Major professional sports league

From Freepedia

(Redirected from Major sport)

The major professional sports leagues in North America (or in the United States specifically by some definitions) are those professional sports leagues with the largest fan bases and television audiences (and therefore, the largest revenues and player salaries).

Contents

The "Big Four"

As of 2005, there is no universally accepted definition or list, but the following North American professional leagues are almost always defined as major leagues:

Since the four leagues listed above are those listed as the major leagues, the sports they play (baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey) are often referred to as the four major professional sports or even just the major sports by North Americans.

Other traits of the major leagues

Franchise stability

These major leagues also exhibit stability of most of their franchises. The teams do not collapse outright, and relocation of teams is uncommon. All of the major leagues have had frequent franchise collapses and relocations in their early histories, but these events ceased occuring with regularity by the time the leagues reached "major" status.

Franchise locations

Major leagues tend to have franchises only in the largest cities and most heavily-populated market areas, with such cities having populations in the millions. This typically means at least one franchise (and often two) in each of the New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles areas. There are exceptions to this: The NFL has not had a franchise in L.A. since 1995 and the Green Bay Packers survive in their small market (100,000) thanks to a unique community ownership, and their proximity to the much larger Milwaukee-area, not to mention the loyalty of their fanbase.

Smaller Canadian cities (that had populations between 500,000 and 1 million at the time the franchise was acquired) like Calgary and Ottawa can support NHL franchises due to the widespread popularity of hockey in Canadian culture. However, Quebec City and Winnipeg lost NHL franchises to U.S. cities in 1995 and 1996 respectively, while Edmonton's franchise was nearly relocated to Houston. Doubts has been expressed during the past decade about the long-term viability of all of the remaining Canadian-based NHL teams with the exception of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver which were the only multi-million population cities in Canada. However, the new NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement contains provisions that should help stabalize the "small market" clubs, and may even make cities such as Winnipeg and Hamilton attractive markets in the future.

Weathering challenges from rival leagues

All of the majors have bested at least one rival league formed with the intention of being just as "big" as the established league, often by signing away star players and by locating franchises in cities that were already part of the existing league. In many cases, the major leagues have absorbed the most successful franchises from its failing rival, or merged outright with it.

  • The NBA withstood the challenge of the American Basketball Association in the 1960s and 70s, and absorbed four of its most successfull franchises and adopted several of the ABA's rule variations.

Television exposure

All of the majors have (or had) television contracts with the "big four" U.S. broadcast television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX - themselves being a sort of "major league" among networks). Important contests such as championship and all-star games are often televised in prime time.

Comparing the sizes of television contracts, the NFL is by far the largest (reportedly $2.2 billion USD for the 2001 season), with the NBA and MLB second and third ($500 million and $479 million) respectively, while the NHL is in a distant fourth place ($120 million). Those who wish exclude the NHL from the major leagues often point to this disparity, though the NHL will air games on NBC in January.

High Player Salaries

The average annual salary for players in the four major leagues is thought to be at least $2 million in 2003, although player salaries can range from $300,000 for backup players to $20 million for superstars. NBA players have the highest average salaries of the four leagues, however their teams also have the smallest rosters. The NFL has the highest average team payroll, but these are distributed among rosters that are far larger than the other three leagues. Prior to the 2004-05 NHL lockout, NHL player salaries were close to MLB averages, with NHL rosters being slightly smaller than MLB's. The average NHL salary is now believed to be about $1.3 million, the lowest of the four leagues. However, those who defend the NHL's inclusion in the major leagues contend that any league which can afford to pay an average salary in excess of $1 million per player cannot be considered to be anything but major.

A minor league system

All the major leagues are distinguished from the minor league systems they utilize to develop and train personnel.

Other definitions

Although most North Americans adhere to the "traditional" Big Four definition of the major leagues, some people contend that other leagues and/or sports should be considered to be "major". They include:

