“Money is the root of all evil” is a phrase that has been uttered for centuries. Every walk of life deals with money. With money comes power and greed. The use of money in sports is profound. Ever since sports were founded, they have grown into worldwide moneymaking machines. Often, success of sports leagues has been paid off at the public’s expense. Owners of these franchises screw the public over by paying for stadiums using public money and the NCAA has long taken advantage of the public.
The public should not have to finance anything for a privately owned team. A billionaire owner should pay in full for a new stadium. It is ridiculous when owners of the Chargers, Raiders, and Rams, hold their cities hostage to use public funding. Threatening to build in another city forces a city like St. Louis to expedite their process. This allows public funding to be used for a suitable stadium. This process is not healthy for the economy of the city. These teams that are being funded by their city should then be owned by the public like the Green Bay Packers are.
This unfortunate process does not only occur in the NFL. Since the Seattle SuperSonics morphed into the Oklahoma City Thunder, every owner has the right to threaten to move to Seattle. This causes teams such as the Milwaukee Bucks or Sacramento Kings to make a move for public financing for a new stadium. Another example of humans acting irrationally and hurting the public initiative for a greedy owner is the fact that basketball fans of Seattle will never get a team back if this process is not corrected. Owners will not vote for an expansion team because they do not want to split their profits any further.
Money is also rooted in the NCAA causing it to be one of the worst. While the NCAA makes a lot of money off of the National Championship Playoff and March Madness, the athletes receive as much money from the pot as my grandma. Like the MLB, NFL and NBA, the NCAA is a monopoly. It has complete control over the market. When the power five conferences were recently allowed to make their own rules, the power shifted by a thread.
While the NCAA is the most corrupt sports league, athletes should not be paid. In fact, universities should support athletic teams. Other countries have club sports pay the bill. Universities exist for education and research. If someone wants to take a chance on their future in athletics, they can bet on themselves without using the public’s money.
Another way of eliminating the usage of money is to not have athletic scholarships. Universities can still have sports, but the emphasis is put on the student part of student-athlete.
Money is ingrained in today’s sports society, and a fix is needed to stop owners from hurting the public financially and the NCAA from being corrupt. The government needs to form a committee to oversee these different sport entities. These leagues are one of the few industries not regulated by the government. This way may not be perfect, but it is better than what is happening now. With this committee, greed, power and evil can be eliminated from these sport organizations.
