Reflected all that was good about the 'American Way'- capacity for hard work, equal opportunities for advancement and frequent success. Believed that team games and spirit correlated with good citizenship and fostered a sense of community and that sports strengthened character.
Dated from the mid 19th century but accelerated in the 20th century especially in the 1970's where many argued that the over-commercialism of sport encapsulated all that was bad in the American character- excessive greed.
Corporate sponsorship increased dramatically in the 1970's due to much more sport on TV and corporate advertisers could target the increasing number of armchair spectators.
Overall American TV viewers preferred sports programmes to anything else on TV apart from movies- 90% of men watched sport on TV and 'only' 75% of women watched sport on TV.
Sport was about money- acceleration of the trend whereby teams such as Football's Oakland Raiders dumped their supporters and traditional home and moved to another city.
Entrepreneur Fred Lebow took control of the Marathon in the 1970's and changed the nature of the New York Road Runners Club which administered the Marathon from a volunteer organisation facilitating the athletic interests of its members to a business enterprise- increased the Marathon's attractiveness to corporate funding by raising the number of participants.
