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?
I didn’t say I like the status quo, I said you can’t change it by going after the NFL as a monopoly. The bottom line is the NFL has no more of a monopoly than any other sole purveyor of a highly specified product. It just so happens that in this case it’s a $13 billion dollar highly specified product, other than the sheer size of their market it’s no different than a BigMac or specific model of car, or any other uniquely defined product.
The electric company is a utility, in America we specifically decided to make utilities into local monopolies. It doesn’t have to be that way. We made a conscious with the good and bad that comes with it.
Stop going personal, it just shows you’ve run out of logic. Those things don’t have anything to do with the legal structure of the league. It’s the raw money coming in that makes it all happen. Money is power and power corrupts. You spread around $5 billion (player portion of the revenue) to 1600 people (roughly the number of player), people who have specifically trained their whole lives to be one of those 1600 people, avoiding learning many other things (like morals) because they didn’t have the time things are gonna happen.
And really, stop making it personal. That’s a refuge for those that lack facts and logic. It’s not about principle, it’s about reality. The reality is attacking NFL as a monopoly is sound and fury signifying nothing. You can make a lot of noise but if it actually gets to court they’ll win, and nothing will change. If you want the NFL to change you need to stop watching. It’s just that simple. It’s a business, the pocketbook rules. Those are the facts, nothing personal.