Re: The Players are NOT the product

[bocelts@scsn.net (R. Bentz Kirby)]

Good points Jim.

Jim Meninno wrote:

> >Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 09:57:24 -0900
> >To: celtics@igtc.com
> >Subject: Re: Prediction and url
>
> >>The players have none of the risk, but
> >>get 52% of the revenues.  Pretty damn good deal.  Think GM will
> >>agree to a contract like that?
> >
> >I don't know....but if GM had just spent the past decade marketing >the
> guy at the spot welder and he was the product instead of cars I
> >think we'd have a better analogy.
>
> Here's a cliche that is often used to justify player's enormous
> salaries, that doesn't hold water with me.  The argument generally goes
> that sports labor negotiations are entirely different from other
> business' because the players ARE the product.  The person making this
> point usually smiles smugly as if he has just uttered some undeniable
> truth.  Often I can actually hear them smiling smugly, even though I am
> only listening to them on sports radio.
>
> In fact, the NBA, like all professional sports, is simply a service
> industry.  You don't go down to the Fleet Center and buy Antoine Walker.
> You don't even rent him for a couple of hours.  You go and pay a company
> for whom he is employed to perform a service (ie. play basketball
> competitively), the same as paying a guy to clean your pool, or change
> your oil.  You expect this company to do two things.  To entertain you
> and to represent your city in a competition against the evil and
> loathsome parts of the country (such as Los Angeles).  If the company
> stops performing the service well, you will stop using them (ie. being
> their fan).
>
> The only reasons that athletes are worth more than pool guys, is that
> many fewer of them can service many more customers.  There aren't that
> many people around who can play basketball at the level of the NBA.
> And, a lot of people care more about whether Boston beats LA than
> whether their pool sparkles or their pistons are suffering undue wear
> and tear.
>
> Those are all perfectly valid reasons why players should, and do, make a
> lot of money.  It does NOT mean that they are the product.  It does NOT
> mean that they are divinely entitled to 60% of basketball revenues, as
> well as travelling expenses.  There are an extremely limited number of
> players who can truly be said to have marketed the league.  I'm thinking
> of the Jordans, Birds and Magics of the league.  These people perform a
> duel role by assuming PR responsibilities and have a right to ask to be
> compensated accordingly.  But that still does not make them the product
> and it has no bearing on what the vast majority of anonymous,
> interchangeable players deserve to earn.
>
> Jim
>
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--
Peace,

Bentz Kirby
http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw