Bill Maher: Americans must realize what makes NFL football so great: socialism.

[Petsamo]

Where's the socialism in the huge disparity in players' salaries?

Green Bay's total salaries = 114.6 million
The least paid player is 310 K, the highest paid is 16.2 million.
New Jersey Jets total salaries = 120 million
The least paid player is 312 K, the highest paid is 11.5 million.

 

[Hello]

Do you think that these steps the nfl takes even puts the houston texans in the same league as the dallas cowboys in terms of earnings?

Why dont you look at how much the cowboys net per season, and how much the texans net per season.... There is still all kinds of other ways that the owners make money.

Also if this is socialism why is it that the guy who sells hotdogs in the stands makes 7 dollars an hour while a star player can make over 20 million?

Quote from Pekelo:

In a way, yes:

http://football.calsci.com/SalaryCap.html

Revenue sharing

"About 2/3 of the NFL's money comes from the TV deal. The players get about 2/3 of team revenue. So, more or less, the TV contract goes to pay the players. These contracts are typically for about 5 years, and every time they are renegotiated the price goes up. So do player's salaries.

The money from the TV contract is share and share alike - the Redskins, Cowboys, Bills, and Packers get identical checks. This money is key to the success of the smaller franchises. Without the TV contract money, there is simply no way on earth that Green Bay could ever field a competitive team.

There are a lot of other sources for NFL money. NFL licensed jerseys, for example that Randy Moss jersey you put on your kid last Halloween when you dressed him up as a demon, result in license fees going to the NFL. This money is also equally shared.

When the teams play, there is a "gate," the money people pay for seats. This is in the neighborhood of about $2.5M per game. This money is split 60-40, with the visiting team getting 40% of the gate. Because of this teams like Jacksonville and Arizona just love it when the Packers or Cowboys come to play. These are the two or three games each year these teams can count on selling out, and the money they get is very welcome. Sometimes you will find that to buy a ticket to see the Packers on the road you have to buy a package of two or three tickets. This is nothing more or less than a device to get money from Packers fans into the pockets of the other teams owners."

 

[tomdavis]

Pro football is operated largely as a monopoly. They keep the barriers to entry as high as possible. They're major political contributors in every major city. They control the number of teams, the number of players, stadiums, the TV contracts, etc.

If there were more teams, more people could play the game and get paid for it. That would further distribute the wealth, but neither the team owners nor players want that because it would dilute profits and lower players' salaries.

Why don't they have 50 or 100 teams? The answer is simple. They fix the number of teams to maximize profits to the controlling participants (primarily the owners and to a lesser extent the players).

That doesn't sound like socialism to me.

 

[Hello]

I was actually going to say the same thing, if anything the NFL is a bunch of teams acting in collusion with each other to make sure they maintain their monopoly, and look out for their own best interests. The NFL operates more like a limited partnership.

Quote from tomdavis:

Pro football is operated largely as a monopoly. They keep the barriers to entry as high as possible. They're major political contributors in every major city. They control the number of teams, the number of players, stadiums, the TV contracts, etc.

If there were more teams, more people could play the game and get paid for it. That would further distribute the wealth, but neither the team owners nor players want that because it would dilute profits and lower players' salaries.

Why don't they have 50 or 100 hundred teams? The answer is simple. They fix the number of teams to maximize profits to the controlling participants (primarily the owners and to a lesser extent the players).

That doesn't sound like socialism to me.

 

[Petsamo]

Quote from tomdavis:
Why don't they have 50 or 100 teams? The answer is simple. They fix the number of teams to maximize profits to the controlling participants (primarily the owners and to a lesser extent the players).

That doesn't sound like socialism to me.

The NFL is the only organization that doesn't have Canadian teams, and they should let the Canadians in. The NBA, NHL, & MLB are a mixture of Americans & Canadians.

 

[FightTheFuture]

Here's some socialism.

The socialists are having a great time on other people's money until it runs out. Sports used to be free market and self-sustaining, but why refuse the new norm of demanding taxpayer money for new stadiums or threatening to move elsewhere. Billion dollar stadiums are being built and will be demolished before the taxpayers have them paid off. Inevitably sports welfare will collapse and the players will have to get real jobs in the off season like they used to a few decades ago.


$48 billion.

“As the N.F.L. prepares to kick off its 2010 season, nearly all of the league’s 31 football stadiums are financed with public money. On average, more than half the reported building costs of all active stadiums has been paid for with tax dollars – for a collective total of 48 billion – and in several instances, taxpayers have footed the entire bill.”

http://onthecommons.org/professional-sports-taxpayer-parasites

 

[tomdavis]

Monopolists will only increase the number of participants if it puts money in the pockets of the existing cartel (team owners and players).

Quote from Petsamo:

The NFL is the only organization that doesn't have Canadian teams, and they should let the Canadians in. The NBA, NHL, & MLB are a mixture of Americans & Canadians.

 

[Petsamo]

Quote from FightTheFuture:
nearly all of the league’s 31 football stadiums are financed with public money.

The NFL NBA MLB NHL benefit their cities through added tax revenues from businesses and consumers. It's only fair the taxpayers share in the expenses. This is similar to giving tax breaks to large corporations to entice them into moving to your state.

 

[Petsamo]

Quote from tomdavis:
Monopolists will only increase the number of participants if it puts money in the pockets of the existing cartel (team owners and players).

Thanks to Obama, money is currently too tight.

 

[FightTheFuture]

Quote from Petsamo:

The NFL NBA MLB NHL benefit their cities through added tax revenues from businesses and consumers. It's only fair the taxpayers share in the expenses. This is similar to giving tax breaks to large corporations to entice them into moving to your state.

Typical of selective socialism. Wealth diverted and redistributed to the few.

All businesses benefit their community and most don't have their buildings and business paid for by taxpayers nor should they.