Pretty much every (North American) professional team sport is in trouble and some solo sports are too. They are in danger of making themselves obsolete, and pricing themselves out of the reach of the common person. They have rules problems, money problems and even corruption problems. I'll touch on each sport here and then devote a separate blog to each.
(Links will be active as soon as I post the associated blog. If the link doesn't work, check back in a day or two and it will work.)
Men's Golf: PGA Tour
Without a competitive Tiger Woods, what is it?
Women's Golf: LPGA Tour
The predominance of Asian players is alienating the western fan, you know, the ones with money.
Basketball: NBA
With billionaires locking out millionaires everybody loses.
Baseball: MLB
It all start with Selig.
Hockey: NHL
Concussions, concussions, concussions. Oh, and fighting too.
Football: NFL, CFL
The NFL is perhaps the only league that isn't in trouble. Multi-billion dollar TV contracts will do that. Still, they only narrowly avoided serious trouble by ending the labour dispute (owner/league instituted lock out) in time to have a complete regular season this year. They did manage to lose some preseason games and while they are only exhibition games they do affect the bottom line.
The CFL is in trouble and has been for years. The bigger the market, the lower the interest in the CFL. Further, the NFL has changed the way they draft and employ quarterbacks which may prove to be the death knell for the CFL.
Soccer: MLS
MLS has the same problems that all of soccer/football has: poor officiating and potential corruption. Throw in middling talent and you don't have a recipe for success.
A self-derisive title. We're off to a good start. Image source: @johnlund.com (who is not affiliated with this blog)
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