Sports Out of Control?

[Opinion]

First let me state that I do like sports. I follow my pro football team. I watch some pro basketball playoffs and the NCAA basketball tournament. However, I have about had it with sports.

It seems like more and more sports stars are not outstanding members of society yet they are made rich, worshipped and idolized.

The NFL has Ray Lewis as a marketing icon, yet I believe he payed a fine for obstruction of justice in a homicide.

The largess of the incomes. Stephon Marburry is being paid over 20 million dollars to not play.
The NBA has fired about 20%? of its coaches and yet they still get paid. The Sacremento Kings are paying 3 fired coaches.

Athletes get scholarships. While those who go to school to actually learn something to really contribute to society often don't get special scholarships or treatment.

Where does the money for sports come from? A large part of it is advertising dollars (tv contracts). Another large part is corporations purchase of luxury boxes in stadiums and then they get to right it off as a business expense.

It seems to me society is rewarding the physical instead of the mental. The brutes instead of the creators.

I think to bring sports into proper perspective in society business advertising in sports related areas should not be tax deductable.

As fans we should not contribute financially to these spoiled members of society who contribut little if anything.

[blackchipjim]

I have to agree with you on this one but remember who supports these people. The same people who idiolize and support the sports superstars are the same ones who support the actors. Spoiled you bet, and self serving to boot. Americans idiolize the players of sports,and the actors in films like they are really something to listen to. I roll my eyes evertime one of these people open thier mouths about something important as if they are self proclaimed experts on the subject. The best way to stop this stupidity is to not go to these people's main source of support, ie. games, movies. We can also stop buying into their way of thinking in general. blackchipjim

[Brutus]

I get more enjoyment out of watching a bunch of kids playing little league baseball than MLB.

[blackchipjim]

I'm with you on this 100% Brutus and have been since I realized that these spoiled brats made more in one game than the average american in a year. I did hear an interesting fact that 4 out 5 NBA players are broke 5 years after retiring. I guess you can't live large without some sort of plan to back you up. I'll take any high school and under game of anything over pros any day of the week. blackchipjim

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by Brutus

I get more enjoyment out of watching a bunch of kids playing little league baseball than MLB.

Don't let GordonGecko hear that! zg

[Gordon Gekko]

Yeah, watching the little guys play is fun. However that fun is sometimes short lived when you witness the behavior of the parents in the stands acting like a bunch or morons. It can get downright embarrassing. “How come that kid is playing over my kid? He sucks!” can often be overheard if you rabbit ear the stands.

If your lucky enough to have a minor league baseball team close by, that’s your ticket. Cheap seats, cheap beer and dogs, and the players are playing their asses off while making around $1100 a month.

gg

[Opinion]

So I heard a report that Mike Shanahan, ex Denver Broncos coach is building a 35,000 square foot house in Denver. The largest house in the city. This is not the home of a brain surgeon or perhaps a professor but a football coach!

The Yankees paid its new players about 500 million (?) while asking the people of NY for about the same amount for their new stadium!

Sports is funded by advertising. Not sure on this but if advertising is tax deductible as a business expense then that needs to come to an end!

[Katweezel]

Here are a few (mostly) pro football quotes that may illustrate... something.

"Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings." George Will

"I just wrap my arms around the whole backfield and peel em one by one until I get to the ball carrier. Him I keep." Big Daddy Lipscombe

"Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners. Only survivors." Frank Gifford.

"I wouldn't set out to hurt anyone deliberately unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something." Dick Butkis

"I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault."
Jack Tatum

"Most football teams are temperamental. That's 90% temper and 10% mental." Doug Plank

"Football is after all, a wonderful way to get rid of your aggressions without going to jail for it." Heywood Hale Broun

"The people don't take baths and they don't speak English. No golf courses, no room service. Who needs it?" Jim McMahon NFL quarterback, on Europe.

"I have nothing to say, and I'll only say it once." Floyd Smith NHL coach
__________________
'Nothing is a coincidence.' Abraham

[Automatic Monkey]

Originally Posted by Opinion

So I heard a report that Mike Shanahan, ex Denver Broncos coach is building a 35,000 square foot house in Denver. The largest house in the city. This is not the home of a brain surgeon or perhaps a professor but a football coach!

The Yankees paid its new players about 500 million (?) while asking the people of NY for about the same amount for their new stadium!

