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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Year of the Lockout

The NBA is just another professional
sports league suffering the woes
of a lockout in 2011.
Lockouts and player strikes. That's the theme for 2011.
Here we are, eight months into the year, and already there have been numerous roadblocks in the way of starting some of the world's top sports on time.
From the ever-publicized NFL lockout, which was put to an end with an agreement between players and owners before any games were missed, to the looming NBA lockout, which may not turn out so fortunate for everyone involved. Add to that soccer player strikes in both Spain and Italy, and suddenly it seems like nobody is playing professional sports anymore.
Of course, all of these problems will be resolved eventually - there's simply too much money at stake. Spain's La Liga postponed its opening games for a week after players refused to take the field over unpaid wage disputes, but now their season is underway. In Italy, Serie A players have said they won't play until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached - which probably won't happen in the immediate future - but shouldn't jeopardize the season as a whole.
But there's a side in these negotiations that goes unseen.
While some players have chosen to play for different leagues or adopted other means to stay in shape, and the majority of owners are okay financially, there's not much that sports writers - already in a declining market - can do. Sure, covering the negotiations is important, but how many different articles can you write about two sides not agreeing on anything?
For 135 days, NFL owners locked out their players. During a time when most football reporters should have been covering off-season trades, free agency acquisitions and the start of training camps, they couldn't.
It doesn't sound like a huge deal when discussing the millions or billions that the owners and players are fighting over, but if it had continued and games were missed, where would that leave the already-struggling sports writers? Not everyone can work for a stable company like ESPN or Sports Illustrated, and some are hanging on to their jobs by a string. It would be the same if suddenly the local government shut down or nobody committed a crime for weeks - those beat reporters would be in trouble.
Hopefully these issues get resolved quickly, because it would be a shame for someone to lose their job over a group of millionaires fighting about money.



6 comments:

  1. whoa, how'd you get those fancy letters?

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  2. Like your blog, and are following..

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  3. following. really nice to see someone put forth some effort in their writing.

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  4. It's sad that the people who actually should do this kind of stuff don't nowadays.

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