Worst of these 3, I'd say Stern>Goodell>Selig, which is not to praise Selig at all.
― improvised explosive advice (WmC), Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:01 (eleven years ago) link
sometimes you hear fans of mlb/nba/nhl muttering darkly about conspiracies that give big-market/popular television teams an edge through officiating or whatever.
the nba is the only one i actually believe this about.
― mookieproof, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:12 (eleven years ago) link
isn't there some evidence for this happening w/ stars? vaguely remember reading about it
― iatee, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:13 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think it's a conspiracy, I just think Stern is happy to let officiating suck until fans start turning away from the game because of it.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:13 (eleven years ago) link
sometimes its subconscious even
― iatee, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
favorite part of basketball games is when a star has obviously committed a foul, but one of his lesser teammates immediately raises their hand to take credit
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
i don't watch much nba, but i saw game six of the kings-lakers series live in 2002.
also didn't stern once decree -- in the middle of the season -- that the first round of that year's playoffs would suddenly be best-of-7 rather than best-of-5?
― mookieproof, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:17 (eleven years ago) link
not much Selig can do about incompetant management
― you can expect punches, kicks and even worse (frogbs), Saturday, April 14, 2012 6:03 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
they could enforce a salary floor and a salary cap. But apparently the baseball public likes the competitive imbalance (I don't necessarily disagree with them.)
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
it's still amazingly balanced compared to euro sports
― iatee, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:37 (eleven years ago) link
the NFL's competitive balance seems to have made the game bigger than ever though, so I dunno what would happen
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
I have a hard time considering the NFL to be facing serious problems. Like 40 of the 50 most valuable sports franchises on earth are NFL teams. Injuries are just something people idly worry about during the 8 hours a day they're thinking about the NFL.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:40 (eleven years ago) link
a lot could change very quickly w/ lawsuits and they're 40 of the 50 most valuable spots franchises on earth because it's america's biggest sport and america has a lot of money. but more people on the planet earth know who jeremy lin is than eli manning.
― iatee, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:43 (eleven years ago) link
venus otoh
NFL needs a Chinese-American QB
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:48 (eleven years ago) link
I think the NFL is dancing on the edge of a dropoff in popularity similar to boxing's decline, due to an inherent viciousness in the sport that can't be ignored or rationalized for too many more years. I'm totally guessing, though.
― improvised explosive advice (WmC), Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:51 (eleven years ago) link
MLB though, from 1994 to now, has been an abandoned sandcastle. The wild card. The strike. The expansion teams.
Just as a matter of survival, I'm not sure wild cards and (further) expansion could have been avoided. I'd also say that last year proves that the wild card doesn't preclude a wild and unforgettable finish to the season (admittedly, it was a perfect storm that won't be duplicated soon).
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:53 (eleven years ago) link
they could enforce a salary floor and a salary cap. But apparently the baseball public likes the competitive imbalance (I don't necessarily disagree with them.)― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, April 14, 2012 3:36 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, April 14, 2012 3:36 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― ciderpress, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:55 (eleven years ago) link
I feel like the big tipping point with boxing's popularity in America is that American kids stopped doing it (and started playing football.) But it seems like high school football is as big as ever. xp
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:55 (eleven years ago) link
err I guess that's not really a tipping point and more of a trend sry
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:57 (eleven years ago) link
"they could enforce a salary floor and a salary cap."
How in god's name could they do this? Do you not understand that there is a Players Union?
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:57 (eleven years ago) link
would you let your kids play football? xp
― mookieproof, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:57 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i don't think football is going anywhere, particularly now that so many people (advertisers, corporations, etc) are dumping huge dollars into high school football.
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:58 (eleven years ago) link
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, April 14, 2012 7:57 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol, the NFL, NHL and NBA have players unions too.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 19:59 (eleven years ago) link
I've talked about this with friends - I'd rather my kid boxed up through Golden Gloves than played high school football. Football and rugby would be last on the list of things I'd want progeny to play.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:00 (eleven years ago) link
now that ownership groups are paying 2b for franchises (in a bad economy!) I think you'll see MLB have a financial crisis and an ensuing salary cap pretty soon even with their PLAYERS UNION
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:01 (eleven years ago) link
hs and college football are even more problematic than the nfl. espn and nike making money from an unpaid 15 y/o getting concussions is not a long-term biz model really
― iatee, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
the NHL and NBA were in dire straits when the got capped, the NFL has all teams coming close to the cap so players agreed (I think it involved the move to free agency as well). MLB teams are rolling in the dough and has the strongest union. Hard to foresee them working out a cap.