  • Canadian Football League (founded 1958) - The CFL is a popular league in Canada, and it is considered a major league by some, especially Canadians. Adherents to this position point out that its clubs are not farm teams for another league and the NFL has no teams in Canada. (Some assert that the lack of a Canadian NFL franchise is due to government intervention to retain the distinctly Canadian game as part of Canadian culture such as when the proposed World Football League Toronto Northmen franchise was blocked. Others maintain it is simply because the NFL could not sustain a Canadian franchise due to the smaller population, exchange rate, and comparitive lack of following. Ironically, the CFL briefly tried to expand into the American market in 1995, and failed.) Furthermore, many in Canada consider Canadian football to be a distinct sport from the American variety due to its heavier rugby influence. Opponents, including many Americans, maintain that Canadian football is merely a minor variation of the American game, the CFL is not able to make or spend enough money compared to other leagues, its "import quotas" limiting the amount of non-Canadian players on the roster (in practice, Americans) disqualify it from major-league status, and that the players are simply not talented enough to make the NFL ranks. Indeed, many players in the CFL are Americans who were either undrafted or cut from NFL teams, and play in the Canadian league with hopes of eventually making it (or making it back) to the NFL, as Doug Flutie and Warren Moon did. Americans would almost certainly make up the majority of the CFL if not for the aforementioned quotas. A compromise position is to use the term gridiron football to include both the Canadian and American games, and define gridiron football as one of the four major sports, with the NFL and CFL its leading major leagues.
  • Arena Football League - likewise, the AFL plays a sufficiently distinct form of gridiron football (being an indoor variation as opposed to the largely outdoor variations of their Canadian and American cousins) that it is considered a major league by some, citing its television contract with NBC, and a history longer than nearly every other non-NFL football league. Others argue that the indoor football game lacks sufficient history, dating only to the mid-1980s, that the game is only a variation on an established sport, and that the relocating and folding of several franchises each season is uncharacteristic of the true major leagues. The Arena Football league maintains its own minor league, called af2. A number of rival leagues such as the National Indoor Football League compete in similar markets to af2, and several teams have switched from one league to another. (Also see indoor soccer)
  • NASCAR - proponents of the major circuit of stock car racing argue that stock car racing is a major sport. In the first place, they note that NASCAR has expanded from a competition with few inroads outside the southeastern U.S. to one with the second largest television audience in the world after the NFL. NASCAR Nextel Cup events are broadcast on major networks Fox and NBC. The circuit has geographically expanded to include events in Chicago and Los Angeles and other major markets. NASCAR has plans for an event on a yet-to-be-constructed racing facility in New York City proper on Staten Island land owned by NASCAR. There is also a feeder-circuit arrangement similar to "minor leagues," namely the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series, as well as more local circuits. Popular drivers such as Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. have nationwide exposure and command high salaries. Nevertheless, the nature of stock car racing is as an individual competition quite unlike baseball, basketball, football and hockey. Although car crews united under a common enterprise (such as DEI or Roush Racing) are labelled as 'teams' in NASCAR, the individual component of racing would properly exclude NASCAR from a list of major professional team sports.
  • Major League Soccer (founded 1996) - as the largest sport in the world, and a sport that is immensely popular elsewhere, proponents believe that MLS should be included due to the reputation of the game. Opponents of its inclusion, however, point out that MLS revenues are far less than that of other sports, and that the level of play is low compared to leagues elsewhere: a stigma that also applies to basketball and hockey leagues in Europe and elsewhere. Furthermore, many North Americans pay little attention to soccer, and those who do often overlook the MLS in favor of bigger name leagues abroad in European countries such as England, Italy, and Spain. MLS' status as a single-entity league - where all the teams share common ownership - also is unlike any other major league.
  • National Lacrosse League & Major League Lacrosse: Though popular in Canada and New England respectively, and have had arguments made in their defense (such as the 2005 NLL Champion's Cup game being broadcast on NBC), detractors say that neither league is popular enough on a national scale, especially MLL, which has no teams outside of the East Coast (but plans to create a western division for the 2006 season.)
  • Women's National Basketball Association: This NBA-backed project is the highest scale women's pro league in North America, and the highest attended. A criticism of a women-only sports league being considered as a major league is that it is an exclusionary league and does not allow unrestricted competition for a spot on the roster. Average attendance of WNBA games leaguewide is roughly one half the average attendance of NBA games. According to the WNBA league office, the maximum salary for a WNBA player in 2004 was $90,000, while $385,277 is the minimum salary of an NBA rookie. As a result, many WNBA players supplement their salaries by playing in European female basketball leagues during the WNBA off-season. As of 2005 the WNBA has yet to make a profit.

Other individual sports with large revenues in North America, such as golf and tennis, are not usually included on a North American list of major sports. This is despite the appeal of athletes such as the PGA's Tiger Woods. Golf and tennis mainly share a similar focus on the individual component of the sport as does NASCAR. In addition, competitors in individual sports do not have a guaranteed contract or salary; their earnings depend almost entirely upon tournament winnings and sponsorship deals.

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Major_professional_sports_league.html"


Views
Personal tools
Similar Links