Too serious to be left to the fans:

The authors of "The Economics of Sport"[Robert Sandy, Peter J. Sloane and Mark S. Rosentraub] ask their readers to consider the following signs of obsession, and to guess which sport they are describing: athletes' pay running at ten times that of a doctor or a lawyer; promotional symbols and motifs festooning cups, lamps and fans' homes; and huge profits arising from the ownership of the rights to players.

An account of soccer today? Actually, no: it is instead a description of the gladiatorial games of Roman times...

Perhaps the most pernicious myth they lay to rest is the idea that governments can use sport as a tool of economic development. Billions of dollars of public money have been used to construct stadiums around the world, yet the benefits in the form of economic growth have been elusive. In America, politicians have been especially keen to use taxpayers' money to support local teams, but other countries too have pursued sporting events as a tool of economic salvation and urban renewal, witness the eagerness with which countries recently bid to host the 2012 Olympics. This is mostly a fool's errand.