On Dec 24, 11:50*pm, Hawke wrote:


I was thinking about the NFL and how it works today after watching a bit
of one of the games. Coming from L.A. myself I couldn't help but wonder
why does the Bay area have two teams and Los Angeles has none? It's one
of the biggest markets in the country but no pro football team plays there.

Another reason could be that Los Angeles is a big market but spread
over a large area. So rogardless of where they might build a statium,
a lot of fans would have to travel a long ways to see a game.



Then I realized it was about modern capitalism. You see, without getting
cities to foot the bill for the stadiums the teams are not willing to do
it the free market way, where investors willingly put their money in a
team. If teams can't get someone else to buy their stadiums for them
almost none of them would build their own. In other words, if the teams
were not subsidized by various cities there would be no pro football
teams. Not enough private capital is willing to risk it's money on
professional football.

Professional sports have another huge benefit from the free
publicity the newspapers and TV give them. But if the teams were not
subsidized , there would still be pro football teams. It would not
be as profitable, so they would have to cut back on expenses and part
of that would be lower salaries for the players. But the cities
benefit from having the teams. It helps companies recruit employees.
It creates jobs, Many places have votes on whether or not to build
statiums. And people vote for bond issues to build the stadiums.

The funny thing is how all these hard core businessmen can't set up a
league and run it profitably without having money strapped cities buying
high priced stadiums for them so that wealthy people can go watch games
there. So anyplace that wants the teams to buy their own stadium doesn't
have a team. Even in L.A. they can't get enough people to have a team
there.

It really shows you how much business is beholden to the government for
making money. If the government doesn't help business they can't make
money on their own. The funny thing is to hear these same businessmen
whine all the time about the government interfering in their businesses.
Hmmm, without that interference they wouldn't even have those
businesses. They're a bunch of hypocritical ingrates if you ask me.

So it also shows how much government is beholden to the professional
sports teams. Both the teams and the cities benefit.


Dan


Hawke