e-Vents

[ Thursday ]

Greed Drives Professional Sports...and Much More

Witness the current news about professional baseball player Rafael Palmeiro and his suspension for steroid use. Palmeiro testified before Congress earlier this year that he had never used the performance-enhancing drug. Now under consideration for perjury before Congress, Palmeiro recently recorded his 3000th hit.

But wait...Major League Baseball tested Palmeiro for steroid use and discovered the violation before announcing his record-level achievement in hits, and congratulated him in a full-page article in a major newspaper. Deception on the part of MLB ??? Duh...

Why would a professional sport, or for that matter, any organization, hide facts from the general public? Could it be damage control in an effort to preserve profits? We see it quite often in business...from Enron to Worldcom to HealthSouth to Parmalat to the NYSE. Let your top executives walk away with millions, and it will be years, if ever, before they are held responsible for their mismanagement and, in some cases, criminal activities.

But in professional baseball, football, basketball, boxing and others, the cash cow from television and advertising revenues encourages the leagues and associations to talk with their attorneys and public relations people before disclosing anything to the public. For that reason, felonies become misdemeanors, and plea-bargaining occurs regularly among the player-ranks of these groups. Even convicted felons are allowed to return to generate millions in their respective sport.

Why does this continue to occur? Simple...paying customers have not walked away in large enough numbers to make a difference and force change. It starts with one person changing the channel, or refusing to pay for high ticket prices at sporting events, or for hanging on to a company's stock certificate when not aligned with the company's direction.

It starts by not buying from companies advertising in support of these organizations, and then writing the company to let them know of your dissatisfaction. Or, perhaps buying the golf shirt or jersey without the logo that adds fifty dollars to the price.

Misplaced adulation is a topic for another time, but suffice to say that sports figures, Hollywood-types, and greedy corporate executives are not 'heroes' and are not role models.

MM [11:00]