Negative
I feel that commercialisation of sports is bad as it denies the sport players of their privacy. As the players would be constantly under the limelight, details of their lives, both the good and the bad, are released to the public. For example, in the recent Tiger Wood's scandal involving his many mistresses, his private life was broad casted to the public, attracting many criticisms. Therefore, the commercialization of sports is bad as it compromises the personal space of the athletes.
Performance may not be the main focus in all sports. Some people may take up a sport just to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Many sports, such as running and swimming can be solitary and non-competitive. It does not matter if one does not perform well in the activity, as long as the individual feels that being engaged in it brings benefit to his/her health.
If the commercialization of sports were to cause people to develop a mindset that victory and quality of performance is of utmost importance, unnecessary pressure will be imposed on the sportsman. Their mentality may change, resulting in them thinking that only those who can excel in the sport deserve to take part. This causes those who do sports for health benefits but are not proficient to lose their penchant.
Commercialization in this case is disadvantageous as it has the power to distort the mindset of people negatively. The psychological phobia may cause some people to be robbed of their chance to engage in a sport they like.
The commercialization of sports has set in motion a shift in paradigm in sports; particularly those which involve teams. Players have become commodities to be traded and sold for extravagant sums of money and even clubs are being sold to the highest bidders. The trouble with this is that while sport used to be about performance excellence and hard work, clubs may now simply obtain success by splurging astronomical amounts