Pick Your Billionaire

During tonight’s 7th inning stretch, how about we have A-Rod’s GF Kate Hudson lead the crowd in a heart-warming rendition of “Tiny Dancer”. C’mon TBS, make this happen and  I will watch the entire first week of “Lopez Tonight“. Premiering November 9th at 11PM. Only on TBS. Very Funny.

And as part of the new Blogger Disclosure Act, I will note that TBS is not paying me to mention how much I love Chip Carey’s fine understated play-by-play and attention to detail.

“Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time! A double play.”

Anyway, interesting discussion on the various economic structures of different sports. Baseball is ostensibly the most “capitalist” as it’s they have the least revenue sharing (on a % basis) and no caps. The NFL is the most “socialist” in terms of the revenue it divides and the fact that they have a hard salary cap.

So are the Yankees simply an example of capitalism flourishing?

It’s a little gray imho.

To me, considering a franchised team in a league a capitalist entity is incorrect. The “entity” is the league. The Yankees derive much of their value thanks to the value of the league as a whole. Coke doesn’t need Pepsi, but the Yankees do need their Royals and Twins. They have to play somebody, so to some extent it’s in their interest to have worthy competitors. Now the flip side is the Yankees spent an awful lot of money to make an awful lot of money. Much of the value of the league is thanks to the Yankees. So what would their incentive be to have ever done that in a more “socialist” system?

Well, that’s exactly what we have in the NFL. In theory, why should any team really invest much money to try to win more? Even a team playing to an empty house can rake in a fortune from all the media deals. Yet they all actually try to field the best teams they can, unlike, say “capitalist” baseball where a significant portion of the league seems to just take their share of revenue and trade all their good players to the money teams.

So give me NFL Socialism. As a fan of any team, you have hope. Today’s lousy team can and will keep the players they want to keep, and may eventually be tomorrow’s good team. Green Bay and Tampa and other small cities can stay competitive with the Giants and Jets and Bears.


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

You might be interested in:
blog comments powered by Disqus

In partnership with CNN Money Part of the CNN Network