Introduction

The United States began the twentieth century with a new product to develop.  Midwestern pioneers like Ransom Olds and Billy Durant added vehicle manufacturing to the landscape and provided an economically invigorating boost to several cities like Flint and Lansing, Michigan.  A similar experience of millennial transition occurred at the turn of the twenty-first century, although absent a single clear and present product.  The American “New Economy” was thriving as the ball dropped on the country to indicate it had moved forward into the new millennium.  Around that time, the national unemployment rate was roughly four percent, wages were on the rise for the middle-class, and there was little thought given to the possibility of recession (Knapp & Harms, 2002).  However, job displacement and plant closings were occurring at more locations than Vehicle City and Motor City.

This article is divided into two sections.  First, I provide a literature review on studies that have been conducted regarding plant shutdowns and the general deindustrialization of midwestern cities.  I look at job displacement during national economic recessions and in areas where plant closures have created a severe regional employment downturn.  I also include an examination of the effects of job loss on production workers during an economic expansion, like the turn of the century Zenith electronics plan closing in Missouri (Knapp & Harms, 2002).  The discussion of midwestern deindustrialization elucidates connections and gaps in the literature.  Second, I provide a literature review on studies that examine the globalizing sports industry.  I look at job creation through expanding professional sports leagues throughout the globe.  In the conclusion, I offer a suggestion that sports be studied sociologically in more ways than it has up to this point.  Several new doors are opened by viewing sociological topics through a sports lens.  Specifically, I will clarify one project that sociology has not yet completed: an analysis of the deindustrialization in North American cities, the consequences on employment opportunities, and how the globalizing sports industry has changed the way young Americans in Motown view work.

Plant Shutdowns

Zenith: Joblessness Duration & Entrepreneurship

One of the world’s largest producers of televisions, Zenith, was founded in 1918 and had become a fixture of U.S. culture by the mid 1960′s.  In 1967, Zenith opened a manufacturing plant in Springfield, Missouri and within a decade the plant was producing half of the TV sets that the company sold.  Three years later, the company moved 1,000 American jobs to Mexico when it opened a new plant south of the U.S. border.  By 1992, the company had outsourced over 13,000 jobs outside of the U.S. to other plants.  In 1993, the last TV was produced in the Missouri plant and all jobs were eliminated by 1996 (Knapp & Harms, 2002).  The life course of Zenith in Missouri lasted about thirty years.

Knapp & Harms conducted a qualitative study using survey and interview information regarding the impacts of job loss on former employees at the Missouri plant.  After the plant closed, former Zenith employees endured an average of 41 weeks without a job.  This was significantly longer than average unemployment duration for displaced workers during the same time period (Kletzer, 1998).  The authors suggested three factors to help explain the longer duration of joblessness in this sample.

First, the typical employee worked in the plant for roughly twenty years.  Generally, that worker acquired a specific skill set that transfers only within the industry.  Simply, if there are no other TV plants nearby, the worker has no place to use his acquired skills.

“L’influence de l’instruction ou de la qualification n’est vraiment decisive que dans le secteur moderne, c’est-a-dire dans l’administration et dans l’industrie, plus specialement, dans les industries mecaniques.” (Darbel & Bourdieu, 1963)

“The influence of education or qualification is really decisive in the modern sector, that is to say in government and industry, more especially in the engineering industries.” (Darbel & Bourdieu, 1963)

Second, most of the displaced workers were around 50 years old.  Many respondents viewed this as a disadvantage when seeking to fill a job vacancy.  Third, the workers belonged to a union which typically points to them not readily accepting the opportunity for low-paying jobs and employers’ unwillingness to hire former union workers.

