Is there too much professional sports?

[Archae]

Too many breaks for owners and players?

Owners getting big tax breaks for their stadiums?

Players getting away almost with murder?

I'm thinking of this, watching a news report on the baseball doping scandal.

[olddots]

1. yes

n.t.

[SharonAnn]

18. Oh yes, yes, yes,yes!

[RebelOne]

45. Ditto and another yes, yes, yes, yes. n/t

[Captain Stern]

2. No.

There are a lot of thing wrong with professional sports, and amateur sports as well. But people support them because they enjoy them. That's not a bad thing.

[Gravitycollapse]

4. It's a bad thing when they care more about sport than everything else.

[hughee99]

7. But the same can be said of virtually any form of entertainment,

whether it's books, music, movies, television, or even video games.

[Gravitycollapse]

8. At least those have the potential to be intellectual.

Although I do not support focusing on anything so singularly.

[Pelican]

9. Good lord that's snooty...

Do you have a top hat, monocle and pipe while you type that?

[Gravitycollapse]

10. No, I quite enjoy several sports within the context that they turn my brain to mush.

[Pelican]

14. There! Post 12...

That's you...

Ha..

[Gravitycollapse]

16. I do admit that it would be pretty badass to use a monocle and top hat.

[a la izquierda]

28. Oh good grief

I have a PhD and I love sports.
Get off your high horse...oh wait, that might be construed as sport.

[Yavin4]

37. Sabermetrics

Unless you don't consider math intellectual.

[frylock]

43. some people are able to enjoy all those as well as sports

[Captain Stern]

19. Probably so.

But most people don't care more about sports than everything else. Most people care more about their families than they do sports. Most people care more about their jobs than sports. Most people even care more about other people than they do sports, even though there are examples to the contrary. Spectator sports are enjoyable to watch. It's fun to see other people excel at something they've worked hard at. It's fun to root for a team or individual that is competing. It just is what it is. I don't think people listen to too much music. I don't think people look at too many paintings. We like what we like.

[ceonupe]

26. Your reply explains America's love of sports

For many its a family thing from armature rec league to taking your kids and family to a ball game (assuming the tickets aren't crazy priced)

Sport teams in many cities employ lots of people directly and indirectly including jobs.

And let's not forget that the recent moves of sports teams from the suburbs and outskirts of towns to the city core. This helps revitalize cities. Heck in Charlotte the whole uptown is created because of the basketball arena being built there vs the old one on the out skirts. Look at Brooklyn vs the old location for the nets.

These are the same reasons the governments give so many breaks to these owners/teams/sport leagues. It's the jobs and quality of life. Governments give breaks to other groups as well that do the same thing.

Not uncommon for a large employees to get taxes waived on new buildings or other breaks or even matching funds.

[Bake]

32. Well by all means, let's decide for them what they should care about!

Because of course, we know better than they do what's best for them!

Geez.

Bake

[Yavin4]

38. And then they wonder why some people hate the Left.

Sports replaces the need for conflict. Rather have a World Cup than a World War.

[MotherPetrie]

3. Hell the fuck YES

[olddots]

5. I think some of the magic is gone

The athletes are so well trained , groomed and so incredibly talented that a human element is missing .

[cherokeeprogressive]

6. No more sports! No escapism! Read a book! No TV! And... lights out at 9.

Kill me now.

[Gemini Cat]

22. +1

That's a grim world.

[KittyWampus]

11. Imagine just a fraction of the money that goes into sports went into performing arts.

[nolabear]

13. I agree, but sports kind of is a performing art imo.

It's a little war of course, and as a way to bind people together and sublimate the desire to crush one another it's useful, but I wish there was some money and adulation reserved for us word nerds too.

[Union Scribe]

12. No, but subsidized arenas are BS.

A $400M stadium is going to be built in bankrupt Detroit. IIrc about $300M will be from taxpayers. The team, btw, is owned by a multi-billionaire.

But we have to sacrifice retirees and education and public safety and...

[Archae]

17. That's the thing that bugs me the most.

Politicians don't want to say no to the owners, either.

Because then they'll be labeled "The (fill in the blank politician) who lost the (fill in the blank team.)"

I think back to when the Milwaukee Braves baseball team went to Atlanta, and when the Colts football team went to Indianapolis.

[teamster633]

24. That is what is obscene about pro sports.

I'm only an occasional fan but, I don't begrudge those who are more interested. However, it make me furious to think that a citizen of any particular city can be compelled to subsidize a stadium for some parasitic oligarch. State AGs should be able to bring charges against these bums when they unabashedly hold teams hostage when a previously publicly funded venue no longer satisfies their vanity and they demand a new publicly funded venue as ransom.

[ceonupe]

29. The problem is

If Detroit does not give the money team will go somewhere else that will.

In this case many of the suburbs of Detroit wanted the project.

The thing is not the building but the jobs and impact on local economy of the sports team.

What other business is trying to come to Detroit bring the $$$ the tigers bring or the jobs (direct and indirect).

If Detroit lost the team it would be even worse off.

[longship]

15. Only Aussie Rules Football means anything to me these days.

Footy!!

The ball is always in play (unless it goes out of bounds). It's either teams' ball -- always. Play doesn't stop for silly things like commercials. Nobody wears protection. It's played on a huge field, a cricket ground. It isn't soccer, or rugby, or the crashingly boring US football. It's something else altogether, just as the Australians would want it.

