“Stop going personal, it just shows you’ve run out of logic”
Relax. Nobody’s getting personal. And no, I haven’t run out of logic. You just haven’t been following it.
The bottom line is this. Whether you consider the NFL to be an industry in and of itself or you consider it to be merely one enterprise amongst many competing businesses in the larger category of leisure/entertainment is largely irrelevant. The bottom line is that which ever opinion you hold on that question, the NFL is still poorly regulated.
If you believe, as you do, that the NFL is, to all intents and purposes, just one company in the larger entertainment industry, then is it right that the courts have prohibited them from setting a uniform pay scale and controlling free agency? Other business in the entertainment industry don’t have to deal with such restrictions. From that point of view, the NFL is over regulated compared to other business in the entertainment industry. And there is a clear cause and effect between past court rulings on this issue and player salaries and free agency.
Likewise, if you view professional football as an industry in and of itself, and the NFL as the sole provider of that product, it’s still poorly regulated.
We can differ on the question of monopoly or not, but either way, the NFL is poorly regulated. Not unregulated, but poorly regulated because those regulations put in place were never designed to benefit the consumer. They were designed to benefit the players in some regards and the owners in other regards.
The public has a right to question the current state of regulation which in the past, has largely fallen to the interpretation of the courts because Congress has never addressed this particular case in a comprehensive, responsible way.
One final point. We’re not debating whether the sports leagues should be regulated. They already are. The question is whether they should continue to be regulated in the current manner, with the players interests being put first, whether they should they become unregulated, or whether the manner in which they are regulated should change so that the interests of the fans are placed first.
Why should they be regulated? That’s the problem with your whole concept. There is literally nothing to regulate. Your starting point is innately false, and laughably silly. Book publishers aren’t regulated, movie studios aren’t regulated, record companies aren’t regulated, and there is no logical reason for sports companies to be regulated either.
You’re wrong. We ARE debating whether sports companies should be regulated, the answer is: no, that’s a terrible idea.