TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – I don’t pretend to understand how major sports teams are tied up with television and radio to produce outlandish contracts that reach into the billions. But I and others have often said that at some point there comes saturation, or a time when the profit meets expense and the contracts become unworkable. When that time comes what happens to these sports team and the big player salaries that are now approaching $40 million a year? That point where the contracts don’t work anymore may have been reached with the shutdown of major pro sports franchises. Like I said, I don’t know the mechanics of those contracts and whether they were prepared for disasters like we are in. Nor should I be concerned. It’s not my money. But I do wonder how this will all shake out once we come out of lockdown. Do some baseball teams, say Oakland, Miami, Tampa Bay and Kansas City (the bottom four in 2018 revenue according to Forbes), which always seem on the low economic end of baseball, survive? It’s like Russia, which survives almost solely on oil revenue, will these or a few other teams make it through these difficult times when the top revenue producer is TV contracts? If they do, what will they look like? I shouldn’t be concerned with pro teams, actually. I should be worried about all the small businesses and their employees who have been slammed by this virus shutdown. I can’t image all of them will survive, not when you are working on a small margin in the best of times. I can’t imagine our entire economy will suddenly perk up and we will go back to normalcy when this virus blows out. Or even if it blows out. Some experts believe it will linger around. I was born just at the end of the Great Depression and I have seen enough of what it was like back then in the 1930s (people jumping out of windows from tall buildings) that it brings me chills to know we were not far from that with this virus. Banks have not failed and most of America has not lost their jobs like what happened back then. But millions have lost their jobs, so that is extremely difficult to swallow. It’s another reminder that the way we live and indeed our lives can be taken from us in an instant. So hug your loves one now and forever because you just never know. There are a lot of things to fret about and one that is not as high as, say, losing a love one but is important just the same are those seniors who athletically were looking forward to their last year of high school, anticipating that with a good individual season they would secure a college scholarship. But with schools shutdown that ability to show their athletic talent has gotten lost. I feel bad for them because some of them need the help a scholarship provides for them to get into a college. If they now don’t get that, what do they do? That reminds me of how much character is important. I’ve covered sports from high school to college and I can absolutely confirm that there have been exceptional athletes who squandered their chances because of a character problem. I’m not going to name names but I’m seen more than a few who had all it takes to move on to the next level, but because of character issues never made it. I’m not perfect, but if I had the talent to advance I certainly would not screw it up by doing something stupid. There is a free agent Seahawks’ football player who is as good as any and yet he can’t resist finding trouble. He has had at least three second-chances and may yet be resigned by the Seahawks because he is that good. I just shake my head. Why does he do what he does? Take Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion. Mike made $400 million in his career and had $300 million in the bank when he was released from prison in 1995 after serving four years of a six-year sentence for rape and 12 years later he was nearly $50 million in debt and declared bankruptcy. I won’t list what he purchased with his money other than his 21-bed, 24-bathroom mansion in Connecticut, but he has said he enjoyed what he did. I hope so. That’s enough for today. Stay safe.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
