Sports and Policy

Sports and Policy

Overview

The 21st century has been hailed by many critics as the harbinger of tremendous successes and growth for the sports industry. This is mainly due to the fact that a majority of key areas in the massive industry are showing promising signs of growth. However, a range of challenges have emerged on the forefront for the sports industry and these threaten to undermine the industry as a whole. It has been observed that rules and policies relating to sports have traditionally focused on areas that promote “physical education administration” whereas efforts to introduce such policies that effectively promote sports as an industry are almost non-existent (Gelvin, 1998). Apart from this, the industry is confronted by additional issues such as the lack of sufficient resources to ensure that individuals working within the industry are qualified. Additionally, the current economic environment is indicative of the fact that price-sensitive people are less eager to spend on sports activities.

The industry promotion policies that have been followed since the start of the new millennium are unmistakable in their incongruence with those of the 1980s. This is evident from the fact that not a single promotion and endorsement policy has been introduced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, meaning that the body responsible for the introduction, formulation and implementation of industrial promotion policies has traditionally made little contributions to the sports industry (Gelvin, 1998). However, we have come to a stage at which the private sector has gained sufficient strength for its power to be utilized. The effectiveness of bureaucrat-led industrial promotion is declining. The issue of implementing such policies that served to promote sports as an industry was first brought up in the year 1990 by Mr. Takeo Hirata who identified the problem in a report by the title of “Sports Vision 21”. The comprehensive and detailed report mainly consisted of the “private fitness industry” and the "sports equipment industry", and also contained lengthy discussions on "public sports facilities".

This was done mainly out of consideration of the main government ministry overseeing sports policy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Nevertheless, regardless of the reason, a new policy area has opened up due to the report, making it all the more imperative that people are aware of the promotion policies of the sports industry and what these policies are aimed at achieving. UK's sports industry encompasses a range of areas and provides thousands of jobs in various sectors like sports and recreation, outdoor, pursuits, playwork and health and fitness. As the country prepares to host some of the most eagerly anticipated and widely-followed global sports events, such as the upcoming 'Olympics 2012' and the Rugby World Cup of 2015, thousands of jobs have been created in various areas of the industry such as fitness, coaching, logistics etc (Klenowski, 2003).

As a result, there are many prospects for individuals interested in seeking a career in the sports industry of UK. This is especially the case for those who wish to ...