Sports Fans in the Playground!

[Bartmanhomer]

Sports teams aren't concerned with balancing their teams against others, they're concerned with getting the best players they can so they can win.

Sports Logic: The best players and teams are always overpowered.

[tyckspoon]

Sports Logic: The best players and teams are always overpowered.

Actually a legitimate concern, because having one team be unbeatable forever is bad for interest and marketing in areas that aren't that team's home market. It's why some of the big national leagues have salary caps (per player or per team) or other means of restricting trades/drafts/hires so a successful team or one with an owner that is willing to sink their own money into funding it can't just outbid everybody else to get all the best players on one side.

[Bartmanhomer]

Actually a legitimate concern, because having one team be unbeatable forever is bad for interest and marketing in areas that aren't that team's home market. It's why some of the big national leagues have salary caps (per player or per team) or other means of restricting trades/drafts/hires so a successful team or one with an owner that is willing to sink their own money into funding it can't just outbid everybody else to get all the best players on one side.

I see. So it's a financial concern.

[Peelee]

I see. So it's a financial concern.

It's sports entertainment. There's no real concerns other than financial.

[Scarlet Knight]

Mostly financial.

A lot of owners are in professional sports for their ego. There's a line in North Dallas Forty where the owner is asked why he bothers with the football team since his oil company makes so much more money. His reply was that his oil wells never got him on the cover of Time magazine.

[Peelee]

Mostly financial.

A lot of owners are in professional sports for their ego. There's a line in North Dallas Forty where the owner is asked why he bothers with the football team since his oil company makes so much more money. His reply was that his oil wells never got him on the cover of Time magazine.

They could if he used that money to buy Time magazine.

[Erloas]

I was listening to something the other day that put "the money of sports" into perspective. Professional sports in the USA is worth about $50B a year, that is about the same as the box industry. So in terms of money versus cultural impact, sports are viewed as much bigger than they really are.

[Bartmanhomer]

I was listening to something the other day that put "the money of sports" into perspective. Professional sports in the USA is worth about $50B a year, that is about the same as the box industry. So in terms of money versus cultural impact, sports are viewed as much bigger than they really are.

I know that the Professional Sports Industry will be expensive but I didn't know it'll be that expensive.

[tomandtish]

I know that the Professional Sports Industry will be expensive but I didn't know it'll be that expensive.

Quite expensive. Case in point: The Dallas Cowboys are currently rated the most valuable sports team of ANY sport, at $4.2 Billion.

The NFL made $14.2 billion in 2017, and is shooting for $25 billion in 2027.

Boston Red Sox paid $213 million in salary in 2018. Actually, the Red Sox salary was higher than the three lowest teams combined.

The average NBA team was worth $1.9 billion, which is 13% higher than a year ago...

And none of that includes endorsements to individual athletes. LeBron James earned $52 million in endorsements in 2018. To compare, the entire salary of the Miami Marlins baseball team that year was only about $63 million, so when you throw in his actual salary he earned more than them....

[Peelee]

And that's not even counting the college athletes, who make.... nothing.

[Bartmanhomer]

I have a feeling that Disney will own every single sports industry worldwide.

[Peelee]

I have a feeling that Disney will own every single sports industry worldwide.

You didn't really need to put that in blue.

[Bartmanhomer]

You didn't really need to put that in blue.

Why? Was it too much sarcasm for your taste? Do you think I should put the color text in white or even red perhaps.

[tomandtish]

Why? Was it too much sarcasm for your taste? Do you think I should put the color text in white or even red perhaps.

I think the point is that it isn't really sarcasm. Disney already owns ESPN, and at one time owned the Anaheim Ducks (Hockey) and the Anaheim Angels (Baseball). They have sold them both, but it isn't unreasonable to to suspect that they will try again sometime.

Remember, more and more of the world is being consolidated in fewer hands. Look at how few companies ultimately control most of what you consume...

[Peelee]

I think the point is that it isn't really sarcasm. Disney already owns ESPN, and at one time owned the Anaheim Ducks (Hockey) and the Anaheim Angels (Baseball). They have sold them both, but it isn't unreasonable to to suspect that they will try again sometime.

Remember, more and more of the world is being consolidated in fewer hands. Look at how few companies ultimately control most of what you consume...

Exactly. Disney is proud to be one of America's 8 companies!

[Bartmanhomer]

I think the point is that it isn't really sarcasm. Disney already owns ESPN, and at one time owned the Anaheim Ducks (Hockey) and the Anaheim Angels (Baseball). They have sold them both, but it isn't unreasonable to to suspect that they will try again sometime.

