Just checking ESPN headlines... Baseball salaries of 180 mil for a pitcher who works every five days, Dallas gives Romo 108 mil. Pujols is offended that the Cardinals offered him a mere 25 mil a year for just five years. College coaches getting multi-million dollar contracts. College stadiums costing hundreds of millions. Pro venues costing billions now. Where does it end? You know where it ends? Ticket prices for the real people. Schools move to other conferences and the costs just keep going up. Gotta pay the Power 5 prices and salaries to compete. Pro sports are totally out of control and they expect us to pay up. The coaches and players look up in the stands and have no clue what us fans are all about anymore. Money is the only reason for changing a conference. Total separation..Its makes me sick.

It's the market.

If people become less willing to pay the high prices, they will go down.

Their prices will eventually drive fans away and the salaries and ticket prices will correct. Supply and demand, blah blah blah. The only reason t hasn't happened yet is because of TV dollars, and the networks willingness to sacrifice game attendance for TV viewership. If people stop watching on TV, you'll see a quick shift downward.

Let me caveat that this theory hinges on fans being intelligent people. Very subjective argument there, and I won't touch that. LOL

Yes, it is supply and demand. If we were truly smart we would all walk away from watching pro and college sports. Too many substitute activities are out there for this to continue like it is. Doing activities is better than sitting there like a slug and watching anyways...

I don't even watch on TV much anymore. I'd much rather spend time with my wife and dogs. If ECU isn't playing or it's not a very interesting game to me personally, I don't give a crap. For example, the only NCAA tourney games I've watched involve Wichita State, VCU and FGCU. The so-called Power 5 just don't interest me at all. Pro sports are even less interesting. I'm sick of the money ruining it all.

GO FGCU EAGLES!!!!

Prices are driving many fans away and joe six pack has been priced out of many leagues and games. The answer is hey they can watch it on TV but that is a sorry second to being there. Personally I think attendance will drop as prices keep climbing

(03-29-2013 09:32 PM)billings Wrote:  Prices are driving many fans away and joe six pack has been priced out of many leagues and games. The answer is hey they can watch it on TV but that is a sorry second to being there. Personally I think attendance will drop as prices keep climbing

All true, but nothing will really change till TV viewership goes down also. At that point, networks will jump ship, or scale WAY back on CFB. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

Im surprised the NCAA hasn't stepped in and put a cap on coaching salaries yet. It would be easy to make an across the board for all divisions cap with a cost of living increase each year. I would hope they would include incentives in the cap as well. It would be a step in the right direction.

(03-30-2013 12:44 AM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  Im surprised the NCAA hasn't stepped in and put a cap on coaching salaries yet. It would be easy to make an across the board for all divisions cap with a cost of living increase each year. I would hope they would include incentives in the cap as well. It would be a step in the right direction.

Not gonna happen.

Being able to offer more money to a coach is a competitive advantage. Power schools won't approve anything that helps put midmajors on an equal footing

Maybe there will be a correction at some point but I don't see how salaries will equal the death of Pro/College Sports.

(03-30-2013 10:20 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  Maybe there will be a correction at some point but I don't see how salaries will equal the death of Pro/College Sports.

Death is probably too strong of a word. But I would say significantly diminish would be quite possible for the outcome. Of course, nothing remains static and what you point out may come to pass where people begin to tune out to an extent that the pro and college sports inevitably have pare the salaries down in order to make access to the product more affordable to the average fan. That could result in things stabilizing. However, I still subscribe to the idea that pro and college sports demand is becoming more and more elastic. With people's tastes changing, family dynamics and the explosion of choices for activities (on line games, social media, video games, expanded TV channels, streaming movies plus a lot of other activities not associated with electronics) there are simply a lot more substitutes for taking up our leisure time.

Let's say people begin to tune out over costs and the pro and college sports react by adjusting costs downward. It is not a foregone conclusion that those people who left will come back. I'm a prime example of that. I used to watch MLB and the NHL. After both leagues went through multiple strikes, I tuned out for good. I realize that both leagues made changes in order to rebuild the good will lost via the strikes. Well, I enjoyed the extra free time I had that no longer revolved around sitting in the family room or investing the time/money going to the arenas/ball park to watch the games. I found other substitutes and have no interest in going back to watching MLB or NHL. I'm sure I'm not the only one, and it will come to pass - sooner or later - that irreparable harm will come to the pro and college sports. Personally, I can't wait until that time comes.

We've seen study after study conducted that showed city investment into pro sport venues - especially new NFL stadiums - provide little ROI when compared to other city projects that provide significantly higher benefits. It's why the stadium taxes for Heinz Field failed miserably in Allegheny and the surrounding counties.

