G Routine

I am a man of many theories. Many I keep to myself and just mull over when I'm bored. But lately, one has kept creeping into my conscious. It has to do with pro sports, athlete salaries, funding, and sports arenas. Since I'm here in Seattle I've been watching the spectacle that is the Super Sonics.

For those of you who haven't been following the dilemma, the team was sold to Clay Bennett who wants to move the team to Oklahoma. Upon purchasing the team from Howard Schultz, Bennett publicly was willing to keep the team in Seattle if Key Arena would be remodeled. This of course means more luxury suites, amenities, seats, and high tech big screens. It turns out he really had no intention of keeping the Sonics in Seattle, but that's not what I have an issue with. He wanted Seattle citizens to fund much of the remodel with tax dollars.

These tax subsidized sports arenas and stadiums that many citizens seem to be okay with is what bothers me. When did professional sports become such an economic power that city and state politics have to become involved? What place do politics have in sports? Now I'm not talking about corporate politics, I'm talking about government politics. When new sports facilities and arena's are funded by tax dollars because it's become a 'necessity' for city, community and local economics is where I have a problem.

Big business and sports organizations have flexed their financial muscles to push our government into making unethical and poor decisions for the citizens they represent. But what's the root of this evil or problem? I think there are many variables to the equation, but it starts with the absolutely inflated salaries pro athletes are paid.

Are pro athletes really worth tens of millions of dollars, or even 100's of million dollars in salary? Let's take a look at baseball, Alex Rodriquez makes $28 million dollars a year on a team, the Yankees, whose player salary totals $209.1 million. Whereas one of the lowest team salaries in baseball is the Florida Marlins at $43.8 million and the Marlins won the World Series in 2003. Something about that just doesn't seem right, generally and from a business perspective.

Or how about we take a look at basketball, where Kevin Garnett is the highest paid athlete at $23.7 million and the Dallas Mavericks have the highest team salary at $105.3 million. Oh, the smallest team salary is the Charlotte Bobcats at $52 million, half of what the Mavericks operate with.

When it comes to football, the top paid player is Dwight Freeney of the Indianapolis Colts at $30.7 million and the biggest team payroll is Washington Redskins at $123.4 million. The smallest team payroll in pro football is the New York Giants at $75.7 million and they just won the Super Bowl.

There seems to be a huge disparity between the salary of teams, individual athletes, and wining. I seriously doubt there is as much difference between the total number of people the stadiums hold from team to team? I think the first step in fixing the problem is standardizing or putting better parameters on what pro athletes are paid. Then make the main revenue stream be determined by corporate sponsorships.

So if you have a pro sports team that is paid millions of dollars a year in salary, should each working class citizen help pay for their office? Especially if most athletes only stay on a team for a couple years before being traded? How much does the guy or gal make who's working at the convenient stand in comparison?

What about the people who manage these stadiums and arenas? They usually play host to other events and sports teams. In Key Arena's case, there are rock concerts with Kayne West or other big headliners and the women's basketball team the Storm play there. Just because the Sonics aren't going to play there doesn't mean Key Arena isn't going to generate revenue. Whether or not it will be profitable, I don't know. But that's the challenges of running a business.

What if owners and managers of pro sports teams stopped inflating athlete salaries each year by another million or two? What if teams where forced to make profits from selling tickets to games more than corporate sponsorships? Think of the possibilities if athletes were held to five or six year contracts, were paid less, and the best only made ridiculously more than their teammates because of corporate sponsorships. If players salaries weren't so skewed, maybe team sports would still be more team oriented? Maybe more athletes would finish getting their college education then leaving early for the draft and huge salaries?

Okay, I'm starting to get slightly off topic. The professional sports business model is broken and moving in the wrong direction. Taxes should never be used to fund a stadium or arena for a pro sports team, period. Build roads, pay for education, or even bring PE back to schools and help fund better health for our youth, than help the wealthiest of the wealthy. I realize it's a trickle down model, but it seems like less and less is going through the funnel. Minimum wage employees working at a stadium may go up .10 cents while player salaries go up by the millions. I also understand its the restaurants and bars that also experience financial gains, but this trend just can't keep pace.

You'll end up killing the sports. As prices of participating in sports, whether a fan or participant, keeps being driven up by more expensive equipment and ticket prices, the overall number of people taking part in those sports will shrink. If the market size continues to shrink, there won't be enough people to fund it long-term. As price increases, less people will be able to participate, leaving only the true enthusiasts or the rich. You'll have a bunch of stadiums that just sell season tickets and corporate suites with nobody in them. People will only be involved for the love of the sport or for the love of the money. Those two ideals don't correlate well. How can you develop a devoted fan base if players come and go every couple years and the team has an erratic win/loss results?

I don't know how much sense this rant makes. I haven't thought it out completely. But something just isn't adding up anymore. It all just feels somewhat tainted. Who and how are we going to fix this negative trend? Maybe it will just all work itself out and I'm worrying about nothing. Just think about it for a second.