Economic sphere and sports
In the developed countries the produced values and higher incomes affect the sums of money spent on sports. The European countries spend 2 per cent of their expenditures on sports (sport equipment, club membership fees, season tickets etc). Unfortunately in Hungary this figure is only one tenth. We should also bear in our mind that the money spent on sports relate to time which we intend to spend doing sports.
Bernard and Busse (2004) showed out that there is a relationship between the Gross National Income and the GDP of countries and high sport achievements. They think that these indicators should be taken into consideration before organizing the Olympic Games. If a country doubles the GDP with about 1%-1.5 % more medals can be expected. This relationship is not linear. Capitals invested in sports are paid-off in the number of the awarded medals. After the 2nd World War each country who undertook the organization of the Olympic Games financially sacrificed a lot (Nevill, A. at al, 2009). In case of higher GDP more state funds are allocated within sports. A country is likely to invest in resources for sports if they see this as a way of gaining international recognition, investment and trade.
Economic and financial issues become the focus of sport when it was the interest of certain economic groups, especially when competition systems occurred. Amateur sports were replaced with professionalism and it meant that sport was considered as a crucial economic factor (Bánhidi, M. 2011). At the same time high profit deriving from sports was produced only by organizations and clubs that were capable of investing in mass sports as well as paying world class athletes. Sport department stores are offering their ever growing branded supplies.
The organization of competitions has also become a serious business. Recently the prestigious elite competitions, for example, Tour de France, champions’ leagues, Grand Slam tournaments and the ones where both amateurs and first-class athletes attend have attracted the attention of the media (Hawaii Iron man, New York City Marathon etc.). The development of sport tourism has generated new relationships and interactions. Check for more details: http:www.jgypk.u-szeged.hu/tamop13e/tananyag
In our life sports are no longer pleasant past time, self-realization, and the means of expressing identity. Now it is a vast business with lots of profit participating in the production of the GDP while closely relating to the global economy. It can be stated that successful sports with high achievements benefit from sport fans and in case of leisure sports the participants mean the source of profit. Naturally sport geography also deals with the phenomena behind business.