Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Million Dollar Slaves

Million Dollar Slaves
By: Joshua Byrd

I recently discovered that ninety percent of all U.S. citizens are and will always be modern day slaves. Unless you are a part of the ten percent of the population who are wealthy millionaires, you will never be excluded from the slave category.  Most of us reading this blog are in category one.. But, after researching and looking into modern slaves I found out that even the most upheld and notable sport icons are in the same boat as most Americans, and I call them Million dollar Slaves. The most recent display of million dollar slaves was in 2011 when the National Basketball Association (NBA) had their fourth league lockout under commissioner David Stern. Another example of this was also in 2011 when the National Football League (NFL) went on their fifth league lockout. Among these two programs the players in it are arguably the most idoled, famous, and wealthy people in the U.S., but couldn’t play football or basketball when they wanted to. Their bosses (the owners of the sports teams) had a different plan in the year 2011. The owners wanted more money, the players wanted to keep their money, so who controlled whom?

In the year 2011 the NBA had one of the biggest lockouts in league history; the two sides just couldn’t come to an agreement. Before the lockout, the players were getting 57% of the revenues and the owners were getting 43%. Ownership asked for a 50/50 split which they were not given, and had no choice but to lockout the NBA. This meant that the arenas were closed, practice facilities closed, workout facilities closed, and even the players weren’t granted access to see the team doctors. The President of the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) Derrick Fischer of the Los Angeles Lakers, Matt Bonner of the Spurs, and Maurice Evans of the Wizards represented the players. David Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver represented the owners. After meeting a couple times the two sides failed over and over again to come to a resolution. For some reason after meeting with each other they couldn’t tackle and find a solution on the four major issues as to why the NBA went into a lockout. The biggest reason was the NBA had been losing money over the past two years, and only the big markets like the L.A. Lakers, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, and the New York Knicks had been making money. But, smaller markets like the Minnesota Timberwolves couldn’t compete with other programs and were losing money rapidly. Another huge reason to why they had a lockout is because players that had huge contracts for 5-6 years weren’t living up to their potential and the value of their contract. When a team makes a deal with a good player for $80+ million for 6 years, and that player gets injured or become a liability for the team, the team may lose money. A contract is a contract and they have to respect it no matter what happens. So where do they go on from this and solve these problems? After fifteen hours of bargaining, 149 days of lockout, 16 regular season games missed, and pre-season games missed, they finally came to a conclusion. They concluded that the players will have a $300 million annually reduction in salaries, which would make owners about $3 billion over the 10-year deal. But, the new agreement called for a 50/50 split of all basketball revenues instead of the 57/43. With the loss of the 16 games they had to cut the NBA season short to 66 games, which was a loss in $400 million. “For myself, it’s great to be a part of this particular moment, in terms of giving our fans what it is that they so badly wanted and want to see,” said Derek Fisher, the president of the players union. Ladies and gentlemen we have basketball, until the 10-year contract runs out then what will they do?

Similar to the NBA lockout the Nation Football League (NFL) had a lockout soon after the 2010-11 season was over. Who would have thought these millionaires and billionaires would fight over money. Well, once again the multi-billion dollar industry of a major sports market is at a standstill. Greed fills them all when money is the motive, and the owners (billionaires) wanted to “take back” the league, and the players (millionaires) wanted a bigger piece of the sweet apple pie the owners were eating. The profit-pie that both sides wanted so eagerly is about 9 billion dollars annually. Now out of that, the owners get to take $1 billion off top, and any extra money they need which would go towards miscellaneous operating expenses.  After the owners finish with all of their needs the players get 59.6% of the remaining pie, the money comes in the form of a salary cap which every team has. Now, the whole feud is that the owners want the players to get the same percentage but out of a smaller pie. They want $2.4 billion dollars off the top with the extra money they would need for miscellaneous reasons, and the players would get the same 59.6% of the remaining money. This would represent about 18% decrease in pay. But, players still have contracts that the owners have to abide by, so this decrease in pay would affect rookies and free-agents the most, at first. Eventually a player’s contract would run out and they would lose about 18% of their normal income. How can both sides with very strong voices come to a conclusion? After the 130-day long lockout the NFL went through both sides finally reached a decision, which would benefit both sides. It was a win/win for both sides. Ownership received 52% of the revenue instead of 47% in previous years, and they also raised the salary cap to $120 million with an additional $20 million for benefits. In the end, the owners and players split over $9 billion, and they didn’t lose any league games which was the number one thing they wanted. So, no one really lost in the 2011 NFL Lockout.



