Now that I know the behind the scenes in professional sports, I will no longer spend my time watching the games. The owners of these teams, whether football or baseball, etc., typical of the greedy fund anti-union politicians, who support anti-people legislation, such as living wage and healthcare for all.
Consider the time and expense for the average fan, the everyday fans, who are hard-working people buying the sports’ team memorabilia, tickets, overpriced junk food and drinks at the stadiums or the “snacks” and eats and drinks for tailgate parties or watching the game from home. Some might think this time could be better used in serving the community the fan lives in when the factor in the following.
Team owners typically support and donate millions to elect people who are against the workers, what’s in the best interest for the workers and actively try to squash unions. The worst offenders are Charles Johnson, owner of the SF Giants; Woody Johnson, owner of the NY Jets got an ambassadorship to the UK for his trump donation; Dan DeVos, owner of the Orlando Magic; James L. Dolan, owner of the NY Knicks and Rangers; John C. Malone, owner of Atlanta Braves; stocks cheater Senator Kelly Loeffler, owner of the Atlanta Dream; and Edward Glazer, owner of the Buccaneers; among others.
Remember, not all players get the big money for putting their bodies up for destruction or advertising contracts when they retire, yet they contributed to the owners wealth at the sake of their own. Depending on the sport, black/people of color athletes make up most of the NFL teams, followed by the NBA, then MLB with soccer being the most evenly diverse teams among racial divides, but blacks/people of color make up less than 10 percent of the club owners. So these athletes of color are making these white men wealthy, while donating the money the athletes generate for the old white men to be used against the athletes, their families and the rest of us all the while giving lip service to “Black Lives Matter.” If these owners really and truly believed Black Lives Matter, wouldn’t they do more for their athletes and the cause than jumping on the bandwagon?
I feel very foolish for having been conned by all the calculated public relations hype the very rich used against us for so long. If the owners do not respect the fans, why should we respect or support them with our hard earned money? If they want us back let them earn it with more than just platitudes.
We can thank the deadly pandemic for teaching us that we can live without professional sports. When professional sports can make a comeback like the days last year, will we follow in line and waste time watching them or will we use the time we spent watching the sports by actually playing sports ourselves or volunteering in some capacity within our communities?
There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...
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