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Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan
Has always amused me that American sports have such a socialist backdrop to them ... ie. they act as a collective and avoid capitalist principles as much as possible, heck even the drafts are a way of sharing 'nicely' with other teams.
I've always wondered why people who are so anti-socialist principles in other areas - ie. healthcare for instance, accept it so readily in the sporting arena.
Also if the leagues do get accepted as a true single entity will people still really believe the teams are competing against each other rather than just putting on a WWF kind of show?
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It's funny, I have a good friend whose English we often go 'round and 'round on this debate, usually with respect to the salary cap.
I think the reasons are pretty easy to root out. I think people, Americans and otherwise, are all for sports teams competing vigorously and in a very capitalist type fashion. It's just a question of where this competition is taking place. Those in favor of salary caps and drafts and what not, believe that competition in sports should take place within the realm of the sport, not left up to which team has the most money. The team who has the best management, best scouts, best player development and, thus, the best players and teams should be the teams that are rewarded, not the team whose owner happens to have the deepest pockets.
If it all comes down to which team has the richest owner, then you get a situation like you have in the Premiership (or whatever it's called these days) where the same 4-5 teams compete each year and all of the other teams essentially become "feeder teams" for the teams with the most money. Granted, some teams got to their position of wealth because of solid management and taking advantage of TV contracts and the like, but others rose to prominence just because a wealthy owner happened to buy them instead of some other team.
Obviously, the flaw in the salary cap system is that even teams who draft great, develop great could still get "punished" for being too successful. Still, I will take that risk for the fact that this system allows for more than just a handful of teams can actually compete for the championship.