You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Sport today is turning into a business and there are companies involved that sponsor sports with ever growing prize money for the sportsman as a part of their advertising. Some people agree to this because it has a good effect on the world of sports, others however disagree. Discuss and give your opinion on this issue.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer
Today it is quite common to see sporting events, teams and even individual players wearing logos on uniforms and appear in television advertising, which means commercialization has become a part of the modern game, with both positive and negative outcomes.
Advocates of sports sponsorship believe that commercialization enables players financially secured and maintains professional sports to be of high quality and great entertainment. If a major company sponsors an event, it is much more likely to get prime time television coverage, which means bringing in greater advertising revenues and exposing more people to the sport. This will bring in more fans, improve the profitability of local sports clubs, which in turn helps the local economy and revives community spirit when the team is performing well.
However, others claim that this has had some negative impacts as commercialization has changed the attitude of the players and jeopardised the true spirit of the game. The players no more play for the thrill and love of the game but have been lured and entangled into the vicious web of match fixing. They have become commodities to be traded and sold for extravagant sums of money and even clubs are being sold to the highest bidders. This has hampered and defamed the spirit of the game.
In my opinion, though there are scandals about players using performance-enhancing drugs, which should be discouraged ,these situations are under control. And it is not necessarily wrong for companies to sponsor sports with extraordinary prize money, which not only helps to promote players’ skills and ensure their livelihood but also creates high-quality sports events that generate economic growth as well as encourage people to get more exercise to keep healthy.
[ Written by – Phoenix Xu ]