Eye on the ball: blog series

eye_on_the_ball

Sports is an integral part of society that everyone has engaged with in some form, either in school, university or as a professional athlete. The importance of sports in British society can be seen by the fact that the sports industry is worth an astonishing £20 billion (Cave, 2015).

However, as with many industries in society, the sports industry faces issues with diversity and inclusion. This can be seen in the disparity between male and female participation in sport, numbers of females working in the business of sports, and can even be seen in the pay gap between males and females.

The amount of commercial investment female sports receives is a key indicator of the inequality within the industry. It was found that for every £1000 male sports receive, female sports receive £4 (Women in Sport, 2016).

This disparity, among many other unequal instances in the business of sports, is something that many inspiring thought leaders are discussing and bringing to the forefront of its organisation.

It is impossible to exactly pinpoint to a specific reason why the issue of diversity and inclusion has not been answered in the business of sports.

We need to look at the many reasons which intersect each other to be able to effectively address the issue at hand. For example, the sports industry is seen as a traditional sector that still has an “old boys network” (Staurowsky, 2016), as well as the issue of modernising organisational structures to enable diverse people to flourish.

'Eye on the ball' is a blog series committed to answering the many burning questions of diversity and inclusion. We will be interviewing industry leaders to gain a deeper understanding of how we can effectively answer the question: