They say some genetics skip a generation. It could be a balding gene, or a musical talent. My grandpa passed on to me his love of sports. Neither of my parents have ever really cared about the outcome of a game that they weren't involved in. My dad played football and my mom was a cheerleader, but from the time they graduated high school to the time I was able to walk, they probably never even glanced at the sports page.
One of my favorite stories about my childhood was about when I was 2 and my mom sat me down to watch some Sesame Street. Like seemingly all kids in my generation, Sesame Street was a vital part of my childhood and I particularly loved Ernie. However, when my mom left the room to do whatever moms do, and returned 2 minutes later, I had changed the channel to Wimbledon. My mom assumed that it was an accident, changed it back and left the room again to do another mom task. In the minute it took her to return, I had changed the channel once again back to Wimbledon and was transfixed by what was taking place on the screen. My parents lost control of the TV from that day until I moved out of the house.
I don't particularly care about tennis, but that wasn't the point of the story. If it was an athletic event and they were showing it on TV, I found a way to watch it. These days I particularly enjoy watching the English Premier League (EPL) on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Like a typical sports fan, I have been straining to figure out which team will be "mine" over the last few years. But just this week I started asking myself why I felt the need to cheer for a particular team.
In the NBA I used to be a Seattle SuperSonics fan. The franchise moved to Oklahoma in 2008 and I have been an NBA "widow" ever since. Since I still like to watch the NBA, I run into situations where friends and even strangers will ask me who "my" team is. I've never had a favorite NHL team, but again I've struggled at times with who I should cheer for.
Unless you have an emotional investment in any one particular team, it doesn't really make sense to limit yourself to 1 particular franchise. In most American based leagues there are around 30 professional sports teams. If you cheer for just one of them, the odds of your team winning a championship and you being happy are 1/30 or less than 4%. Granted, if you cheer for the Yankees/Celtics/Lakers/Steelers/Red Wings your odds go up, but it is still a long shot that all of your emotional investment will be paid off at the end of the year.
As fans we buy gear, tickets, and pay for the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTv, but each year you are really paying for the small chance that you will be happy with that weeks game or the season as a whole. Even if your team does win, is it worth the 1 year investment of over $500 (approx what I spent on the Broncos this year) to be happy in your living room watching "your team" celebrate the Super Bowl victory? What about all the Bears fans this year, were they ultimately happy that their team exceeded expectations, or upset that they lost to their rivals in the playoffs? Why do we willingly pay massive amounts of money to experience gut wrenching pain for the slim chance of excitement?
The fact that your emotional investment will really be "paid off" is an interesting concept as well. I didn't receive anything from Iowa State when they won their BigXII basketball title. Sure I was happy, but the lasting feeling from those great seasons are the pain I experienced when less than a month later they lost in the NCAA Tournament. The Broncos never really paid me anything when they won the Super Bowl and the Mariners never gave me anything but an opportunity to buy more gear when they set the record for most regular season MLB victories. Essentially, as fans, we are spending gobs of money for a 4% chance of fleeting happiness. If you look at it that way, it is a poor investment of both time and money.
So why do we do it? As I stated earlier, I have loved sports since I can remember, but why have I been programed to cheer for this collection of athletes over another? The NBA/NHL/MLB/NFL all want us to buy gear. Nike just signed a deal with the NFL for the licensing rights to all of the league's teams. The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but many are reporting that Rebook, the current provider, lost a deal worth over $500 Million. Since nobody really wants to buy a hat with just the NFL logo on it, the league pushes for people to cheer for certain teams. We often don't even realize they are doing it, but all of their commercials with happy fans cheering Super Bowl victories make us as consumers and fans want to be just as happy as the people on the screen.
The solution I have recently come up with (with a major assist to my father-in-law) is to cheer for teams that you enjoy watching. Barcelona is playing amazing soccer right now, and when they play I can't take my eyes of the screen. Why should I cheer for anyone to beat them? But in the same breath, why should I be emotionally and financially invested in them? What if a major player gets hurt or traded? Those things are completely out of my control and if I were invested in the outcome, even if just emotionally, I would be crushed.
