No it means nothing. It causes nothing. All those things you think are caused by being a monopoly are ACTUALLY caused by being a 13 BILLION dollar business. There IS actually a free market to enforce industry accountability, it’s called people can not watch football. Or they can watch a different football.
WRONG, the NFL is NOT the only source of professional football on the planet. There are MANY sources of professional football on the planet, including the Arena league, numerous semi-pro leagues, Canada, and (let’s be truthful here) the NCAA. Only thing the NFL is sole supplier of is NFL professional football, they are the only league that can supply those uniforms and rules.
The NFL does NOT prevent others from opening competing sports leagues. Not even competing football leagues. There are many competing leagues through history. In fact one will be starting up next year. Just because they keep winning doesn’t mean they can’t be competed with.
I’m comparing apples to apples. The simple fact of the matter is trying to apply monopoly rules to sports leagues is a fools errands. You’re throwing apples at orange, I’m pointing out that the effort is doomed to failure.
Okay. You like the status quo. That’s fine. Or you don’t like the status quo but regulating the monopolistic practices of the NFL goes against your principles, whatever they are. The bottom line is, the NFL has an effective monopoly on the product so consumers who like professional football have few options when it comes to dealing with behavior that they don’t like. For most NFL fans, regardless of professional football’s flaws, other forms of entertainment, college football included, are poor substitutes.
“There IS actually a free market to enforce industry accountability, it’s called people can not watch football. Or they can watch a different football”.
Right, and by the same token, there is a free market to enforce industry accountability on the electric companies. I can always buy myself an expensive generator and continuously keep it supplied with fuel, or I can buy a large supply of industrial batteries to power my home. Both very costly options. I can even do without power. Do you view electric companies as not particularly unique, and just one of a number of equal options for supplying ones power needs?
But again, you like things the way they are. Or else you don’t like the way things are but are against addressing the problems through any means other than boycots, because of some principle of yours. Fine. Name your principle. You want to preserve the free market? Then demand that any new owner that wants to do so, be allowed to enter the NFL. If that was allowed, you’d still have a 13 billion dollar industry but you would have more teams. The 13 billion would be spread out amongst more teams and players, and salaries would go down. The idea that the problems I cited (i.e. salaries, free agency, etc.) are merely the result of the industry being a 13 billion dollar industry and have nothing to do with the legal structure of the industry is simply foolish. If you were right, then we would have similar problems with any other 13 billion dollar industry. But those are just details.
You appear to have a knee jerk reaction to change without articulating any principle upon which it’s based. Name your principle. Is it that support free markets on principle? Is it that you support the right of monopolies, that coordinate to stifle competition, to exist, on principle? Or do you just like the status quo?