Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

sanity excommunicated
Taking the pith!

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 17013

Thuper Frank ruleth! We need a video clip of the advert in question, Phil.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

The two footballs might be the only sports in which I LEAST agree that the athletes are overpaid. In American football, pretty much everyone who plays more than a couple of seasons lives with chronic pain for the rest of their lives, often debilitatingly severe pain. And in the globe's version, with a worldwide talent pool and dozens of leagues bidding for the services of players, it's natural that the prices would be super-high, particularly at the top.

BASKETBALL, on the other hand, involves some jaw-droppingly stupid salaries, particularly for the fourth and fifth guy off the bench.

Not that this is really relevant to your main point, or anything. I'm just saying, is all.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35917

Footie is relatively free-market with regards to wages and transfers (although not completely, although big restrictions are often struck down by the European courts).

I don't think that an argument can be made in terms of the pain that, say, American Football players may suffer in later life. Pretty much anyone would trade that for the money (in which case, the money's too high as the trade-off for it). The argument can only be based on how much money they bring in, based on negotiation between the player or their representatives and the employer. If cities choose to subsidise franchises (as happens in the US) then the players can eye a cut from that, too (which they get, of course, in many cases). Players unions and cross-franchise agreements are anticompetitive, as a rule, but they may act to keep the game more even (the generally socialist nature of US pro sports does allow for a wider distribution of trophies than is the case in more free-market sports).

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Just to the right of the moon
Posts: 3141

Unfortunately, both the Ashes series and the Super league Grand Final proved beyond doubt to any neutral observer that football is shit. Dull, overhyped stupefying drivel played by witless moronic fairies wearing diamond earrings who engage in 90 minutes of mindless effort and play acting for a 0-0 draw, followed by a spot of nightclubbing and rape

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 1163

quote:

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followed by a spot of nightclubbing and rape

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
I don't think that an argument can be made in terms of the pain that, say, American Football players may suffer in later life. Pretty much anyone would trade that for the money (in which case, the money's too high as the trade-off for it).

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35917

I think that most people would take, say, 20 million dollars to end up like that. Fuck, we could end up like that anyway. How many players do end like that, anyhow (because clearly, there is a risk/cost calculus at play)?

Regimented salary (from point of view of employer and employee), shared revenue, worst team gets first draft, no relegation or promotion, it's a socialist dreamworld. It works, of course, because it's a contained system.

The idea that 'half the cash isn't theirs to begin with' is silly. The Yankees are the biggest part of the draw and the major contributor to the audience. It's like saying that Tyson at his peak could have fought your granny and only gotten a half share of the purse and that would have made sense, from the marketing perspective.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35917

In which context, your granny (Kansas City) looked to be beating the Yanks the other day. Didn't see the end of the game, but I imagine they won?

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