The Commodification of Sport

Abstract

This paper examines a series of changes experienced within sport as it undergoes a process of commodification. It is argued that this process constitutes a degradation of athletic activity. The interpretations of such changes are examined in light of the debate over mass culture and the popular arts. This controversy has centered on whether the nature of modern sport has become debauched as it is subsumed to the logic of the marketplace. It is suggested that puerility has come to dominate sport as modern culture becomes standardised and administered as a commodity. Sport is thus viewed in terms of the tensions between its emancipatory potential and its function as a commodity for social consumption.