Knapp & Harms point out that “some dislocated workers turn to self-employment, but few studies have assessed the successfulness of such entrepreneurship.”  The authors include an expression from a former employee that Zenith was “a dead end with no future.”  A connection can be made to sports as a potential form of entrepreneurship.  Sports changed from a recreational activity at the turn of the century to a lucrative business “thanks largely to the entrepreneurship of Knute Rockne at Notre Dame and romantic news accounts of such players as the ‘Wheaton Ice-Man,’ better known as the ‘Galloping Ghost,’ Harold ‘Red’ Grange of Illinois” (Hutchinson, 1993).  Although not an appropriate job option for a 50 year old, the idea of sports as an entrepreneurial alternative to “a dead end with no future” has now been established and can be absorbed as a potential option for young residents of a formerly strict manufacturing city.  Further research is necessary to understand how sports is conveyed to American youth, especially through mass media, as a potential form of entrepreneurship.

Not only are sports a theoretical avoidance of joblessness as a form of entrepreneurship, but athletic participation can significantly increase income outside the scope of the wages of professional athletes.  For example, males who performed as collegiate athletes receive about 4% higher annual incomes than non-athletes (Long & Caudill, 1991).  Thus, sports are a way to increase salary and avoid joblessness not only as an end result (playing professionally) but also as a building block for future success.

Iowa & Wisconsin: Responses to Job Loss

Another study on plant closures was conducted by Root (1984) to analyze how displaced workers cope with job loss.  This research compared two Iowa meat-packing shutdowns during the mid 1970′s and 1980 respectively along with analysis of displaced auto workers in Wisconsin in the early 1980′s.  Workers responded to job loss by cutting back on expenses, extending their informal network of relatives and friends for employment possibilities, and sending their spouse to the workforce.

The authors state that more research is necessary on several aspects of job loss in order to produce effective public policy.  This is probably true, but the research needs to go beyond studies of reactions to joblessness and ought to include perceptions of the prospects of certain career choices.  It is vital not only to ask “What did you do after the plant closed?” but to also include many questions that drive to answer “Going into it, how long did you think this prosperity would last?”  Only then will we have a more complete picture.  This is why new research regarding sports sociology and career path choice are relevant to the discussion.  Research is needed to examine the types of jobs that those in the generation subsequent the plant closing are choosing.  The next generation of workers in deindustrialized cities are likely to avoid reaching for “a dead end with no future.”  Therefore, it is necessary to understand how that next generation determines what jobs have the potential for bright futures.

“…mis a part les grands bourgeois traditionnels qui ont su s’adapter a l’economie importee par la colonisation, la plupart des entrepreneurs, issue du monde rural ou des couches inferieures de la societe urbaine, ont commence a travailler de leurs mains.”  (Darbel & Bourdieu, 1963)

“… put aside the traditional upper middle class who were able to adapt to the economy imported by colonization, most entrepreneurs, coming from rural or lower strata of urban society, have started working their hands.”  (Darbel & Bourdieu, 1963)

Social Mobility

Research was conducted in an attempt to answer questions of welfare dependency and “shiftlessnes” in terms of jobless workers’ reentry to stable and meaningful employment.  Venkatesh (1994) interviewed 27 black males, most who were jobless, in a study arguing “that numerous forces – racial, spatial, and political, as well as strictly economic – come into play in shaping the urban poor’s present social mobility opportunities.”

The study was conducted in Chicago because “transformation of Chicago’s inner city within the last three decades exemplifies the shifts which have occurred to nearly all of the major Northeastern industrial centers in America” (Venkatesh, 1994).  Another second sociologist at the University of Chicago concluded “the situation of Chicago’s black inner city is emblematic of the social changes that have sown despair and exclusion in these communities” (Wacquant & Wilson, 1989).  However, the core economic restructuring changes that these authors are explaining – that economies once based on producing industrial goods have shifted toward financial, corporate, and service sector growth – do not exemplify nearly all of the major Northeastern industrial centers in America.

In some cases, cities have become deindustrialized with no subsequent injection of financial or corporate growth after the factories closed.  Flint, Saginaw, and Detroit are perfect examples.  Thus, those cities became ghost towns as opposed to ghettoized.  There is a drastic difference in the descriptions of such places but connections could be drawn to Chicago.  Further research is necessary to compare the findings of the University of Chicago studies that focus on the “structural economic replacement” cities like Chicago with “structural economic vacuum” cities like those in Michigan.  The University of Chicago studies provide a springboard for such comparisons.