Everything about this entire process makes me sick to my stomach. Not because I'm against capitalism or because the thought of someone making that much money and wanting more makes them a villain in my eyes; it doesn't. No, what makes me sick is the idea that these two sides seem willing to stick to their guns even to the point of hurting the third party in all of this. Have they stopped to consider the parking attendant, the beer guy, the concessions staff, security, ticketing, and practice players? Or what about the fans who spend thousands of dollars every year to see their heroes play their favorite game? Once those checks stop coming, well that’s a story most Americans know all too well. The longer they hold out and stand their ground, the longer thousands of people will not have jobs from just one industry. Come on, players and ownership let’s get it together and vow to have no more lockouts. Honestly what would we do without football or basketball? 

21 comments:

  1. First of all, I just want to say that your writing is powerful because you have a lot of heart in it and I can tell you are passionate about this topic. There may be a couple grammar errors here and there, but overall you clearly get your message across. However, the beginning of your piece made it seem like you were going to talk about the rich and the poor and you strayed from that and more talked about rich versus rich. I also find it ridiculous that people with so much money fight and argue until they get more. Professional athletes get to play the sport they love for a living and make an insane amount of money they shouldn't be complaining -- and neither should the owners. The only other suggestion I would have is to connect your ideas to economics a little more, but other than that , nice job!

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  2. As whole, this is pretty well written. However, there were few scattered grammar errors (which isn't that big of a deal). The main issue is that although you went ahead and talked about how basketball players were million dollar slaves and how the general populace (90% of the population) were slaves as well...but you never actually explained why they would be considered slaves? Is it because you think they don't have a choice in when they do their job? (They did have the lockout so I don't see that) Is it because They have no other job to do? (They were the ones who decided to join the NBA). Again, although as a whole this blog post was well written, it leaves a few unanswered questions as to how we would be considered modern slaves.

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  3. You make a really good point about negative externalities, where they don’t think about other people like you said the concessions staff or security guards. I think it is a little goofy on how greedy some of these people can be when they are making as much as they are. But football and basketball have tons of fans so it comes back to the point of supply and demand. Because they know they are in such high demand they know they can push and make more money.

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  4. This article was very well written and I liked how you used more than just the NBA example. While I agree with you that these players may be bind to their contracts, they are still far from slaves. They are making millions of dollars and are very well off. In fact, all of this money is making them greedy for even more money and they start thinking too highly of themselves. Although in a way they are slaves, they are still living a much more luxurious life than most people think slaves would.

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  5. This article was very well constructed with a thorough understanding of the happenings surrounding the NFL and NBA lockouts, I can tell you have a passion for sports. The only thing I disagree with is the example as it relates to the general argument; the argument being the top ten percent of wealthy Americans control the other 90% is understandable and I agree with that. However, the example you used with billionaires and millionaires in an argument takes away from the money factor of the argument while introducing a whole other party. You see, in the owner vs player situation, you're looking at the top 5% (or so) facing off against the next 4-5% (or so). This would be fine if it didn't introduce a third party (being the fans, or other 90%).

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  6. I really your blog post, and you're doing a great job of using the vocabs of economics. This article is a great example of negative externality, as this controversy affects a lot of people with jobs and interest in the NBA. I do not agree we are slaves though, just because we're not millionares. I think this is determined by a lot of things. As an example a wouldn't call a homeless person a slave, as he or she is not financially depending on anyone.

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  7. I love that you used this as your topic because it's easy to see throughout the whole post that you really care about this. It was interesting to read because I only knew the basics of what happened before, and now I know the details. I like how you brought in the economic concepts at the end, but I guess to strengthen it as a whole you could incorporate those into each paragraph. I really liked your ideas at the end though about the other people they're hurting, and how they ruin the economy in more than one way with these lockouts.

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  8. This article is extremely interesting and tied together with econ. It really shows the possible negative extranalities in the world today and how much the wealthy people in the world just care about themselves. When all this was going on I never thought about the third party people during those lockouts. With all that going on it just doesn't seem fair to the third party people and the things that they had to deal with because the millionaires in the industry just wanted more and more money. Greed in this country seems like it is on the rise and it really doesn't seem fair for everyone, it really doesn't.

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  9. I liked the idea of how the quarrel of the millionaire players and the billionaire owners affected the rest of us. I disagree with your idea of us being slaves. For example most of the players in the NBA have moved up in the economic system here in America. I believe that we are more slaves to negative externalities of the free market.

