Primetime, FYI, sports agents generally get something b/w 1% and 3%. The 10-20% is what talent/literary agents and managers get - like in show business. Very different in sports.
I apologize for that. Still, it's not like the guys aren't losing significant money from tax/agent cuts. Sure, these guys are rich. But that's the way the market works for them. And it just keeps going up.
Now for me to rant about another's ignorance in turn...
AzPatsFan said:
Look at Hockey. The daily gangster acts on the ice helped eliminate interest. Then the greedy players decided to call a year long strike even when the owners had no TV income, because the weren't "making enough". Now no one cares.
What are you talking about? If anything, the "daily gangster acts" in hockey are part of the lasting appeal of the league, and the sport as a whole. Outside of boxing, hockey is the only acceptable place where two big men can punch the crap out of each other without being brought up on charges greater than a 5 minute major for fighting, and perhaps another for instigating. If you're referring to the Bertuzzi incident, it was a highly regrettable occurrence but did not reflect particularly poorly on the game of hockey any more than, say, Albert Haynesworth stomping on Andre Gurode's head did to football.
The lockout was actually induced by the owners, not the players (hence why it was a lockout, not a strike) because of the lack of agreement with the NHLPA on a salary cap. While this may sound like the result of greedy players, it was not. It was the result of a ridiculous basketball/baseball-like habit of far, far overpaying players (see: Alexei Yashin), to the point where many teams were operating in the red... and when the owners realized this and pressed the players for a cap, the players didn't want that. Why give up money to line the pockets of these bigwigs? The ESPN contract was not due for renewal until the lockout was more or less known to be on, so the lack of television funds had nothing to do with it. It had more to do with the fact that the NHL expanded and moved teams far beyond the niche it should have occupied. A 16 team league would have been perfect, but Gary Bettman (a basketball guy, not a hockey guy) had the brilliant idea to launch expansion teams across the Sun Belt, and move teams from hockey towns like Minneapolis, Quebec, Hartford, and Winnipeg to places like Raleigh, Dallas, and Phoenix. The league, talent, and money was stretched thin, despite successes in a few of these markets (such as San Jose and Dallas), but mostly just failure (Anaheim, Phoenix, Atlanta, Nashville, etc.)
