The First Cut is the Deepest

4 thoughts on “The First Cut is the Deepest”

1. Good Morning from Omaha,

   I read that article by Peter King that you recommended and its scary what might happen. I have been saying all along that they are going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg and if the courts have their way they could. When you are speaking in terms on millions and billions there is NEVER enough to go around and greed will win out.

   In the next 30 years Invesco, Arrowhead and other stadiums of smaller market teams will sit empty on Sundays. Ticket prices will be out of range for the average fan, the HDTV experience will be too affordable and the whole system is going to collapse under its own weight.

   In the end the NFL will be playing games in revamped Jeffco field with only “luxury”boxes for the few who an afford them. Most fans will, if they still choose too, watch from home where the price of concessions is low and climate is controlled.

   OR if these idiots with all the money on both sides of the table will figure out that there is enough money to go around if everyone takes a little but as in “god bless the child”- no one wants the crumbs….

   Meanwhile unemployment is at between 8-10%, inflation is starting to eat away and basically the world is going to go down the tubes. Where are our priorities!

   Strive for excellence, nothing but your best.

   Gene

2. Dear Drew,

   Great cartoon. When I look at the tree I think of the fans and their fan base and how both the owners and players are chopping away at their fans/fan base.

   All the best

   Louis

   P.S. Some would say that the Cav’s getting the #1 draft pick is karma. They lose LaBron James and then get the #1 draft pick. Seems like a fair trade.

3. To paraphrase Karl Marx, religion is the opiate of the masses. But Marx hadn’t known about professional sports and television contracts when he wrote it. Because how many people skip church (or give it up entirely) because “there’s a game on?”

   For those of us who follow them, sports is our escape; our release from the worries of the world. Or, in the words of sportswriter Dan Jenkins, sports gives us something to bet on besides ice dancing.

   I don’t begrudge the players wanting to be paid well. I’d like to be paid well for what I do. I also don’t begrudge the owners for looking for the best deal; the services they offer are optional. No one has to buy a ticket or even watch it on TV.

   While the owners do engage in some extortion to get city governments to build them new luxury stadiums, all will be forgiven if the team brings home a championship (or two). Put it this way, it’s not likely that the NFL and NBA will be applying for a bailout like those greedy bastards on Wall Street.

   But as the middle class shrinks due to the austerity measures being imposed upon us by the corporate masters and their politician puppets (party affiliation is irrelevant – both parties are on the take), making the rich richer and the poor poorer, the distraction from our problems that professional sports brings makes life a little more bearable.

   So when the average person looks at his life and how much less he’s able to accomplish with what little he is paid, a bunch of millionaires squabbling over a game that he can only afford to see on TV starts to look like petty bickering. If that person is “out of market,” like I am; it’s even harder and more expensive to see the favorite team, or buy t-shirts and jerseys. That person starts to realize that there are other diversions, and moves on.

   So I would suggest that the NFL and NBA solve their problems quickly. If they have any doubts, ask MLB and the NHL how long it took to rebuild theirs after their strike years.

   An economic downturn is not the time to alienate your fan base. Pretty soon they begin to see that the diversion they used to worship is a finite institution that has lost the right to their loyalty, and they change the channel. And then you’ll have a lot more people out of work. The difference is that these people had better opportunities than the average guy applying for unemployment, and they chose to throw it away.

   Right now, the only good thing I can think of is that there are decidedly fewer Peyton Manning commercials on TV. I suppose there is a silver lining to everything.

4. I find it fascinating the poor legal advice the players seem to be receiving from their lawyers. Those who think that contracts will emerge in their present form unscathed in this litigation are mistaken. The free agency system currently being pursued by players will undermine all that they have gained over the past few years.

   First, for most of the teams, one year contracts will be all they offer to players. The three or more year deals that star players have come to expect might be available for a few teams, but most will provide an offer sheet to a player and simply say take it or leave it. They might get a better offer from another team, but most will not.

   Second, without a collective bargaining agreement, most teams will be able to offer minimal salary to players. With few roster spots available, teams may simply wait to sign players. If a player refuses to sign, it is unlikely they will ever play football again. There is a glut of players who come out of college each year that can take their place. Teams will be able to find players who will accept their terms. Someone needs to play quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals. Most owners can give the offer sheet to players and wait for them to sign it. A player might have offers from several teams like say a college recruit, but even Dallas and Washington can say a starting quarterback is worth five million dollars and someone will be willing to sign it.

   Third, the players union is now a thing of the past. It may stay as a trade association, but it has lost the ability to reform and be used as leverage in collective bargaining. All future labor disputes will be settled by the Federal Court of Appeals. For the NFL to even recognize the union when it tries to reform, it will likely insist on a condition which bars it from decertifying for the next fifty years. The league will ask the court to bar the players from reforming the union or lock them out when they do. In their efforts to gain unrestricted free agency, the players have sacrificed their ability to collectively bargain. They have also undermined any uniformity in league policy with drug usage, personal conduct, etc. These may be arbitrarily set by each team. Without a recognized union, a player may be dismissed from a team and be prevented from signing with another team (do not compete clauses and the like would be included in every contract). They have given the individual teams far more power to dictate the terms of service and only gained the ability to decide which offer they prefer.

   Fourth, the league’s financial success has been based on its ability to offer games worth watching each week. Without competitive games each week, the TV ratings of games will lag. This is on top of the empty stadiums most weeks for mediocre team A playing lousy team B. If all the talent is concentrated in say eight of the thirty-two teams, the second half of their games will become boring and generate less advertising revenue. The suggestion that fans will still watch games from the comfort of their homes is a little foolish if the games are not worth watching. College football, video games, the internet, NASCAR, etc. will easily fill Sunday afternoons. Without much excitement generated by games, sport’s writers and sport center may need to allocate more highlights to — wait for it — women’s sports.

   Unfortunately, the players need to recognize the league needs to set aside more money for future expenses like building stadiums. The precedent set by Dallas and New York who built new stadiums with the team owners money and some help from the city and state governments will be the norm in the future. Communities finances are in shambles and most will not be able to put up several billion dollars to have an NFL franchise. See Los Angles. Currently, Minnesota is insisting that almost half of the new stadium being plan will be paled for by the team and the league. This is the reality facing owners who are asking for more money to cover future expenses. They can sacrifice a few years of poor revenue if it allows them to get a collective bargaining agreement they want. The players have been goaded into sacrificing long term financial deals for unfettered free agency. In that game, the owners hold all the cards.