One similarity between ghost towns and replacement economies is the prevalence of a theoretical “mobility ladder” used as a framework of socioeconomic status for the urban poor.  “Attributing their present position at the ‘bottom’ of the socioeconomic ladder to a lack of jobs would be only partially accurate” (Venkatesh, 1994).  This is because, analogously, there are rungs missing from the ladder near the bottom.  For example, there are no jobs in the urban poor neighborhoods and the jobs that do exist are not easily accessible through public transportation (Wilson, 1990).  Increasing social isolation of the remaining residents in urban neighborhoods is separating that group from the more advantaged members of society.

Social isolation “deprives inner-city residents not only of conventional role models, whose strong presence once buffered the effects of neighborhood joblessness, but also of social resources.  [Furthermore, a] high degree of social isolation in impoverished neighborhoods reduces their employment prospects” (Wilson, 1996).  Isolation can also be explained as a condition, a result of distinctive low economic status that “denies advantages of an extensive associational life beyond the kin group” (Gutman, 1976) and hinders mobility opportunities.

Not only are the rungs cut off the ladder, but the height of the ladder is shrinking.  “Whereas jobs requiring only limited education have been rapidly increasing in the suburbs, poorly educated blacks remain residentially constrained in inner-city housing. Within underclass neighborhoods, few households have private vehicles, which are shown to be increasingly necessary for employment in dispersing metropolitan economies” (Kasarda 1989).  Additionally, “employment opportunities which have emerged in urban areas either demand exceedingly high levels of education and credentials or are menial and are not a viable option to public assistance packages” (Venkatesh, 1994).

Refining the Sociology of Sports

Limitations of the Study

In the preceding section, I provided a literature review on research that was conducted regarding plant shutdowns and the general deindustrialization of midwestern cities. The Zenith TV plant represented a “dead end with no future.”  The Iowa and Wisconsin studies explained what happens to workers after they have reached the dead end.  The analysis of Chicago ghettos brought forth theories of socially isolated citizenry, those with no end in sight.  In the following section, I draw connections to the study of sports sociology and explain how the globalization of sports offers counterbalance to the aforementioned phenomena.  This is not an argument against the validity of previous studies, rather it is a recommendation for further research to fill gaps and draw connections to subject matter not usually associated with deindustrialization.

It is necessary to understand job creation through expanding professional sports leagues throughout the globe.  On one hand, there is an American presence in some leagues through team ownership (Rusnak, 2010).  On the other, there is a very personal way of understanding the African Diaspora through sport.  For example, in an article published by Soviet journalist Isidor Schneider, “The Story of Bashir Shambe” tells of a man being brought from Persia into Russia as a slave, then rising to become one of Soviet Georgia’s distinguished citizens.

“My work was menial and my Georgian master, like my Persian masters, used me as an object of sport.  [Real freedom means] to be accepted as equal, to live as a human being and not as an object of sport for bored rich people.” (Fikes & Lemon, 2002)

Further research is required to examine the individuals’ perceptions of self as related to their participation in global sports.  It is outside the scope of this article to examine the feelings of athletes in regard to their place.  I will not make an attempt to determine whether professional athletes in any league are objectified or exploited.  I will not draw any connection to the African Diaspora when discussing African-American athletes participation in professional European sports leagues.  However, I feel strongly that such issues need to be addressed by further research.  The goal of this article is to explain how the globalizing sports industry has changed the way young Americans in deindustrialized cities like Motown view job opportunities.

New Urban Poverty

In the 1930′s, E. Franklin Frazier expressed his belief that “the upward mobility of African Americans and their eventual assimilation into American life would depend in large measure on the availability of employment opportunities in the industrial sector” (Wilson, 1994).  For better or worse, Frazier’s words are no longer true.  There is a diminishing number of available industrial jobs in cities like Flint and Detroit, Michigan.  In another study, Drake & Cayton maintain that mobility is hindered by living space and tie much of the lack in mobility to brick and mortar buildings (Drake & Cayton, 1993).  To update scholars, Wilson (1994) lectured on the concept of “new urban poverty” that “represents poor segregated neighborhoods in which a substantial majority of the adults are not working.”  This is drastically different from the population studied by Drake & Clayton because those subjects in their book “Black Metropolis” actually held jobs.  There are no jobs now.  Wilson makes this very clear.

Cities like Flint are “ghost towns” when industry leaves as opposed to reconstructed economies.  Additionally, the populace is more spread out.  Wilson continues, “though they may have lived on different streets, blacks of all classes in inner-city areas such as Bronzeville lived in the same community and shopped at the same stores.  Their children went to the same schools and played in the same parks.”  Although the new urban poor are no longer imprisoned, in Flint for example, within symbolic high-rise projects like Cabrini-Green on Chicago’s North Side, the ghetto still exists on the playground and in schools and grocery stores.

Wilson (1994) expressed many key points, including (i) “neighborhoods plagued with high levels of joblessness are more likely to experience problems of social organization; (ii) regular employment provides the anchor for the temporal and spatial aspects of daily life;  (iii) unemployment and irregular employment preclude the elaboration of a rational planning of life, the necessary condition of adaptation to an industrial economy (Bourdieu, 1963); (iv) the relative absence of rational planning in a jobless family is reinforced by the similar condition of other families in the neighborhood.”  In sum, social organization decreases as joblessness increases.  Temporal and spatial aspects of daily life vanish when jobs do.  Most importantly, the choice to develop career aspirations and goals is eliminated when industry departs and leaves conditions of unemployment.  Finally, the inability to consciously climb “the ladder” is contagious.

The image here visually represents the preceding.  On the left, deindustrialization creates an environment of diminishing career aspirations, lower social organization, and results in joblessness.  On the right, the foundation of jobs stimulates higher levels of social organization and overladen with choice.

“Neighborhoods in which the adults are connected by an extensive set of obligations, expectations, and social networks are in a better position to control and supervise the activities and behavior of children and monitor developments in the neighborhood, such as the breaking up of congregations of youth on street corners and the supervision of youth leisure-time activities” (Sampson 1992; Wilson, 1994).

What’s Left?  What’s Next?

Social isolation “deprives inner-city residents of conventional role models, whose strong presence once buffered the effects of neighborhood joblessness” (Wilson, 1996).  This is no longer the case as American professional sports have brought role models into the living rooms of families through television, perhaps even through Zenith units.  “Few households have private vehicles, which are shown to be increasingly necessary for employment in dispersing metropolitan economies” (Kasarda 1989).  However, professional athletes usually travel on private jets.  Although attributing the overall current position of the urban poor “at the ‘bottom’ of the socioeconomic ladder [due] to a lack of jobs” (Venkatesh, 1994) is likely correct, the future position of the urban poor on the socioeconomic ladder is not reliant on industrial jobs.  When conducting future studies, researchers must incorporate new “virtual” role models and new visions in transportation.  More and more people live and work in medium to low density neighborhoods on the outskirts of larger job/market centers yet our primary public transit systems are designed to serve higher density communities” (Mueller & Flanigan, 2000).  The idea that the next generation of laborers dreams of a job that involves air travel as the most common form of transportation is not without merit.  The “No Collar” workforce (Ross, 2004) is a perfect example.  With spatially restrictive and constructive forces like transportation no longer shaping employment opportunities, future research must cast a glance on sports as a viable employment opportunity in the newly integrated global labor market.

Global Sports: Stepping Stone or Sea of Jobs?

