Why hasn't economy nailed pro sports?
The big three auto companies teetering on the brink of bankruptcy; foreclosures, huge layoffs; a lack of liquidity in the credit market; a plunging stock market and bailout of financial institutions; are just some of the daily stories as the country faces its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
It seems as if almost every sector of our society is affected. I say almost, because the financial crisis does not seem to have impacted professional sports. For example, the Chicago Cubs recently signed Ryan Dempster to a four-year contract worth 52 million dollars. Think of it for a minute - a guaranteed $13 million a year for for a soon to be 32-year-old mediocre pitcher.
Yes, a mediocre pitcher; how else to describe a pitcher who has a lifetime record of 76 wins and 81 losses. Yet the Cubs were willing to sign Dempster to a long-term contract worth $52 million.
There are those who will say that the Cubs are crazy for signing a pitcher with a losing lifetime record for such a large sum of money. But it is not the Cubs that are crazy, because let's not forget that the Cubs are not digging into their pockets to give Dempster this money, they are digging even further into the pockets of fans that are silly enough to pay the outrageous prices for tickets that pays for the overpriced contracts.
As long as fans are dumb enough to pay the outrageous prices for tickets, concessions and parking, Major League baseball and the NFL will continue to give players these ridiculous contracts. They will just turn around and raise the ticket prices again and the poor fans who are dumb enough to buy the tickets will get stuck again. In 2008 the average ticket price for a Chicago Cub game was about $40.
If the jammed stadiums and the multimillion-dollar player contracts are any indication, then perhaps the financial crisis is not as bad as it appears. If fans still line up to pay the excessively high ticket prices to see a Bears or Cubs game; how bad can the economy be?
Victor Darst
West Dundee