Photo by Jason Antony
I wanted more traffic to my site, so I wrote this post about sports. That’s what it takes. Nobody really cares about my musings on pickles or art, but I drop the name Peyton Manning or something sports related and people start clicking. I’m pretty sure anything NFL related get the highest traffic.
I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a story about Purdue basketball, the Colts, the Pacers, or the Cincinnati Reds. And I’m not really sure why I care. I really wish I didn’t. I know that sports are great for a community’s healthy interaction and vital economic engines that create jobs through merchandise sales, restaurant sales, and tourism to name a few. Indianapolis is one city that has done very well in profiting off the sports market by hosting multiple major events such as the NCAA Final Four, the Big Ten basketball tournament, the inaugural Big Ten football playoff game, and now the Super Bowl.
In Indiana, we’re a bit sports crazy. My wife insists it’s at a different level compared to other places. I’m not sure I agree considering we’ve never experienced first hand the insanity of Green Bay, Cleveland, or Pittsburgh. She bases this comment on the intensity of the youth sports programs here, but we didn’t have kids who were sports playing age before moving to Indiana, so her theory has lots of holes. I think, as a whole, we have all just become a little more sports centric. Culture demands it because so many businesses are dependent on sports. Without a strong sports culture, the bar scene would probably be cut by a third.
Sports have become a vital part of our culture. If a business doesn’t actually trade in sports, sports is at least used as a social object, a conversation piece, or something to rally around over business meetings, lunches, and coffee breaks. Maybe if sports never existed we’d spend more time talking about the theater and the arts, but probably not. Instead we’d probably just invent sports.
Culture demands it because so many businesses are dependent on sports. Without a strong sports culture, the bar scene would probably be cut by a third.