What’s Wrong With $ports: Money

There’s an old saying: Money is the root of all evils.

In sports, this has never been more of the case. There is more emphasis on the money surrounding the game than the game itself any more. It's not just one specific sport, but practically everything associated with athletics starts with moola. Just look at some of things happening in the world of sports in the a 72-hour span this week:

• Over $1 billion dollars gambled on the Super Bowl, just as much on prop bets such as “Gatorade color” or “length of the Harbaugh handshake” or “length of the National Anthem” as the game itself. 
• $8 million dollars for a 60 second commercial ($4,444 per FRAME) during the Super Bowl. $4,444 per frame to watch the GoDaddy nerd make out with the supermodel. Take that $4 million commercial and give it to charity or something please? 
• Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco demanding top five QB salary and in his interview basically saying he didn’t care that it would mean likely losing major contributors like Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones. 
• A guy betting all he has to his name in Silver Linings Playbook on an Eagles game and a dance competition. (Okay, this isn’t within 48 hours, but I saw the movie for the first time last night. Great flick, an absolute must-watch!) 
• High school prima donnas getting up on stage and putting a hat on to say where they will go to play college ball. Do you know how much money goes to the school (and yes probably the player) by media going and shoving a camera in the young kids’ faces?

However, all of these are nothing compared to the latest scandal in sports: a match-fixing ring that affected over 600 soccer matches worldwide since 2008.

The European Union completed an 18-month review that found 380 suspicious matches in Europe since 2009. Another 300 matches in Africa, Asia, and South/Central America also are being questioned. These weren’t just club matches or minor league games with no outcome. These were UEFA Champions League games, Euro Championship qualifiers, and even World Cup qualifying games.

Wow.

Organized crime gangs have been identified as fixing or attempting to fix these matches. Evidence is showing that a Singapore-based crime group was involved in some way. Europol will not name any games, groups, players, or officials involved as the investigation is still ongoing.

However, they did announce that over 10 million euro (over $11.5 million) changed hands – 8 million euro in betting profits, 2 million euro in bribes to officials and players. Many prosecutions across the continent have already occurred with regards to these fixed matches. 50 people have already been arrested. 425 officials, players, and criminals from 15 different countries were involved in fixing these matches according to Europol.

That’s how much has ALREADY been done.

 

Reports are coming out that the Singapore group spent up to 100,000 euros per match to bribe players and officials.

Something tells me this is just the beginning.

Look at this: people are so involved with betting and making money on these games that the games don’t even exist anymore. We’ve talked about WWE wrestling being “entertainment” and knowing that the outcomes are staged. We’ve theorized on the possibility of the NFL having fixed-outcomes in the Super Bowl.

After Ray Lewis getting to retire as a champion, who would have thought that we would be talking about a different “football” having fixed outcomes.

This whole connection between money and sports has gone on far enough. The billionaires who run these professional leagues are worried about a couple million dollars at most for things like referee and player rights and benefits. They jack up the price of tickets and concessions to make the biggest earning they can. NCAA programs sell merchandise of their players and reap all of the rewards.

Nobody plays for love of the game anymore. It’s all about the money, the endorsement deals, and the media circus. LeBron James and Tiger Woods make an estimated 50x as much in endorsement deals than they do in their salaries. Cat Osterman, professional softball pitcher, reportedly made $4 million (though some speculate it was well under $1 million) per year in the pros, yet made tens of millions for wearing Under Armour socks. Michael Jordan makes more money annually in Nike endorsements than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined!

Now, are some of these necessary? I would say yes, especially for somebody like Osterman if she was making less than $500k as a professional athlete. But the rich do not need to become richer. Let the boys (and girls) play for love of the game, not for needing to wear a different brand each game to get the endorsement deals.

Sport is dead. Money is all that matters. It’s a business, not for pleasure. That’s what’s wrong with sports. That’s what’s wrong with life.