Sports is funded by advertising. Not sure on this but if advertising is tax deductible as a business expense then that needs to come to an end!

The taxpayer funding of stadiums is somewhat understandable. Over its lifetime that stadium will bring in far more revenue to the area than it costs, and being most Yankee fans are out-of-towners that is money that never was in the city to begin with. And it is competitive- the Yankees were under no obligation to remain in the Bronx or even in New York (Connecticut Yankees has a nice ring to it!) and if NYC didn't pay for their stadium there would be other locales that would.

Advertising is deductible as a business expense because it is a business expense. Sports is funded by a combination of- advertising, broadcast rights, ticket sales, licensed merchandise and concessions. It's a very fair system. Ticket prices are high but they still fill the stadiums so apparently they're not too high. And a real fan doesn't have to pay a dime if he doesn't want to, just turn on the TV or radio. Most fans would rather follow a team that pursues the best players and fields the best team they are able, than one that sells its best players and fields the cheapest product they can get away with and still be within league standards.

NFL football is in the toilet, and when I see players throwing up gang signs on the field it makes me want to throw up. They're in the papers more for their off-field criminality than their play. The problem as I see it is the collegiate training system in football and basketball, as opposed to the minor league system used in baseball and hockey, does not provide sufficient time to develop professional conduct and weed out the bad guys. You screw up on a minor league hockey or baseball team with guns, drugs, sex offenses and the like and you're probably all done, because they haven't invested very much in you yet and there are plenty of people able to take your place who aren't screw-ups. But if you screw up on a NCAA D1 team you'll be covered for because you already are a star in your organization. These guys start off in the NFL having spent the past few years as big shots who were above the rules and it shows in their behavior.

[glovesetc]

Originally Posted by Automatic Monkey

The taxpayer funding of stadiums is somewhat understandable. Over its lifetime that stadium will bring in far more revenue to the area than it costs, and being most Yankee fans are out-of-towners that is money that never was in the city to begin with. And it is competitive- the Yankees were under no obligation to remain in the Bronx or even in New York (Connecticut Yankees has a nice ring to it!) and if NYC didn't pay for their stadium there would be other locales that would.

Advertising is deductible as a business expense because it is a business expense. Sports is funded by a combination of- advertising, broadcast rights, ticket sales, licensed merchandise and concessions. It's a very fair system. Ticket prices are high but they still fill the stadiums so apparently they're not too high. And a real fan doesn't have to pay a dime if he doesn't want to, just turn on the TV or radio. Most fans would rather follow a team that pursues the best players and fields the best team they are able, than one that sells its best players and fields the cheapest product they can get away with and still be within league standards.

NFL football is in the toilet, and when I see players throwing up gang signs on the field it makes me want to throw up. They're in the papers more for their off-field criminality than their play. The problem as I see it is the collegiate training system in football and basketball, as opposed to the minor league system used in baseball and hockey, does not provide sufficient time to develop professional conduct and weed out the bad guys. You screw up on a minor league hockey or baseball team with guns, drugs, sex offenses and the like and you're probably all done, because they haven't invested very much in you yet and there are plenty of people able to take your place who aren't screw-ups. But if you screw up on a NCAA D1 team you'll be covered for because you already are a star in your organization. These guys start off in the NFL having spent the past few years as big shots who were above the rules and it shows in their behavior.

It is a sad state of affairs when a bunch of ghetto punks become millionaires and they basically contribute little to society in reality . I guess if we sold rights to a heart transplant and licensed the surgical instruments and sold the advertising off that might help . Only problem with that scenario is nobody pays to see a surgeon perform a miracle or a professor teach a child the values of math, writing, and reading . No one will pay to see a cop catch a crook or keep our homes safe as well . There is not a big market for chemists who provide better things to make our lives easier or a show on a water worker who makes sure are plumbing works and our water is safe to drink . It is sad to seee our values so askewed when it comes to the footbalkl, basketball, and baseball heroes [ if you want to call them that or think they are ] Soon sports will price themselves out or go to pay tv perhaps. Maybe someday these UNSUNG heroes who better society will get their just rewards instead of dog fighting QB's, athletes who kill [ the Carew case for one ] sell drugs [ too many to list] , domestic abuse , and no concern for the law that the rest of us must follow .A sad state of affairs for sure !!!!