26 February 2019 @ 8:57:05 AM
Title of the Book: Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining The Game We Love.
Author of the Book: Dave Zirin.
Book Report Written By: Michael George Clayton.
HST#: 853527323RT0001.
Business Analyst, every day people, and sports fans are wondering if they can continue to afford to take their families to professional sporting events with ticket prices being so high along with food and refreshment prices costing more than expected by the public. Dave Zirin has written a good book titled “Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining The Games We Love.” Dave Zirin’s book “Bad Sports” is a compilation of fifteen ( 15 ) essays that have a familiar theme that states that professional team Owners in the big four ( 4 ) sports of the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball ( MLB ), and the NHL are receiving public funds to build stadiums through City Councils without the paying tax payers having a say in how the professional sports team is operated on a day-to-day basis. Dave Zirin calls the public funding of professional sports teams building stadiums “corporate welfare.”
Dave Zirin states that the “only connection that professional sports owners have to the communities that their teams operate out of is profit extraction.” Owners of professional sports teams use their connection to the communities that they are located in as a ransom or hostage as they threaten to remove their professional sports teams if the city government does not give them a brand new stadium.
Dave Zirin goes on further to argue that we have to find ways “to remove the death-grip of professional sports team owners who pillage our communities when they remove their professional sports teams from certain localities.” Dave Zirin believes that we have to find “alternatives to private professional sports team ownership.” Dave Zirin cites the ownership of the Green Bay Packers Football Team” in Green Bay, Wisconsin as an example of “community ownership” that has worked for the Wisconsin professional football team dating back to the 18th-August-1923.
The National Football League ( NFL ) counters Dave Zirin’s argument about “community ownership” by citing their NFL Article V Section 4 Rules that states that “community ownership” of an NFL team with the exception of the Green Bay Packers is prohibited under NFL Ownership Rules.
Dave Zirin argues that professional sports team Owners “when they receive public funding, they have sacrificed their moral right and financial claim of ownership.” Thus, City Councils who fund professional sports teams with ‘public funds” should have more input and say as to how the professional team is operated.” Now, the question is whether a private professional sports team is a “public good?” Public goods are amenities that the government allows all citizens to use like roads, schools, libraries, parks, community centers, etc.
Dave Zirin believes that publicly owned goods gives the “government equity stakes in those goods.” Thus, a professional sports team that receives public funds to build a sports stadium would grant to the government “equity stakes in the teams that they invest in.” Many professional sports teams counter with the argument that the government investors are shareholders who are compensated as investors who receive their return on their investment based on their fixed term years of investment with the professional sports team. Second, government investors who build sports stadiums for professional sports teams are paid rents for the use of the stadium by the professional sports teams.
Major sports teams argue that they are not “public goods.” Major sports teams “are businesses that serves certain parts or segments of a society and not the society in general.” Owners of professional sports teams argue if public funds are not issued by the governments in certain cities, then those cities will not have professional sports being played in their city. Therefore, certain “public subsidies” are necessary to have a viable professional sports franchise in “certain markets” for professional sports teams to “continue in those markets.” Thus, tax payers end up paying for professional sports stadiums to have professional sports in their city.
Dave Zirin refers to the Minnesota Twin owner Carl Pohlad who needed $522 million dollars to build a megadome stadium. The “stadium manna” from the government is what Carl Pohlad calls sports…”a way of life, that is like eating.” The citizens of Minnesota opposed Carl Pohlad request for money to build a megadome stadium through their state and local governments referendums.
Owners in professional sports have learned to request “public funding” from governments through private back office meetings instead of using referendums to get the deal done using lobbyists.
Many sports teams argue that building a stadium will create jobs for the local economy. Roger Noll an author argues that “publicly subsidized stadiums in the United States have never had the effect of increasing employment and economic growth in the city that the stadium is built in.” According to Dave Zirin publicly funded stadiums “are built on the backs of tax payers.”
