I did a web search on sports photographers associations and was surprised that there were so many, what I wasn't surprised about was how bogus most of them were. Most came across as simple photo web sites where another photographer has decided to become a sports photographer, and has created his own personal association. I can only assume that it is to give him credibility.
You see the biggest challenge professional photographers face these days is that there is no governing body that can regulate who is a professional and who is not. Anyone with a camera can claim to be a professional. We don't see this in any other profession, engineers, lawyers, doctors all have to be members of an association that gives them the professional rights to do what they do.
Photography is still seen as a hobby, it is seen as something that anyone can do, it is sold that way by all the camera producers, Canon and Nikon being the worst offenders. With Canon you can shoot like a professional sports photographer, just buy this lens. Nikon uses celebrities to push the fashion and portrait side.
Why do so many head to the sports side, they see the glamour of standing on the sidelines at the Superbowl or Grey Cup, shooting the NBA, NHL, Hanging out in the pits at an F1 race. It's far from glamour, it's a very difficlut job to do well, it is spending hours in the rain or cold for one picture. It's not about going to the post event parties, that's wehn the rest of the work starts. If the average camera owner had to spend 14-20 hours a day working at their day to day job, for weeks on end, would they stand for it? Professional photographers do. It's just that easy.