There are numerous sociological approaches that can be used when examining issues of global sports.  The analysis can be based on a certain sport, a nation and its involvement on the global scale, or how individuals (or groups of individuals) move globally with sports as a driving force.  Additionally, sports can take place at a recreational, professional, or amateur level.  As was discussed previously, male college athletes tend to make more money than the average Joe so even amateur participation can become a stepping to more income. With all these potential lenses and levels to view sports globally, it is imperative to review the literature for connections and gaps that assist in determining potential areas for future research.

In what follows, I provide an overview of specific approaches used within the sociological study of global sports issues.  First, I review the work of Kaufman & Patterson (2005) who examine the global spread of cricket.  The authors begin with the premise that cricket, an English sport with cultural tradition, has spread to several but not all countries with close cultural ties to England.  The authors base their explanation on two key factors of varying degree: “(i) elites chose either to appropriate the game and deter others from participating or actively to promote it throughout the population for hegemonic purposes; (ii) the game was ‘popularized’ by cultural entrepreneurs looking to get and keep spectators and athletes interested in the sport.”  Second, I will review the cultural insignificance of American football in Europe even though so many other elements of American culture have become popular there.  Van Bottenburg (2003) argues that “that this anomaly can be explained by a sociohistorical perspective on the differential popularization of sports and the changing social structure in which sports are being diffused.”  Both articles look closely at the cultural spread of specific sports across the globe.  In sum, I will analyze both successful and unsuccessful introductions of certain sports to areas of the globe that had not yet become acquainted with them.

Perspectives of Sports on a Global Scale

Sports provide a valid set of instances that can be examined sociologically and appropriately on both the local and global scale.  Miller et. al. (1999) argue that “the sport experience, which links nationalism, public policy, the media, and contemporary cultural industrialization, must be considered in wider deliberations on globalization.”  The authors base their work of the principles of Latour (1993) that “the words ‘local’ and ‘global’ offer points of view on networks that are by nature neither local nor global, but are more or less long and more or less connected.”  As nation-states and blocs can be discussed as levels of scale, it is amazing to consider a small soccer field as representative of a conglomerate of sociological issues ranging from local to global.  Or, the points of connection can be analyzed as more or less connected.  The points of connection under analysis are left up to the researcher (fans, athletes, leagues, owners, etc.).

The Origin of Cricket in Europe

Cricket was labeled the “national game” of England in 1840 and has since been considered to exemplify the national identity of England, even more so than soccer which perhaps more prevalent or currently popular (Malcolm, 2001).  This discussion really hinges on how to define a “national game” and could be based off of popularity figures like TV viewing or survey data or a number of other measures.  For purposes of this discussion, I will equate the description of cricket as the “national game” of England such as baseball has been declared the “American pastime” in the United States.  Professional football is likely more popular than baseball now using a variety of measures, yet baseball maintains the traditional moniker of the “national game.”

The deeper explanation of cricket as the “national game” includes credence to its ability to shape identity of both individual and nation.  “Cricket has been historically significant in defining notions of English national identity and continues to feature in debates over the inclusion/exclusion of immigrants in British society” (Malcolm, 2001).  More thought will be presented to identity in the following sections.  However, it is important to note that the identifying characteristics of cricket are encased in its history.

Somewhat surprisingly, there have been some blatantly racist statements made using cricket as a megaphone.  “Comments from leading players and administrators illustrate that stereotypical beliefs about biological differences have some significance within the game” (Malcolm, 2001).  Thought offered on biological differences when discussing gender in sports is prevalent (F. Landry, M. Landry, Yerlès, & Committee, 1991) but the distinction regarding race is very controversial (Edwards, 1973; Eitzen & Sage, 1993; Volkwein-Caplan, 2004; Smith, 2007) and also common.  It is outside the scope of this paper to give a detailed account of biological similarities or differences between races in any sport.  The pertinent connection to draw is that cricket in England shares many things in common with American sports, like the debate over the significance of various races’ participation in the sport.

