals (Haynes, 2001). The low-income families who are relocated are never adequately compensated, which increases socioeconomic inequality (Eitzen, 1996).
The Role of Media
However, the mentioned social justice issues are usually downplayed by the media. The media often overstate the benefits of hosting those sporting events by relying on economic impact statements that are inaccurate and misleading (Manfred, 2014). The economic analysis estimates that the benefits outweigh the costs, which is not true. The economic impact analysis used by proponents is inaccurate because they don't include all the costs involved and usually focus on gross impact while overlooking the net impact (Hudson, 2001). Analyses of the Sydney summer Olympics indicate that the event was less profitable due to low ticket sales (Haynes, 2001). However, the media only focused on the increased tourism numbers and the fact that many Australians were happy to host the event and didn't care about the money. The media overlooks the concerns by taking advantage of renewing nationalism expressed by the populace for hosting those events. For instance, the bribery scandals costing millions of dollars during the bidding process for the Olympic Games in 2000 were under-reported by the media (Haynes, 2001).
Conclusion
Hosting a major sporting event is expensive. The political decisions to host the event usually include building new stadiums, locating the facilities in cheaper neighborhoods dominated by the poor, and heavily taxing the public on a regressive basis. The massive resources used to facilitate those events can be used to improve public amenities and essential services. The poor are the ones who bear the burden of funding expensive infrastructure projects. The benefits of hosting an event are less than the costs.
References
Eitzen, Stanley (1996). Classism in sports: The powerless bear the burden. Journal of Sports and Social Issues, 21, 95-105.
Haynes, Jill (2001). Socio-economic impact of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Retrieved from http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/od013_eng.pdf
Hudson, Ian (2001). The use and misuse of economic impact analysis. Journal of Sports and Social Issues, 25(1), 20-39.
Manfred, Tony (2014). Economic benefits of hosting the Olympics. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com.au/economic-benefits-of-hosting-olympics-2014-10