The NBA right now has about 8 teams that I enjoy watching. The Clippers with Blake Griffin, OKC and Durant, the Lakers, Heat, Magic, Celtics, and now Knicks. Do I need to pick one team, go buy a jersey or t-shirt and start disliking the others in order to be a true fan of the NBA?
I'm 100% for being fans of certain teams. I have been an Iowa State fan since I was 2 and will continue to be one until the day I die. I spend money on tickets and merchandise as well as my substantial emotional investment. I'm also willing to admit that even though Iowa State mathematically has a 1/120 (<1%) chance to win a title in football and even longer odds in basketball, neither will probably happen in my lifetime. However, I have a reason to cheer for Iowa State, the Broncos, and the Mariners. It doesn't really matter what the reason is that caused me to choose to cheer for those teams, just that I am already naturally invested in them. I just don't see the point in creating an artificial reason to limit myself to one team in another league or sport when the bond is clearly a poor investment of my time, money, and emotions.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The $300 Million Man?
Baseball games are great. Really groundbreaking stuff going on here right? Even if you aren't a fan of the game or the teams playing, most people can enjoy: being outside in the nice weather, partaking in the sport of people watching, having a beer, and occasional crack of the bat.
A 2006 Gallup poll found that over 47% of Americans admitted to being fans of the game. I would venture to guess that number had increased over the past few years as we get further away from the 1994-95 strike. A conservative estimate has over 150 million people "liking" the game of baseball.
Most of those fans count a particular team as their favorite for one reason or another. When I played little league, I lived in Seattle and played for the Mini-Mariners. I was instantly a fan for life. While my Mariners have their own problems, I decided to write this post concerning the St. Louis Cardinals and their future Hall of Fame 1st baseman, Albert Pujols.
Albert is widely considered the best player in baseball. His contract runs up next year and he is reportedly asking for $300,000,000 over 10 years. That would make him the highest paid baseball player (which he probably deserves to be) as well as provide him with a guaranteed contract until he is 41 years old. You can catch all of the gory details at your favorite sports website as it seems everyone is talking about Albert today.
I wanted to explore a different angle. What if baseball, and all American sports, were modeled after every worldwide soccer league (except for the MLS which has its own weird rules so it can compete with both entities)? In soccer, a player and a team must both hold up their end of a contract. We will use World Cup winner and recent transfer Fernando Torres to help explain my point. Fernando played for a prestigious English team, Liverpool, and was unhappy. While he still had a couple of years left on his contract, he requested a transfer to another team. Ultimately Chelsea, another prestigious English team, agreed to terms with both Liverpool and Fernando and he was "traded" there. Chelsea had to pay Liverpool almost $80 million in order for them to agree to release him from his contract. Chelsea then had to come to an agreement with Fernando over what he would be paid.
Now lets apply that concept to Albert. If Albert truly thinks he is worth $300 million over 10 years, and the Cardinals don't agree, then the only options American sports have to offer are: 1) Albert finishes this year, becomes a free agent and StL gets nothing in return or 2) StL trades him for a likely haul of players that wouldn't come close to equaling Albert's value. Now if baseball were run like soccer, then Albert could turn in a transfer request and both Albert and the Cardinals would be allowed to ask for a fair compensation. It is likely that the Cubs and Yankees would be interested in Albert's services. The Cardinals could opt to charge the Cubs more than the Yankees because the Cubs are in the same division. Albert could choose to give any team a salary discount because he has always wanted to play/live in their city. If the Yankees agree to terms with both Albert and the Cardinals, the Cardinals could use the money from the Yankees to go find another new player. The possibilities are endless and would result in a fair market value deal for both Albert and the Cardinals and their fans. One that I don't think would end up as $300 million dollars for Albert Pujols. To me, he is holding the Cardinals hostage and trying to get them to overpay him because he is astutely aware of the backlash that will result if the Cards choose not to resign him.
