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10
Insight
Lessons from across the pond
I
recently completed a Premier League fan survey and
was intrigued by some of the questions it raised. As
a member of the football club I support, I was lucky
enough to be drawn out and sent the questionnaire
with the promise it would only take 25 minutes of my
time…
Several of the questions wanted to know whether I am attending
fewer games than last year. While this question was undoubtedly
posed with one eye on the recession and the apparent immunity
of premier league clubs to the downturn, it got me thinking about
money and professional sport in America. How are the yanks
coping with the recession with regard to sport?
Whilst I personally haven’t reduced my number of visits to
White Hart Lane this season (despite pledging to at the start of
August...) many have paused to query their financial priorities in an
increasingly expensive world.
There is an underlying feeling of injustice in football that has
been growing since the inception of the premier league and the
introduction of the Sky TV money to players’ pay packets. No case
captures the public resentment towards footballers better than the
ongoing furore surrounding Carlos Tevez at present.
A player at the peak of his earning power and benefiting from the
inflated petro-millionaire salaries at Manchester City, Tevez recently
refused to do his job (to kick a ball about) in a Champions League
match against Bayern Munich. Credit to Manchester City, Tevez
was fined, suspended and found guilty of five breaches of contract.
Whilst we are not privy to the finer points, the player’s behaviour
since appears unrepentant and disrespectful and he looks destined
to engineer a move away from the club. Many have welcomed the
hard line taken by City in standing up to the ‘player power’ that has
swept through the game. This approach supports the mantra that
‘no one player is bigger than the club’.
This incident shows how sport in the UK differs to our American
counterparts.
Recent strikes and lockouts in the US have shown the pros and cons
of the collective bargaining agreement and wage cap approach to
regulating sport across the pond.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) locked out its players at
the start to the season following a breakdown in discussions over
league revenue-sharing.
The NBA operates under a Collective Bargaining Agreement which
dictates the working conditions in the league, but chiefly sets how
the sporting revenue is split between the clubs and players. The
players have been ‘locked-out’ by the league since 1
st
July after
the expiration of the old deal with pre-season cancelled and many
players seeking contracts to play abroad.
Under the previous six year deal, 57% of basketball related income
was distributed to the players in a $58m per team wage cap. This
means 57% of the $2.4bn total turnover for the NBA league last
year was pocketed by players. This equates to an average annual
salary of £3.26m per player. Understandably the owners want to
bring this closer to a 50/50 split in order to operate more profitably
following claims that 22 of the 30 clubs were in the red at the end
of last season.
By Chris Hootton
The NBA All-Star Game draws a huge audience, but the stadiums were empty during the lock out.
Photo by Rondo Estrello | www.rondostar.com