Comments on: More Beggars Wasting Money

By: Avi

Avi — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:53:50 +0000

I was listening to the radio this morning and someone mentioned that Citi should now call it “Taxpayer’s Citi Feild”.

By: Gian

Gian — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:11:12 +0000

I am a former sportswriter who was constantly appalled by the greed of the owners, the players and the guillability of the fans until I thankfully got out of the game.

I can certainly emphatize with Kate’s desire to see all teams wither away, but here’s a more modest proposal:

Regulate teams like utilities. Guarantee them an 8% rate of return. Anything over that goes back to the municipality. All players and team staff cannot make more than $250,000 a year — same as the U.S. president.

By: Barry

Barry — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:32:39 +0000

By: drew

drew — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:18:17 +0000

I’m sure there are contracts in place as well. Getting out of those contracts may cost more then keeping the name on the stadium. Also, they still need to advertise in order to bring in and keep business. Without it they would be in even worse shape, with no hope of turning around.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:11:23 +0000

I read about this. I think AIG is also going to continue sponsoring some Manchester soccer team. While I think this is pretty despicable if sports teams lost these sponsorships I don’t think they could continue financially without ticket prices being exorbitant (or, hey, novel idea- stop paying someone a bajillion dollars for hitting a ball with a stick).
I personally wouldn’t care if there were never another professional sports team again, but there are probably a lot of other businesses that depend on their staying around.