Hmm... it is very unfortunate that my concern is proven to be correct, that you're over-generalizing. What you claimed as "luxury" is clearly a sports that's rather unique --or exotic, if you prefer that term-- but that is clearly not the case for the entire branch of sports. There is nearly zero fee to join football game, or marathon, or basketball, or other "general" sport. Claiming that sport is luxury would rather be unjust.
On the other hand, if we have to be a member of a group or a gym to cultivate our skill in certain sport that's only catered on that group, the most likely scenario is the sport branch is exclusive --like horse riding, for example, or fencing, or archery-- and people who look into that sports should already have the resources to join the club and/or, especially since the club would rather be exclusive and I can imagine would also be rather high-end, they wouldn't mind to give free membership to an athlete who shows great talent but has limited budget to pay the membership. I don't think people who joins an exclusive sport club or "luxury" gym would be burdened to allocate extra dollars to chip in for that athlete. I know this from first hand experience as I once joined a rather unique branch of sport with quite above-the-average membership fee, and the people on that branch would fully support newcomers with limited budget to join for free if they shows talent and interest.
The other case would be an "exclusive" club where everybody is closely knitted like street workout. For this case, I also didn't think the members would mind to open themselves to support a talented athlete, especially as the membership for such activities is rather... on entry-level.
So, to summarize, your basis for your project is flawed and it is not wrong to questions the validity and senses behind your project. Unless, of course, if I still misunderstood your specific meaning. So please enlighten me, the easies way to make sure we're on the same page is by giving me 5 to 10 examples of sport branch that you're referring to, that you want to support. This information should be very easy to pull as they should already have been on your mind when you laid foundation for this project.
On the other hand, if we have to be a member of a group or a gym to cultivate our skill in certain sport that's only catered on that group, the most likely scenario is the sport branch is exclusive --like horse riding, for example, or fencing, or archery-- and people who look into that sports should already have the resources to join the club and/or, especially since the club would rather be exclusive and I can imagine would also be rather high-end, they wouldn't mind to give free membership to an athlete who shows great talent but has limited budget to pay the membership. I don't think people who joins an exclusive sport club or "luxury" gym would be burdened to allocate extra dollars to chip in for that athlete. I know this from first hand experience as I once joined a rather unique branch of sport with quite above-the-average membership fee, and the people on that branch would fully support newcomers with limited budget to join for free if they shows talent and interest.
The other case would be an "exclusive" club where everybody is closely knitted like street workout. For this case, I also didn't think the members would mind to open themselves to support a talented athlete, especially as the membership for such activities is rather... on entry-level.
So, to summarize, your basis for your project is flawed and it is not wrong to questions the validity and senses behind your project. Unless, of course, if I still misunderstood your specific meaning. So please enlighten me, the easies way to make sure we're on the same page is by giving me 5 to 10 examples of sport branch that you're referring to, that you want to support. This information should be very easy to pull as they should already have been on your mind when you laid foundation for this project.
The main point here is that it’s not us that perceives certain sports as a luxury, but on the contrary, we are trying to break that conception in places that do. We understand that sports may not be a luxury in your country of residence, but in developing countries, it is sometimes very challenging to exercise and to get proper nutrition.
The numbers of athletes from developing countries who have managed to work extra hard and achieve success despite the bad conditions of their country are quite low. There are many talented children growing up in developing countries who have the potential to be successful in sports but are not able to participate in many fields due to reasons such as financial difficulties and living expenses. The importance here is to enable talented and gifted people to realize themselves despite obstacles and impossibilities.
In this project, we intend to eliminate this perception, support both individuals and team sports, and increase success in the Olympic fields. This project is not intended only for football, basketball, or other popular sports - but also for lesser popular ones such as chess, which should also be as popular as football in an ideal world. Another good example is Paralympics which is also undervalued.
The conception that sport is luxury is brought by you. The general conception that the rest of the world held and believe is --common-- sport is very cheap. While for the exclusive and exotic sport, let's say horse-riding, as stated above based on anecdotal evidence by me, their community will be more than happy to pitch in.
And, again, repeated, governments on developing countries will most likely lend their hand to help talented athletes. Unless this part of statement [paragraph 2] is based on a research, kindly cite me the source of this claim.
In regards to nutrition, the common trend thus far is actually the opposite of your perception. Unless you're still living in the 90s, social media works really great for talented people who in need of support. Many talented athletes are paid to promote health products, which not only helps their income, it alo gives them proper nutrition from the product they represent. Thus your project is rather useless unless you can offer something more, which you don't.
The numbers of athletes from developing countries who have managed to work extra hard and achieve success despite the bad conditions of their country are quite low.
Wait... what? So why'd you even here? The numbers are low, the government and society do their works, thank you very much.
Firstly, we feel the need to emphasize once again that it is not us who believe that sports are a luxury, but despite our own belief, we know for a fact that in many areas of the world, especially in developing countries, there is a widespread conception that many sports are a luxury. Some examples:
Thesis on the association of luxury and sports: https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/35677/1/202751325.pdf
Relationship between F1 and luxury: https://www.motorlat.com/notas/especiales/18466/formula-luxury-the-relationship-between-f1-and-luxury-brands
Reasons why athletes go broke: https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0312/why-athletes-go-broke.aspx
And these would go on…
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And, again, repeated, governments on developing countries will most likely lend their hand to help talented athletes.
Secondly, that may be the case in the US or Western countries but we again know that is not the case in many developing countries. Many governments around the world are in financial trouble and either cannot or do not have the resources to dedicate enough budgets to sports and arts, some tragically cannot even fulfill basic health services and requirements. Financial trouble for athletes and sports enthusiasts is a big issue.
This can be seen repeatedly on the news and the internet:
Olympians facing financial trouble: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/05/13/tokyo-olympics-athletes-struggle-financially-no-competitions/3113035001/
An article which contains both sides of the story: https://debatewise.org/2870-state-funding-of-elite-athletes/
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Many talented athletes are paid to promote health products, which not only helps their income, it alo gives them proper nutrition from the product they represent.
There are many countries that do not even have access to the internet, nor online payment systems. The statement above is a bit biased, don’t you think? Not everyone in the world lives on Instagram.
Even examples from developed countries: https://academic.oup.com/her/article/21/6/826/608268 (Quote: …barriers to participation in physical activity include high costs, poor access to facilities and unsafe environments…)
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The general conception that the rest of the world held and believe is --common-- sport is very cheap.
Effects of finance and sports: https://academic.oup.com/her/article/21/6/826/608268 (Quote: Porter [31] found that older people were anxious about returning to physical activity and identified cost and time barriers as the main problems.
https://www.insider.com/why-olympic-athletes-broke-how-they-make-money-tokyo-2020-2021-7
Also, here is another resourceful site that describes some of the many problems that top-level US athletes face, mostly financial as well as many problems that we are striving to help:
https://moneysmartathlete.com/the-obstacles/the-athlete-vulnerability-issue/
Lastly, we want to also add that our project is not centred around luxury or about sports being perceived as luxury, but this is just one of the parts that we wish to improve. Overall we want to support sports, athletes, teams and help out all we can in all ways possible. We hope you will look at these issues in a broader mind and see the full picture.
