Question

You work in the sport and recreation division of a city government. As it faces a budget crisis, you are asked to present arguments for and against privatizing the city's youth sport programs. List the major points you would include in your presentation. Write a short elaboration on each and how they would benefit or cause difficulty.

For :

1. It will attract benefactor's for the sports programs
2. Profits can be collected in the form of tickets and sponsorships
3. There will be good advertising since private players would be involved

Against :

1. Privatizing attracts illegal trade practices
2. There will no longer be an upper cap on the costs.
3. Ethical issues; Favorism may take place.
4. The teams which invest more will be prioritized.

Answer 1

As we are aware, we are at a juncture where we need to take a call on how to overcome the budget crisis we are undergoing these days for the sports and recreation division of the city government. Our government could not find funds for the maintenance and development of the playgrounds in and around the city as well as the indoor stadiums, which are already under the poor condition for our children our sports team to practice. So we were thinking of privatizing these playgrounds and indoor stadiums so that even at a cost children and sportsperson are able to play/practice in a superior turf/court.

As all cases there are good and evil that will come along which is briefed here and will be discussed in the meeting.

The main points for the privatizing project include, that it will attract benefactor's for the sports program, who will be mostly sports companies or brands selling sports goods who will put in the money and develop these playgrounds and stadiums and put in their advertisements in these places at subsidized or cost-free basis till a certain period of time which we will come up with while fine-tuning the project. With a developed playground/stadium we can organize events that will get us sponsorship income as well as ticket income which will be utilized for the upliftment of sports in the city and developing talents. This will not only improve the facilities but also let people know about these through their advertisements getting us more mileage in the long run.

As stated earlier all goods have an evil side too, like these may attract illegal trade practices and as these are basically funded by corporates there won't is an upper cap on the costs. This can also lead to ethical issues and favoritism. The teams sponsored by the sponsors of the project may get prioritized.

Having strict rules in place and following it up closely by the sports division can help in keeping these evils in check to an extend.