Should video games be in the Olympics?

In 2008 there was a big push for video games to be put into the Olympic games in Beijing. Ted Owen the CEO of Global Gaming League(GGL), a media based company around the culture of video games was pushing for games to be in the Olympics. According to Owen, he says that "because gaming is world wide especially to the younger audience it could be the biggest push to the Games since snowboarding". He also argues that "People arn't watching the Olympics as they use to and the way to bring back views is to attract young people to continue to make profit". I fully support his ideas because hes completely right. We have an ageing population that doesn't seem completely interested in the Olympics they feel if anything it is a complete wast of tax pays money. If companies want to make a profit they have to market for younger people to bring them in and the best way to do that is introducing video games to the Olympics. From a companies point of view this is extremely profitable. Not only would the Olympics profit but the gaming industry. The gaming industry is always growing its one of the only industries that still continues to prosper and what better way to make even more money? That's right putting video games in the Olympics would generate even more game sales. Why is that? simple if the audience sees what kind of games the "pros" play such as Call of duty or Halo they would buy more of that game. Its an advertising in itself showing that if Olympic players play these games then it has to be good. From a gamer point of view its even better. Lets be clear video games don't take alot of physical actively anyone can play them. Unlike the Olympic athletes where you need to be in mint condition and you cant have any huge disabilities. Sure there is Olympics for disabled people but its not publicised to the same extent. If video games were introduced into the Olympics anyone can play even with disabilities it doesn't single out a very small group of people all you need is hand-eye coordination, team work and the will to win. So for gamers it doesn't single out, its competitive, fun and anyone can participate. So should video games be in the Olympics? I don't see why not. There is no downsides of them being introduced it benefits everyone the companies and the players. The gaming industry grows and gamers are getting the recognition for there skills its a win-win for everyone.

Are Drug Tests Actually Effective?

Every amature or professional sports player is always looking for a new way to give themselves some form of an advantage. This can range from state of the art equipment or a better training program; then there is the concept of performance enhancing drugs. A drug like Steroids provides the user with superior strength and endurance. These boosted attributes have allowed baseball players such as Barry Bonds the ability to become a legend, and break unbelievable records. There has been major speculation that even though athletes have failed drug tests, they were allowed to continue to play without penalty. There is reason to support this; take the recently retired Theron Fleurry for example, he failed multiple drug tests but was allowed to continue without punishment because he was one of the NHL's most popular players. This begs the question: who else has been given a free pass? If drug testing programs are so expensive then why are players who fail them allowed to go free? It's almost like these programs are brought in just to make it look like the leagues are being responsible. I guess they think what we don't know won't hurt us.

There is also the other side of the coin to consider. These "super athletes" can make some games more exciting, and bring in a larger fan base to a league. The credibility of the professional sports world may have been tarnished by the drug controversey, but it has also caused massive exposure and attention. In an economy such as this maybe any exposure is good exposure.

Are the Stanley cup finals a good investment?

Every hockey child dreams of one day hoisting the Stanley Cup over there head, it is the ultimate prize for one whose whole life has been devoted to playing a sport that they love. Unfortunately for the N.H.L it looks as though they have run into a bit of difficulty. The main problem is attracting American fans to watch the sport. It has also hit home with the recent Stanley Cup finals played between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. The N.H.L has no problem attracting fans from Canada to watch the sport but have found it more difficult to bring fans from the United States to watch the game.

There was recently some controversy regarding the N.H.L and the brodcasting station involved with the Stanley cup finals in the United States. NBC, the station who owned the rights to the Stanley cup finals asked the NHL to scheduale the second game of the Stanley Cup finals the day after the first game had been played. This was the first time such a thing had happened since 1954. But NBC did have a reason for such schedualing, they did not want to interfear with there primetime week night schedual, WHAT?! Yes thats right Conan O'Brian new weeknight show "The tonight show" had its first offical episode run that Monday night and NBC felt that Conan's show would be in higher demand than game 2 of the Stanley cup finals. They also had games 3 and 4 moved to another broadcaster as they felt the same of these games as well. So what is the logic behind this. Well it seems that hockey has just not caught on in America and the big broadcasters feel that it is not a good investment for them to move, or cancel shows to broadcast the finals of what is considered the biggest sport in Canada.

So how will the NHL deal with this? Well they could find another broadcaster in the States for there Stanley cup finals so that they do not have to base there scheduals around the scheduals of the broadcaster. If they also find a way to grow in the United States they could have more of a voice when they create there scheduals and hopefully will not be pushed aside for a 2 bit comedian whos been 10 years past his prime.

Could video games be considered a sport?

