[CrazyCanuck]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

In life, I like capitalism and reaping the benefits of your own labor. But not in sports.

In sports, the nature of the business is to put the most exciting product on the field, and generate more fan interest so that you can charge more for tickets, more for merchandise, and reach more eyeballs which brings in more advertising money. Revenue sharing helps ensure that each team is on equal financial footing so that the only place they are competing against one another is on the football field. If teams are competing against each other financially speaking, the competition shifts away from the football field and into the marketplace. Fans of small market teams will begin to perceive their teams have no chance and their interest wanes. The KC Royals are a perfect example. Major League Baseball can't get much out of that area, financially speaking, because nobody wants to see the Royals because they stink, nobody wants to buy Royals jerseys, and nobody wants to watch them on TV. But look at the KC Chiefs. Same market, but because of revenue sharing they can always field a competitive team. And because of that the fan interest is there in droves. The NFL can market to the entire country because of their revenue sharing plan. MLB is more limited.

Amen.