Michele Roberts vs. the NBA: Why the New Head of the Players Union Is a Hero for Progressive Sports

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/27245-michele-roberts-vs-the-nba-why-the-new-head-of-the-players-union-is-a-hero-for-progressive-sports-fans

Let’s back up. The world of sports has long existed outside economic realities the rest of us have to deal with. In almost every way, the deck is stacked in favor of the owners. Shady relationships with politicians and developers means teams get billion-dollar stadiums built largely on the public dime; antitrust protections shield leagues with labor practices unheard of in other industries; insane television contracts mean teams are sold at ten times the profit even as owners are constantly crying poor. As an owner, you can’t lose. The reason you have had lunatics for owners like Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones and James Dolan — men whose business acumen is far exceeded by their bizarre eccentricities and public doltishness — is that it is nearly impossible not to get rich owning a sports team. It’s the cushiest job in America.

Roberts knows all this, but unlike most people in her position, she actually says so. Referring to the current revenue split between players and owners, she asked Torre, “Why don’t we have the owners play half the games? There would be no money if not for the players. Let’s call it what it is. There. Would. Be. No. Money. Thirty more owners can come in, and nothing will change. [The players] go? The game will change. So let’s stop pretending.” How about the salary cap? “I don’t know of any space other than the world of sports where there’s this notion that we will artificially deflate what someone’s able to make, just because. It’s incredibly un-American. My DNA is offended by it.” The league’s age limit (which Silver has talked about moving from 19 to 20): “There is no other profession that says that you’re old enough to die but not old enough to work.” And the NBA’s claim that a third of its teams aren’t profitable? “I initially just started laughing, to be honest with you.”

The thing about all of these statements is that they are inherently reasonable, and yet they threatened to expose the whole rhetorical edifice of pro sports as a mere alibi for owner greed. The dirty secret of the past two decades of sports labor peace is that almost all of it is the result of player concessions. Sports labor unions have long been among the most powerful unions in the U.S., but even they’ve suffered in the wake of unions’ collective national erosion. In Major League Baseball, the players’ share of revenue has fallen nearly 20 percent in the past 20 years despite that figure jumping from $1.2 billion to $8 billion. In the NFL, it’s down to 47 percent from 50; in the NBA, to around 50 from 57. And remember, those growing owners’ shares are of massively booming revenue.