Posted on 04/29/2021 5:34:15 AM PDT by Kaslin
As a sport executive in 2015, I saw the future and became a prophet in the wind, the proverbial canary in the coal mine. That is when I began sounding the alarm over the politicization of sports by the left and spoke of the implications for America.
Over the course of the next several years, I wrote thousands of words on the subject under a pen name, the pseudonym came from knowing I would be bounced from the industry in a New York minute if my identity were known.
My concern predated Colin Kaepernick taking a knee, and if you were reading me back then, MLB’s recent decision to become woke activists and move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta would have come as no surprise to you.
So how did American sports end up like this?
Bluntly put... fear. Most of those who work in sports, including the decision makers, haven’t gone through a political metamorphosis of late. They are the same as they were years ago, a good representation of the American populous politically. Some are on the left, some are on the right, some in the middle and many apolitical.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
“The sports industries hard-left turn is driven solely out of survival instincts as well as the maxim, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
Sometimes the squeaky wheel needs to be replaced.
Summary: the Left is better at enforcing consequences for displeasing them. The Right doesn’t do as good a job. So institutions which are sensitive to the things that Leftists can do against them if they don’t “bend the knee”, will go Left.
“Path of least resistance” is the key point. Alienating most of your fan base doesn’t have immediate consequences. The slobbering coverage of the gutter media does. They fear the daily propaganda of the very fakes news more than of the long term estrangement of their paying customers.
Supply and demand. There is an over supply of woke, politically correct, leftism is sports. It is cheap. I ain’t buying cheap.
The games became unwatchable and among other desperate attempts to stem the decline in revenue, the owners pimped controversy and virtue-whining.
When backstories, and then false backstories, became the lead, it was a clear sign the game was dead. When they couldn't sell you the sport, they resorted to selling you controversy. They had to ratchet it up continuously to chase dwindling numbers of viewers but what do they care of the consequences to society?
The medium of television, especially live viewing, has been in decline for over two decades and significantly dropped in the last few years. As television goes the way of Vaudeville, professional sports owners, broadcasters, and salesmen, burn through any remaining goodwill while attempting to squeeze out the remaining cash.
Goodbye and good riddance. May future generations never confuse what had once been the broadcasting of great sport for what it became; a monetized anti-fan and anti-American slur.
When Baseball players (Back in the 50s) were playing for the love of the game, rather than the $$$ I was a big fan. Now most are just high paid spoiled brats. I don’t watch any sports anymore.
I'm one of the few people here who thinks MLB probably made a good decision in moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta. If nothing else, it generated publicity for the All-Star Game. I say this because I didn't even know they still played that stupid game anymore until the controversy erupted over MLB's reaction to the new Georgia voting law.
As most of these teams play in government funded buildings, it’s time they were forced to assemble teams based upon a racial makeup similar to the population rather than merit.
ML/NJ
Fans are abandoning sports at breakneck speed.
As I get older, I don’t watch near the amount of sports as I used to. And I would get the sports section of the newspaper and study that thing like the bible. I knew everything about every sport.
But the younger generation, the majority of them watching sports and loving sports that way is just not on their radar. The main reason is they just have way too many other options. So big fans are just going to get smaller and smaller. And that’s without all the political stuff.
I agree. They are afraid of the mob coming for them, especially now when people are having their names and addresses made public.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.