While I haven't been posting in the last few months, I have not neglected the sports and fitness world. I continue to scan for articles on the business of sports and have been supplying around 100 a month to Sports Business Research for their sports web portal. As I do this, I learn a great deal about the business of sports. I also keep finding studies and reports on things going on in the sports and fitness world. Amazon's computer knows I am interested in the serious side of sports, and I keep learning about new titles in the field and actually reading some while stockpiling others. Also, the Futurist Book Group, which I lead, at Politics and Prose, an independent Washington bookstore recently read The Price of Perfection by Maxwell Mehlman. The book deals with the inconsistent and sometimes hypocritical manner in which our society deals with biomedical enhancements to our bodies and draws heavily on examples from the sports world. The Futurist has asked me to write a joint review of Mehlman's book and Performance Enhancing Technologies in Sports by Thomas Murray, Karen Maschke and Angela Wasuna, and I have begun close reading of that one. When I get that review done and I know when it will be published, I'll let you know.
I am most excited about the article I published in the online journal Future Takes, "The Future of Sports: Top Down, Bottom Up or Both?" . The article notes that the world has two side-by-side sports cultures. The Top Down sports culture is the big money one most of us see occasionally at the ball park and frequently on TV or the Internet. It is for elite athletes to participate in and the rest of us to watch and fork over our money for tickets and cable TV packages. The Bottom Up sports culture is for the rest of us who want to compete on an amateur basis against others or our own previous personal best, exercise for good health or just have fun. The article sees the beginning of chinks in the hitherto impenetrable armor of the Top Down sports culture resulting from the recession and raises doubt as to its continued viability. It was written last summer but published only last month, so some parts of it are dated (e.g., Rio was selected to host the 2016 summer Olympics.), but I think the ideas are worth exploring further, and I hope to turn them into a book.
One indicator of the weakening of the Top Down sports culture is the recent decisions by Northeastern and Hofstra Universities to drop their football programs because of the cost involved. This followed a petition by the faculty senate at UC Berkeley for the university to stop subsidizing the athletic department. Are the harder economic times finally forcing our institutions of higher learning to focus on the classroom? I noted also that Notre Dame University had to fork over $16 million to buy out Charlie Weis' contract. What must their accountants and financial managers think of that? After all, Weis had a winning record overall, although a losing one this season.
Another interesting idea I have been playing around with is to what extent those of us in the Bottom Up sports culture will keep exercising if medical science finds a way for us to maintain our weight without exercising. The Washington Post published this little piece yesterday about a recent discovery of a genetic defect that causes morbid childhood obesity. I suspect other genetic defects linked to obesity will be found and/or the drug industry will come with a pill that would safely let us lose or maintain weight, and I think that would lessen people's motivation to exercise, which is weak for a lot of people as it is. If we continue to exercise, we will still get the psychological and aesthetic benefits.
That's all for now. I pledge to be a lot more regular in my postings. You will also be able to follow me on twitter where my user name is HopefulNatsFan.
Ken
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