Commercialisation

Rob writes about the decline of sport:

Is sport getting worse?

Now I am as obsessed by sport as anyone, but is it gradually becoming rubbish?

Tour de Farce
Decline of West Indian Cricket and too much cricket
Football - suffocating from wealth
Rugby - rich nations stealing from the poor
Tennis - even more boring now than it ever has been
Athletics - best Doctor wins
Racing - fixing

I think I may take up Crown Green Bowling.

I think he's right - but it's not just sport. Everything is getting "less good" because of commercialisation. There was a time when "sport" meant "fair, equitable, gentlemanly" in a sort of 1950's long-football-shorts and handshake kind of a way. Now it seems more likely to equal "sponsorship, TV and adverts".

Can we get back those "amateur" endeavours and still call them entertainment?