We are seeing that sports such as track and field, gymnastics, and swimming are getting cut from college programs as well as decreasing in the hosting of professional competitions . What kind of implications do you think that will have on their professional status in the coming year? Do you see the title of "Pro Athlete" being limited to that of just revenue generating sports (football, basketball, baseball)?
I think generally the "pro athlete" title is limited to the high networth sports anyway. However, I do think next year (especially with most sponsors decreasing their budgets) a lot of individual sport athlete will have to be creative in creating other streams of revenue. You can imagine that in Track and Field top athletes will attend competitions that they normally wouldn't have in years past simply for the financial gain. This I think will create a domino effect which will allow meet directors to attract high profile athletes for much less while limiting opportunity for the lower tier athletes who never had a shot at the big Diamond Leagues and such.