Semi-professional sports
This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2008) |
Semi-professional sports are
The semi-professional status is not universal throughout the world and depends on each country's labour code and each sports organization's specific regulations.
Origin
The San Francisco Olympic Club fielded an American football team in 1890.[1] That year, the Olympic Club was accused by a rival club of enticing athletes to jump to its ranks with offers of jobs. An investigation by the Amateur Athletic Union ruled that the Olympics' practice was not actually professionalism but only a "semi" form of it, inventing the term "semi-pro". Although the Amateur Athletic Union did not like the idea very much, it decided that clubs could indeed offer employment without losing their amateur status or compromising the athlete.[2]
North America
In North America, semi-professional athletes and teams were far more common in the early and mid-20th century than they are today. Large blue-collar employers such as
There are many benefits, such as collegiate eligibility and the attendant
In Canada, semi-professionalism is prevalent in junior ice hockey, in which the top level players (most of whom are teenagers still in, or just out of, high school) are paid at a semi-professional level. This is not the case in the United States, where college ice hockey dominates at that age group; the junior leagues in the United States generally operate as fully amateur teams to maintain the players' eligibility to play in college.
Lower-end
The National Lacrosse League, whose teams also typically play only one game per week, pays a salary that is enough to be considered fully professional, but players also are able to pursue outside employment to supplement their income. The lowest levels of organized baseball are also effectively semi-professional, as the short summer seasons and low salaries require players to hold jobs in the offseason to make ends meet.[4]
United Kingdom
There are several hundred semi-professional football teams at non-League level. The bottom division of the English Football League (the fourth tier of the English football league system) has traditionally been the cut-off point between professional ("full-time") and semi-professional ("part-time") in English football. However, many teams in the top non-League competition, the National League, have become "full-time" professional clubs in an effort to achieve League status. Many former League clubs also remain as fully professional teams following relegation to the lower leagues at least for as long as they retain a large enough average attendance to generate the income needed to pay the players.
Women's football in England is semi-professional at the top levels, as finances depend on promotion and relegation both of parent male teams and of the female teams themselves. Full professionalism for women is still in the planning stages; top female players often depend on other sources of income (such as coaching and physical training), and many attend university or college while playing.
In Scottish football, semi-professional teams compete at all levels below the Scottish Premiership, with most teams below the second-level Scottish Championship being semi-professional.
Historically, English rugby league and rugby union have had one full-time professional division, with semi-professional divisions at the next level down. The second tier of union, the RFU Championship, became fully professional beginning with the 2009–10 season.
See also
- Professional sports
- Amateur sports
- Pro–am
- High performance sport
- Women's professional sports
References
- ^ PFRA Research (1987). "When Did they Start?" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 9. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2010.
- ^ PFRA Research. "Five Hundred Reasons" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2010.
- ^ "Love of the game drives semipro football players - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. 26 July 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^ Babb, Kent. "Baseball's minor leaguers pursue their dreams below the poverty line". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 September 2016.