Care for a Slice?

As I am sure most of you have heard in the news lately, the NFL players and owners are in a bitter dispute that threatens America’s most popular sport. I am sure that the record 111 million viewers of last week’s Super Bowl will join me in being none too pleased if Scott Hanson (the brilliant host of NFL Red Zone) is looking for work next fall instead of reminding us that, “We don’t do commercials here on NFL Red Zone.”

There are a multitude of issues, interested parties, and most importantly in terms of resolving the matter, money, involved with the negotiations. Essentially what the argument comes down to is what percentage of annual revenue gets doled out to all the players and what goes to the owners. I’ll forgo an in depth description of the situation and instead,argue that we should all be siding with the players in their quest of looking for a bigger piece of the pie.

Football is a rough sport. Whenever you get guys like Ray Lewis and T Sizzle running at full speed into other people, someone is bound to get hurt once in a while. Fans love to see bone-crushing hits and broken noses (especially Big Ben’s), but no one wants to see a player get dealt a season or career ending injury when on the field. The average playing life of an NFL player, according to the NFL Players Association, stands at 3.5 seasons. I don’t care how much the NFL stresses player safety over the coming years (assuming there is an NFL in the coming years), football is always going to be a rough game and injuries are going to occur. We are beginning to see the long-term effects of what a few years in the NFL does on the human body years after the damage is done. Just take a look at the titles of a few of these recent studies and articles: Retired NFL players have high rate of brain damage; Heavy NFL players twice as likely to die before 50; Retired NFL Players Misuse Painkillers More Than General Population. NFL players deserve to be fairly compensated for essentially destroying their bodies for our enjoyment.

The NFL is a human capital-based organization. Like consulting and information technology firms, each NFL team's most important asset is their people. I am pretty sure that 70,000 fans are not going to file into M&T Bank Stadium each Sunday to watch my friends and I hum the seed, even though on a basic level, the fans would be consuming the same exact product: watching people play a game. In order for NFL teams to be successful, they need to hire the best talent they can and hiring the best talent costs money. For example, Towers Watson, a leading global professional services company, in their 2nd quarter earnings statement, reported that, as a percentage of revenue, salaries and employee benefits were 64% for the first six months of fiscal year 2011.

I recently reviewed the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL team payrolls from the USATODAY Salaries Databases and Forbe's most recent estimations of franchise values and financial statements to see how the Big 4 professional sports leagues stack up in terms of compensation. As a percentage of revenue, salaries for the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL were 46.1%, 60.4%, 42.6% and 53.0%, respectively. In addition, a review of median per player salaries for the leagues also puts the NFL at the bottom, at just north of $800,000. The same figure for the MLB, NBA and NHL are $1.3 million, $2.1 million and $1.4 million, respectively.

I hardly find it appropriate that NFL players are compensated least when compared to their baseball, basketball and hockey counterparts. NFL franchises were valued at a combined $32 billion in 2010. Compare this to the MLB’s $14.7 billion, the NBA’s $11.0 billion and the NHL’s $6.8 billion. Not only are NFL players helping to make the NFL the most popular organization outside the Great American Fierce Beard Organization, but they are also generating the most revenue and capital appreciation out of the Big 4 leagues. Add to that that they also play the sport that does the most long-term damage to their body and I think you’ll agree that the NFL players deserve their fair slice.

Strictly Stands for Athletic Greatness

Despite a compelling argument made by my B-W Blogway colleague, BalTimore Bisk in support of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I will be rooting for the Green Bay Packers this Sunday. My rationale is simple: the Packers are not the Steelers. Therefore, I am hoping Aaron Rodgers breaks some Super Bowl Records and Clay Matthews breaks Big Ben's nose (word on the street is Haloti Ngata gave him a few tips). I'll also receive some satisfaction that the pissant that was sitting next to me at the Ravens vs. Steelers playoff game a few weeks ago, whose Terrible Towel was repeatedly waved far too close to my face, will be crying himself to sleep. I think you should be rooting for the Packers as well for these reasons, but also because of the unique and feel-good nature of the Packers franchise. I invite you to join the 112,120 individuals who will be cheering especially hard for the Packers on Sunday. These individuals I am referring to are the owners of the Green Bay Packers. Unlike every other NFL team, the Packers are publicly-owned.

The history and establishment of the Packers as a publicly-owned franchise is quite interesting, so let me ramble for a moment or two here. Earl L. 'Curly' Lambeau, born in Green Bay in 1898, was a star high school football player and went onto Notre Dame in 1918. An illness kept Lambeau home from college after his freshman year (the Irish coach at the time was Knute Rockne by the way), and he began working at the Indian Packing Company, a meat-packing plant in Green Bay. Lambeau missed playing football, so in the summer of 1919 he helped organize a local team and convinced his employer to put up money for uniforms and equipment. For its first two seasons, the team played games against other teams from small towns in Wisconsin and Michigan. In 1921, Lambeau convinced the Indian Packing Company to put up $50 to buy the Packers a franchise in the newly formed American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football League). With increased competition in the APFA, recruiting talent outside of Green Bay was necessary to stay competitive. Thus in 1923, a group of five area businessmen got together and launched the Green Bay Football Corporation, a nonprofit entity to provide financial backing for the team. Shares of stock sold for $5 each and paid no dividends. Purchasers were obligated to buy at least six season tickets. The corporation had a five-member executive committee and 15 elected directors. As a nonprofit, the corporation was tax-exempt, and all profits were to go to the American Legion. The organization had financial difficulties during the Depression and was placed into receivership, later to emerge as the Green Bay Packers, Inc.

