Read In Your Language

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Lockdown






I’m bugging out right now.

While most of us are suffering from that love hangover, this is the time I start looking at baseball spring training. All of the holidays are over until April so I start looking into what the hometown Yankees are putting on the field for the upcoming season. The NCAA tourney is near, pro basketball heats up when the last two weeks of the season are around, baseball is starting.

And while glancing at the headlines I start to see the stuff about the collective bargaining agreement. Then I remember that NBA Commissioner Stern was just talking about the collective bargaining agreement at the All-Star Game. THEN I said to myself “weren’t they talking about the collective bargaining agreement during the Super Bowl?

Everybody is gonna strike at the same time? I do a little research, and the NFL would be this coming season but the NBA & MLB would be the same year, 2012 (I kid you not).

And I’m not going there with that.

What I’m saying is that the circumstances are different than when baseball and basketball & football (scab games are awful BTW) went on strike years ago. The owners’ pockets were being filled and the players wanted a raise. Franchises are hurting now because of many over-inflated player contracts and low gate revenues (the fans are broke). Would those owners out there who are bleeding red welcome a closure of the doors for a year or two? I think so. The Yankees can turn to the YES network and keep selling fitteds, the Braves have TBS, The Kansas City Royals and The Cincinnati Reds are stuck. The economic recession allows the owners to maintain their firm stance on lowering payroll, and winning that argument too. Now what employee do you know that wants a pay cut?

Personally I think the leagues should contract, those booty butt franchises need to close up shop and send them bench warming, pine riding weed carriers home, shuffle up the rest of the players and keep it moving, but I also know that thought will take some change of address requirements for teams still standing. Some teams will need to move to larger markets for their ultimate survival. Where is all of this money coming from to do this?

Nowhere. All of the leagues are at their peak. ALL of them have struggling franchises and terrible organizations that bleed like a hemophiliac. But once you get the employees to take a pay cut you can start the power moves. I used to work for this company some years ago and before it was up for sale, executive management locked us in on wages to report no growth in payroll, hence less taxes and expenses, but same incoming revenue, and the company was sold within a year's time while we were locked in for 2. You figure the new company would give it a year anyway, try to see if they can make it work right? Just remember you have that one year left while you collect those paychecks, (peep the jewel 9-5 ers) if that. They will want their people with them and fresh faces for cheaper pay.

I can’t imagine there being no NFL til 2011, but they may play one more year and renegotiate in 2012! Then the MLB may fall back while the NBA decides they ain’t gonna roll either? No sports at all in 2012 except the London Olympics?

Told y’all I was bugging…

11 comments:

Let baseball strike or lockout, I won't lose a wink of sleep.
Football? I might lose a small amount.
But let the NBA lockout or strike and Phlip goes through the fucking ROOF , just like I did in the shortened season some years back.

!. Yankees

2. Football

a. basketball

And a quick glance can tell this is when the Yankees are close to being in the playoffs, we can tell if the Giants & Jets sux, and what the Knicks are putting on the court...

The homie Phlip!

Dang man i wrote long azz comment and then seen has to be 4000 words less. I am just regular guy who found this site through clicking dons name on xxl site because he wrote a post on there about learning how to live in the wilderness if and when ish hits the fan. One of the most thought provoking posts ever. I love that you guys are speaking on this real issues about politicl issues but it seems like you are scared to really go into to detail what you really think. Is this because it is risky to call these folks out on a blog? I can't follow a lot of your references because they go over my head because you don't get into specifics and a few times you even quote "Im not going there" I say go there or don't. I just recently got schooled as to how the music and entertainment industry is run and controlled and it was disgusting. It opened my eyes to how everything is run. My point is I wish you guys would go all in with your thoughts on to what is going down to hold folks down and to what you think can and may happen in the future or at least be more specific and detailed in your refernces so I can connect the dots myself easier. Don you wasting your time on sports. They are so crooked its not even worth speaking on. nothing is changing with sports and who cares anyway. Also I think jay electronica is maybe the best rapper ever. he don't give a f. i hope he never sells out. good site. thanks.

I appreciate that Anonymous, realer than real on the real. The forum has been opened by Cult, express them! You know it's there, I know y'all are out there because I shout you out on the reg, let's poly yo...

p.s. you don't see me smiling in the pic?

