is the super bowl socialist?

[niyad]

Is the Super Bowl Socialist?
by David Morris

Is the Super Bowl a socialist enterprise? Yes the language is provocative but not, I believe, inappropriate. After all Indiana, the site of the next Super Bowl, is currently governed by those who insist government should play a minimal role and the word they, and their Republican counterparts around the country use to describe those who disagree is socialist.

By any definition, tomorrow's Super Bowl in Indianapolis is socialist from head to toe.
Start with the venue. Governments paid for over 80 percent of the new $750 million Lucas Oil Stadium. The Colts chipped in about 15 percent, an investment they probably recouped in inflated asset value the day the stadium opened. Governments are also covering the estimated $20 million a year in operating deficits.


But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The NFL itself is a government creation.

Back in 1961 Commissioner Pete Rozelle convinced Congress to grant anti-trust immunity to the NFL to allow it to negotiate with broadcast companies as a single entity. Its first contract with CBS proved so lucrative that each team had $332,000 in the bank at the beginning of the season, a sum that exceeded most team payrolls at the time. Flush with cash, team owners might have started a bidding war for players if a truly free market in labor prevailed.

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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/04-3

[Motown_Johnny]

1. $3,500 average per ticket and $7 million a minute for advertising

Not socialist


Maybe they are just some jobs that government can't create

[BeFree]

8. Government subsidized

And a huge rip-off .... the nfl would be nothing if the govt didn't kiss the owners asses and give them just about anything they ask for. The owners are the 1%ers that are fucking over the world.

[FarLeftFist]

2. Yes. Just ask Green Bay.

[tanyev]

3. It's the very wealthy profiting off of government investment.

I think there's another word besides socialism.

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. Say what you want. It doesn't make me look forward to it ANY less... n/t

[MadHound]

5. I think somebody needs to go back and study their Marx

The NFL, and other professional sports team are capitalist entities, top to bottom, and corrupt, crony capitalist entities at that. It isn't socialism that is driving the local governments to give massive tax breaks and other special dispensations, but rather crony capitalism, the same motivating factor that pushes local governments to give special tax breaks and incentives to malls, industries, etc.

What drives the NFL isn't socialism, or even ticket revenue, but rather advertising dollars and revenue generated from advertising products, like jerseys, caps, etc. After all, where is the Super Bowl being played? Oh, yeah, the Lucas Oil Stadium. And what is being paid for every thirty seconds of Super Bowl Ad time? Three million dollars.

This is certainly not socialism, not by a long shot.

[MADem]

10. I have to agree with your assessment. Crony capitalism fits the actual situation much better. nt

[KansDem]

6. It's all part of the new "Socialize the Risks; Privatize the Profits"

...form of "capitalism."

[TheKentuckian]

7. The NFL is socialist in nature, despite the owners mostly being extreme right wingers.

The NFL is an excellent place to see a socialist economy purring along. There are winners and losers in the games but everyone is on the same team when the money is distributed.

[MADem]

9. Wouldn't it be nice if governments could pour the same kind of cash into elementary schools? nt

[niyad]

13. will have to ask northern sun to create a version of their bomber/school t-shirts

[Rex]

11. Yes.

It is the biggest socialist event every year! Well except for Wrestle Mania.

[crazylikafox]

12. Maybe, but only the oligarchs can afford to go.

[jimlup]

14. Socialize the risks but privatize the profits

That's the American "Free Enterprise" way don't yah know!

[Kurmudgeon]

17. Yep!

[unblock]

15. socialist for corporations; mercantile or nearly feudalist for ordinary people.

[niyad]

16. sad, but true

[aaaaaa5a]

18. Bill Maher covers it perfectly

[Ron Obvious]

19. All American pro sports are socialist cartels

The leagues are closed and the teams are artificially scarce. There are usually some 30 teams or so, and that ensures that cities have to compete with one another for sweetheart deals, or else the teams threaten to leave.

I much prefer how European soccer is organised. In England alone, there are more than 96 professional teams (and many more semi-pro and amateur), usually several per city. They're organised in divisions from high to low, with the bottom three teams at the end of the season being relegated to a lower division, to be replaced by the top three from that lower division, and so on all the way down.

This way every team rises or falls to its natural level, and every town of any size has a team playing at their level of competition, no need to steal one from another city.

Here in the US, the lowest finishing teams are rewarded with high draft choices. Now, that's socialist, as are draft systems in the first place.

[niyad]

20. excellent point.