Capitalism gone bad...

[Nightshade]

I know ya'll love the NBA/NFL/MLB but commercial spectator sport has gone WAY bad. It's time to boycott!

Thugs getting paid, team owners extorting money and influence from cities and the leagues gouging you for ticket prices that would make a lawyer drool.

Enough! Is it really such a great thing to watch these dumbasses go at it on TV throwing punches and strutting around in steroidal bipolar fog?

If you patronize these guys, you're getting played. You're getting raped.

Turn off the TV, toss the tickets... Boycott pro sports!

[TheCops]

heh.

i could give a rats arse about pro sports... sometimes i watch for the random outcome of events. i never spend a thin dime on them though. every sporting event i've been to in the last decade have been through free tickets.

what i really hate about sports is it seems to be the only topic you hear people rappin' about at work... like they have only their job and the accomplishments (or failures) of others to talk about. but most humans are followers, what can ya do?

oh well. it's the weight of the ocean and i ain't gonna waste my time trying to convince others to do something besides staring at a tv and wearing the jersey of some 20 year old who doesn't give a rats ass about them.

btw TB: you are way overstating the amount of violence that occurs in sports... considering how many games are played in a year.

[Flabby Chick]

......staring at a tv and wearing the jersey of some 20 year old who doesn't give a rats *** about them.

......yeehaaaa thats me, thats me. With a shirt that cost me forty quid (pounds---the queens currency you know)

.....I'm a Man U fan. I know i'm getting stitched up every time they change their strip, but i lurb the club. They're from my home town and i'm gonna die in their home strip. So sue me.

FC
Loud mouth Manc from the mid east.

[Foil]

Turn off the TV, toss the tickets... Boycott pro sports!

You've gotta be kidding... there's no way you could be serious... you couldn't be that out of touch with pro sports fans... could you?

First of all, on a personal level, you're asking people to just stop enjoying the most well-performed level of their chosen sport(s). I'm guessing you're not a sports fan at all, or you wouldn't make such statements. From the most casual of fans (such as my wife who will occasionally enjoy a game with me) to the most devoted fanatic (such as a friend of mine who tries not to miss a single game), people feel like they are participating in something bigger than themselves, whether it's showing support for their team with a piece of clothing, debating the merits of their favorite players/teams at work, or even being a part of a larger crowd cheering from the stands.

I personally couldn't care less about things like golf or baseball, but I do occasionally watch other sports, and I'm a huge fan of my favorite professional football team. Now, I know I'll probably never be able to play at the professional level, but I can play with friends (I've even played in a flag football league for the past couple of years), and I will always enjoy the comraderie of watching a pro game with people I know (even though most of them usually are rooting against my team).

I'm not going to give up on something I enjoy this much, and I'm pretty sure the same is true of almost every other pro sports fan I know.

...And please don't make that argument that I can just enjoy being a collegiate fan (yes, I also have favorite college teams, including the school I graduated from). There's a big difference between the college and professional levels, and not only in the ability and skill of the players. But that's a whole other topic.

Disclaimer: I understand your concern about rising ticket prices, recent violent outbursts by a couple of individual players, etc. However, I think you have no real clue what you're asking when you suggest a 'boycott of pro sports': Were you including all the semi-pro teams? Were you including all professional sports, like ice skating, for example? Do you have any idea how many millions of people involved in pro sports (fans, players, coaches, support people, etc.) there are in the United States alone?

[Nightshade]

people feel like they are participating in something bigger than themselves

It's unfortunate that people don't seem to feel that way to the same degree in presidential elections-

Pro sports- I'm speaking of the NBA/NFL/MLB in particular- have become little more than fan-supported legalized and organized crime. I suppose you're another willing victim. Are people so sad as to not have something better to do in their leisure than drool vacantly before a television while "teams" (I use the word loosely since the players really care nothing for the team or city in which they play- only the paycheck) battle for points and statistics that pile up meaninglessly year after year?