Current shareholders own stock that produce no dividends, and all profits are now contributed to the Green Bay Packers Foundation, which makes donations to many charities and institutions throughout Wisconsin. The team is currently run by a seven-member Executive Committee, elected from a 45-member board of directors. The 4,750,937 shares have voting rights, the stock cannot appreciate in value (though private sales often exceed the face value of the stock), and stock ownership brings no season ticket privileges. No shareholder may own over 200,000 shares, a safeguard to ensure that no individual can assume control of the club. This ownership structure is in direct violation of current NFL by-laws, which stipulate a limit of 32 owners of one team and one of those owners having a minimum 30% stake. However, the Packers were grandfathered when the NFL's current ownership policy was established in the 1980s, and are thus exempt. In addition, the Packers are the only NFL team that publicly releases its Income Statement. http://joe.bowman.net/Statement.htm

I don't think this ownership structure could work on a large scale basis, but it works in Green Bay. You need absolutely die-hard fans that are basically willing to dig into their own pocket when needed. This die-hardiness was proven in 1997 when the Packers had a stock offering of shares at $200 apiece to pay for stadium improvements and establish an endowment for future renovations. The offering raised over $20 million. The opening page of the information sheet laid things out quite clearly: ''It is virtually impossible for anyone to realize a profit on a purchase of common stock or even to recoup the amount initially paid to acquire such common stock.'' However, this structure would have served Baltimore well in preventing the Baltimore Colts exodus to Indianapolis and right now it sounds like a far better option than the Peter Angelos-owned Baltimore Orioles. It would also legitimize statements that imply that some random guy actually is a member of the Ravens...."We just can't seem to beat Pittsburgh when it really counts."

How can you not cheer for a team that donates millions of dollars to charities each year, is named after a meat-packing plant and is NOT the Steelers.

Go Pack Go!!!

The Best of the Best...Who Cares?

All-Star weekend is upon us. The very best of the NFL and NHL will showcase their skills in the annual Pro-Bowl and NHL All-Star game this Sunday. In theory, matching the elite of the elite in any form of competition, whether it be a cooking challenge (Top Chef is my favorite TV show by the way) or a game of Risk, should get any observer excited. However, I could essentially care less about the upcoming football game in Hawaii or the hockey game in Raleigh, and I believe most other American sports fans feel the same way.

The only All-Star game that I am remotely interested in each year is the Mid-Summer Classic, MLB's All-Star game. I can't quite pinpoint the reason why, but I think it might be a combination of a few things:
1) the game actually means something (more on that in a moment);
2) the sport itself is basically a collection of 1 on 1 matchups (pitcher vs. batter), and watching all these mini duels between the game's best is compelling;
3) it appears as though the players are actually trying to win;
4) baseball in general has a special place in my heart for nostalgic reasons, as it was the first sport I really followed at the professional level.

At the moment, the only All-Star game out of the big 4 American sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL) where the outcome has any importance is the MLB. Beginning in 2003, home-field advantage for the World Series was given to either the American League or National League's representative depending on which side won that year's All-Star game. Previously, home-field was alternated between the two leagues each year. Many argue that home-field advantage shouldn't be awarded in such a willy-nilly fashion, however I disagree. The current home-field advantage format of 2-3-2 began to be used regularly in the 1924 World Series. Since then, this format was followed in every year but three. The 1943 and 1945 World Series followed a 3-4 format due to World War II travel restrictions and there was no World Series in a strike-shortened 1994 season. In those 83 World Series, the team with home-field advantage has won 48 of them, which is slightly better than 57%. Home-field advantage in baseball is not as important as in other sports, so I think giving the MLB All-Star game some meaning in this fashion is warranted. Similar treatment of home-field advantage in the other three sports would be a mistake.

The Pro-Bowl stinks of players' apathy. As reported on the NFL's website this morning, the following players will not participate in the 2011 Pro Bowl due to "injury": Nnamdi Asomugha, Tom Brady, Lance Briggs, Dwight Freeney, Antonio Gates, DeSean Jackson, Andre Johnson, Maurice Jones-Drew, Nick Mangold, Shaun O'Hara, Jason Peters, Ed Reed, Asante Samuel, Richard Seymour, Ndamukong Suh, Brian Urlacher, Patrick Willis and Kevin Williams will not play because of personal reasons. You can't really blame the players for not wanting to risk injury for a meaningless game. I think the Pro Bowl really has no chance to ever be popular. The nature of the game just won't allow it. I do think the Pro Bowl experience could be improved by adding some sort of skills competition to the Pro Bowl. The NBA has the Dunk Contest and the Three-Point Contest, the MLB has the Home Run Derby and the NHL has the All-Star skills competition. These contests are my favorite part of each of the sports' All-Star festivities. I think adding a QB Challenge (using kegs as targets of course) or a competition for punters where you have to punt the ball into some sort of target is a good idea, though it wouldn't help the actual Pro Bowl game itself.

I do have to say I am somewhat intrigued by the NHL's All-Star Game this year, as it is the first year for the All-Star Fantasy Draft. Captains for each side will select from a pool of players chosen by a combination of fan balloting and the NHL Hockey Operations Department. Eric Staal of the host Carolina Hurricanes will serve as captain of the aptly named "Team Staal," and along with his alternate captains, Washington's Mike Green and Vancouver's Ryan Kesler, will stage a draft against Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and his assistants Martin St. Louis of Tampa Bay and Chicago's Patrick Kane on "Team Lidstrom." However, I think I am more interested in the draft itself, rather than the actual game. The draft is Friday night at 8 EST on Versus in case you were wondering.

If my power and cable are restored by the weekend (a recent snow storm has left me in the dark since Wednesday), I'll be catching up on the Office, not watching the Pro Bowl or NHL All-Star Game.