Sports In America Are Broken

Most who know me realized relatively quickly that I am a pretty big sports fan. I have followed the American major sports leagues and top-tier European football (see soccer) for as long as I can remember, with a particular fanatical fervor for my hometown teams - The Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies, Flyers and 76ers. If you have attended a sports event with me, you know that I get into it and take providing a home field advantage very seriously. However, in recent years I have noticed that I don't quite live and die with the results as I once did. I still throw myself into supporting my teams, but it is rare that a loss cripples me for long or a win makes all of my problems seem less important.

I have theorized that this development is one of maturity, what with the addition of adult life responsibilities. I mean, even if the Eagles were to win the Super Bowl (not happening any time soon, obviously), is Andy Reid going to pay my mortgage? Is Ed Snider ever going to reward me for my loyalty to the Flyers and Sixers by paying my monthly day care bill? In the immortal words of Sonny LoSpecchio (as played by Chazz Palminteri) in A Bronx Tale, "nobody cares". I justify my rooting interest by applying logic to the equation. The city is a little bit more pleasant when our teams are succeeding. With that said, I have realized of late the real reason why I don't care as much as I used to. Sports in America are broken.

There are things about the professional and major college sports landscape that rub me the wrong way, and for the life of me I can't get past many of them. The closed-systems that the leagues operate within, entry drafts, the BCS, franchise hijackings (see the Baltimore-Indianapolis Colts and the Seattle Supersonics-Oklahoma City Thunder to name a couple), perpetually bad teams and poorly-run franchises being rewarded for futility (see the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Los Angeles Clippers to name two), geographic monopolies and municipalities squeezed for tax money to build new stadiums are just a few of my least favorite things. The truth is that American sports leagues are cartels, and the current system is one of the most corrupt rackets going.

By operating in closed systems, our sports leagues in effect create a false scarcity of product. Think about it. Say you hit a mega-jackpot lottery and are the proud new owner of a couple hundred million dollars. Your dream has always been to own your own professional sports team. You have a plan, you know it will work and you know it is am improvement over anything anyone else is doing. How do you get into the game? You either have to pay an exorbitant expansion fee, and only when the respective leagues have decided to expand - a rarity. Or, you have to buy an existing franchise - if you can find one for sale. What if your dream was to operate a team in your hometown, and that hometown already has a franchise that is protected geographically and is not for sale? Or, your hometown doesn't have a team in place? You will have to buy an existing franchise and move it to your hometown. Do you see where this is going?

I wonder how many of you Philadelphia-area folks that are rolling your eyes remember when Leonard Tose flirted with the idea of moving the Eagles to Arizona in 1984. Can you imagine how different our town would be if he went ahead with the plan?

Who suffers under the current system? For starters, players, fans and municipalities - those suffering with horribly run franchises that dominate their home regions and those who would support a franchise but whose cities have not been deemed worthy of expansion. Yes, I argue that players suffer under the current systems. Save your "athletes make too much money" arguments. I will explain myself in the next couple of days with my "Why Drafts Are Evil" entry...

Friends and family have heard me say that democracy is being done better in other countries, and now I am going to say that professional sports is being done better elsewhere as well. Why do I bring this up here? Because I believe we can fix most of what ails American professional sports by adopting the model used almost everywhere else, most notably in Europe. That's right, no more entry drafts, no more closed systems and no more geographical monopolies for franchises. I am calling for the complete adoption of the promotion and relegation system. Teams earn their way into the top tier and have to perform to stay there. Players coming in to the league would be able to sell their services to the highest bidder - you know, like employees are able to do in any other line of work. Again, this concept is worthy of its own entry - trust me.

More and more, the systemic flaws inherent with American sports are being noticed by the masses. However, the combination of fans' fear of change and the power wielded by the sports leagues works to keep these broken systems in place and unchallenged. Well, I am challenging them now.

Coming soon: "Why Drafts Are Evil"; "Give Me Relegation!" and "Blow Up the Cartels".