On Sun, 27 Jul 1997, DNeil wrote:

> >>Do baseball players get obscene compensation because the fans request
> it?  I don't think so.
>
> "Well, they obviously pay them don't they?..."

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I think this is a highly debatable proposition.  When were fans ever
consulted - let alone allowed a vote - on the recent extraordinary racking
up of pay rates, TV contracts etc. - let alone ticket prices?  (An annual
supporters' season ticket for a typical top UK sports team has gone up
from around US$ 200 to about $1,300 in just three or four years despite
the fact that well over US$ 1 billion of "new" money has come into top
levels of professional sport over the same few years.)

In the UK one private individual who has invested (at the most) a few
hundred thousand  dollars of his own money over the past 10 years or so
is now claiming that he "owns" the whole of international Formula ! motor
racing - on the basis that his signature is on the next five years'
international TV contracts.  On the back of this he is planning to "sell"
the whole of the sport on the international stock markets for a rumoured
US$ 2 billion plus.  The UK government is announcing today a major
independent commission of inquiry into the way in which football (sorry
Americans - soccer to you!) at least in the top leagues has been totally
high-jacked by "money" interests thanks to gross over-bidding by new
(mainly satellite) TV interests - to the very visible detriment of just
about everyone except a few dozen top international stars and the new
owners of the soccer clubs who "own" these players, while the rest of the
game is in real danger of total collapse.


Patrick Boylan