How do low-paid athletes in the United States understand the meaning of the word “professional” in “professional athlete”?

Abstract

Sport scholars and other industry stakeholders often narrowly focus on athletes’ pay levels when using the term ‘professional athlete’. References also ignore athletes’ perspectives, despite many athletes using the term ‘professional’ to fight for better employment conditions and more equitable power dynamics in commercial leagues. As such, this study shows how low-paid athletes in the United States understand the meaning of ‘professional’ by using critical and discourse-based theories to interpret interviews with 43 paid women and men athletes. Findings show that, among other meanings, athletes, especially women, use ‘professional’ as a discourse of social change to secure better resources, treatment, and pay. Based on our research, sport scholars should approach ­‘professional’ as a set of socially constructed, ideal occupational characteristics that athlete laborers strive toward and use in their individual and collective efforts to craft better-resourced employment structures that maximize their athletic potential.

Keywords:

• athlete labor
• professional sport
• minor league
• occupational professionalization
• discourse

Disclosure statement

The authors received no financial interest or benefit from the direct applications of this research.