How to fix American sports
Slate has an interesting article on U.S. system of sports v. European soccer market based system. In Europe teams move from the top leagues to minor leagues depending on performance. Here in America, once a team is in the bigs then there are there for life. MLB was barred from contracting 2 teams a few years ago. The European system promotes putting money into the team and putting the best possible product on the field. Whereas, here in America the owners make more money by putting less into the team and being average. Wouldn't it is better for MLB if the Expos had to win to stay in the big leagues?
4 Comments:
Tim Says:
Obviously, there's no chance that this will happen for the three major leagues. But I think this model would have been a much better approach for MLs to have taken; especially in light of that leagues' financial difficulties through the years. Perhaps the successor to the NHL would also do well to pursue this approach...
The MLS, MLB and NHL would be the only leagues that could possibly do this because they have established minor legaue systems outside of college. I think it would work best in baseball and maybe if we could get rid of their anti-trust expemption then it could get done.
Tim Says:
The reason it won't happen for MLB though is the value of the franchises... Too many cellar dwellers would see their valuations fall through the floor when they were demoted so the owners would never risk it. MLS and NHL are candidates b/c they are in such financially precarious positions already and the franchises are much less stable in terms of location.
In rebuttal: I would say that Manchester United is the most valuable sports team in the world yet this is the system they play in. Fear of losing value would prompt owners to spend moeny etc to make sure that they don't drop out.
In agreement: I would agree that it will never actually happen in America but I think it would help.
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