Commodification in Sports

As I walked out of class on Tuesday, I wondered what I could write about in my first blog entry. I read Chapter 9, and as I strolled through the cold winter air on my way to the Arts and Journalism Building, it hit me. In less than a month, one of the biggest examples of commodification will start up once again. I am a huge sports fan. One of my favorite sports is auto racing, and for ten months out of the year, racecars take to racecourses all across America. I know what you’re probably thinking. I’m a redneck, right? Well at least hear me out for the next 250 words or so. Sponsors pay teams to put their name on the cars. This enables them to get their product advertised, both during the race and while the broadcast goes too commercial. For example, one may see a NAPA car on the track, and then, thirty seconds later, see a commercial for NAPA. This is also true of the IZOD IndyCar Series. There is even sponsorship in that series’ name.

Look at this picture and tell me how many examples of commodification you see?



I see 21 examples.


What about this picture?



You can see about 11 or so examples before the smoke starts to blur things out.
So in just two pictures, you can see 32 different company names. Imagine seeing a complete field of cars, with 30-40 company names going around the track for three hours during a race. There is a lot of commodification in sports, but no sport has more examples than auto racing.

Here are the links to the NASCAR picture and the IZOD IndyCar photo.