June 25, 1975

Professional Athletes Over-Rated, Over-Paid

Last time I looked the Cleveland Indians were in the cellar, and I suppose they are still there though I haven't had the heart to check lately.  The human spirit can tolerate only so much dismay.

The downtown sports writers and DJs are working up quite a sweat explaining what has happened to the once great Cleveland baseball team.

What has happened to the Indians is what has happened to all professional sport - too much money for too little talent.

I have lost track of the number of "million-dollar" bonus babies, and also their names.  The two-million-dollar and the three-million-dollar contracts have hit headlines, but most of the over rated talent has fizzled.

Now comes the biggest sports salary of all time.  The soccer king of Brazil, known only as Pele, came out of retirement to play for the New York Cosmos at a salary of $4.5 million over a 30-month period.

In addition, there are other unspecified "benefits" that are expected to bring the pay-off to $7 million.

Pele was, and still remains, the highest paid sports star in history.  In his prime he was good.  The fine points of soccer escape me, but he drove South American aficionados out of their gourd.  At 34, however, Pele has ceased to be a star player.

In a candid statement to Brazilian newspapers, Pele admitted, "Personally, I don't think I'll still be in good shape three years from now.  But let's see what happens.  They made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

In his first American game, an overflow crowd of 28,000 watched Pele charge up and down the field for 90 minutes and assist in making one goal.  This crowd and his performance makes one wonder how the Cosmos owners hope to make a fair return on their investment.

The problem of how to make a profit on overpriced talent and dwindling audiences plagues all sports entrepreneurs.

Fans are staying away from stadiums in droves simply because they are tired of being ripped off for sand-lot activity.

Gerry Patterson, - a players' consultant who handled the corporate affairs of such hockey players as Gordie Howe, Rusty Staub and Guy Lafleur, - recently put his finger on the nub of the problem.

"There are just too many teams in too many leagues and too many athletes making too much money," said Patterson.  "You tell the fans what a great time they're having, but people have an infuriating habit of believing what they see."

Patterson thinks the present quality of professional athletes merit ticket prices about one fourth the present level and player salaries of $10,000 tops.

What leads Patterson to make such radical statements?

At the start of the 1960s, there were 55 major league franchises in baseball, football, hockey and basketball in the U.S. and Canada.  Today this number has almost tripled to 157.

Hockey led the way in proliferation.  From an original six teams the National Hockey League grew to 18, while the rival World Hockey Association spread the talent, thinner by setting up 14 additional teams.

The National Football League entertained the whole nation with 14 teams back in 1960.  Then the American Football League was born, eventually merged with the NFL and then was challenged by the struggling World Football League.  Now we have 38 teams vying for support of the fans.

There were only nine pro teams operating within the National Basketball Association in 1966.  Expansion, plus the emergence of the American Basketball Association, has more than tripled the number of teams from nine to 38.

Baseball has been more restrained, expanding from 16 teams to 24.

It used to be you couldn't tell the players without a score card.  Nowadays you can't tell them WITH a score card.

There are too many names to know and no outstanding performance to fix them in the mind.  Players come and go not only at the start of the season but frequently throughout the season.

I blame television for much of the mass confusion in professional sports - and TV money keeps the shaky system propped up.

The eight original owners-investors in the American Football League paid $25,000 each for the right to operate.  They lost heavily in the early years, but their franchises today are worth about $20 million.  The key to their survival has been a series of fat TV contracts.  The three U.S. networks now pay the amalgamated NFL-AFL $55 million a year for TV rights.

Similarly, ABC and NBC recently have agreed to pay major league baseball $92 million over four years for the right to broadcast Saturday afternoon and Monday night games of the week.

Take away TV and half the professional teams will probably fold up as the big boys monopolize the limited talent to win back the fans.

Take a look at your favorite sports teams.  Generally there is one or two personalities backed up with other players you can't recall.  When the one or two personalities burn out, the team ceases to function.  Team spirit and team play are mostly for high school paying fields - and even that is, becoming suspect.

Sooner or later, probably sooner, the various team owners have got to back away from fantastic player salaries.  The movie industry went bankrupt as the star system grew obsolete.  Sports, just another form of entertainment, exhibits the same symptoms.

Golf and tennis may be able to survive on individual personality and ability.  The team sports, however, have got to emphasize teams once again or slide into hard times.

Author: Lindsey Williams