Politics and sports go hand in hand
with each other. Many athletes have gone on to pursue careers in politics. Just
to name a few; Lynn Swann, Kevin Johnson, and Bill Bradley. In class on March
1, 2016 we talked about the connections between government and sports. These
connections include:
- Safeguard the public order
 |
| Kevin Johnson, former NBA player and current mayor of Sacramento |
- Maintain fitness and physical abilities
- Promote the prestige and power of a community or nation
- Reproduces dominant values
- Increase support for political leaders and political structures
With the 2016 Presidential Election
quickly approaching, a major event in the process has just passed. Super
Tuesday occurred on March 1 this year. Super Tuesday is one of the biggest days
in any of the possible candidate’s campaign. Using sports allows the candidates
to give themselves leverage and make themselves more personable and easier to
connect with. This would raise their Q ratio, or in simpler terms their
popularity rating. This article gives further details.
In this article, it shows how
politicians use sports as another channel to get votes. Home Team Sports sold
spots to Bernie Sanders on Altitude and FS North and sold spots to Marco Rubio
on FS Oklahoma and FS Southwest. Home Team Sports has sold five times more
political ads for this year’s Super Tuesday primaries than it did four years
ago. “A lot of [candidates] were on a lot earlier than ever before to try to
get ahead of February in Iowa,” said Stephen Ullman, director of political ad
sales for Home Team Sports. “I’ve never seen this amount of activity around the
primaries. In the past, the majority of our business has been September to Nov.
1 — the last 60 days of the election.” This just shows how sports can have an
impact on politics. If a voter sees a potential candidate on a sports program,
the likelihood of that candidate getting the vote is highly likely. It makes
the candidate relatable to the voter. Often times voters can feel disconnected
from the candidate due to the candidate’s social status and lifestyle but,
something as simple as sports can bring these two people together.
No comments:
Post a Comment