Ralph welcomes Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times investigative reporter, Eric Lipton, to give us the over/under on how professional sports in the U.S.
Ralph, I listened to you on Briahna Joy Grey's Bad Faith Podcast and heard you talk about organizing. I was part of the Rockland Citizen's Action Network in Rockland County NY, which helped elect James Skouffis to the state senate and flip Stony Point, NY blue, among other things. There is an organization called Represent Us, a single issue campaign trying to get big money out of politics and end the legalized corruption, however, what makes them different to prior efforts, is that they are strictly bipartisan. They have a model legislation called the anti-corruption act which they are trying to pass on the state and local level in chapters across the country. They also support anti-gerrymandering and ranked choice voting efforts and have racked up many wins across the country including getting a state wide anti-corruption act passed in South Dakota through ballot initiative which forced the state legislature to declare a state of emergency to repeal it. This is their website: https://represent.us/unbreaking-america/ and this is their youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RepresentUs Despite their victories, they haven't gotten penetration in independent media. We hear constantly about DSA and Socialist Alternative, but never this. Could you please look into their efforts and maybe do an interview with someone over there? Looking at their anti corruption act legislation, do you think this could make a difference, and how can we help their chapters to gain ground?
Sporting leagues have really started to embrace sports gambling in recent years, but there has long been a connection between gambling and sports. For example, Tim Mara, the founder of the NFL New York Giants nearly a hundred years ago, was a bookie. Mara’s family is still part of the ownership of the Giants, but presumably they are no longer involved in the gambling industry.
Mr. Lipton brings up a good point that the UK, and Europe as a whole, is ahead of the US on many commercialization aspects in sports. As someone who follows US and international sports, I can say that it has been quite difficult to follow European sports over the last several years without seeing all kinds of ads for gambling organizations such as William Hill even though it seems to me that Europe has historically had more scandals involving gambling-related sports corruption than the US. Also, sponsorship on uniforms has become normal in Europe, but it is only recently starting to happen in the major US leagues.
An interesting development which has gone under the radar a bit is the softening of policies by the major US sporting leagues on corporate ownership of teams and ownership by foreign entities/governments. ESPN recently reported that the NBA has changed their rules to allow ‘sovereign wealth funds’ to own up to 20% of a team. This might be the first step towards opening the door to things seen in Europe, such as the ownership of the Manchester City soccer team by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The leagues wish to increase the transaction prices of franchises when they are sold and this is certainly one way to do that. Link: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35192442/the-hoop-collective-sovereign-wealth-funds-signal-new-era-nba-ownership
ESPN also recently ran an article about Red Bull’s influence on soccer teams in Europe and it is an interesting read on corporatization of professional sports in a way that would probably be deemed unacceptable in the US, but this might be the future here as well. Fans in Europe are rather opposed to this type of ownership and fans in the US might want to take note of this because it might well become common in the US: https://www.espn.com/soccer/german-bundesliga/story/4029702/why-rb-leipzig-is-the-most-hated-soccer-team-in-the-bundesliga
As for the discussion in the 'Wrap Up' that Mr. Nader and Mr. Lipton had about sporting leagues using gambling as a way to keep fans watching the games in an era of declining interest, I think there is truth to that idea. There are many more entertainment options these days than in decades past and sporting leagues are trying to avoid a situation where fans only watch five minute highlight clips online instead of consuming large doses of sports like they used to. Getting people hooked on fantasy sports, or even full gambling, seems to be a method towards building a fan base who pays to get the expensive local sports cable TV channels and online subscription packages. The sports media may well focus their coverage towards the desires of gamblers rather than the average fan since gamblers will likely want large amounts of information about injuries, strategy, and other factors which might influence their bets.
If Mr. Lipton is ever brought back on the RNRH, I’d be curious to know what the player unions think about sports gambling. Athletes stand to gain money when they endorse sports gambling and when their teams get new sponsors from bookies, so the unions might be supportive of gambling, but will the unions stand up for players who oppose gambling and who do not want to endorse gambling? Will player unions stand up for players if they protest team/league sponsorship by the cryptocurrency, alcohol, junk food/drink, banking, and other controversial industries? What if a player wants to protest sponsoring corporations who are known to be anti-union? Will the player unions defend that?
The greatest hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky, has become a shameless shill for BETMGM, appearing everywhere in dark, creepy ads to help the gambling rackets prey on hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of vulnerable citizens who are (or will be) trapped by crippling addictions to gambling. His sparkling legacy as a sublime athlete is forever tarnished. And professional sports, already corrupted by greed of grotesque proportions, will inevitably descend, hand in hand with these merchants of misery to ultimate perdition and ruin.
Ralph, I listened to you on Briahna Joy Grey's Bad Faith Podcast and heard you talk about organizing. I was part of the Rockland Citizen's Action Network in Rockland County NY, which helped elect James Skouffis to the state senate and flip Stony Point, NY blue, among other things. There is an organization called Represent Us, a single issue campaign trying to get big money out of politics and end the legalized corruption, however, what makes them different to prior efforts, is that they are strictly bipartisan. They have a model legislation called the anti-corruption act which they are trying to pass on the state and local level in chapters across the country. They also support anti-gerrymandering and ranked choice voting efforts and have racked up many wins across the country including getting a state wide anti-corruption act passed in South Dakota through ballot initiative which forced the state legislature to declare a state of emergency to repeal it. This is their website: https://represent.us/unbreaking-america/ and this is their youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RepresentUs Despite their victories, they haven't gotten penetration in independent media. We hear constantly about DSA and Socialist Alternative, but never this. Could you please look into their efforts and maybe do an interview with someone over there? Looking at their anti corruption act legislation, do you think this could make a difference, and how can we help their chapters to gain ground?
Sporting leagues have really started to embrace sports gambling in recent years, but there has long been a connection between gambling and sports. For example, Tim Mara, the founder of the NFL New York Giants nearly a hundred years ago, was a bookie. Mara’s family is still part of the ownership of the Giants, but presumably they are no longer involved in the gambling industry.
Mr. Lipton brings up a good point that the UK, and Europe as a whole, is ahead of the US on many commercialization aspects in sports. As someone who follows US and international sports, I can say that it has been quite difficult to follow European sports over the last several years without seeing all kinds of ads for gambling organizations such as William Hill even though it seems to me that Europe has historically had more scandals involving gambling-related sports corruption than the US. Also, sponsorship on uniforms has become normal in Europe, but it is only recently starting to happen in the major US leagues.
An interesting development which has gone under the radar a bit is the softening of policies by the major US sporting leagues on corporate ownership of teams and ownership by foreign entities/governments. ESPN recently reported that the NBA has changed their rules to allow ‘sovereign wealth funds’ to own up to 20% of a team. This might be the first step towards opening the door to things seen in Europe, such as the ownership of the Manchester City soccer team by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The leagues wish to increase the transaction prices of franchises when they are sold and this is certainly one way to do that. Link: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35192442/the-hoop-collective-sovereign-wealth-funds-signal-new-era-nba-ownership
ESPN also recently ran an article about Red Bull’s influence on soccer teams in Europe and it is an interesting read on corporatization of professional sports in a way that would probably be deemed unacceptable in the US, but this might be the future here as well. Fans in Europe are rather opposed to this type of ownership and fans in the US might want to take note of this because it might well become common in the US: https://www.espn.com/soccer/german-bundesliga/story/4029702/why-rb-leipzig-is-the-most-hated-soccer-team-in-the-bundesliga
As for the discussion in the 'Wrap Up' that Mr. Nader and Mr. Lipton had about sporting leagues using gambling as a way to keep fans watching the games in an era of declining interest, I think there is truth to that idea. There are many more entertainment options these days than in decades past and sporting leagues are trying to avoid a situation where fans only watch five minute highlight clips online instead of consuming large doses of sports like they used to. Getting people hooked on fantasy sports, or even full gambling, seems to be a method towards building a fan base who pays to get the expensive local sports cable TV channels and online subscription packages. The sports media may well focus their coverage towards the desires of gamblers rather than the average fan since gamblers will likely want large amounts of information about injuries, strategy, and other factors which might influence their bets.
If Mr. Lipton is ever brought back on the RNRH, I’d be curious to know what the player unions think about sports gambling. Athletes stand to gain money when they endorse sports gambling and when their teams get new sponsors from bookies, so the unions might be supportive of gambling, but will the unions stand up for players who oppose gambling and who do not want to endorse gambling? Will player unions stand up for players if they protest team/league sponsorship by the cryptocurrency, alcohol, junk food/drink, banking, and other controversial industries? What if a player wants to protest sponsoring corporations who are known to be anti-union? Will the player unions defend that?
The greatest hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky, has become a shameless shill for BETMGM, appearing everywhere in dark, creepy ads to help the gambling rackets prey on hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of vulnerable citizens who are (or will be) trapped by crippling addictions to gambling. His sparkling legacy as a sublime athlete is forever tarnished. And professional sports, already corrupted by greed of grotesque proportions, will inevitably descend, hand in hand with these merchants of misery to ultimate perdition and ruin.