I'll be nice and just say Hogwash!
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Being the Star Wars fan I am, Dish had better keep the Disney stations this September.
- Thread starter edisonprime
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I'll be nice and just say Hogwash!
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The players are the ones toiling out there, working hard every day to stay in shape, risking injury, their livelihood and even their quality of life after their careers are over. Without the players, there would be no product. So, player salaries and benefits being about 60% of league net revenues seems about right (using the NFL as an example). What I'm getting from the "philosophical disagreement" is someone with a knee-jerk aversion to the word "union" without actually looking into the details.
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LMAO. Cherry-picked facts from one blog article on a self-proclaimed "mission"? I love how it focuses on how frequent teams make the playoffs but fails to explain that NFL teams have a 50% better chance of making the playoffs than MLB teams (12 teams vs. 8 teams), so of course the NFL will have some teams with more playoff appearance runs. It mentions teams that haven't made the playoffs in years yet for example conveniently ignores the 20-year sub-.500 run of the Pirates. Parity means league-wide, not just looking at a particular subset of teams just to support a particular premise.
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They aren't toiling they are working and getting paid damn well for working part of the year and not the whole year. They try to make the point that they may only work for five years or less so they have to make the money while they can. If I could make what they make in five years I would gladly retire after five years. I am not talking about the ones that make a reasonable salary but there are more and more that have said what they make in insane but the other guy got it so I am going to get it too.
You expect us to believe that the increase in rights' fees is not driven by what the athletes make? I am not trying to be offensive but that maybe the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Don't be so gullible.
You expect us to believe that the increase in rights' fees is not driven by what the athletes make? I am not trying to be offensive but that maybe the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Don't be so gullible.
Modern athletes do basically work year round. The games themselves don't take place year round, but there are a lot of mandatory and voluntarily-mandatory (i.e. You can't be cut specifically for not attending the ones in the "voluntary" category, but it influences your chances of holding on to a job if you don't show) off-season training and conditioning activities, mini-camps, training camps, pre-season games, regular season game, possible post-season games, and of course practices through the week on game weeks and plenty of traveling. I am thinking of the NFL in particular, but it probably applies to most big league sports. And when there isn't a specific thing you've got to be doing or be at, you're expected to maintain peak physical condition on your own through your own exercise regime. I've seen guys get cut or take severe pay cuts for simply showing up to training camp out of shape (In the old days, you used training camp to get into shape, not any more).
Also, athletes take extra risks with their physical health. Not only do you have the usual risks of athletic activity like broken bones, torn ligaments, hernias, hamstring issues, ACL injuries, rotator cuff injuries, etc., you also have some sport specific injuries like in the NFL, where there are frequent concussions and the like. There are players who get out of the league and wind up with long-term brain trauma that results in dementia and several depression (that leads to some suicides and autopsies reveal brain injuries), are physically unable to walk around very well or pick up their children, can't feel or get full movement in some limbs, etc.. There are rare instances of players being paraylzed or the like, though you don't see it often, statistically. These players also deal with an incredible amount of pain and some wind up addicted to prescription pain killers and the like.
Anyhow, I know the NFL has done a ton of work lately to make the game safer through rule changes and putting doctors on the field to examine players who may have concussions and keep them out of the game and future practices until they are medically cleared, etc.. Things are starting to become safer. A real effort is being made there. But the fact is, these players do take risks that a lot of people don't. And if they are on the lower end of the pay spectrum for athletes in the top leagues, which granted is still a great living, and only last a few years in the league, they find themselves needing a regular job, but being unable to do it due to the injuries they've sustained.
Anyhow, I don't begrudge the players a dime, especially when I know it'd otherwise just go into the owners' pockets. As folks have mentioned, Nike pays workers pennies an hour to produce shoes in Asia, and they still charge $120 for them.
Production cost doesn't always have a ton to do with the end cost of the product. What has raised the price of sports tickets and television rights to expanding demand for them and a greater willingness to pay. Football taking off on television, for example, generated a lot of this. It's become a big deal for networks who can use it as a platform for promoting their shows, and can get very high ad rates. If my favorite team plays on CBS on Sunday afternoon, I always seem to know what's on "How I Met Your Mother" and "Rules of Engagement" the next night. I also think that there was a time where sports fans were mainly blue collar types, whereas today I think you see big sports fans from across the economic spectrum, some of whom of course have more disposable income. I have a relative with tickets to a sports franchise, and the guys who sit in front of him are all lawyers, and one of the guys seated to his right is a major real estate developer- and those are in the "cheap seats". I don't think that would have been all that common years ago. I also think there are more "geeks" or "nerds" involved in sports fandom than there used to be. It's not all ex-jocks living vicariously through their favorite teams now that their high school careers are over. Fantasy football, statistical analysis, and the like has been a big driver of interest from all sorts of different personality types. I saw an article a few years that said 40% of the NFL's attendance comes from women, who used to be a much smaller minority of sports fans. Basically, there are a lot more people who are potentially going to tune into their televisions or buy tickets and merchandise, and so on and so forth.