Video games are one of the biggest past-time actives around the world. May people play them for fun but many take gaming seriously and it gets very competitive to be the best. Video games also have there own league(Major League Gaming) which is free to join and is for all genres and systems. Anyone can make a group of people or friends to compete against each other to win prizes and money. It is very fun, competitive, skillful and team based. Games can be posted on players blogs along with screenshots and scores.

Studies say that at least 52% of all house holds have at least one video game consoles( Xbox, PS3, Wii,) not including PCs and PC gaming. Studies also say the average hours of video games played around the age of 25-34 is around 15-20 hours a week. The video game market is huge making annual revenue of 25 billion dollars in video game sales not including consoles sales.

Could video games be considered a sport? I would fully support yes. The definition of the word "sport" is being competitive, fun, and team work. Video games meet all that criteria. Anyone can play and compete which means it doesn't single out a specific group of people. You don't have to be an athlete to play and its free to join. On top of that company's make alot of money since games are advertised on all the sites and all the top rated games are played by the "pros". Video games is a growing market and will continue to grow, everyone benefits.

Are Salary Caps Always the Best Way to Go?

In most major sports leagues a salary cap system is implemented in order to prevent one team from spending way more money on players than another. The main idea of a salary cap seems like a great way to promote a sense of fairness amongst the individual teams. With a salary cap a team can no longer "buy a championship", like the Yankees try to do every year; at least that's what it's suppose to prevent. In some leagues like the CFL the salary cap acts as more of a guide line. If a team in the CFL decides to spend more than the cap permits, they will have to pay a slight penalty. Take the Saskatchewan Roughriders for example: they openly confirmed that they not only went over the cap, but they planned to all year. Their reasoning for this was that the extra money they would make by playing in the playoffs would more than cover the penalty charged for their actions. If this is allowed to take place then what's the point of using a salary cap system? It seems to me like a whole lot of wasted effort.

In other leagues like the NHL and NFL, salary cap systems have worked really well. In the NHL the cap has allowed Canadian teams to seriously compete with American teams, and their stronger dollar. Before the cap American teams were spending more and more money trying to build the best possible team. Canadian teams could not afford such ridiculous contracts. This meant that as American teams got stronger, Canadian teams got weaker and the NHL was on the verge of losing its core fan base. I guess it's really up to the situation, because if the league isn't willing to really enforce the salary cap, then there is no point in having one.

Chess Boxing? A Successful Hybrid?

Are you serious? Chess Boxing? This is the result you get when you mix brawn with brains. Chess Boxing became an official sport in Europe in 2001 and was created by Dutch Artist, Iepe Rubringh. He was inspired by the fictional ideas in a comic by French comic book artist and filmmaker Enki Bilal.

The World Chess Boxing Organization (WCBO) governs, monitors, and markets the sport throughout Europe in hopes of expanding it someday to overseas. In order to succeed and win the match, dominating in both aspects of the sport is needed. The matchup between two opponents consists of elven rounds which alternates with four minutes of chess(basically speed chess), 3 minutes of boxing, and lastly one minute of break so that they can change their equipment and yes, it is played inside a boxing ring. Competitors may win either through knockout, checkmate, or judge's decision, or if their opponent's twelve mintue of chess time elapses.

Now what does this have to do with business you say? Well WCBO's objective is to expand this hybrid sport overseas and establish it into today's market. But Rubringh's envisioned that maybe, just maybe, someday it will be considered as a game in the Olympics because it really forces you to mentally train your mind and physically get in shape.

Olympics: the Money Guzzler

When Vancouver won the bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2010 everything looked fine and dandy. It would help provide many people in the city with jobs and show how great of a city Vancouver can be. But what would happen once it ends and people are unemployed? Things aren't looking so great for the organizing committee in Vancouver due to the construction of the Vancouver House and two "live sites". The live sites are areas that will have big screens to watch the Olympics and pavilions where people could wander in free of charge to enjoy the festivities.

The live sites projected cost was suppose to be at $470 million but now the provincial and federal government had to invest another $55 million to keep up with the costs. Another issue arised when initially they needed $15 million to improve the facilities for it's building and managing but instead the figure turned into about $38 million. Lastly another building that is going to be built for the athletes to live inside during the duration of the Olympics was projected to be $750 million but once again increased to $875 million.

Now where will they get this amount of money from to upgrade and maintain these projects? by taxing the people more? Instead the government believes that in order to recover from these prices, they hope to resell the buildings and facilities for a market price that will give them back most of their money that they had invested in the beginning to companies or corporations. Hopefully this will turn out as the way they planned.