Cutback?

- J. Andrew Lockwood -
Senior Editor of The Bear Zone/ Sports Columnist
james.andrew.lockwood@student.mercer.edu

           While the American economy struggles to regain ground in 2009, one sports team brings in the new year by spending outrageous amounts of money.  It’s nothing new for the New York Yankees to spend money, but to pay $424 million for three players when the unemployment rate continues to rise is a little ostentatious.  The plush deals for 1B Mark Teixeira and pitchers A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia should keep them quite content for the next few years, even if the Yankees fail to win a title, but one has to wonder when enough is enough.  The $46 million those three players are earning annually is greater than the payrolls for three TEAMS from last season.

            Everyone is feeling the pinch of the slumping economy, from the Arena Football League to Major League Baseball to the National Football League.  On December 15^th, the twenty-two year old Arena Football League decided to ‘suspend’ the 2009 season to redevelop their economic model.  Colorado Crush co-owner and former NFL quarterback John Elway said, “Although it is disappointing to suspend the 2009 season, the Arena Football League and its owners feel it is essential to reevaluate the current business model to ensure the livelihood of the AFL in the future.” 

Come on.  We can read between the lines.  The AFL, which acted as a sort of minor league for the NFL isn’t coming back anytime soon.  The same may be true for small market teams in other major sports as well.  Led by the San Francisco Giants, sixteen of the MLB’s thirty teams will ‘freeze’ season ticket prices for the upcoming season as well as bolster promotions at home games.  Only during these times will you see promotions pop up like the NHL’s St. Louis Blues’ promotion last month to help one lucky fan pay three months of his or her mortgage.  Mortgages?  What happened to umbrella giveaway night?

It’s not the fact that the Yankees are spending money that I see wrong.  In fact, to restart the economy Americans must spend money instead of wavering in their consumer confidence.  Until this current period ends though, you’ll start to see the teams with money only grow exponentially bigger while smaller market teams will scrape by and attempt to make ends meet.

A salary cap would be a good idea.  Maybe the idea would catch on when the Yankees spend 10 times the amount of any other team to win the World Series.  What about the players and stadiums and owners though?  Shouldn’t they cut back?  Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones surely isn’t will his $1 Billion dollar Texas Stadium almost complete.

Corporate sponsorships however are starting to slow down though, reflecting the downturn on Wall Street.  Domino’s Pizza and Home Depot are two major NASCAR sponsors that are pulling out their support next year for financial reasons.  Many other companies are thinking twice before shelling out money just to put their name on a stadium wall.

I find the Yankees’ strategy especially intriguing considering the circumstances.  There’s nothing illegal about what they’re doing, but by outbidding every other team to assemble a team of all-stars they will only hurt the game of baseball in the long run.  While I like seeing advancements in sports, from the huge jumbo-tron scoreboards to a worthy player cashing in from a new contract, sometimes cutting back can be a good thing.   

            

J. Andrew Lockwood is a free lance sports reporter for The Bear Zone, Mercer's Cluster Newspaper, and a broadcaster for ASun.TV

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