"It's time to END the Player's Union and REPAIR the NFL"

http://www.ThurstonHowell.NET ^ | Thurston Howell

[publius321]

I wrote a piece at ThurstonHowell.Net this morning titled "It's time to END the Player's Union and REPAIR the NFL" - in which I made the case that

in a truly capitalist system, the CONSUMER should be the winner in any business and as a consumer, my main agenda is to advance the cause of there being a full season in 2011 -even if we are watching "scrubs" like they did back in the 80's - or was it early 90's?

The cool thing about that year was that some players made the teams after the strike was over and remained in the league. It was nice to see them have that opportunity as Americans love underdogs.

So in the aforementioned piece I propounded the notion of the NFL having tryouts for these teams featuring LOCAL players. I think if they marketed it right, it could be very interesting. When I say marketing "right", I mean emphasize the local, home-grown talent aspect of it and perhaps make rules about players having to have previous residence closest to the team for which they are auditioning... In this reality show era, they can make the season into a great reality show on the scub players leading up through the actual games.

Honestly, I would love to see them just go with that until the current players, the "stars" started coming back like everyone else, without a union. Read the original column at ThurstonHowell.NET

[publius321]

Tom Rooney, one of Art’s grandsons and Freshman Congressman here in south Florida is a hard core conservative as is his father (one of Art’s sons) and the rest of the south Florida Rooney’s. They are all equally owners of the Steelers. I spent a good deal of time with Tom Rooney and have a really funny story in that regard - but one thing I will say is he’s no Zero supporter and is a very humble, West point alumnus and great PATRIOT.

His uncle Dan Rooney is apparently senile.

[doosee]

Thanks for that update. I had figured the entire Rooney clan as do gooders but very happy to learn different. The Steelers are my team all the way and the Dan Rooney-Obama love affair has been so disgusting.

[GBA]

I used to buy Chevy cars and trucks, enjoyed the NFL, could afford my own health insurance and believed I would receive S.S. when I turned 65 or so, but that was WAAAAY back in the 1990s.

[wantobefree]

I can’t wait for the NFL to implode with a lockout. It’ll be hiliarious seeing those thugs picket outside the stadium while most of us will smile at their misery. If they’re so arrogant about having this showdown, then they deserve to get what’s coming to them.

[sarasmom]

Full disclosure-I no longer watch or care about the NFL.
I get my football “fix” in attending my child's high school team games.

That said...I don't care how the NFL owners and players decide to divide the profits from their entertainment business, as long as none of my tax dollars ever help pay for their stadiums again!

[sarasmom]

LOL!
Beautifully stated!

[lapsus calami]

 

 

I think you guys may be forgetting all the officially licensed NFL commercial crap of all descriptions - the shirts, hats, coffee mugs, posters, jewelry, video games and on and on - tons of it. That's a lot of bread and butter, and if the public shied off from buying, it would give'em a crimp and send a message.

 

 

[publius321]

I second that sarasmom.

[Alberta's Child]

Godo point, but I’ve seen a number of sources indicating that about 2/3rds of an NFL team’s revenue comes from the league’s television contracts. That is far and away the largest source of their revenue. All of the other things like ticket sales, merchandise sales, concessions, luxury box revenue, parking revenue shares, etc. make up the remaining 1/3rd.

[Borges]

Team sports are a form a civic pride. A great team can capture a city’s imagination.

[Borges]

The difference between other unions and this is that the NFL basically has a monopoly on pro football and constitutes its own owners’ union.

[Borges]

Don’t count on it. The NFL is an unstoppable money machine.

[nascarnation]

A great team can capture a city’s imagination.

And suck its taxpayers dry.

Here in Indy, we ponied up $700 mil for the Irsays. A Democrat mayor paid off a Democrat owner who in turn contributes to Democrats.

Another version of Baraq's "crony capitalism"

[BluH2o]

Say what you may about the NFL’s players union ... bottom line seniority means nada ... you don't perform and your butt is gone. Unlike the teachers union and the SEIU.

[sarasmom]

“The difference between other unions and this is that the NFL basically has a monopoly on pro football and constitutes its own owners’ union.”

err...You do understand that “professional football” is merely a popular entertainment business, don't you?

Even anti-union people such as myself, acknowledge a time when Labor Unions were an absolute necessity, and a true force for the good for our entire society.
Labor Unions helped force our government to pass labor laws protecting all workers from employers who treated employees as indentured servants at best, and slaves at worst.

I thank them!
Now, they need to stop.

The laws are on the books, and honest employees can now fight against unscrupulous employers.
What honest employees now can't easily fight against, are the bastardized, criminal organizations to which Labor Unions have devolved.

[discostu]

The NFL doesn’t have anywhere NEAR a monopoly on pro-football. There’s the arena league, there’s the UFL, there’s dozens of semi-pro leagues. The NFL is the only one where players can make millions, but if they’re willing to make normal people money there’s plenty of leagues out there.

[Borges]

That’s more of a general argument against unions which I don’t disagree with. I’m specifically talking about Pro Football. The NFL is it. There’s really nowhere else for players to go. The NFL is essentially a union of franchise owners. That’s why they are now being sued under antitrust laws since the Player’s union has decertified.

[discostu]

That whole 11 minute thing has been one of the all time stupidest “stats” dumb reporters have been waving around for 25 years. It goes under the completely false assumption that the only time football happens is between the snap and the whistle. 90% of whether a play succeeds or fails is determined by pre-snap reads and adjustments, that 20 seconds BEFORE the snap, any “stat” that pretends that time doesn’t matter is, quite simply, a lie. And you know football better than that.

[Borges]

There’s nothing close to the NFL in terms of what 99.9% of consumers understand to be Pro Football. That’s like saying the NBA has competition from some local basketball league in the Tri State area.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

 

Nice breakdown of the situation. Now, the NFL may have the deck stacked in their favor with the contractual obligations, but say if the advertisers/sponsors that actually make the bills got cold feet for whatever reason or just didn't have the ad budget like they've had in the past - well, then there's a problem. And there's no telling what provisions (thoroughly written in barely legible legalese) are enrolled in those contracts, including or excluding some sort of performance provisions. The time may come to where they won't have a sure lock on that sort of revenue like they've enjoyed in the past. The one thing they don't have a totally guaranteed lock on is the fickle public at large, though I cannot see a successfully organized boycott ever coming to fruition, the burgeoning national economic issues coming into play are sure to negatively affect that sector of their income. They either see the writing on the wall and adjust accordingly or suffer the consequences. I don't keep up with the sports scene and don't know a whole lot about their internal machinations, but am wondering if this latest dust-up isn't an effort to pull a correction for the sake of survival. I don't know.