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  10. This was a very exciting topic to read about and I had a enjoyed every minute of it. Although there are a few errors throughout the paper, it doesn't really bring down the voice and power you were able to bring while typing this paper. I wasn't really a fan of the NBA lockout, probably because I'm a big fan of basketball. I personally don't really like David Stern and I feel as if he should have just given the players what they wanted in the first place. Overall, this was a very good paper and I love how you were able to tie economics and sports into one.

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    Replies
    1. Trevor, remember the comments should continue to develop the economic discussion. That is great that you are complimentary of the post, but you also need to address the economics of it to earn credit. Please revise if you want credit.

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  12. I really enjoyed reading this post, it was entertaining, informational, and I was able to learn about how the lockouts tie to Economics. Even the people who are making millions or billions of dollars, are never happy with what they're getting. They're playing a game for a living, and are in a social class above pretty much the rest of the world. Yet the greed they have for more is kind of hilarious. Where any of us would be more than happy to make the money they do with the ease of life they have, they're upset because of the contract percentages. This just shows the selfish side of people.

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  13. I really enjoyed reading this blog post because it was something I was interested in and yet it still ties back to economics. Your voice was very prevalent throughout the whole writing, which also helped that you picked something you like rather than just writing about any random topic. One certain aspect I found to relate back to economics was the supply and demand. David Stern was unable to supply the fans with an NBA season, which angered them. It seems that is what pushed the demand to help end the lockout. There is no way the NBA and David Stern could have afforded to lose fans all across the world or even possible income. A lot of the key terms and vocabulary that we've learned were present as well and besides a few grammatical errors I would have to say this is a very nicely put together blog post.

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  14. I like your idea as a whole, however I also do not agree with your comparison of slavery and the modern American. Slavery is when you do not get paid for work, and as Americans we have it pretty well off with how much we get paid for the work we do. Although a lot of people are struggling financially, I do not believe we are anywhere near the term "slave." The part I liked most about your blog was the conclusion. It is an interesting view point to add; hurting the third party that is.

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  15. I really liked this post. You definitely had a good title to grab someones attention to read your piece. I really liked your concluding paragraph to incorporate how their actions or inactions have an affect on the lives of the rest of America. The other paragraphs had a lot of data and information, but towards the end it suddenly, finally came together and incorporated more of the ideas that relate to economics and the impact they have on the money flow to the third party like you said. Interesting conclusion though.

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  16. You definitely had a good idea but i am pretty sure the man focus of your peace is more the greed in America and around the world for that matter. Even though there are people making millions of dollars for managing basketball teams they still want more money. Everyone for that matter is trying to be on the winning side of the argument of who gets more. This happens in our senate were senators want to win the argument rather than coming up with the best solution

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  17. I agree that the money should be split fifty fifty between both the player and the business man behind the team. Its only fair because both of them do equally half the work. The team wouldn't be popular if the player wasn't good and the player wouldn't be known if it wasn't for the business man behind the scenes. But I don't think that its fair that if a player gets injured that they don't get to play and there contract might be revoked. Its not always the players fault that they got hurt.

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  18. To me, it is crazy that they even decided to go on lockout just because of the money. The reason they are making that money is because of their fans and the games they play, yet they decide to stop playing because they can't decide how to split the money? That to me is very selfish and they are all in the wrong. They could at least give the people supporting them what they want considering they are the reasons they even have their career. I believe, though, that the players should get a bigger cut since they are doing the work and they are the ones playing and earning that money. Either way, what they did was wrong just for money and next time they should really come to their senses.

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  19. First of all, you did a great job writing this because of all the heart you put in it. I would have to disagree with this, however, because if I was making millions of dollars per year and then my budget got cut to say "only" 8 million a year or so, I wouldn't call myself a slave. While the argument stands that they were being used for the owner's benefit, they still benefited just as much because after awhile, the amount of money one makes is negligible. I would say that most people reading your post are in the category of "slaves" because a lot of our parents probably have just as demanding jobs but we get maybe 1% of a basketball player's salary, but basketball and football players are anything but. Also, I would try to relate this to economics a bit more, it got really off topic.

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  20. When I say slave, like i dont really want you to imagine chained up africans like in the 1800s but I mean the symbolism behind it. Which is not being able to do what you want, listening to the slave owners commands, eating when they tell you, and etc. I mainly put them into this category because of the lockout, they couldn't play when they wanted to actually they were locked out of all the facilities. thats what i mean by slaves.

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