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Is it your business?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Drip, Aug 12, 2010.

  1. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    I haven't read all of this, just the first post that left me shaking my head.

    People don't pay their hard-earned money to come watch me edit stories and post them to FanHouse. They won't give up a dime to listen in on my weekly editor's meeting or read the e-mails I send to writers.

    I'm taking my kids to see the Nats tonight. Paid 90 bucks for three tickets. I have a right to know how much of that money is going into the pockets of the players. Helps me determine if it is good value. And, yes, we do bear some of that cost.

    It isn't apples to apples. If you are getting public money, the public has a right to know. If you are getting the public's private money, they have a right to know. Let's say the Nats sign Bryce Harper to a $50-million deal (I exaggerate for effect). That let's me go "whoa, no way I'm helping pony up for that." The Strasburg money was reasonable given the market. I had no issue paying for my share of that.

    So hell yes, it is my business.
     
  2. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I agree on that point.
    My point is just asking an athlete what their salary is. they are not public employees (except for the Green Bay Packers, the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States.
     
  3. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    By that same token, do the people who subscribe to fanhouse deserve the right to know how much you make?
     
  4. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    I think we're asking entirely the wrong question. Who cares if it's "our business" or we "have a right to know."

    Probably not. I don't have a right to know batting average either. Or a player's draft slot. Regardless of whether it is my business, it is in the players' and the leagues' best interest to tell me, so they do.
     
  5. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    www.fanhouse.com

    Check it out, it is free.
     
  6. Care Bear

    Care Bear Guest

    Moddy just turned off the faucet.
     
  7. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    At least in the NHL, prior to the NHLPA, owners didn't want ANYBODY to know what players were making, particularly other players. That way the Red Wings could have several players on the team making more money than Mr. Hockey.
    The PA started publishing the numbers so agents could use it in their negotiations. But it's certainly not our "right" as fans or spectators to know it.
     
  8. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I've checked it out.
    The point is that it's not my "right" as a fan or scribe to know what an athlete makes. I feel its an invasion of privacy. I think we, as a society, cross that line too often. It's like if you see your favorite player enjoying dinner with his family, is it your "right" to ask for an autograph?
     
  9. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    I think, for baseball anyway, it is abso-freakin-lutely vital to know the salaries and contracts of players to adequately cover stories involving player movement. Every player move has financial implications. Fans deserve to know what factors impact the moves their team will make. I just did a story on what's going to happen with Carlos Zambrano, and I couldn't have explained the situation sufficiently if I didn't know his contract.

    What's interesting about all that is the way most teams refuse to publicly disclose the player salaries, officially, but it's pretty standard that an agent or someone in the league office will "leak" it somewhere and it'll all be out as part of the public record.

    There are a few teams that dispense with the charade and just tell you right there in the release that they signed so-and-so to a $X-million deal and he'll make $A in the first year, $B in the second, etc.

    The gray area is salaries of managers, GMs, coaches, etc. Those very often do get kept private, and there's not as much demand to reveal them.
     
  10. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I wish I had a buck for every time an athlete told me that the wrong salary was published about him. I'd still be poor, but I wish I had a buck just the same.
     
  11. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    Well, it's pretty darn near public record in baseball. Like I said, it gets leaked either from the commissioner's office or the agent, so it's accurate.
     
  12. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I know what you're saying. Still...
     
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