Like nearly everything, people will be resistant to change and argue that this would give "big money" teams like the Red Sox and Yankees an unfair advantage. For one they already have an unfair advantage, and by adopting this new system it would create a more fair market for all teams and owners to do what is really important to them. Some owners may choose to pocket the money earned from players like Albert Pujols, and others may choose to re-invest. I argue that owners of sports teams have the right to do what they want with their assets just like the owner of Microsoft or the local bakery does. It is unfair to owners like the Cavs' Dan Gilbert to be subject to the whims of a 25 year old basketball player and lose over $100 million of value to his franchise overnight because LeBron wanted to "take his talents to South Beach".
Fans will also benefit from this system change. While many people will continue to do what I did and cheer for their local team, at least now you won't be subject to the luck of a ping-pong ball or have to go through a 4-12 NFL season in order to have hope for next year. Smart general managers, like smart CEOs, will be rewarded and people who are just out to make a buck will be lambasted by their fans and ultimately lose value in their franchise instead of making money off of profit sharing systems like we have today.
So is Albert Pujols really worth $300 million over 10 years in a free market? Since today's deadline has come and gone, we might find out next year. I hope for the fans of the St. Louis Cardinals it doesn't come to that and they don't end up losing their favorite, and best, player for absolutely nothing. However, that is the way the sports business landscape is set up in America. Would you feel better as a Cardinals fan if you knew that the team was getting $80 million for selling the rights to Albert Pujols and that the team would likely reinvest that in new players? I would.
A 2006 Gallup poll found that over 47% of Americans admitted to being fans of the game. I would venture to guess that number had increased over the past few years as we get further away from the 1994-95 strike. A conservative estimate has over 150 million people "liking" the game of baseball.
Most of those fans count a particular team as their favorite for one reason or another. When I played little league, I lived in Seattle and played for the Mini-Mariners. I was instantly a fan for life. While my Mariners have their own problems, I decided to write this post concerning the St. Louis Cardinals and their future Hall of Fame 1st baseman, Albert Pujols.
Albert is widely considered the best player in baseball. His contract runs up next year and he is reportedly asking for $300,000,000 over 10 years. That would make him the highest paid baseball player (which he probably deserves to be) as well as provide him with a guaranteed contract until he is 41 years old. You can catch all of the gory details at your favorite sports website as it seems everyone is talking about Albert today.
I wanted to explore a different angle. What if baseball, and all American sports, were modeled after every worldwide soccer league (except for the MLS which has its own weird rules so it can compete with both entities)? In soccer, a player and a team must both hold up their end of a contract. We will use World Cup winner and recent transfer Fernando Torres to help explain my point. Fernando played for a prestigious English team, Liverpool, and was unhappy. While he still had a couple of years left on his contract, he requested a transfer to another team. Ultimately Chelsea, another prestigious English team, agreed to terms with both Liverpool and Fernando and he was "traded" there. Chelsea had to pay Liverpool almost $80 million in order for them to agree to release him from his contract. Chelsea then had to come to an agreement with Fernando over what he would be paid.
Now lets apply that concept to Albert. If Albert truly thinks he is worth $300 million over 10 years, and the Cardinals don't agree, then the only options American sports have to offer are: 1) Albert finishes this year, becomes a free agent and StL gets nothing in return or 2) StL trades him for a likely haul of players that wouldn't come close to equaling Albert's value. Now if baseball were run like soccer, then Albert could turn in a transfer request and both Albert and the Cardinals would be allowed to ask for a fair compensation. It is likely that the Cubs and Yankees would be interested in Albert's services. The Cardinals could opt to charge the Cubs more than the Yankees because the Cubs are in the same division. Albert could choose to give any team a salary discount because he has always wanted to play/live in their city. If the Yankees agree to terms with both Albert and the Cardinals, the Cardinals could use the money from the Yankees to go find another new player. The possibilities are endless and would result in a fair market value deal for both Albert and the Cardinals and their fans. One that I don't think would end up as $300 million dollars for Albert Pujols. To me, he is holding the Cardinals hostage and trying to get them to overpay him because he is astutely aware of the backlash that will result if the Cards choose not to resign him.