Competitive balance has far less to do with the NFL's popularity than it being the perfect TV event sport. People like dynasties - the 49ers in the '80s, Cowboys of the early '90s, Patriots of the '00s
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
one ownership group paid $2b because they bought a team in the second-largest media market in the country and will make metric fuck-tons of money with a regional sports network
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:03 (eleven years ago) link
The Rangers hadn't won a playoff game until two years ago and signed a TV deal for $1.6bn. Imagine what successful teams are going to get over the next decade!
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:05 (eleven years ago) link
I am skeptical of baseball teams all of a sudden discovering billions of dollars each in a revenue stream based on cable TV.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:07 (eleven years ago) link
uh... why? Cable revenues are precisely why the Yankees and Red Sox have more money than anyone else. Texas and the Angels just signed billion-plus deals. The Dodgers will probably rival the Yankees/Sox in cable revenue with a new deal.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:08 (eleven years ago) link
Stern not even close.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, April 14, 2012 10:50 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
My hatred of Bettman is mostly legacy @ this point. He seems to not be as in the public eye as he used to be and that's a good thing. I still would love to see him in front of a firing line but...
Selig is basically Don Knotts. Grossly incompetent but benign at his core and the worst things he's done (All-Star Game; God Bless America) are p easily undoable. Interleague was something that was going to happen as soon as they gathered AL and NL under one banner anyway.
Goddell's track record is too short compared to the other guys.
Which laves Stern, who is pretty clearly crooked, talks to much and integrity of the game blah blah blah
― Waxahachie Swap (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:10 (eleven years ago) link
Are teams still doing God Bless America? The Rangers are back to singing Deep In the Heart of Texas.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
So for years and years cable companies were just letting baseball teams skate by with small broadcast fees? I don't get where the explosion in money is. It seems like a bubble to me.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
NYY and Miami to name two. I'm sure others do as well. IIRC in houston you get GBA, TMOTTBG AND DITHOT
― Waxahachie Swap (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:13 (eleven years ago) link
selig has the power to do something about length of games and (maybe) umpiring which are the things that will sink baseball eventually imo
― call all destroyer, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:17 (eleven years ago) link
but he couldn't be bothered i guess
My favourite incompetent commissioner was of course Bowie Kuhn. Bumbled through the '70s--an amazing decade on the field, and I'm pretty sure financially, too--making one bad decision after another. On the other hand, he laid the groundwork for all the labour acrimony of the '80s and into 1994.
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:22 (eleven years ago) link
It seems like a bubble to me.
I disagree, I think people will pay top dollar for their own anesthesia.
― improvised explosive advice (WmC), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:29 (eleven years ago) link
"lol, the NFL, NHL and NBA have players unions too."
Largely broken, power-less players unions.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:30 (eleven years ago) link
the nhl players have hired donald fehr, but the league just doesn't make the kind of money that nfl/mlb do.
― mookieproof, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, April 14, 2012 8:30 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
not buying the myth of the unstoppable, unbreakable MLB players union. They haven't hit on some secret solidarity that NBA and NFL players can't find.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:37 (eleven years ago) link
I'm not saying they are unstoppable or unbreakable. I'm just saying this idea that Selig could unilaterally establish a floor/cap is nonsense. Also baseball would probably lose an entire season if they even tried it right now.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:40 (eleven years ago) link
I said "they" could enforce a salary cap. And they could, based on what other sports have done. But they don't seem to care about competitive balance.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:42 (eleven years ago) link
what need is there for a salary cap when they're raking in money and no one seems to care about wastelands like the Royals? It's all just a farm system for the 8 or 9 teams that are trying to compete.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:43 (eleven years ago) link
"And they could, based on what other sports have done."
They could IF they were willing to lose a season at the very least and quite probably destroy the sport for a decade. But I guess that's less important to you than "competitive balance".
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:43 (eleven years ago) link
ewwww, Bowie Kuhn.
― onibaba o'reilly (Eisbaer), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:44 (eleven years ago) link
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, April 14, 2012 8:43 PM (21 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
why the quotes
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:45 (eleven years ago) link
and yes I would be willing to lose a season of MLB for a league that has competitive balance.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:46 (eleven years ago) link
Well thankfully so far the owners haven't been as short-sighted as you are.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Saturday, 14 April 2012 20:48 (eleven years ago) link