Dave Zirin opposes the NFL’s “black out policy” of NFL televised games where a local team does not air or televise the game because of low attendance. Dave Zirin believes that public funds from the community created the stadium. Therefore, the citizens in the community have a right to see the NFL game because of the “government equity” that went into building the stadium for the community. Dave Zirin must not forget that each NFL team usually pay rents for the use of the stadium over the course of the NFL season. Thus, each NFL team has a right to how it distributes or shows its product to their paying customers.
When the stadiums are empty, it should signal to professional team owners that ticket prices are too high for families in the community. Will the major professional sports lose their fan support at the gate entrance of the stadium with high ticket prices? All professional sports have acknowledged that “when times are tough economically some of the professional sports teams will lose support from their fans.” Sports franchises have “increased in value because of new revenue streams.” Thus, the middle class fans have been eliminated at the gate entrance because ticket prices have not been lowered. Hence, professional sports teams can continue to operate at a profit because of the new revenue streams through network television broadcasts, endorsements, merchandising and advertising.
Owners of professional sports teams gained their new revenue streams through “public funding” to build their stadiums through “stadium construction, corporate boxes, personal seat licenses, and television mega deals, along with 24 hour sports media channels.”
Dave Zirin believes that the “public funding” to build stadiums have made owners of professional sports teams rich. Owners of professional sports teams have used their new found wealth to fuel their political viewpoints through the right wing of the Republican Party. Thus, owners of professional sports teams are using their publicly funded wealth to influence sports fans who just want to watch sports. For example, Ed Snider, who is the President of Comcast and a believer in Ayn Rand’s philosophy, was using his wealth to support political figures like Sarah Palin, the Ayn Rand Institute, and Christian Principles of Moral Conduct through the Focus On The Family Christian Ministry. Ed Snider owns the Philadelphia Flyers Hockey Club and the Philadelphia 76ers Basketball team.
Dave Zirin believes that there should be a separation between Church and State and that religious views should not be the focus of professional sports after game programs for those who can afford to stay behind to witness the religious entertainment segment post-game package.
Rush Limbaugh sought to purchase an NFL franchise and was denied an NFL franchise because he would be a distraction for NFL day-to-day business that is carried out by the owners of NFL teams. Rush Limbaugh is a broadcaster who has conservative views and is a member of the Republican Party.
Dave Zirin argues that the Owners of professional sports teams are gaining their wealth through “public funding” and their wealth have a direct correlation with tax payer’s contributions that build their brand new stadiums. Thus, the Owners of professional sports teams should see society as a “diverse community” and not just a community for the religious right evangelicals of the Republican Party.
The religious right and the Republican Party have strong views against abortion and are not in favor of gay rights and gay marriages. Thus, the Owners of professional sports teams are “using their wealth to fuel their financial and political aspirations or ambitions. Dave Zirin argues that George Stenbrenner used his wealth from professional baseball to start the Yankee Entertainment Sports ( YES ) Network.
When stadiums are built the government uses “eminent domain” laws to “bulldoze homes” of those who received compensation from the government to move out of their homes so that the stadium could be built. Those who opposed the governments “eminent domain” laws and remained to the bitter end received no compensation for their properties from the government. Thus, the government allowed the “land grab” to build a professional sports complex in the name of progress and gentrification. Dave Zirin cites the “Battle of Chavez Ravine” that occurred between 1951 to 1961 to illuminate or shed light on the above point of “eminent domain” and “land grab” to build Dodger Stadium to fulfill team owner Walter O’Mally’s dream to build Dodger Stadium.
“Municiplization” is a fancy word for expropriation. Expropriation is when the government takes over property from private owners with and without compensation. Dave Zirin argues that fans or a community should have the right to buy the professional sports team “if an owner threatens to move the team.” Hence, the community would sue the Owners of a professional sports team to keep the team inside of their community. Thus, the team becomes “the intellectual property or eminent domain of the community giving the city a greater claim on the professional sports team.” Dave Zirin cites the Seattle Supersonics Basketball Team moving from Seattle to Oklahoma that was completed by Owners Clay Bennett and Audbrey McClendon under National Basketball Association ( NBA ) League Rules.