The Diffusion of Cricket to America

The reasons for the spread of cricket throughout the world are many, including that “limited opportunities for non-white players in the Caribbean [lead to] talented black players [looking] elsewhere for employment” (Malcolm, 2001).  Some players go on to join teams in North America due to the locations of demand.  This is precisely why many American basketball players travel to Europe to play professionally.  The National Basketball Association (NBA) has even created rules to prevent the hiring of players in the nation’s dominant league.  Brandon Jennings is a perfect example of this.  When he came out of high school as one of the top five players in the nation (Wetzel, 2010), Jennings could not play for the NBA due to rules against his participation.  Holding a mindset in common that many in his situation have, to “take care of our families,” Jennings went to Europe for one year to play and then came back to America for his rookie year in the NBA during which he performed at an extremely high level.

However, there is a striking difference between the diffusion of cricket to America and the spread of American basketball players to Europe: the results have been opposite.  Each year, more and more American basketball players are traveling overseas to play professional due to the aforementioned opportunities in Europe.  One estimate generated the number at 6,700 American basketball players currently overseas (Sports I.T., 2010).  Yet, reasons of opportunity in common, cricket has failed in America.  Malcolm (2006) describes two themes for its failure: (i) “the structure of cricket and its incompatibility with American national character,” and (ii) “the post-Civil War rise of nationalism.”  Malcolm clarifies these themes and presents flaws in them.

First, it is virtually impossible to identify a single, unified “national character.”  Malcolm clarifies that point with evidence from two others.  Bairner (2001) states “we should not ignore the fact that in most nation-states there exists a hegemonic national identity that is not necessarily inclusive.”  Maguire and Stead (1996) argue that cultural representations are “dominated by male upper class values.”  This means that the U.S. “national character” is potentially non-inclusive and drives away cricket players while the rest of the world has been accepting of American athletes playing sports in their nations.  The same shooing of basketball players can be witnessed in the U.S. and the NBA can been seen as an example of male upper class values determining the shape of the league and opportunities for young athletes.

Second, it is highly unlikely that a rapid change of American nation character drove cricket out of the country in the 1850′s.  Malcolm makes reference to Guttmann (1994) that “the popularity of sports changes rather more quickly than can a national psyche.”  To restate this in regard to the acceptance of American players overseas, it is not feasible that a rapid character change in a variety of nation-states led to the migration of basketball players and the creation of professional leagues across the globe.

Finally, Malcolm negates the nationalism argument because “if Americans wished to forge and demonstrate a new found national identity, cricket provided an excellent vehicle.”  After refuting the preceding claims, Malcolm concludes that “the interdependencies between the British and Anglo-Americans, between upper and lower class English immigrants, and between English immigrants and native white Americans help reveal why cricket did not become central to the American way of life, and indeed subsequently became antithetical to the way the English understand Americans and Americans understand the English.”  The same interdependencies can be analyzed currently to understand why basketball has become embedded in the European way of life and is becoming more and more a way that Europeans understand Americans and Americans understand Europeans.

The Global Spread of Cricket

Kaufman & Patterson (2005) addressed the global diffusion of cricket in one of, if not, the most comprehensive articles of the globalization of sports to this date. The sport, they argue, underwent a heterophilous (as opposed to homophilous) diffusion process; that is to say, cricket successfully diffused where there was considerable status inequality between change agents and adopters. Moreover, diffusion was successful where “change agents” were willing to transmit and participate in the promotion of the game, and continue their engagement with the game after it had “spread down and across” the social hierarchy.”  The authors go heavily into detail on the reasons for the failure of cricket in America, often countering its demise with the success of baseball.  Because the scope of this research does not include a history of sports in the United States, I will not include an analysis of those points made by Kaufman & Patterson.  The information they present relevant to this research is the section on the spread of cricket to various regions of the globe.

