Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Antitrust and the NFL

Americans love the Free Market system for just about everything except professional sports especially the NFL.   If one dares to even suggest that the NFL adopt free market practices, you'll have a legion of fans immediately flaming you while they justify the socialist practices that run rampant in pro sports.  All in the name of parity. 

The net result of the monopoly NFL is a limitation on the supply of professional football to the American market.

The prime example of socialism in American pro sports is the socialist salary cap.   There are those that argue that the salary cap was collectively bargained by the NFL and it's players union.   One might retort that to get a salary cap, the NFL had the upper hand. Owners used their dominant position to threaten to break the players union should a strike occur.  Once players knew the owners intended to break their union, players agreed to the cap which was a fair deal only if you consider the NFL's monopoly power so NFL owners, who all profess to be believers in free market economies, got a socialist salary cap, because without it, Jerry Jones might win the Super Bowl every single year since he's willing to pay market value for an athlete and has the cash to do so.  

Another prime example of socialism is the NFL draft.  How might a great Software Engineer feel if he were drafted by Microsoft and forced to accept a rookie contract?   In Europe, there is no such thing as a draft.  A young soccer player can sign with any team that might want him.   Do Arsenal or Real Madrid or Juventus tend to dominate their leagues?   Sure, but so does Apple dominate their markets.  This is called the free market.   And one very nice element in European Professional Sports, the teams that finish at the bottom get relegated to the next lowest league.   Accountability!  What a concept.   Imagine where the Cleveland Browns might be today if accountability existed when they went 1-31.

If the NFL did not have an antitrust exemption which allows them to collectively bargain TV rights, at some point networks would have been willing to sponsor new professional leagues, giving those leagues a financial lifeline and the ability to compete.   That would result in the NFL no longer monopolizing pro football.    In a free market, the Dallas Cowboys might be worth $20 billion dollars, but there's no way the Washington Commanders would "command" $6 billion.   The Commanders sold for $6,000,000,000 because they are one of 32 professional teams.   If other leagues were born in a free market, there would be far more options.

Not to mention, if there were new professional football leagues, NFL owners would not be able to extort tax payer money to build stadiums by the threat of relocation.   

You enjoy the quality of the NFL and are against diluting that?   That is also a hard case to make because less than 2% of NCAA Division I football players ever so much as take a snap in the NFL regular season.   If you can enjoy college football it validates that there is plenty of room for more professional teams. 

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