Didnt realize this was the new post: from last post:

wut up i was just browsin thru perusin previous posts, i peeped that 360 deal piece and i been readin stuff here and there about the industry...I have my own "new" business ideas that i think i want to try out whether they work or not...but lookin at the state of the game im left thinking is it even worth it to venture into this stagnant music industry..money drying up, rap fans dont buy nothing and hate everything...pop rap fans buy shit but are fickle...things arent looking good as of right now....on the other hand i feel like its a great time for some young cat with ideas(something this industry seems to have lacked for a long time) to come in and do things completely different maybe change the game....am i making any sense here or just rambling?....basically what im asking is....is the water in the hiphop well drying up or do people just need to find a new way to get to the water?

Maynnnneeee. I think i just have to keep reading your stuff to get used to your style to start picking up what you are putting down because i can't follow sometimes. Remember I just started reading these blogs so I don't know a lot of the shorthand words etc. I usually figure it out eventually. By the forum being open you saying more people have to leave comments and express their opinions? Because I can't find a forum on here. Don't know what poly means. Smiling in the pic? That mean you email addy? I swear i looked for 10 minutes before i made 1st post because i was just going to email you first because i didn't want my first post to sound like I was knocking you guys because I know you guys stay trying to build. By the way i think you are off on the teams losing money. Look up forbes list of nba franchises. 95% of nba owners have made so much f'ing money. You have to value them by how much they sell for. Like the bulls owner bought that ish for like 30 mill or whatever and now its worth like 500 mill. Almost every franchise has gone up sickening amounts. nba has a f'ing billion dollar tv contract! They merck that shit. Don't believe the hype them saying they losing money. i lived in europe for a year. soccer is the best sport by far. they do it right. if you finish in the bottom four of the league you get kicked down to the b league. your right nba should have maybe 16 teams but all these fools still go pay 100 bucks to watch the games. i don't understand these loser fans pay their hard earned money to watch that bull s. How scary is it they all planning to strike in 12??? I've been thinking i am going to watch the moves these elite cats start making leading up to 12 to see if they show their cards to as if ish is going down and this is scariest thing i have heard so far. good work on putting that connection.

Yo $yk, You know the owners (NFL) want to skip the 2011 season. They get to keep the billion or so dollars from the tv contracts. And everyone talkin bout no salary cap for next season but that also means no floor. They can dump salaries like crazy, save some bread, then cake up on the tv contract money the next year w/out having to pay anyone but coaches and shit. Foul shit

Football players get screwed bad compared to basketball and baseball. Football players got no gauranteed contracts. 90 percent of them can get cut at any time and the rest of their contract voided. They have the worst salaries by far. They risk their life every day. Every hit on the helmet smashes their brains against their skulls. They have a 20 game schedule and a brutal training camp. Its not right how they do those nfl cats. And now they want to not pay them for an entire season. The only reason they even get what they get is because the AFL started and then the USFL to make them increase their salaries.

Nba players got it made. Dudes could sit down in the middle of the floor during the game and still get their gauranteed money. The knicks spent 60+ million dollars THIS season on curry,hughes,mobley, and one other bum I forget who.

"watch the moves these elite cats start making leading up to 12 to see if they show their cards to as if ish is going down and this is scariest thing i have heard so far."

^ The jewels are there, I'll work on presenting them a little better.

These sports franchise owners are sitting on money, truth, but employee pay cuts into profit. When I worked at that I job I used as an example, they used the excuse that the money wasn't flowing so they couldn't afford raises. Like Stern said the NBA lost over 400 mil this year. Posturing.

"They can dump salaries like crazy, save some bread, then cake up on the tv contract money the next year w/out having to pay anyone but coaches and shit"

^ And still get $ from the arenas by renting out (rodeos/all star games/concerts/conventions). Whatever event there has to pay the arena staff, all profit for the owners. A quick lockout looks like a savings plan doesn't it?


"i feel like its a great time for some young cat with ideas(something this industry seems to have lacked for a long time) to come in and do things completely different maybe change the game..."

^ Water can be frozen or made into steam once taken from the well...Cats gotta know what they are up against and recognize the options. Realistically, these days, all a label can do is get you a song with a major artist because of the artist waiver (i.e. Ghostface f/Ne-Yo, both Def Jam). The rest you can do yourself. But I won't lie, you need a manager, a retained lawyer & copyright/publishing. There's a posting coming up about that. Submitting your work for a publishing workshop is better than walking the street with a CD (commercial/movie/video game $). Video games sell like music...and have music on them...

And the picture? The balls are eyes...the football stitching, the "a"...

Co-sign the NFL. I was gonna say something about how ruthless the NFL is with it. LT is most likely going to get cut because they don't wanna pay the 5 mil roster bonus he's owed this year. Seriously, 5 mil? Jersey sales $.

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