scciology of Sport Journal, 1991, 8, 86-94 From Old Boys to Men and Women of the Corporation: The Americanization and Commodification of Australian Sport Jim McKay The University of Queensland Toby Miller Murdoch University Although there are obvious American influences on Australian popular cul- ture, the term "Americanization" is of limited help in explaining the elabo- rate form and content of Australian sport. The recent transformation from amateur to corporate sport in Australia has been determined by a complex array of internal and international social forces, including Australia's p l y - ethnic population, its semiperipheral status in the capitalist world system, its federal polity, and its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Americanization is only one manifestation of the integration of amateur and professional sport into the media industries, advertising agencies, and multi- national corporationsof the world market. Investment in sport by American, British, New Zealand, Japanese, and Australian multinational companies is part of their strategy of promoting "good corporate citizenship," which also is evident in art, cinema, dance, music, education, and the recent bicenten- nial festivities. It is suggested that the political economy of Australian sport can best be analyzed by concepts such as "post-Fordism," the globalization of consumerism, and the cultural logic of late capitalism, all of which tran- scend the confines of the United States. Australians absorb American culture like blotting paper. (Joan Nelson Algren, creator of Sesame Street)' American showbusiness intruding into the start of the big game is in- appropriatefor a code so Australian. (History Professor Geoffrey Blainey's comment on the 1990 Australian Rules football grand final) Despite Australians' ambivalence toward American culture, the United States has had profound economic, political, military, and cultural impacts on Australian history. Both the form and content of Australian popular cul- ture-food, music, clothing, and mass media-are permeated with American motifs, products, and methods. One of the great cultural ironies of 1989 occurred Jim McKay is with the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Qld. 4072, Australia. Toby Miller is with the School of Human- ities, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia.