As a sport that normally plays only one game per week, American football is especially suited for semi-pro play and commonly known as "working man's" football meaning the players have regular jobs and play football on the weekends. Because the cost of running a fully professional American football team is prohibitive, semi-pro football is common at the adult levels, in the outdoor or indoor variety, providing an outlet for players who have used up their NCAA eligibility and have no further use for maintaining amateur status. Lower-end minor leagues and more obscure sports often operate at a semi-professional level due to cost concerns. This is not the case in the United States, where college ice hockey dominates at that age group the junior leagues in the United States generally operate as fully amateur teams to maintain the players' eligibility to play in college. In Canada, semi-professionalism is prevalent in junior ice hockey, in which the top level players (most of whom are teenagers still in, or just out of, high school) are paid at a semi-professional level. At the same time, professional sports have become such a massive and remunerative business that even many low-level feeder teams can afford to have fully professional athletes. Eligibility for participation in the Olympics in some sports is still dependent upon maintaining a purely amateur status (although far less so than was previously the case), and such athletes may be supported by government money, business sponsorships, and other systems. There are many benefits, such as collegiate eligibility and the attendant scholarships, in maintaining amateur status (unlike the Amateur Athletic Union, the NCAA forbade any sort of compensation outside of scholarships, including job offers tied to their playing, until 2020). By the 1940s, baseball split off into separate truly amateur softball teams, sometimes sponsored by employers, and an expanded system of fully professionalized minor leagues whose lower ranks included many former industrial players. ![]() The National Industrial Basketball League evolved out of these company-branded basketball teams. In theory, such players split their work week between athletic training and the normal duties of the company's employees, though highly competitive teams often evolved into "sponsored" squads which trained for sports full-time and only nominally worked in the factory. Large blue-collar employers such as factories and shipyards often fielded baseball and basketball teams, with players receiving full-time salaries comparable to other employees. In North America, semi-professional athletes and teams were far more common in the early and mid-20th century than they are today. Although the Amateur Athletic Union did not like the idea very much, it decided that clubs could indeed offer employment without losing their amateur status or compromising the athlete. An investigation by the Amateur Athletic Union ruled that the Olympics' practice was not actually professionalism but only a "semi" form of it, inventing the term "semi-pro". That year, the Olympic Club was accused by a rival club of enticing athletes to jump to its ranks with offers of jobs. The San Francisco Olympic Club fielded an American football team in 1890. The semi-professional status is not universal throughout the world and depends on each country's labour code ( labour law) and each sports organization's specific regulations. In this case, it is considered semi-pro because their employer pays them, but for their regular job, not for playing on the company's team. A semi-pro player or team could also be one that represents a place of employment that only the employees are allowed to play on. As a result, semi-professional players frequently have (or seek) full-time employment elsewhere. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a considerably lower rate than a full-time professional athlete. Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. JSTOR ( July 2008) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Semi-professional sports" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. ![]() This article needs additional citations for verification.
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