R-Dan Crenshaw sarcastically suggests a 70% tax rate on the Patriots for winning Super Bowls

[JonLP24]

Last edited Mon Feb 4, 2019, 02:40 PM - Edit history (1)

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This topic covers politics, economics, and sports.

I think it misses the mark for several reasons. One of them as AOC points out as well as the NFL has a salary cap as well as a reverse order draft to address issues of fairness and competition. One other thing is the NFL receives a lot of government help in the form of subsidies for stadiums, antitrust protections, etc.

How the government helps the NFL maintain its power and profitability

(Snip)

Goodell, who was paid $44 million last year, has been able to ink extraordinarily lucrative broadcast and cable deals for the league’s powerful owners.

But it’s not all Goodell’s work, according to sports economists. The league also benefits from a litany of benefits from federal and state governments — many of which were conceived decades ago when the NFL was still a fledgling organization and Americans were just tuning in to watch games on television.

(Snip)

An antitrust exemption: In 1961, Congress approved legislation that allowed professional football teams to pool together when negotiating radio and television broadcasts rights. The law, signed by President John F. Kennedy, was the first action by the federal government that would spur the growth of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, academics say. CBS paid $2 million for the right to broadcast the NFL’s championship game in 1966, the year Congress approved the NFL’s merger with the AFL and expanded the combined league’s antitrust exemption. The idea was to support the fledgling sports league. Today, however, the NFL makes an estimated $7 billion in revenues just from their television deals. Hands down, NFL games are the most popular programming on television. Last fall, 34 of the 35 most-watched TV shows were NFL games.

“Apple or ExxonMobil can only dream of permission to function as a monopoly: the 1966 law was effectively a license for the NFL owners to print money,” wrote Gregg Easterbrook, author of “The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America,” in an article for The Atlantic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/09/16/how-the-government-helps-the-nfl-maintain-its-power-and-profitability/?utm_term=.fc4fd9199be3

For regular updates on the topic of sports subsidies I recommend Field of Schemes.

http://www.fieldofschemes.com

[True Dough]

1. I second that motion!