Sports as a Global Venture

When most people think of global ventures, they think of oil and other trades, but I think sports can loosely fall into the same category.  The entire world partakes in athletics give or take a few regions.  However, the sports that each country participates in or focuses on is unique to that country.  While the United States is the dominant "exporter" of the sports that we deem "the major sports," we are not the dominant exporter of all sports.  It is difficult to argue that the United States does not have the best football, basketball and possibly baseball.  The United States is not however the dominant country when it comes to sports such as cricket, soccer, rugby or even boxing.  Similarly, there is no single country that is the best at every sport.  As an American who loves soccer, I have to watch English, Spanish or Italian soccer if I want to watch the best matches.  For people outside of the United States, they have to watch American basketball or football to get the best of those sports.  This creates an interdependency between the many nations of the world.  I'm not exactly sure what the business standpoint is on international sporting events or if the "Dell Theory" applies to the broadcasting of international sporting events, but I do believe that the political image of a country has an effect on the people that view sporting events of that country.  The United States soccer team may think twice before scheduling an International Friendly match with Iraq.  In addition, when a country is participating at a world level of any competition, they want to be judged by their performance in the event not by the actions of their country.  While sports do not play a huge role in a country's restraint to go to war the way huge corporations such as Dell do, they may still play a minor role in convincing countries that it is not in their best interest to go to war.