What does sport owe the spectator?
I believe that as much as sportsmen and women do their best to push their careers, they have a lot of responsibility for the spectators. Players owe spectators a guarantee of performance and high expectations. It is not by authority but based on the moral responsibility that they should push themselves to make spectators happy and always motivated to spend and actively support them. While players are in the pitch, spectators offer their psychological assistance and social impact to ensure that they have the zeal to win competitions. Therefore, to give them sportsmen and women, they ought to keep a good relationship with them and offer the best performance always.
An excellent example of what sporting spectators are entitled to be is the story of an Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios. He was fined $16,500 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for his conduct. He conducted himself grossly after being defeated by Mischa Zverev in a second-round match at Shanghai Masters. The issue happened as Kyrgois appeared not to put effort when serving. He was seen patting a soft-serve across the net and walked to his chair. One of the umpires, Ali Nilli, said to Kyrgois:
“You can’t play like that, OK? That’s not professional. This is a professional tournament, we have to act professional and play with your best effort the whole to time.”
Kyrgios was bothered by the comments and proceeded to finish the match as quickly as possible. The worst thing happened when, at one point, Kyrgois asked Nilli to call the game off. The conduct of Kyrgios was unethical, which also led to an argument with a spectator who told Kyrgios: “Respect the game, respect the people.” In conclusion, players need to understand that spectators have paid to watch a fairly fought game between participants. Therefore they have a responsibility to play with intentions and zeal of winning games to satisfy their spectators. Prices charged to watch games will always increase based on the expectations of the spectators. A good example is such as watching a football match “El Classico” between Barcelona FC and Real Madrid than another game. The game is termed to be intense and very professional since it involves decorated players and exciting history of matches that they have played before.