Professional Sports Teams - Economic Market Analysis Research Paper

Professional Sports Teams - Economic Market Analysis - Research Paper Example Football, Cricket, Basketball etc are some of the popular games which are used for business purposes at present. These sports activities are marketed throughout the world with the help of different sports clubs formed at different parts of the world. For example, in America, different basketball clubs are functioning whereas in India different cricket and football clubs are functioning for business purposes. In Britain, Spain, Italy like countries, world famous Football clubs are functioning for business purposes and Manchester United is one of the popular football clubs in Britain. This paper briefly analyses the market structure of Manchester United. In one respect the place is Old Trafford where home games are played, but Manchester United also plays at a range of other venues. And, of course its products are sold across the globe, through the club's website and a range of other sales media. Manchester United markets itself as a global brand. The club also engages in a range of jo int promotional activities, for example with the mobile phone company Vodafone. Manchester United books, shirts, programmes, keyrings and many other items are sold and promoted through its website. The club has positioned itself at the upmarket premier end of the market and, as a result, it tends to charge premium prices as evidenced by the high cost of a season ticket to watch home league games (Marketing mix (Price, Place, Promotion, Product), 2011) Manchester United is operating in a highly competitive sports market at present. It is difficult for any of the football clubs in the world to establish monopoly in the market because of the severe competition existing between different clubs. For example, Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, A.C. Milan etc are some of the prominent football clubs in the world which are engaged in severe competition to establish their supremacy over others. These clubs are always canvassing better players from other clubs in order to str engthen their team and to reduce the competition from other teams. Thus Football clubs like Manchester United is operating in a heavily contested global sports market at present. Apart from providing an excellent team for global football tournaments, Manchester United boosts its business prospects through other channels such as sale of shirts, and a range of memorabilia, television rights etc. It should be noted that Manchester United plays both home games and away games and they visit many other places for participating in different championships. They have a wide array of supporters both in England and in other parts of the world. They utilize their popularity for business purposes as other clubs do. Unlike many other business activities, establishing monopoly or oligopoly in sports market is extremely difficult. It is a fact that Microsoft enjoys monopoly in operating system market whereas OPEC enjoys oligopoly in the oil market. Because of the huge control in the market, these o rganizations can interfere and control the market more effectively than their competitors. They can increase or decrease the production and raise or lower the product price at any time they like. It is difficult for a sports club like Manchester United to enjoy such controls in the market (even though it is the richest football club in the world) because of the huge

Religious diversity in Saudi Arabia and US Speech or Presentation

Religious diversity in Saudi Arabia and US - Speech or Presentation Example Saudi Arabia offers lesser freedom of religion to the residents as compared to the USA. The practice in Saudi Arabia is that all shops are closed during the times of prayers, so as to discourage the people from engaging themselves in other businesses while the call for prayer is made through Azan in the mosques. While scheduling business-related matters in Saudi Arabia, non-Muslims have to play special attention towards this matter because their Muslim partners would not be available at these particular times at least for the duration of Salat in the mosques. On the other hand, in the USA, all shops remain open irrespective of the time of prayers in any religion, be it Islam or Christianity or any other religion. Government may impose restrictions but they are for other kinds of reasons like saving power, and are not grounded in any religion. Another factor that elaborates lesser freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia than the USA is the fact that there are no churches in Saudi Arabia w hereas in the USA, there are churches, mosques, synagogues, and Temples to entertain the religious needs of all of the communities that make part of the American society including the Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Hindus etc. Presently, Saudi Arabia does not have any official churches with a Christian denomination. Lack of official churches makes it very difficult for the Christians to conduct religious meetings and acts. The Christian community living in Saudi Arabia conducts private meetings for the religious affairs. The usual practice for the foreign Christians living in Saudi Arabia is that church meetings are arranged in one of the embassies. Christians can attend those meetings after registration and proving their foreign nationality. Sometimes, church meetings are also conducted at private assemblies arranged in the gyms of the schools. Many Christians conduct religious services at one another’s residences. Although Muslims make a sizeable portion of the American soc iety, yet the Americans have many suspicions, doubts, and confusions about the religion Islam. These confusions, in part, are grounded in the fact that the way of life taught by Islam to its followers is very much different from the traditional American lifestyle. The non-Muslim Americans find a lot of restrictions in Islam upon things that make part of their everyday life of many of them. Such things include but are not limited to consuming alcohol, eating pork, socializing with the opposite gender without significant physical boundaries and physical interaction with them, the girlfriend-boyfriend culture, same sex marriages, and cohabitation. When a non-Muslim American observes that everybody but practicing Muslims consumes alcohol freely in parties, visits night-clubs, and has a girlfriend or a boyfriend, he/she thinks of the practicing Muslims as people out of this world. Some may think good of them while others may have negative perceptions about the Muslims, but one thing that is a common observation among a vast majority of the non-Muslim American community is that Muslims in general and the practicing Muslims in particular have a very different lifestyle from theirs, and the source of this difference is Islam. Apart from this observation, another factor