From live sports not being broadcast due to the broadcaster not having the rights in your area, to live broadcasts being bombarded with advertisements, to leagues deciding against putting a team in a city because it’s not profitable enough even if the sport is popular in the city (see Quebec in the NHL), to rich leagues from the global core stealing all the talent from the rest of the world leaving competitions in the global south worse off. I could go on and on.
I think capitalism fucking sports is part of the reason I could never get into them. I live in the suburbs of the city that is very passionate about it’s sports teams. The teams are considered part of the local identity. But, with the way burgerland sports teams work, players are traded between teams all the time such that few, if any, of the players are from the city or the surrounding area. When the players of a team have no real connection to an area, what is left to use as part of the local identity besides the team’s branding?
I totally agree. I prefer it when leagues have teams that were founded in the city they play in with most players having a connection to the city
Agreed, I live in a city with some popular teams and one of the team’s business models is get rookies for cheap, train them up and sell them as soon as they’re famous/well-liked/(expensive).