Remember, more and more of the world is being consolidated in fewer hands. Look at how few companies ultimately control most of what you consume...

Disney own ESPN to make it family-friendly. That what Disney represents.

[Peelee]

Disney own ESPN to make it family-friendly. That what Disney represents.

A.) Disney owns, among other things, HBO, which (again among other things) aired Game of Thrones, which was decidedly not family friendly.

2.) How would ESPN be not-family-friendly if Disney didn't own it?

Disney doesn't represent family-friendly, they just make a lot of children's movies under their main banner.

[Bartmanhomer]

A.) Disney owns, among other things, HBO, which (again among other things) aired Game of Thrones, which was decidedly not family friendly.

2.) How would ESPN be not-family-friendly if Disney didn't own it?

Disney doesn't represent family-friendly, they just make a lot of children's movies under their main banner.

Oh, I thought Disney was family-friendly. Thank you for correcting me.

[Peelee]

Oh, I thought Disney was family-friendly. Thank you for correcting me.

Imean, technically, you're correct; media made under the Disney name is indeed family-friendly. But Disney owns a lot of other properties that are not family-friendly, and they don't give a hoot about that. Disney owns ESPN to make money, not to make ESPN family-friendly. It's all about branding.

[Tajerio]

A.) Disney owns, among other things, HBO, which (again among other things) aired Game of Thrones, which was decidedly not family friendly.

2.) How would ESPN be not-family-friendly if Disney didn't own it?

Disney doesn't represent family-friendly, they just make a lot of children's movies under their main banner.

In point of fact, WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T, owns HBO; HBO has never been owned by Disney directly or indirectly.

Edit: As a point of interest related to where the thread has just been, sports teams are really small potatoes in economic terms. If you combined the four major American professional leagues--that is to say, some 120 semi-separate revenue generating entities--they'd only make the lower reaches of the Fortune 500.

[Peelee]

In point of fact, WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T, owns HBO; HBO has never been owned by Disney directly or indirectly.

Well color me wrong! The overall point remains, though, Disney does own very non-family-oriented media companies.

[Bartmanhomer]

Well color me wrong! The overall point remains, though, Disney does own very non-family-oriented media companies.

That's true. Anyway. Lebron James should've stay in the Cleveland Cavliers. The Lakers are straight trash.

[Scarlet Knight]

Tonight starts the Stanley Cup; go non-Bruins!

[Gluteus_Maximus]

If he hasn't been mentioned yet, Travis Willingham.

[Bartmanhomer]

Yo! The Toronto Raptors Are beating the living daylights out of the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 Finals!

[Algeh]

Is anyone else watching the Women's World Cup? I'm sitting here watching the opening match in Spanish since, due to the vagueries of tv contracts, it's available on cable in English but broadcast in Spanish here.

I seem to turn up the volume when I try to watch TV in Spanish. This is probably related to how people try speaking louder when it seems like someone doesn't speak their language. (I speak some Spanish, but am not fluent. I can read it pretty well, but my listening is rusty because I pretty much only need that skill for watching soccer matches these days. It will probably come back to me over the course of the tournament.)

[Scarlet Knight]

The women have a lawsuit against US Soccer demanding equal pay for equal work. Yet I can see people just don't care as much as they do for the mens World Cup. Honestly, how many of you have World Cup pools going for the women?

[Algeh]

I don't have pools going for anything, so I can't really speak to that side of it - my office seems to do no sports betting of any kind, and I have no interest in being the one in charge of that so I've never asked why.

It's a constant irritation to me that women's sports don't get the same amount of airtime or promotion that men's do, though. One of the reasons that I don't pay for cable is because Comcast's onscreen "sports app" thing completely ignores all women's sports. It'll keep me updated on cricket teams in India, but not the women's soccer team in our actual city. Screw 'em. (I have no idea if I can watch Indian cricket matches on Comcast or not, but I have to stream the women's soccer matches rather than watch them using cable, which is also a pretty major point against paying for it. My dad follows the UConn women's basketball team, and Comcast has no way to "favorite" that the way it does for men's teams either. He eventually decided to favorite the entire school and now just deletes the rest of the sports it records for him as a result.)

[Scarlet Knight]

Stanley Cup: Game 7. Best phrase in sports!

[Resileaf]

Who would have thought in January that the Blues, dead last in the league, would win the Stanley Cup today, June 12.