The authors point out that “in Trinidad, as in Jamaica and Barbados, blacks and whites sometimes played cricket together (though not as equals). Individual cricket clubs were established at each rung of the social hierarchy, from the lowest-caste blacks to lighter skinned ‘browns’ and whites.”  This occurred in large part because “colonial elites, comfortable in their place atop the social hierarchy, had little reason to discourage those beneath them from playing a game that paid symbolic homage to British cultural and political hegemony” (Kaufman & Patterson 2005).  In Australia and New Zealand, urban elites established cricket clubs.  “In Bombay, where cricket has, perhaps, its longest history on the subcontinent, and where the Indian television and film industries are centered, star cricketers are given all the adulation and fame of their Bollywood counterparts” (Kaufman & Patterson 2005; Stoddart & Sandiford, 1998).  In Southern Africa, “‘because the ideology of respectability was crucial for the aspirations of middle-class blacks,’ they not only aspired to play the game well but also provided an example for less ‘respectable’ blacks (Kaufman & Patterson 2005, Stoddart & Sandiford, 1998).  The successful adoption of cricket as a pastime across the globe can be summarized by the following:

1. A sport blacks and whites play together (Caribbean)
2. A sport that has high and low tiers and can be represented by hierarchy (Caribbean)
3. A sport that has connection to the popular culture through media (India)
4. A sport that serves as a model for advancement (Southern Africa)

Baseball, America’s Pastime, Fails in Europe

Bloyce & Murphy (2008) address the issue of baseball failing in Europe through an examination of four “tours” of baseball in England over a period of fifty years from 1874 to 1924 and the broader context of each tour.  The authors critique several attempts by American entrepreneurs to establish the game of baseball in England while the U.S. witnessed rising power coinciding with a general decline in Britain.  The authors present several reasons, one of the most relevant being the 1913-1914 “World Tour” led by John McGraw (former professional player and manager) and Charles Comiskey (former player, manager, and team owner of the Chicago White Sox).  It was said during this time that interest in baseball had been brewing for month in England.  However, that was a misinterpretation of reality due in large part to a small lens used to see the “interest.”  The interest was essentially confined to a small group of ex-pats living in England at the time and was not representative of the nation as a whole.  Additionally, none of the four elements of success that cricket held were evident within baseball in England.

The Cultural Insignificance of American Football in Europe

Van Bottenburg (2003) points out that one of the main reasons American football failed in Europe was that it did not have the history or depth of other sports.  “Baseball, basketball, and volleyball only spread to Europe after they had already become well-known in Latin America and East Asia.”  For a sport to successfully spread to a region, it cannot simply originate for a brief period in one county then hop across the ocean to another.  As has been described in the preceding sections, the spread of a sport across the globe takes time and includes several factors.  As Eitzen (2000) notes, “the social significance of the entry of blacks into [American professional] baseball was greater than that for other sports because of baseball’s status as America’s national game” (Malcolm, 2001).  Again, this points to the deep history necessary for a sport to flourish in one country let alone spread to another continent.

The Spread of Basketball throughout the Globe

Recommendations for Further Study

I have shown how the global spread of a single sport is due to many factors.  Entrepreneurs, for example, cannot bring a sport to a nation and develop it into a popular recreational activity or profitable business.  Typically, a sport needs participation on several levels to succeed and gain popularity in a new global region.  The case of relatively new professional basketball leagues in Europe, South America, and Asia appear to have the characteristics that lead so successful diffusion.  Further research is necessary to understand why basketball is now popular at amateur and professional levels in many countries.

In addition, I offer strong recommendation to expand the study of sports sociology to reach to all levels of analysis.  On one hand, there are many global-scale reasons for a sport to spread or fail to spread across oceans.  On the other hand, it is likely that there are micro-level individual rationales for future laborers to choose professional sports as a viable option for work.  As cities such as Flint and Detroit, Michigan become deindustrialized, job options shift from a straight ticket to the shop toward a plethora of local and global options.  Mobility, both literal and social, is increasing in formerly industrialized cities.  Not only are symbolic bridges being built that span the ocean, the top of the ladder is no longer at the truck and bus assembly plant.  The new symbolic ladder has become symbolically and actually lateral.

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