Do something real. Play sports yourself or support amateur sports. F the "big leagues."

[Foil]

people feel like they are participating in something bigger than themselves

It's unfortunate that people don't seem to feel that way to the same degree in presidential elections-

I absolutely agree.

Pro sports- I'm speaking of the NBA/NFL/MLB in particular- have become little more than fan-supported legalized and organized crime.

"Organized crime"... hmmm.

Now, I agree with you that there are players out there whose selfish, careless attitudes and actions hurt their teams, their fans, and the sports world in general. These concerns are probably even a good topic to discuss (maybe in the "Ethics" forum?).

But, "organized crime"? Are you kidding? How are you jumping from sports organizations (who, at worst, may have selfish owners or players) to groups like the mafia (who, at best, are murderous bullies)? If you've got some way to accurately compare the two, I'd like to see it.

Do something real. Play sports yourself or support amateur sports.

Umm, you must not have read my post:

...I've even played in a flag football league for the past couple of years...

Besides which, I'm also involved in fencing (I'm a certified coach for foil) and I play other sports on occasion.

F the "big leagues."

Isn't that attitude the kind of thing you're bashing the whole of the professional sports world for?

[Gooberman]

In my world, the sports team is owned by the state.

75% of the profits for the Arizona Cardnals should go to Arizona. Now for the Cardnals that would come out to like fidy cents. But we also have other teams.

That way:
1. Solve public education funding problem.
2. Decrease the rediculous player/owner saleries
3. Feed the homeless
4. Health care for all.
5. Make people feel like it really is their team. Because the better the team does, the less taxes they pay.

win win win win win

You just have to convince a few rich guys that they should play for 6 figures a year instead of 7.

[Gooberman]

Now here is where some conservative posts criticizing me for wanting to take away the money that these players have earned.

"it's their money, not yours."

bull ★■◆●. No one deserves a million dollers for playing basketball.

socialism++;

[Mr. Perfect]

Participating? Participating? You're ★■◆●ing watching.

I can understand how people enjoy watching sports games, but I'd rather be doing then watching. Drives me up a wall to spend a couple hours watching other people play. It's like watching someone else as they play a video game.

[TheCops]

.....I'm a Man U fan. I know i'm getting stitched up every time they change their strip, but i lurb the club. They're from my home town and i'm gonna die in their home strip. So sue me.

hehe.
real football is by far my favorite sport. used to be center defense back in the day.

i'm just not into mob mentality... been in any soccer riots FC?

[Flabby Chick]

When my dad was at home we were season ticket holders at Man U until a bloke got a dart stuck through his nose. We never went again. I started going again in my late teens to the odd match and never saw any violence at all. Israeli soccer however is a friggin nightmare. Exactly how the UK was during the seventies. The authorities are clamping down hard on it at the moment.

The only riot i was in was at a cricket match in the eighties. Lancashire v Yorkshire at headingly, pretty scary stuff.

[Ford Prefect]

A riot at a cricket match! That just does not compute FC. I just can't see a crowd going bonkers because someone was called out LBW.
Takes all kinds I guess.

[Sarge]

Insurance Companies = Organized Crime

[Flabby Chick]

Lancashire v Yorkshire is a throwback to the war of the roses, the english civil war if you will. http://www.warsoftheroses.com/

I suppose it's a good excuse for battering somone over the head with a chair 500 years after the fact.

[Avder]

I know ya'll love the NBA/NFL/MLB but commercial spectator sport has gone WAY bad. It's time to boycott!

Thugs getting paid, team owners extorting money and influence from cities and the leagues gouging you for ticket prices that would make a lawyer drool.

Enough! Is it really such a great thing to watch these dumbasses go at it on TV throwing punches and strutting around in steroidal bipolar fog?

If you patronize these guys, you're getting played. You're getting raped.

Turn off the TV, toss the tickets... Boycott pro sports!

Sounds like someones favorite team isnt doing so good this year.

[Tyranny]

lol, thats the first thing that came to mind when I read this thread too!