Sporting events used to be mainly blue collar fathers and sons watching games. Now, it's a whole family thing for people in all socio-economic brackets, in many cases. Of course, that increase interest drives increased revenues.
Because our present political leaders like those who can barely get by,its a major chunk of their voter base. We're the Government, we will take care of you, just remember to vote for us because if you don't the other party will starve you, throw you off a cliff, etc.......
That brings up a thought. ESPN is one of the most expensive channels out there for program providers, satellite and cable. Many consumers are up in arms with those providers and their monthly costs for programming. We have to remember that ESPN's costs are not just what they pay out to sports teams but also include their internal overhead, read employees. So, it sounds like they are trying to lower their overhead by laying off employees. So, with that scenario, we have sports teams getting richer and more unemployment. Wouldn't it be nice if we could find a happy medium and have the sports teams lower their charges, even under present contracts, and keep some people working?
As long as the masses worship them like gods they will continue to be paid accordingly. If next football season no one tuned in or showed up to any of the games then they would be worth less than the calendar year before.
You misspelled "logical".
You are the one being gullible and calling the kettle "pot". For me to be gullible, I would have to believe what someone else is telling me (like you are trying to do without any basis). I'm making my decisions on my analysis of the entire picture.The increase in rights fees is driven mostly by bidding wars for exclusive broadcast rights between media conglomerates (mainly ESPN/FOX) over a popular product.
But their subscriber fees are already blown out of proportion compared to their annual ratings numbers. ESPN is 3rd in annual ratings yet is almost triple the cost of any other network.
Your mentions of the Pirates is also an example of cherry picking the facts. Look at the record of the Browns, Bills and Lions over the last several years. Yes, these teams have made it to the playoffs a year or two in the last 12 years but as you stated it is easier to make the playoffs in football because there are more playoff teams.
Yes, my mentioning of the Pirates was an example of how they cherry picked. Your mention of the Browns, Bills and Lions are also cherry picked. If you look at the overall records of teams in the entire leagues, you will see that there is more parity in leagues with a salary cap, and equally important, a salary floor (to prevent owners from cheapskating their way to line their pockets). Though, even money can't fix a poor coach, owner, or scouting department. But, I digress, as that is just cherry picking again.
You misspelled "logical".
The increase in rights fees is driven mostly by bidding wars for exclusive broadcast rights between media conglomerates (mainly ESPN/FOX) over a popular product.
This is exactly the reason that fees for sports channel have risen astronomically, nothing to do with players salaries. Look at what the media conglomerates are paying for rights to college football and basketball. As a side note, college football is by far more about money than any professional sport. Schedules are driven on how to maximize revenues. That's why most of the college football powers play two-thirds of their games at home where they have a competitive advantage in their mammoth stadiums that generate huge revenues from gate receipts. Even the bowl game match-ups are in a large part determined by the ability to generate revenue for the "bowl entity" and to attract team's fans to come to see the game and "vacation" at the host city.
The most illogical argument is to compare professional athletes to workers in other professions. If you are an accountant coming out of college you have the right to work as an accountant anywhere in the country and can go work for another firm as soon as their contract expires. That obvious isn't the case for a professional athlete.
Well, if the Republicans would stop trying to do the things you mentioned at the end of the second sentence, maybe we wouldn't need a party to campaign against it.
Can't get your local MLB teams on MLB's Internet package, it's blacked out by zip code. Four teams actually claim my zip code, for example, so if I bought that package, I'd see none of those games, and my favorite team is one of the four. And though I have decent Internet for most things, I've noticed trying to stream some college sports on ESPN3.com, it looks extremely pixelated most of the time and you can't see the action- maybe something about it being live prevents decent buffering.
Poor people actually tend to be a bit more into affordable luxuries like cable or satellite or whatever than wealthier people. Why? They typically live in a small space with little or no yard, can't afford to go out much or take a bunch of vacations, don't have much in the way of achievable hopes and dreams, etc.. So they drink their beer and watch their baseball to try to make life somewhat livable. People often often don't understand it when they see a poor person with a nice product or service, but that's your answer, essentially, they sacrifice to do something or get something that keeps them from getting too depressed and breaks up the drudgery of life for a while.
Agreed, and I wasn't the one to compare professional athletes to workers in other professions...I was arguing against the person who was.
Wow, welcome to pit territory. Have all of you registered and participated? Many seem to want to, but a few I haven't seen yet.
It's the best place for the talk in this thread.
Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!
It's the best place for the talk in this thread.
Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!
actually u can get local teams..ijust delayed..u can watch it after it is over (unlike directv) but u can also listen to the local live radio broadcast (which is great for baseball)
I think you will see a deal between the two as they both need each other.
Last week was Team Summit and Disney had a major presence at the event which to me is a good sign.
I think this deal will be predicated on one item. That is the ESPN part of the negotiation.
If Disney asks too much for ESPN and holds firm, the fur may fly.
