More than one cynic has suggested the biggest problem Congress has in dealing with the recession is that our elected lawmakers wouldn't know there is a recession if somebody didn't tell them.
After all, nobody in Congress is getting laid off (unless the voters insist, of course, which is another process entirely). Nobody on congressional staffs is getting laid off, either. In fact, one of the few growth industries in the country at the moment is the federal government.
I mention this because professional sports are in roughly the same boat, with the exception of occasional layoffs of unsuspecting grunts at the bottom of the pyramid.
There may be more than 11 million Americans out of work, not counting those who have given up looking, but Matt Holliday turned down $72 million last spring and Manny Ramirez turned down $25 million just this month. Niko Koutouvides got $2 million not to play middle linebacker.
With the NFL's free agency market set to open, the Denver Broncos, for instance, are in a position to throw $25 million or $30 million at a few lucky souls who will collect big chunks of it in guaranteed signing bonuses before donning a single pad.
Pro sports' idea of recognizing hard times is to temporarily postpone the inexorable ascent of ticket prices by holding the line for a year. Talk about biting the bullet.
So it was quite a surprise this week when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell voluntarily took a pay cut of 20 percent to 25 percent for 2008.
The figures are still fluid because the NFL doesn't determine its bonuses until its fiscal year ends March 31. But Goodell's total compensation for fiscal '08 -- salary and bonuses -- was expected to be about $11 million. The projected cut will reduce that number to something between $8.25 million and $8.8 million.
Goodell also announced he will freeze his salary for fiscal 2009. He did not divulge just what that salary is, or how much of a contractual increase he will forgo, but still, it's something.
Granted, he's left with a very nice pay package, which is more than the 169 people whose NFL jobs were eliminated can say. But Goodell also runs one of the most successful entertainment businesses in America, and one of the few businesses not currently parading through Washington asking for a taxpayer bailout.
Imagine if the rest of the sports world took a cue from Goodell. Imagine, for example, if baseball commissioner Bud Selig showed even a flicker of recognition that his 2007 pay package, estimated at $18 million, is vaguely obscene?
Let's have a show of hands. You have a vested interest in one of America's three most popular pro sports. You have three candidates for commissioner: Selig, Goodell and the NBA's David Stern.
Raise your hand if you would hire Goodell. Hmm. About half the room. OK, Stern? Hold on, let me count.
OK, Selig? Is that a hand? What? Just stretching? Oh, sorry.
Nevertheless, in a personification of the greed that led baseball into the era of steroids under his watchful eye, commissioner Bud's pay package just keeps rising. According to the USA Today baseball salary database, only three players made more than Selig in '07. It is as if Barney Fife was the highest-paid law enforcement officer in America.
As long as we're dreaming, how about a team that not only holds the line on ticket prices but actually reduces them to encourage strapped customers to take a night off from their worries?
Take the Colorado Avalanche. Please. The Avs once justified high prices by the quality of the product. Now they're marketing a last-place team. They're also 24th in the NHL in attendance. Imagine if the Avs cut ticket prices 20 percent across the board.
I know, I know. Dream on.
Imagine if the Avs' Joe Sakic, out most of the year with injuries, decided to give back 20 percent of his salary. Imagine if the Rockies' Todd Helton, who missed much of last season, did the same.
I know, I know. Their respective players associations would throw a fit. Donald Fehr, who became a millionaire waging class warfare, would tell them they were dragging the gravy train off the tracks for everybody.
They've handled worse. If you can deal with major league chin music and bone-crunching checks into the boards, you can probably handle some suit telling you what not to do with your money.
Imagine if pro sports looked at what Goodell did, then looked up into the stands at the people who pay the freight, then looked at all the empty seats of people no longer paying the freight.
Imagine if pro sports offered the real world a hand just long enough for the real world to get back on its feet.
I know, I know. Dream on.
(Contact Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News at kriegerd(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)
column
Post new comment