College Football and Higher Education

While I decry the professionalization of athletics at university, I will strongly defend the outrageous salaries paid to professional athletes. This is simply a particularly striking example of democracy in action under a capitalist economic structure. The population vote with their money every day of life, and the successful candidates (products or services) are chosen (bought or hired). If people don't like the salaries paid professional athletes, then don't watch or support the team or sport. Where there isn't money to pay them, there aren't outrageous salaries. If you don't like the fact that other people are willing to spend THEIR money to pay these guys, that's your prerogative, but don't think that these guys don't deserve what they get. The people have out-voted you, and complaining that they are paid more than teachers/doctors/whatever amounts to complaining about the free democratic expression of the population's will.

 

I used to be one who believed athletes should get all they could since their "working life" is limited and they miss their children growing up and holidays due to training and games. However, it has gotten out of control to where MLB has teams going bankrupt and they can't compete. Advertising revenue only goes to the bigger city teams, team memento sales only go to teams that win and those are the bigger market teams. You get owners that use their own money and not team money to "BUY" winners destroying their farm teams, which they don't need so they continue to buy players paying salaries that smaller teams can't afford, who are losing revenue because they can't win because by the time they get a Joey Votto or a CC Sabathia matured enough to start showing talent they can't afford to keep them.

Then you get the players looking for the big payday that small teams mortgage their futures for and those "stars" get hurt and are out indefinitely because they don't care they have their guaranteed money. Look at what A-Rod did to the Rangers, he bankrupted them because they couldn't afford to put a team around him.

Then in say the NBA where they have "Caps" there are ways around the cap to where players can be offered so much but leave to form "super" teams because the players conspired to do so. This causes teams like the Cavs to drop revenue immediately.

The players have no true allegiance to the cities or fans like in the past, like Bob Feller who even years into retirement was loyal to the Indians.

I use Cleveland and Cincy as examples because I have seen it all first hand.

There has to be some type of fiscal responsibility.