Quote:
Originally Posted by whoman69
Same could be said about George Steinbrenner and he was horrible for baseball. I hear all the things about the parity in baseball, but the Yankees have only missed the playoffs once since '96 and in that span have won more World Series than all but a handfull of franchises have done in their whole history.
Jerry Jones has made no secret he wants to bring about a similar inequity for football. He pushed against the league to try to get his own sponsorships. He pushed to get merchandise taken out of a community pool, which is one of the big reasons for the inequities.
These owners didn't make all their money because they aren't competitive. Jerry Jones can afford to sink money into the product because he has a cash cow with his organization. Someone like Jerry Jones wants to make his own rules. Small market vs big market is a problem in every sport. Competitively its not as big a problem in football because any small market team can compete if they don't care about the bottom line for the short term, up to a point. If they can build a brand around their name like the Steelers or the Packers, they can eventually make some money. The question is why should they knock themselves out to break even while Jerry Jones is making hundreds of millions each year?
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I think there's more parity in baseball than there is in football. A lot more. How many times have the Steelers, Colts, or Patriots missed the playoffs? And the Yankees have won as many championships as the Patriots have over the past 20 years. The Yankees are a powerhouse, but no moreso than the NFL powerhouses.
If anything, Steinbreinner is one of the few things that kept baseball going. What killed attendance was the player's strike... popularity was artificially spiked by juiced up players hitting exciting home runs, then deflated after the steroid scandal. Like or hate the Yankees, they fill stadiums at away games, and people tune in to root against them.