The Fundamentals
Economic analysis for Colorado can be found at:
Colorado Legislative Council
Governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting
Colorado-based Business and Economic Research.
So... Why the switch to business, economics, and sports?
Why not?
Everyday Americans take part in conversations that focus on individuals who either dropped the ball or are a team player. We talk about activities that are a slam dunk and how a person aced a particular assignment.
Business and sports are a natural extension of the military. Each have leaders, ranking officers, uniforms, team meetings, and tactical plans. There is an offensive team and a defensive team.
And there are winners and losers, both on the field (scoreboard) and off the field (economically).
Over the past 50 years sports has evolved into athletics or profesionnal sports and entertainment. Today, competition involves people and machines.
As well, recreation or sports has become big business. The Lost Decade has made it very clear that business, sports, and economics are interrelated.
The lessons learned in sports (practice, winning, losing, determination, leadership, teamwork and so forth) transcend to the real world. And the reverse is true - lessons learned in the business world have become an integral part of sports and athletics.
Business, economics, and sports are life!
Academics and Athletics
Basketball
Coaching
College Athletics
Economic Activity
Football
Other Events
Marketing
Platform Tennis
Volleyball
Play, Games, Sports, and Athletics
Got Kids? Grandkids? Know someone under the age of 12? If so, you need to know the difference between play, games, sports and athletics. Too often, parents who don't know this difference make headlines, for example the Texas cheerleader mom who went to extreme means to make sure her daughter made the squad.
Play is simply unstructured activity. Tell a five year old to go play and he/she will run, jump, skip, and do somersaults. Give them a ball and he/she will kick it, throw it, roll it, and bounce it. Play is creativity and activity in its purest form - no coaches, no officials, no cheerleaders.
Games are activity with a minimal set of rules. They may be competitive or cooperative in nature.
Sports are a peaceful extension of the military. Sports has leaders, captains, uniforms, team meetings, and tactical plans. Sports are played for the "love of the game". As such they are amateur competition. College athletics and the Olympics used to be sports.
Athletics is competition for the sake of determining a winner. It involves a minimal set of rules (much like games), which makes it activity just short of open warfare. Athletics involve people and machines and exist for entertainment purposes.
From an academic standpoint, these four words and their concepts are very distinct. Over the past 50 years play, games, sports, and athletics have become big business and the words are used interchangeably.
Nevertheless, the four concepts have been integrated into our daily lives in ways that we don't realize. Take the time to understand the difference and make the distinction between them.