(03-30-2013 10:20 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  Maybe there will be a correction at some point but I don't see how salaries will equal the death of Pro/College Sports.

When a trip to a game for a family becomes a $1000 day it will.

College sports won't die. I'm right now watching Hopkins vs unc in lacrosse - and I'm reminded of what makes college sports so great. It's the local and regional games. It's the inner city battles between temple and nova. It's md vs Hopkins in lacrosse. It's the holy war in Utah. There will come a day when big $$$ college sports takes a huge hit due to money issues - but as long as what I mentioned exists then it was always be reborn once it seemingly fades. I think the collapse of big money in college sports could be a great thing.

(03-30-2013 11:26 AM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  

(03-30-2013 10:20 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  Maybe there will be a correction at some point but I don't see how salaries will equal the death of Pro/College Sports.

When a trip to a game for a family becomes a $1000 day it will.

It all ready costs that much for fans that don't live local.

Meh. People have been talking ability skyrocketing salaries for literally decades and that they would supposedly drive people away. It hasn't happened yet and salaries continue to skyrocket. The byproduct of the latest NFL, NBA and NHL lockouts has been that each one of those sports actually experienced record *highs* in viewers and TV ratings. Sure, there are going to be anecdotal instances of people stopping their watching of sports, but those instances are simply that: anecdotal in a world where the data and revenue show the exact opposite. Speaking of which, I don't cry whatsoever for the billionaire pro franchise owners and the massive college athletic departments with rising costs for players and coaches. Believe me - they are making a *LOT* more revenue than they are paying out in salaries.

(03-30-2013 12:30 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(03-30-2013 11:26 AM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  

(03-30-2013 10:20 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  Maybe there will be a correction at some point but I don't see how salaries will equal the death of Pro/College Sports.

When a trip to a game for a family becomes a $1000 day it will.

It all ready costs that much for fans that don't live local.

Yep, ECU home Football game can easily be $1k for me with gas, hotel, misc fun. Only real reason I keep my season tickets is it took me a long time and a lot of money to me over the years in the Pirate Club to get 50yd line seats and great parking. Luckily the tickets are easy to sell and for most games it makes more sense to fire up the grill, chill the beer and retreat to my ECU man cave to watch ECU Football instead of making the expensive trips.

The arms race in College sports has been pretty amazing to watch. Consider the fact as a country our economy has been in the Great Recession but you would never know it from looking at College or Professional sports. Colleges across the country have invested millions in Athletic infrastructure and in coaching salaries. ECU has spent nearly $100 million in the last decade in facilities and even more with Academic building projects. SEC schools like TN are building practice facilities for $90 million that are nicer then a lot of NFL teams...all for a bunch of kids to entertain us when 95 % of those kids will never play one day for a professional contract.

TV contracts are in the Billions of dollars now as well as the value of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and until Google, Apple or some other innovative company figures out a way to distribute games in mass for less money then ESPN, FOX, NBC, etc..do it then we will see this crazy spending

(03-29-2013 09:32 PM)billings Wrote:  Prices are driving many fans away and joe six pack has been priced out of many leagues and games. The answer is hey they can watch it on TV but that is a sorry second to being there. Personally I think attendance will drop as prices keep climbing

Ticket prices are already driving people away from the bowls. The only way they are putting a large portion of people in the stands now is at reduced rates through ticket agencies like Stubhub after the participating schools return their overpriced tickets they can't sell to the bowls or sell them themselves on Stubhub to cut their allotment losses.

Baseball needs to shorten their season to 50-80 games. If you are going to pay a pitcher $200 million, I want to see him pitch when I go to the game.

(03-30-2013 12:44 AM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  Im surprised the NCAA hasn't stepped in and put a cap on coaching salaries yet. It would be easy to make an across the board for all divisions cap with a cost of living increase each year. I would hope they would include incentives in the cap as well. It would be a step in the right direction.

It might happen due to the OBannon case. Congress might step in and grant colleges a limited antitrust exemption in exchange for an expense cap in mens revenue sports. It can't just be coaches salaries however.

Hopefully such a model will bring back mens minor sports which have been getting crushed between title IX and the arms race. It should also put money aside for football athletes healthcare post playing.

(03-29-2013 09:32 PM)billings Wrote:  Prices are driving many fans away and joe six pack has been priced out of many leagues and games. The answer is hey they can watch it on TV but that is a sorry second to being there. Personally I think attendance will drop as prices keep climbing

And now many teams and, in college, conferences are creating their own networks, so watching on TV isn't even necessarily an option.