I was watching some old footage of the World Cup last night—just some classic clips from the 80s and 90s—and it hit me how much the atmosphere has changed. Back then, there was this sense that these massive tournaments belonged to the fans, to the culture, almost like they were a shared human heritage. It felt like something that existed outside of the corporate machinery, even if that machinery was always lurking in the background. Now, it feels like every time I turn on a major sporting event, I’m not just watching a game; I’m watching a massive, choreographed commercial for a dozen different sponsors.
Lately, I’ve been feeling this growing anxiety about the direction "prestige" sports are heading. It feels like we are moving toward a world where the biggest, most iconic institutions—the ones that supposedly represent the spirit of competition and global unity—are being treated like nothing more than assets to be leveraged. There’s this constant push to bring in more outside capital, to find new ways to slice up the revenue, and to invite "partners" who don't actually care about the sport itself, but rather about how much they can squeeze out of the eyeballs watching it.
I worry that we are reaching a tipping point. When you start opening the doors to massive private interests to take a stake in the very foundation of a global institution, you change the DNA of that institution. It stops being about the integrity of the competition or the tradition of the sport, and starts being about quarterly returns and maximizing stakeholder value. Once that happens, the "soul" of the event becomes a secondary concern. If a decision needs to be made between protecting the sanctity of the game or making a massive windfall for a group of investors who have never even kicked a ball, which way do you think it’s going to go?
I remember talking to my dad about this when he was a kid following the matches. He used to say that the beautiful game was one of the few things that felt "pure." He hated how much the broadcasting rights had ballooned, but he never imagined a time when the governing structures themselves would be looking to hand over the keys to the kingdom to private equity or massive investment groups. It feels like a slow erosion of everything that makes these events feel special. We're turning "moments" into "products."
There’s also the tension between the different regional powers. It seems like every time there’s a move to modernize or "optimize" how these things are run, you get this massive friction between the old guard who wants to maintain the status quo and the new money that wants to disrupt it. It’s a classic struggle, but in the context of global sports, the stakes feel much higher than just a boardroom disagreement. If the traditional powers lose their grip, what's left to keep the sport grounded in its history?
I don't want to be a cynic, and I get that sports need money to grow, to improve stadiums, and to develop talent in developing nations. Innovation is good. But there's a massive difference between using money to improve the experience and selling off the rights to the essence of the event to people who only see it as a line item on a spreadsheet.
Do you think there's a limit to how much commercialization a sport can take before it loses the very thing that makes people care about it in the first place? Or is this just the inevitable evolution of any major global institution in the 21st century?
Lately, I’ve been feeling this growing anxiety about the direction "prestige" sports are heading. It feels like we are moving toward a world where the biggest, most iconic institutions—the ones that supposedly represent the spirit of competition and global unity—are being treated like nothing more than assets to be leveraged. There’s this constant push to bring in more outside capital, to find new ways to slice up the revenue, and to invite "partners" who don't actually care about the sport itself, but rather about how much they can squeeze out of the eyeballs watching it.
I worry that we are reaching a tipping point. When you start opening the doors to massive private interests to take a stake in the very foundation of a global institution, you change the DNA of that institution. It stops being about the integrity of the competition or the tradition of the sport, and starts being about quarterly returns and maximizing stakeholder value. Once that happens, the "soul" of the event becomes a secondary concern. If a decision needs to be made between protecting the sanctity of the game or making a massive windfall for a group of investors who have never even kicked a ball, which way do you think it’s going to go?
I remember talking to my dad about this when he was a kid following the matches. He used to say that the beautiful game was one of the few things that felt "pure." He hated how much the broadcasting rights had ballooned, but he never imagined a time when the governing structures themselves would be looking to hand over the keys to the kingdom to private equity or massive investment groups. It feels like a slow erosion of everything that makes these events feel special. We're turning "moments" into "products."
There’s also the tension between the different regional powers. It seems like every time there’s a move to modernize or "optimize" how these things are run, you get this massive friction between the old guard who wants to maintain the status quo and the new money that wants to disrupt it. It’s a classic struggle, but in the context of global sports, the stakes feel much higher than just a boardroom disagreement. If the traditional powers lose their grip, what's left to keep the sport grounded in its history?
I don't want to be a cynic, and I get that sports need money to grow, to improve stadiums, and to develop talent in developing nations. Innovation is good. But there's a massive difference between using money to improve the experience and selling off the rights to the essence of the event to people who only see it as a line item on a spreadsheet.
Do you think there's a limit to how much commercialization a sport can take before it loses the very thing that makes people care about it in the first place? Or is this just the inevitable evolution of any major global institution in the 21st century?