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This has nothing to do with looking down on sports themselves, but the institutions that manage them. The article mentions the Olympics practice of costing host

This has nothing to do with looking down on sports themselves, but the institutions that manage them. The article mentions the Olympics practice of costing host cities huge amounts of money and other problems. There are also football stadium that get very unfair subsidies. Taxpayers subsidize high school and college athletics and the benefits may not be worth it. There are now serious concerns about serious brain damage being caused by some sports. The article also mentions youth athletics which is the worst. Parents are overly harsh on their kids. The events are overly competitive when it's just 9 year olds playing what should be for fun. The games aren't designed very well for small uncoordinated kids, and many kids get excluded. So there are many things to criticize sports over. The main point the article was making was not that sports suck. Just that they aren't allowed to be criticized in our society. Suggest that you should change youth sports, or that the football team doesn't need a brand new million dollar stadium, and people will give you a funny look and ignore you.

DanielBMarkham 10y ago
Agreed. There are several issues here that are all conflated. One, the value of exercise and friendly competition. I don't think anybody is discounting that. Two, the social construct of forming into teams for purposes of increased participation. I'm a little iffy on whether this is at play in the article or not. Three, the institutional nature of sports, specifically professional sports. This seems to be what all the hubbub is about.
slg 10y ago
Like I said in my other post, a lot of that is directly caused by sports with the exception of the brain injury concerns. I think that is a serious issue that should cause extensive rule changes in youth sports like football and soccer. The other issues are just normal human problems that happen to occur in sports. Yes, subsidies are an issue, but as I addressed in my other reply you shouldn't blame sports for that, blame the politician that uses sports to placate the masses. Yes, some sports parents are too harsh on their kids, but I have seen just as many parents have a similar attitude towards their kids when it comes to other pursuits like music. I also don't by that sports "aren't allowed to be criticized in our society." None of these issues should be news to anyone. One of the US's recent Olympic bids was squashed by public outcry over the cost it would take to fund it. The architect of the most recent deal to give public money to build a new stadium was just voted out at the first chance the public got. For the first time in my memory an NFL team just moved to a new city and is building a new stadium without any public money. The reason these things are happening is because we are starting to wake up to these issues exactly because people have been criticizing them for a decade plus.

DanielBMarkham 10y ago

Agreed. There are several issues here that are all conflated. One, the value of exercise and friendly competition. I don't think anybody is discounting that. Two, the social construct of forming into teams for purposes of increased participation. I'm a little iffy on whether this is at play in the article or not. Three, the institutional nature of sports, specifically professional sports. This seems to be what all the hubbub is about.

slg 10y ago

Like I said in my other post, a lot of that is directly caused by sports with the exception of the brain injury concerns. I think that is a serious issue that should cause extensive rule changes in youth sports like football and soccer. The other issues are just normal human problems that happen to occur in sports. Yes, subsidies are an issue, but as I addressed in my other reply you shouldn't blame sports for that, blame the politician that uses sports to placate the masses. Yes, some sports parents are too harsh on their kids, but I have seen just as many parents have a similar attitude towards their kids when it comes to other pursuits like music. I also don't by that sports "aren't allowed to be criticized in our society." None of these issues should be news to anyone. One of the US's recent Olympic bids was squashed by public outcry over the cost it would take to fund it. The architect of the most recent deal to give public money to build a new stadium was just voted out at the first chance the public got. For the first time in my memory an NFL team just moved to a new city and is building a new stadium without any public money. The reason these things are happening is because we are starting to wake up to these issues exactly because people have been criticizing them for a decade plus.