Just wish MHz Worldview would cover Footy again. I miss it.

[dogknob]

20. People are going to find all sorts of creative ways to justify the "importance" of pro sports

The stuff I hear people pull out of their asses to defend the ridiculous amount of time and resources flushed down the drain for a game, is often so fresh and creative it makes me wonder where all that creativity goes when it's time to do something real.

That said... Here, read a book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Never_Played_the_Game#I_Never_Played_the_Game_and_reaction

[Gemini Cat]

21. No.

Are sports any different from any other popular entertainment?

[Tien1985]

23. Who's to say

Many other popular forms of entertainment aren't also flushing money down the toilet?

I fall on the other side. I think pro sports is an extreme waste of time and resources--but I think that about some other forms of entertainment too.

[The2ndWheel]

25. There wouldn't be an economy if people didn't waste their time and resources

[hfojvt]

39. and what is so great about an economy?

Consider jobs. Let's say 100% of working age adults work 2,000 hours a year to buy the things we want and need. Say, for simplicity that there are 1,000 people. That is then 2,000,000 person hours of work. Let's say that 20% of that is "wasted" on sports. or 400,000 person hours. Taken them out of the economy, and suddenly "oh noes, we have lost a bunch of jobs because people are no longer wasting their money on our crap"

That's how it works in the real world.

But theoretically, if our economic system was designed better - say by separating wants and needs.

In THAT case, then losing 400,000 person hours of labor would be a GOOD thing. It would mean "less work" for all of us working saps. Now, we can get the things we want and need by working only 1,600 hours a year. Basically TEN weeks of PAID vacation. Who among us loves our job so much that we would not want 10 more weeks of paid vacation? I sure don't.

One of the reasons I have to work so hard is because of the demands of other people. My plumber will not fix my toilet for less than $50 an hour. Why so much? Maybe because he wants to buy season tickets. My dentist won't fix my cavities for less than $100 a pop. Why so much? So he can take a trip to Disneyworld. Or buy new lawn furniture.

Our system is designed so that everybody is incentivized to grab as much as they can - to squeeze that out of the public. That means that some people, many people get squeezed out. They end up homeless or despairingly poor because they were not as good at grabbing as Joe the Plumber. It's a lousy system, and I can still remember being young and foolish enough to think it could be changed.

[Bake]

34. Personally, I think there are too many sh*tty movies.

So by golly let's do something about THAT!

Bake

[DemocratSinceBirth]

27. Depends

My favorite team has four National Honor Society members.

[hfojvt]

41. doesn't that mean that many fine young minds

are frittering, your young people are frittering away their noon time, supper time, chore time too, getting balls in the pocket. Never mind getting dandylions pulled or the screen door patched or the beefstake pounded. Never mind pumping any water, till your parents are caught with a cistern empty on a Saturday night, and that's TROUBLE.

But truthfully, are there not better things to do with one's time, than to work on one's jump shot? Or learning how to break a full court press?

It is one thing to play a game to relieve stress and get a little exercise. It is another thing to obsess about it. The glorification of sports seems to lack balance.

And unfortunately, good minds would be better served by going in to sports. Take me and Bill Self and I. Bill is about my age. He studied sports. I studied math. I scored 800 on the quantitative GRE, so I am supposedly pretty good at math, just like Bill is pretty good at coaching, having won a number of Big 12 titles. He is pretty famous and makes $5,000,000 a year or so. I am obscure and make $33,000 a year working as a janitor. Apparently wasted my time studying math and getting two degrees.

[Inkfreak]

30. No, and people who hate sports are silly.

As of we should work all day, then come home and stare at the wall. These people also don't own a tv so they can complain about today's programming. All the while surfing the fucking Internet.

If you have a problem with tax $ subsidizing teams, then I think you have a point. If you just think sports are dumb, I think you were picked last in gym class. Sorry haters.

Football
Baseball
Golf

[Archae]

31. It's not hating sports.

It's hating the naked greed IN the sport.

Over-inflated salaries for players.
Owners getting subsidies for their toys.
Players using illegal and dangerous drugs to "juice themselves up."
Colleges getting tons of cash, while big guys at the top like coaches are looked at as "gods" while letting their cronies molest little boys.

And so on...

[Bake]

35. Naked greed isn't limited to pro sports.

It's rampant in business ALL OVER THE PLACE. As far as juicing, that's really no different than cooking the books in business or any other form of cheating. It happens. When it does, it should be dealt with severely. But it's really more an indictment of the moral decay in our society.

Bake

[tabbycat31]

42. There is also greed in other forms of entertainment

Is any actor worth $10 million + for a single movie?

Is there any rational explanation as to why Justin Bieber made $55 million last year? His behavior has not exactly been that of a model citizen (any non celebrity caught pissing in a restaurant mop bucket would probably be arrested).

Honey Boo Boo makes $50K per TV episode. That's right, Honey Boo Boo.

[Vashta Nerada]

33. Yes.

And it's always dominating the narrative in this country. It's sad when colleges cut academic programs but spend millions on stadiums.

I'm probably one of the few men in this country who absolutely hates sports.

[Bake]

36. In Division I schools, the athletic departments are usually self-supporting

Football and basketball pay not only for themselves but for other sports and other non-athletic programs as well.

Bake

[zappaman]

40. No. n/t

[MadrasT]

44. Yes. Huge waste of time and money. n/t