Could professional American sports ever die?

No

1 of 11

by Timothy Huang

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In my opinion, professional American sports will never, ever die. Professional sports, in the form of the professional "major leagues" National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB) and even the National Hockey League (NHL) have withstood past and present challenges to be special and endearing enough to be weaved into the fabric of American society. Based on the success of professional American sports dealing with challenges in the past and present, it is also able to survive and even thrive in the future.

The greatest challenges facing professional American sports are economic, social and political issues that may weaken the current professional American sports. However, professional American sports still prevails in United States and even thrive presently.

First, a few major leagues suffer from economic disparity presently. The richest MLB club presently (Yankees) is richer than the 5 poorest MLB clubs combined. The NHL clubs from Ottawa and Buffalo became bankrupt, which heightened the conflict between clubs and player unions and caused the 2004-2005 NHL lockout (causing the only disruption of awarding Stanley Cup to the 'best North American hockey team' since NHL owned the Cup). NBA has some teams that continues to struggle on, for even big-city teams like the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers are still finding their winning ways.

Fortunately, NFL is relatively free of economic disparity as it had minimum salaries for all players. NFL also enforced a fixed salary floor and a fixed salary cap, applicable for all teams. Hence there is a flow of distribution of talent across all teams, giving hope to under-performing teams and making all teams as almost equally competitive. This season, the perennial losers Browns, Titans, Vikings, Cardinals and Lions are in contention for playoffs as they are in contention of the top 6 positions of their conferences. This had also happened in all the 13 seasons after the advent of maximum and minimum salaries for teams. This brings hope to all the teams, instilling all football fans the belief that "our team will be in post-season this season and then we will win the Super Bowl"! As a result, there is an upward increase of NFL fans across all the NFL franchises. NFL had succeeded to reduce a possible inequality of financial power.

After NFL provides the solution to reduce economic disparity, NHL adapted such a system after the lockout, bringing similar benefits. NBA also attempted to apply the system to the league in a limited manner. I believe that MLB, seeing the financial success, increase in overall competitiveness throughout the leagues and increase of fan support of NFL and NHL after applying salary limits.

Another problem is the problem caused by the aging of venues of professional American sports. In NFL, it is evident that all the Californian teams do not have firm stadium plans that fully adapts to the new business climate that requires more luxury suites and modern facilities, making them as vulnerable as Jacksonville (too small to support an NFL franchise) to relocation to elsewhere. MLB, NBA and NHL also have similar problems to a limited extent, in Miami (Marlins), Seattle (Supersonics) and New York (Islanders). However, new arenas and stadiums are always continually being built every year. They are especially evident in MLB, where since 1991, only baseball-only stadiums are built. Existing and new baseball-only stadiums would make 90% of all baseball stadiums baseball-only. In a similar manner, NFL stadiums and new large indoor arenas for basketball and hockey are also being built continually. New stadium plans make almost all professional American sports venues up-to-date with the latest technology and demands, blending more with the current community and the society, making them vital components of the American society.

The last major problem faced presently is lack of political support for its involvement in professional American sport. Pittsburgh voters rejected a funding plan for their new stadiums for the Steelers (NFL) and Pirates (MLB). Kansas City voters also rejected a funding scheme for the Chiefs (NFL) to build a roof on their stadium, ensuring longer-term survival for their home teams. I bet no one likes to pay the government to make even more money for them all the time, but now the American government is so intertwined with the corporate world that without any governmental support, the corporate world (which had already led our major leagues) will move sports teams that will make even more disdain in fans. Luckily, the tide is beginning to turn in favour of private-public investments, pioneered in Pittsburgh for its new stadium plans for the Steelers and the Pirates, which bore fruit in the form of Heinz Field and PNC Park respectively. More stadium plans like this will follow throghout America, ensuring the present and future survival of American sports.

Professional American sports, having successfully dealth with challenges of the past and present, have produced legends and inspiration to America as a whole, leaving a special place in Americans' hearts. I can safely say that professional American sports are so important to any large community that new stadiums are built to ward off any possibility of relocation. This had happened in Chicago (White Sox, in 1991) and many other cities following it. This will eventually also happen in Buffalo when its football stadium is becoming out-of-date soon, as well as Milwaukee with its basketball arena.

The future is bright for professional American sports as it evolves to meet the community's needs in exchange for its support. This will go on, even in the future, when Americans change. American professional sports teams will change with the community for long-term survival.

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