The steadfast rule when it comes to sports and rights fees is that it’s the business of entertainment. The dollars are going to go where the value is. With Rights fees, networks pay fees to have the rights to a particular broadcast, for example march madness, the NFL or the Olympics.
Rights fees are determined by the value a certain property holds, this is determined by the ratings. The most important ratings market world wide is undisputedly the North American, and in particular the US market as we will later discuss with the Olympic media coverage. With in the US it is a battle field to increase ratings because of the dollar value associated with the opportunity to sell advertising and consequently the rights fees.
Personally I believe that 1.725 billion is a ridiculous amount for NBC to pay for the rights fees of March Madness. But obviously they are not mad. The economics and financials behind their decisions to continually pay more and more is justifiable. Once again boiling down to the ratings. The 70 hours of March Madness are extremely popular in the US and boast extremely high ratings. Therefore, advertisers are willing to pay the big bucks to get their ads on the air. The same is true about the Superbowl, with 30 second advertising sports reaching astronomical highs networks are lining up to buy the rights fees for the event. As Bill Brown the senior vice president of Fox Sports stated, “ we want entertainment…we want to televise the teams that will deliver us the highest ratings”. That truly summarizes the essence of sport media today, and why rights fees are working. “Fox, paying MLB about $417 million a year in a deal”, which expires next year. With baseball’s popularity on the rise again the rights fees for the league are undoubtadly going to increase. But as the numbers have shown the Fox network is the big spender when it comes to rights fees, dispensing $2.5 billion from 2001 to 2006 on MLB alone.
While Fox has a hold on baseball, Time Warner and ABC/ESPN seem to be focusing their dollars on the NBA, both handing over just over $2 billion over a 6 year period . But as aformentioned the rating speak volumes and while the NBA is very popular in the US, from a network point of view March Madness, NCAA basketball is a winner.
...of revenue, which is great for the small programs that are involved. With the CBS contact being $11 billion dollars, these teams can get a large sum of money. I think that this March madness tournament has nothing, but good to come from it.
“Fans pay to watch athletes compete at the highest level. To be sure, it is the fans that primarily pay the athletes’ salaries” (Walter). Yes, a large portion of an athlete’s pay comes from the people that come to watch them. Athletes get a portion of all revenue their team or staff receives. This means that everybody gets a cut of that prize money, everybody gets a cut of ...
Summary of the article – The researcher chose to analyze an area where the monopoly sport leagues hurt a bunch of different groups. They do this by controlling the competitive entry or putting specific holds on to a company through anticompetitive rules. This article uses government theories of antitrust liability to show how it effects sports fans and shows how new legislation could change that. Sports leagues have changed rules to make sure fans in all areas can enjoy everything sports have to offer to them. The different leagues have made agreements with each other to make sure fans get the best and most improved product at all times. (Ross 2001)
First lets explore the history behind the paying of college athletes. Over the past 50 years the NCAA has been in control of all Div.1, 2 and 3 athletic programs. The NCAA is an organization that delegates and regulates what things college athletes can and can’t do. These regulations are put in place under the label of ‘protecting amateurism’ in college sports. This allots
In 2004, over 40 schools brought in more than $10 million, with 10 of them bringing in over $30 million. Several athletes around the nation are worth more than $1 million to their school (Brown). Both of these statistics are proof that while these athletes are essential to their schools, they are still kept out of the revenue. Even though these universities won’t pay their players, the schools still have no problem giving their coaches some money. In 40 U.S. states, the head coach of the basketball or football program is the highest-paid public official (Edelman).
Professional sports were beginning to be organized in the 1850s. At this point, their salaries, although they were still higher than the average person’s, were not too outrageous. In the 1880s and 90s, baseball players in particular were making on average about $1,750 annually. Even though this was three times the salary of an industrial worker of the time, they were not happy with this amount of money and felt they should be earning more (Baseball n.d.). In the 1970s, the worlds of professional sports took a drastic turn. According to an article by J.L. Carnagie, “Two words described sports in the 1970s: big business. Owners and athletes in major professional team sports knew there was money to be made in their games, and they went after it.” (Carnagie, n.d.) Athletes, especially, realized how competitive teams were becoming, and they were well aware that talent was in high demand. In the beginning of 1980s, the best athletes were demanding even more money; and the majority of the time, they got what they wanted. By end of the 1980s, many athletes were making over a million dollars (Carnagie, n.d.) These increasing salaries were very ironic because when professional sports began they were intended to be a showcase of players’ talent and athletic ability. Professional sports leagues were also supposed to be similar to the Olympics in that they would be free of politics and influence of society. However, by the 80s, they had become all about the star athletes and how much money they could make. By this point, professional sports had evolved into an industry that was focused on entertainment and money, rather than the sports actually being played (Carnagie, n.d.).
As long as fans willingly pay $120 dollars for a replica jersey, six dollars a beer, and two thousand for courtside tickets to the Los Angeles Lakers, the owners will continue to pass on that money to their stars. People act like they're getting stiffed. Let me ask you, When was the last time, someone stuck a gun to your head and said 'Watch this football game or else'?
