The Art Of Professional Sports

The basis of my paper is why diversity is not very common in the sports managements and ownerships. The majority of ownerships are held by white families. Not all are owned by families but quite a few of them are. I strongly believe this is the case because of the oppression and stigma that has been created over hundreds of years. Money is a major contributor to an owner, and you cannot own a professional sports team solely if you do not have 200 million plus. Money makes things possible in the world of sports, then again it is a business. In the NFL, 22 of the 32 total teams in the NFL have been owned by the same family for 20 years or more. This just goes to show that families are not willing to let teams go so easy. This creates even less wiggle room for a minority coach to move up in the ranks, because when the positions do show themselves, they are jumped on by hundreds if not thousands of other men and women. Another striking fact about the NBA is how of the 30 teams, there are just three minority owners. Now two of these owners are not African American and the lone one that is an owner, is Michael Jordan. Although in professional sports the percentages tell us there are a little than fifty percent of African Americans that are in other management positions within teams. Knowing these facts, when there are positions to be filled the likely hood of a minority person to obtain that position is low, based on evidence.

Owners have an extremely hard time of letting go of teams because of the revenue they pull in. Millions and millions of dollars are made by organizations every year. With money like that, not many would ever want to walk away. This is where it gets interesting when it comes to selling the franchise, when positions are available to be filled by potential candidates. For a long time now, minority candidates did not have to be included in these interviews. Long time owners were allowed to decide who would be the best potential fit with no back lash. This goes to show why high manageable positions are held by mainly whites, while lower positions in the managing sector were filled by minorities, for example blacks. Throughout my paper, I will be exploring the avenues of the why racial diversity is limited in the world of sports through the eyes of the coaches and ownership roles. I will discuss these sectors through the history of societal system, and the exclusiveness of these operations.

The central idea why blacks are not incorporated into big decision management roles is simple, prejudice and predisposed ways. I cannot say this is true for every white coach or owner, but universally this is most professional sports in a nutshell. If you’re a sports fan, it is no surprise when I say that white men carry more executive, but why? Take for example, Pittsburg Steeler’s coach Mike Tomlin, he is a African American man who has been a successful coach for 13 years in the league. The upside to this, as a General Manager, it shows that if an African American individual is having tremendous triumphs as a coach, why not hire this man who happens to be a minority. Does this tell us that skin color predicts his successes or is it his undeniable playmaker as a coach? The same goes for an unsuccessful coach who happens to be a minority, if his career as a coach is very substandard, that often reflects to other current owners. You do not want a guy who has created very little around him, regardless of skin color. Only if that was the truth, that skin color wasn’t a sought-after attribution in management roles. There is a stigma that has grown in hiring a minority owner. In the journal article, Race Relations Theories: Implications for Sports Management, it is said, “The theory of social distance is a useful tool for explaining the lack of racial diversity in the leadership of sport...Because sport institutions are close-knit, fraternal communities where intimate interactions are required (Smith, 2011). Let me first address the social distance theory which I think is an alternative way of assessing diversity. For example, a survey was done and asked people whether they would be okay if a person of color moved next to them in their neighborhood or started a new job at their office. The individual's answers were yes, I would be comfortable with that. The study shows prejudice has declined over the years, but has it really? This is true for sports management. Men who are currently in positions of command create close relationships with players and other coordinators, for example in the NFL. These relationships require both side of the parties to open themselves to new opportunities and be neutrally diverse. Social distance theory is a prime example, when an owner such as Wayne Weaver who previously owned the Jacksonville Jaguars, sold the team to Shahid Khan a Pakistan born individual. Weaver had to had form a bond with Mr. Khan to be able to sell the multi-million-dollar team to him, or could it just be that Khan was willing to give an enormous amount of money to Weaver. In this context, overall business is churned by establishing connections with potential clients.

Moreover, in a glimpse of the past, according to the Race Relation Theory by Earl Smith, there was a shift white ideology back in the 1900’s for parents and they wanted their kids to attend neighborhood schools. They developed a new system about race, because the idea of segregated schools was no longer expressed. These parents pushed for community schools, so their kids could walk to school, ensuring a safe environment. On the face, this had nothing to do with Race, but it had everything to do with it. Since segregation was falling, whites wanted to introduce another way to segregate without deliberately boasting it. In modern times now, kids are going to public schools in neighborhoods that are not as racially diverse as public city schools. Without being exposed to diversity one can see how that would that translate to the future, and in college. This is transparent in the sports world, since African Americans are not always held in powerful positions. Coaches and officials are open to African American athletes to play for them, even if it contributes to winning, but when it comes to team dinners, fundraisers, and commemorations, the distant feeling becomes evident. For instance, in the article High School Football and the Athletic-Market economy, “...it appears players are not only being recruited from low income, predominantly Black, urbanized communities and schools. Players are being recruited from a wide variety of neighborhoods” (Macaulay, Cooper, 2019). Not only does this quote provide insight on recruitment, it encapsulates how minority athletes are more prevalent for their work ethic. One can sit here and think this is very good for sporting culture with the amount of diversity professional sports holds, but this is said for players not coaching. To bring back the concept of neighborhood schools, kids growing up were not pushed to assimilate. Assimilation in my own thought, is the single most depleting issue there is of society. Kids were taught and pushed by their parents to congregate with kids of their own race. When you are a child, you do not have the cognitive capability to distinguish race of their own up until around 12 years old. That being said parents are able to mold kids into their own personal views for at least a decade, and that is what was going on in the 1900’s and now. Society was shaping life around race and might open new doors to prejudice. This is not new information, but it is a way of looking at the discrimination in an unaccustomed way.

