sponsorship hardly existed as an, "economic activity in Britain before 1970," (Gratton and Taylor, p.163). By 1999, however, it was estimated to be worth $350 million (Noll, p.494). Sports sponsorship globally, is projected to be worth around $20 billion (Gratton and Taylor, p.165), with the United States cornering about a quarter of that market. As you can see from these figures, the companies behind these price tags can have a big say in dictating the nature of the sporting industry. The question is has the commercialization of sports harmed our sporting traditions, or played a key factor in its survival and popularity? The problem with the market for sponsorship is that it can be fairly patchy in the way it is divided up. Obviously there are going to be a small number of major sports events, teams and elite athletes that will be swamped in contracts. Due to competitive sponsorship bidding some of the sponsorship deals go sky high. However, the down side to this is that some of the less popular sports like Women's golf, are left struggling to find backing as they don't fit the sponsors criteria. A fragile balance between a sport and its sponsor is clearly evident, as they provide a major source of revenue for any sport. If a big named sponsor decides to withdraw its companies backing from a particular tournament or league, crisis can erupt as sport organizers are left trying to fill a void from lost revenue. Why not just get a new sponsor? Sometimes it is not always that easy. At the moment a lot of European sports are struggling, partly because the European union passed a ban on tobacco advertising in the sporting industry as of 2001 (Noll, 1997, p.157). It is not proving to be an easy task trying to find replacements, so some sports schedules like motor racing are on the brink of going under. The "commercialization of sports through endorsement contracts," (Gratton and Taylor, p.167) seemed...