The Other Labor Showdowns

While the nation is fixated on the battle of Wisconsin, there is another labor showdown taking place which has long term implications for their respective organizations. The NFL and NBA currently facing potent lockouts of its players as its own collective bargaining agreements have expired . Both leagues like all other professional sports have experienced skyrocketing salaries over the past 15 years. The slumping economy, coupled with heavy debt from newly constructed sports venues has left the owners in a conundrum. They must convince the NFLPA to accept a haircut on the 65% of revenues it currently receives under the expiring collective bargaining agreement. Thus far a pay cut has been about as well received as playing without helmets. The NBA owners with 23 of its 30 teams losing money wants a larger cut of the 4 billion dollars in league revenue which is currently split in favor of the players.

All the major sports teams-the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major league baseball, have all suffered through strikes, and or lockouts over the past twenty years. The entire NHL season of 2004-2005 was lost to a lockout. It is my feeling that the professional sports unions need to look at the Steel and auto industries to see their future. Player salaries have shot out of the park since the age of the CBA. The average NFL salary is $1.7 mm, Major league baseball $3.2mm, NHL about $1.5mm and the the highest salary in all of professional sports goes to the NBA- a whopping $5.5mm! Rising ticket prices and a country in recession cannot sustain the status quo. The very harsh reality is that the proverbial well is running dry. Everyone is running out of money and the unions are the last to catch on. A word of advice to the players unions: Study the history of your respective sports and understand what your unions have done to the quality of the game and how it has affected the average fan- you remember,the one's who pay your inflated salaries? If you don't have time to study the history of your sports, just take a look at Detroit the next time you're in town.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Legend Of The Unarmed White Man (Revised)

Image
The August 2014 shooting death of unarmed black teen Mike Brown in St. Louis by a white police officer and the subsequent decision by the grand jury not to indict has brought unrest to American Streets. The protestors feel that police are shooting and killing mostly unarmed black men at alarming rates. Many also believe that police interaction amongst white's is all together different due to the benefits of "white privilege". "If that had of been a white man..." is a common refrain from blacks when speaking of a negative experience with a white police officer. The media plays an integral role in these perceptions by continuously assaulting us with images of black victims and white perpetrators. In light of the Brown incident and other controversial shootings this year, the adjective attached to these perceived victims is "unarmed". The term is a staple in the lexicon of the American media which h...
Read more

BP Crisis Brings Out Radical Left

Image
Once again the left, with the help of Jesse Jackson shows its ignorance of and hatred for capitalism. The BP crisis which began with the explosion of an offshore oil rig which resulted in a fire that killed 19 people. The pipe located one mile undersea began to spew oil into the gulf and has for over fifty days now. The Reverend has been for weeks calling for a boycott of BP. Now comes word that several BP stations have been vandalized. The fact that such vitriol and anger results from what was clearly a tragic accident is surely tragic in itself. Someone should explain to the reverend that oil companies exited the gas station business years ago. The stations are by and large owned by franchisees and independent operators who squeeze out razor thin margins on gasoline-hence the reason for the lottery tickets, potato chips and soft drinks that has become a staple of these often family owned businesses. To make matters worse, the Rev. Jackson stated that "the mom and pop stations a...
Read more

Blacks Only Field Trip Revealing

A Michigan elementary school Principal took group of 5th grade students on a field trip to hear a speech by an African American rocket scientist. The only problem: he only took the black students. This incident for this blogger has much larger revelations other than the obvious. This Principal is the prototypical example of the dangers of a left wing education. A huge problem among blacks specifically is their ability to practice discrimination and segregation while simultaneously preaching "equality" and "inclusion". Dicken Elementary School Mike Madison took a group on black students, part of a group known as the African American Lunch Bunch to hear a black rocket scientist speak. The fact that there is such a group at a such a racially diverse school is troubling. Needless to say, the outrage would be manic if a white organization existed and engaged in the same exclusion of black students. In the black left wing mind, discrimination and racism are acceptable ...
Read more