No Subject

[Peter Delevett <pdelevett@sjbj.com>]

Kim - you raised some good points in response to my theoretical question, "Why can't the owners force the players to swallow whatever terms they want?" Chief among them is: you are right, the networks no doubt would sue the league if they were to axe the players, and the league would have to pay back the money for the new contract. That alone would probably prevent this scenario (which admittedly is mere conjecture) from ever happening. However, I disagree with your point about scab players hurting the NFL and MLB. Did anybody really stop watching football for longer than a season at most? Even baseball -- there's been so much talk in the media this year about how MLB has finally "buried the ghosts of the strike." I think the viewers would come back. I guarantee you, the new Cleveland Browns will have a packed house to play for come the 2000 season. Not an exact parallel, I know. But basically, there IS no "cheaper place to buy hamburger" -- the CBA and college hoops will never be a permanent replacement for the NBA (even if the disgruntled NBAers were to somehow secede to the CBA, as someone here suggested tongue-in-cheek.) Now, what COULD happen would be an alternative league might get started up by big TV money, as already has been hinted. But I am very skeptical -- anybody remember the USFL? The World Football League? And I doubt the alternative pro football league being proposed by NBC & Turner will ever be more than a short-lived blip on the radar.