Like nearly everything, people will be resistant to change and argue that this would give "big money" teams like the Red Sox and Yankees an unfair advantage. For one they already have an unfair advantage, and by adopting this new system it would create a more fair market for all teams and owners to do what is really important to them. Some owners may choose to pocket the money earned from players like Albert Pujols, and others may choose to re-invest. I argue that owners of sports teams have the right to do what they want with their assets just like the owner of Microsoft or the local bakery does. It is unfair to owners like the Cavs' Dan Gilbert to be subject to the whims of a 25 year old basketball player and lose over $100 million of value to his franchise overnight because LeBron wanted to "take his talents to South Beach".
Fans will also benefit from this system change. While many people will continue to do what I did and cheer for their local team, at least now you won't be subject to the luck of a ping-pong ball or have to go through a 4-12 NFL season in order to have hope for next year. Smart general managers, like smart CEOs, will be rewarded and people who are just out to make a buck will be lambasted by their fans and ultimately lose value in their franchise instead of making money off of profit sharing systems like we have today.
So is Albert Pujols really worth $300 million over 10 years in a free market? Since today's deadline has come and gone, we might find out next year. I hope for the fans of the St. Louis Cardinals it doesn't come to that and they don't end up losing their favorite, and best, player for absolutely nothing. However, that is the way the sports business landscape is set up in America. Would you feel better as a Cardinals fan if you knew that the team was getting $80 million for selling the rights to Albert Pujols and that the team would likely reinvest that in new players? I would.
About Me
In no particular order of importance, here are some things that most of my readers should probably know about me:
I am married to my best friend. I know it sounds cliche, but she was the girl I went to for advice until I wised up and convinced her to date me.
I have lived in California, Washington, Illinois, and 5 different cities in Iowa. As much as I try to run away from it, I am and always will be an Iowan.
I graduated from Iowa State University with an undergraduate degree in Marketing, and I am currently going to Iowa State for my MBA as well. Along with hopefully getting multiple degrees from ISU, I have been a huge Cyclone fan since I was 2 years old.
Along with my Cyclone fandom, I really like all kinds of sports. I like going to games, watching on TV, and reading about teams and events. As I have grown up, I have become more interested in the sports business side of things and I would assume that most of my posts are somehow sports related. My favorite teams are:
1) Iowa State Men's Basketball
2) Iowa State Football
3) United States Men's National Team (soccer)
4) Seattle Mariners
5) Denver Broncos
My favorite sporting event is probably the World Cup and while I have played and loved soccer since I was young, I am an admitted newcomer to all things 'futbol' and have really thrown myself into learning about the EPL and Champions League.
I am also very interested in marketing. While I am definitely a football fan, I am one of those people that watches the superbowl for the commercials. I think it is amazing how some companies choose to market their products.
I assume that most of my posts will be about things that I am interested in, as listed above, and I don't really know how often I'll update. Hopefully you enjoy reading, and feel free to comment and let me know what you think!
I am married to my best friend. I know it sounds cliche, but she was the girl I went to for advice until I wised up and convinced her to date me.
I have lived in California, Washington, Illinois, and 5 different cities in Iowa. As much as I try to run away from it, I am and always will be an Iowan.
I graduated from Iowa State University with an undergraduate degree in Marketing, and I am currently going to Iowa State for my MBA as well. Along with hopefully getting multiple degrees from ISU, I have been a huge Cyclone fan since I was 2 years old.
Along with my Cyclone fandom, I really like all kinds of sports. I like going to games, watching on TV, and reading about teams and events. As I have grown up, I have become more interested in the sports business side of things and I would assume that most of my posts are somehow sports related. My favorite teams are:
1) Iowa State Men's Basketball
2) Iowa State Football
3) United States Men's National Team (soccer)
4) Seattle Mariners
5) Denver Broncos
My favorite sporting event is probably the World Cup and while I have played and loved soccer since I was young, I am an admitted newcomer to all things 'futbol' and have really thrown myself into learning about the EPL and Champions League.
I am also very interested in marketing. While I am definitely a football fan, I am one of those people that watches the superbowl for the commercials. I think it is amazing how some companies choose to market their products.
I assume that most of my posts will be about things that I am interested in, as listed above, and I don't really know how often I'll update. Hopefully you enjoy reading, and feel free to comment and let me know what you think!
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