The college athletes of their respective sports today, have the opportunity of showcasing their talents in competition on local and national programming on a regular basis which has lately brought attention this controversy, paying college athletes. The issue was brought on by the athletes over time, then caught onto coaches, sports columnists, and fans. The athletes dedicate themselves to the sport to a caliber comparable to the professional tier. The idea of paying the athletes could be considered as they play major factor in reputation of their schools, as well as funds for their schools. However most colleges do not have profitable sports teams. Thus, paying athletes would prove to be a very difficult endeavor and this could destroy college athletics as we know them today.
The Reasons Behind the Increasing Commercialism of the Olympic Games The Olympic Games is a world wide event, held once every 4 years. It is the most important event amongst the elite athletes of today. It is viewed on television by billions of people across the world, by satellite transmission (started in Tokyo in 1964). This worldwide viewing attracted sponsors as they realised that by supporting the Olympics their product would be advertised on every product sold, as they would be the 'official sponsor'. The advances in technology has played a fundamental role in the increase in commercialism, as large sums of money are put forwards for television rights over the Games from companies such as Sky, the BBC and ABC.
In the NCAA, all of the Division 1-A conferences generate a vast amount of their athletic revenue through their broadcast agreements. ABC, NBC, ESPN, FOX SPORTS, and CBS play a pivotal role in creating exposure as well as allocating funds to universities that are sponsored by them. It’s a strategic business philosophy, and one of the easiest ways to promote athletics. Why? For the most part many of the power six conferences developed a wide and a loyal fan base over a long period of time with limited television exposure. Many teams may have an unofficial count of excess of over 300,000 fans, and most of the universities rigorous task of marketing was already taken care of in the past. Now that there is a high demand of what viewers want to
College athletes should be paid! College athletes are often considered to be some of the luckiest students in the world. Most of them receiving all inclusive scholarships that cover all the costs of their education. They are also in a position to make a reputation for themselves in the sporting world preparing them for the next step. The ongoing debate whether student athletes should be paid has been going on for years. These athletes bring in millions of dollars for their respective schools and receive zero in return. Many will argue that they do receive payment, but in reality it is just not true. Costs associated with getting a college education will be discussed, information pertaining to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and benefits student athletes receive. First, I’ll start with costs associated with college and most of all why student athletes should be paid!
Should college athletes be paid just because people make money off of them? The answer is yes, the amount of work college athletes put into their sport when their sport is in season is more than the average worker in america. The NCAA makes more money of their college athletes than the NBA and the NHL combined. The athletes get none of this profit that they so dearly deserve. At least the professional athletes are making money off of them being broadcasted on national television weekly and sometimes dailey.
Over time the landscape of college sports in the United States have changed drastically. Since it was created in 1906, the format of the “IAAUS” has been drastically altered five times. Not to mention the seemingly constant realignment of teams, placing teams like Memphis in the “Big East” even though they are not located in the east. (Smith, Ronald) The people who are most affected by the atrocities preformed by the NCAA are the players. Every higher up in the NCAA, from the coaches to the president of the NCAA get paid boatloads of money. These people coaches, athletic directors, athletic trainers, everyone involved are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and at the big time schools millions. Everyone gets paid except for the players, and the players are the ones who deserve it the most. They put hours upon hours into their programs and Universities on top of the school work they are required to due. They risk getting hurt or even severely, and buried under years of high medical bills. Meanwhile, the NCAA higher ups are living large off their “non-profit organization.” The NCAA recently made a huge deal with CBS and CBS sports. The deal is worth 11.2 billion dollars. The University of Alabama, alone, reported $143.4 million in athletic revenue during 2012-13. That is more money than any of the NHL franchises and 25 of the 30 NBA franchises. (Branch, Taylor) Alabama football players dedicate their lives to football and in turn the NCAA. They are the most valuable pieces to the billions of dollars the NCAA rakes in every year. In most businesses, the most important employees get paid the most. In the case of the NCAA, their most important employees are not even on the pay role.
College athletics is a billion dollar industry and has been for a long time. Due to the increasing ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. It’s simple: bigger, faster, stronger athletes will generate more money. College Universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair to the players that they get a cut. College athletes should get paid based on the university’s revenue, apparel sales, and lack of spending money.
"Money makes the world go 'round." Sports could not exist without the presence of money. You have high paid athletes asking for multi-million dollar contacts, while at the same time you have doctors not even making close to that amount. There are corporations buying out sports teams, buying stadiums, and buying everything that has to do with sports. Someone may ask why they do this. Sports are one of the most profitable industries in the world. Everyone wants to get their hand on a piece of the action. Those individuals and industries that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these sports teams are hoping to make a profit, but it may be an indirect profit. It could be a profit for the sports club, or it could be a promotion for another organization (i.e. Rupert Murdoch, FOX). The economics involved with sports has drastically changed over the last ten years. In the United States, we spend about 13% of all money on sports and entertainment. Sports has obviously done its job; entertained and drained money out of our pockets.