The evolution of money in sport: What made modern sport.

When Aston Villa spent £100 to sign Willie Groves in 1893 to break the transfer record, no one would ever think transfer fees would rise above £1 million. But here we are, 130 years later with deals regularly being over £100 million. This is all down to considerably more money being pumped into sports-from grassroots level to the elite teams. We are at a point now where teams own other teams, and teams in other sports. Even managers these days are going for over £20 million, even if they are massive failures. So, how did clubs get so much money?

The first real sense of a globalised sports market was formed as far back as 1877, with the first international cricket match was played between England and Australia. The MLB was founded in the 1870s, as were major, historic football clubs in England and Scotland, such as Manchester United (as Newton Heath) and Heart of Midlothian. FIFA was founded in 1904, and hosted their first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay. Furthermore, the NFL and the NBA were founded in 1920 and 1949 respectively. The Olympics were also first broadcast on the radio in 1934. Lastly, UEFA was founded in 1954, paving the way for rapid monetary gain in football due to the prestige of the European Cup (Cheesman, 2023).

The below video playlist discusses the Business of Sports:

After the Second World War, sports began being broadcast on television, and it began to have a major impact on sports in the 1960s and 70s. Television companies began to pay for rights to broadcast events, which provided a significant source of revenue. The 1972 Olympics were the first to really see the benefit of sponsoring sports events (Smart, 2018). With large companies sponsoring this event, tournaments such as the 1974 World Cup and subsequent American sport finals greatly benefitted from this influx of cash.

It was, however, in the 1980s and 90s were money really started to flow into sports. The emergence of superstars such as Michael Jordan of the NBA greatly assisted viewership into the NBA from all over the world, and this trend continued into the 2000s with footballers such as David Beckham, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo all becoming household names (Malagon-Selma, 2023). With the English First Division breaking away to form the Premier League and the European Cup rebranding to the Champions League (Parnell, 2022), they were free to negotiate bumper television deals, which has drastically risen to the level it is at now, with billions being spent every year by sports teams (Lindholm, 2019). Another sport to mention in this era is rugby, as it professionalised in 1995, and regularly makes the most watched list in countries such as the UK, France and Australia (Vaz, 2019) each year, due to the Rugby World Cup (the third most watch event globally after the Olympics and FIFA World Cup) and the Six Nations/Four Nations tournaments. The story of professionalism in rugby can be viewed below:

https://www.world.rugby/news/582543

In conclusion, money has made sport one of the most lovable and available past times. It has turned key athletes into global icons, and finals and other important matches are some of, if not the most watched televised events of the year.