Dave Zirin believes that Owners of professional sports teams are ruining sports through marketing strategies like “Faith Day” to move cash into their professional sports organization with the ambition of using the cash to fund political agendas of the far right and the religious right of the Republican Party. Dave Zirin also argues that the Owners of professional sports teams are responsible for players using performance enhancing drugs ( PED’s ) to hit home runs.
Owner apathy or neglect to not come up with concrete policies or solutions through the Commissioner of MLB baseball to stop PED use. Dave Zirin states that the Owners of MLB teams did not say anything about PED use because gate receipts were increasing with Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds, etc hitting home runs. No one argues against success. Thus, the Owners of the MLB teams remained silent on PED use in the major leagues.
When the bottom line of just making profits for the Owners of professional sports teams is the only thing management cares about in professional sports, fans will begin to lose interest in professional sports. For example, Donald Sterling using his wealth to build housing for “disadvantage citizens and then suing and evicting his tenants made sporting fans skeptical about the Owners of professional sports teams. Thus, the fans began to stay away from the sports stadiums because professional sports was too expensive and the Owners of professional sports teams seemed mean and heartless. ( See the Donald Sterling case ).
The absentee owner is a person that owns a professional sports team in a community but lives in another community, city, and/or country without any real connection to the teams they own except for their financial connection as team owners.
Many sports fans feel resentful of absentee owners like Tom Hicks Jr who purchased the Liverpool FC Soccer Team. The “Hick’s Family” also owned the Texas Rangers Baseball Team and the National Hockey League Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Many of the fans in Liverpool England protested Tom Hick Jr’s ownership of the Liverpool FC by finding community investors to purchase their local soccer team.
Tom Hick’s Jr responded by saying that “he had no intention in selling the team” that dated back to 1892 in the community of Liverpool. The community of Liverpool felt that the Liverpool FC soccer team was a part of their working class community in England. Thus, the people of the community identified themselves with the Liverpool FC and their passion for soccer.
Whereas, Tom Hock’s Jr was out to make a profit from his acquisition of the Liverpool FC and did not care about the “community attachment” that people in the community had for the Liverpool FC soccer team. Thus, the Liverpool public or community resented Tom Hock’s Jr’s ownership of his soccer team in England. Tom Hick’s Jr is an American who is from Texas, USA. In addition, Tom Hick’s Jr did not fulfill his promise to build a new stadium in Liverpool for the Liverpool FC Soccer Team.
I would recommend Dave Zirin’s book that is titled “Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruing The Games We Love” because the book gives the reader a good understanding about how public funds are used to finance the building of sports stadiums. In addition, the book “Bad Sports” demonstrates how “public funds” are transferred or translated into a professional team’s profits. Once the profits of a professional sports team increases we see how owners use their wealth to promote their political views that are mostly conservative and based in the Republican Party.
We also see as readers how owners of professional sports teams use marketing stream financial tools to increase their wealth through television revenues, luxury boxes, signage, and endorsements to increase their profits. Good or bad, we also see how owners of sports teams use “Faith Day” to promote Christian values in a diverse community where politics and faith never existed before as a public expression in professional sports in the past.
When you read Dave Zirin’s book “Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining The Games We Love,” you should not see Dave Zirin as a man grinding an axe because he is jealous of the wealthy professional sports owners using “public funding” to build sports stadiums at the expense of tax payers.
Dave Zirin is an author who wants you to see that you should have a say in the things that are funded through your taxes as a citizen. Dave Zirin believes that tax payers should have ownership rights in professional sports teams that receive “public funding” from the government. Dave Zirin goes as far as saying that ‘publicly funded” teams should have government representation on their board for how the professional teams are operated in their community or city.
Dave Zirin has given us as readers some insights into what he calls “corporate welfare” and how “corporate welfare” is used to gain wealth by team owners who then promote their political and religious views in our communities. Dave Zirin believes that professional sports should not be political and that professional sports should not be religious. Dave Zirin believes that professional sports should cater to a “diverse audience base” at the entrance gate of the stadium and through the major network broadcasters of sporting events.
The End.
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