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In reference to sports culture, I believe this has direct correlation to assimilation of men and women in management. In the NBA, players of color are common, and coaches of color have also increased over the years, thanks to Adam Silver the commissioner. Respectively, after examining an article from ESPN the holy grail of sports, it said as follow, “At the start of the 2018-2019 season, more than 33 percent of NBA teams had head coaches of color. Although the number of assistant head coaches of color decreased from the previous season, the total percentage is more than 42 percent. The NBA also saw the number of players of color increase from 80.7 percent to 81.9 percent this past season” (Lapchick, 2019). This is clear that the percentage colored people has increased slightly from 2018-2019. This idea that black athletes' make up much of the NBA is a fact, and on the reciprocal end, coaches of color aren’t in such of a mass amount. Some but many do not fill positions like chief executives and presidents of teams, and that is one of the problems Adam Silver has an issue with. It is not an easy task incorporating diversity in this case, because many white officials do not let it happen so swiftly. They are so accustomed to their life in sports, that many owners expect it to stay that way. The intention of their routine life may be to keep values from overlapping. From a historical end, many people who own sports organizations who have immense amount of money are the final say when it comes to their team.

By now, history has written itself and proved that this elite club the National Football league holds is underlining the fact of discrimination and prejudice that occurred well before my time. Notice how in the NFL there is no African American owner of a team. In my many journal articles I've read quite a few of them that have revolved around a similar point, a close-knit fraternity. These ownerships are of these organizations are nothing short of glamorous. Owners take pride in their monumental billion-dollar industry, and at what cost? The deterrent of some minority individuals. The facts I bring up are not bias but intended to be what is actually occurring in the real world of sports. An average NFL team is worth close to 3 billion dollars, and according to Forbes there is about 5 African American billionaires in the United States. What this is telling is the scarcity of insanely rich African Americans. To bring back to my focus, the understanding of the oppression needs to be understood at a historical level. In our class book Race, Racism, and Science, by Jackson and Weidman, discusses the exploration of Racism over centuries of scientific research from French, British, American, and countless other scientists and philosophers.

One fundamental aspect that captures the unity of sports is the pact into the “fraternity”. I would like to tie in essential information about book and the proposal of fraternity, to show an alternate schema of thinking. What I am really focusing on is the colonial power and how immense it was to control various regions in society. According to Franz Fanon, he argued colonial power structure caused damage to individuals mentally based on social structure. The reason for incorporating him was because I thought that was a very engrossing comment to say towards the one that holds power. In other words, he is saying this is what created revolutions, and in a dimensional way, the world of sports is loosely experiencing something similar. In these modern times, Professional sports is getting widely publicized for the lack of minority ownership, especially the NFL. The structure of the league is based upon cash flow, it is a business and it is there for players to compete. These athletes are rewarded with salaries, but the major capital is delivered to executives. In the journal, Bad Sports: How owners Are Ruining the Games We Love, “Washington Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder’s refusal to change the team’s offensive name; and Donald Sterling’s racist approach to managing housing and the Los Angeles Clippers” (Zirin, 2010). The issues previously stated are ongoing currently to this day. These executives are the ones who dictates the atmosphere and decide who they want to surround themselves with to achieve success. Since these leagues revolve around money, they own the team’s future direction and how much fans have control, per say of a stadium relocation or team name. Moreover, I loosely compare it to the revolutions America was experiencing in the 20th century on some degree. My comparison is solely pointing at the fact of discrimination and prejudice becoming much more publicized, for example, movements such as Martin Luther king and Malcom X. These movements have brought attention to this delicate situation, and in professional sports the past decade has been receiving heat for lack of minority leadership roles available.

The time of age has now come for a change in pace of professional sports. The art of sports has drastically changed, and consumers want society to notice that. The structures are no longer poised to for the white cliental. Black athletes are increasingly dominating the league in terms of racial percentage, and voices want to be heard. The objective is to form more relationships and openings for minority individuals. An additional way this can be achieved is through previous athletes who become advocates for the movement. If minority athletes apply for coaching and executive position’s, they have a greater chance for their voice to be heard. A well respected former all-NBA caliber player could be the most essential way to cut out the discriminatory ways the country has seen in sports.